10 Big Ones, Baby

Not to brag or anything, but OP and I just celebrated our anniversary.

Our tenth one, to be exact.

I know, I know.  You're wondering how someone as young and vivacious as I am could possibly have been married for ten years.  Orrin robbed the cradle, that's all I'm saying.

We decided that since we never went on a honeymoon or any other vacation without the kiddos, we were going to do our tenth one right.  We kicked around ideas about Disneyland, Hawaii and the like... and then we got real and went for something in our price range:

Vegas, baby!

Original?  No.  OP kept saying that we were in the land of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I told him to shut up and enjoy it.

You only develop that depth of love after 10 years, people.

As a warning, I didn't bring my camera with me, so all of the pictures are taken by my old iPhone 3g.  And that is why my phone battery was pretty much dead the entire trip.

Anywho, we were planning on hitting a Cirque de Soliel show, a magic show, a comedy show... and then Orrin did this, had to miss some work while he recovered, and we had to dip into our anniversary fund to fund Christmas.  Boo!  But, at least the hotel was pre-paid for so the most expensive chunk was paid for (or so we thought until we saw how much it cost to eat there!).

We stayed at South Point Hotel and Casino off the strip.  It was nice.  South Point was built with an equestrian center attached to it, so there was lots of horse motif.  It also had a movie theater and a bowling alley in it, so BONUS!

On our actual anniversary we hit the strip.

We rode the New York New York roller coaster (the thing was so jerky that we both had to pop some Ibuprofen afterward), visited The Secret Garden at the Mirage (gotta see dolphins being trained, a couple of lions roaring and playing, and an orange tiger and white tiger attack each other- color me impressed), and the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay (where there was a surprising lack of sharks).  We also did this CSI: The Experience thing at the MGM, but it was stupid and over-priced and really not worth mentioning.

I even got OP to go into a few shops (not an easy thing to do, believe you me).

How did I do manage that?  I told him we could have lunch in the food court instead of one of the buffets in the casinos.  Win win, people.  Win win.

We also did a lot of people watching.  I wanted to post some pics of the weirdest people we came across, but Orrin said that it was cruel, so I didn't.  Psh, he has to go and get all nice on me.

We also visited Silver and Gold Pawn shop... you know, where they film Pawn Stars?  OP loved it.

There was a line out-the-door to get in there.  Worth it!

And then, because OP and I are old farts, we went to the movie theater in our hotel and saw Mission Impossible 3: Ghost Protocol.    And that first pic shows the stairs that I tripped up.  The second pic is to prove that even though I humiliated myself by tripping up something, I was able to maintain my coolness since I saved the popcorn and didn't spill any of it.  Psh, Tom Cruise had nothing on my skills that night.

Oh, and the last pic is of OP telling me I had better not take a picture of him.

By the morning of the third day, we were both ready to go home.  We packed up and left Vegas in the dust, grabbing Jack in the Box on our way out.  Oh yes.  We know how to live.

We also did what we do best: rode along doing our separate things together.  OP listened to his audiobook, and I jammed out to Britney Spears Pandora station and played Line Breaker.  We also threw back a few Mountain Dews.

Here's to another fantastic 10 years of you and me, Mr. Merrill!  Just imagine how many more gallons of Dr. Pepper we shall share...

Oh, and an extra-special thanks to my mom and Whit for taking care of the rascals and making it all possible!