The Surprise Weekend

A few weeks ago, Kyle and I were adding things to our handy whiteboard calendar when I noticed that he had written in "Surprise Weekend" over October 23-25.  True to it's name, the weekend was a total surprise because Kyle wouldn't tell me ANYTHING about it! 

Kyle pretty much packed my clothes for me the night before (I didn't know what to bring and I got tired of asking) and we piled in the car at 6:30am Friday morning.  When we finally got to Las Vegas and he told me we were staying there for the weekend, I didn't believe him at first, but I was so excited!! 

We checked into our hotel and then Kyle told me that we were going to the U2 concert that night!!  Kyle had bought tickets way back in March - even before we were engaged.  We had general admission tickets and arrived several hours early so we could get a good spot only to find that the line for general admission was a mile long.  It was pretty unbelievable.  People had been camped out there all day!

Much to our surprise, we still managed to get really close to the stage! 

The Black Eyed Peas opened up for U2 - I loved it!!

We both agreed that this was the best concert we'd ever been to.  Good job U2. 

Saturday was another adventure.  We were approached Friday by sneaky salesmen at one of the casinos and subsequently signed up for a 2-3 hours timeshare presentation in order to get some Las Vegas freebies.  Kyle had been to one of these "presentations" before, so at least he knew what to expect.  I could go on forever about the cheap sales tactics they used to try and get us to invest $42,000 for two weeks a year of a timeshare in Las Vegas... but I won't.  It was actually a really interesting experience, I think.  I was surprised to find that I felt really proud of us because we had to constantly defend our marriage, values, goals, and finances to a couple of strangers.  It made me really grateful to be married to Kyle and to know that I can trust him with any kind of decision that may affect our family. 

We were united! We stood strong!  We made it out in four hours! 

Here's what we got for enduring intense sales pressure for that long:

1.  Jason's Deli sandwiches, cookies, fruit, and lemonade during the presentaton (I'm always a sucker for free food).

2. 2 tickets to Lance Burton - we had wanted to see a show anyway and even though the seats were in the balcony, we had a good view and it was a fun show.

3. $50 vouchers to eat at the MGM Grand Buffet - SOOO good!  Crab legs, sushi, prime rib, creme brulee...  I need not say more.

4. $25 in vouchers for playing slot machines at the Excalibur.  I'd never gambled before, and probably never will again so it was really fun to use someone else's money to play.  I will say, however, that we were both seriously disappointed that the slot machines don't take change anymore.  When did this happen?!?! I so wanted to pull the lever and hear coins tinkling into the metal tray, signifying to everyone around that I won something!  Instead, I got to push a couple of light up buttons until I got a ticket redeemable for cash. (By the way, I won $26 on those machines - woohoo!) 

5. $50 in vouchers for playing the tables.  Kyle won us $40 at roulette!!  I think we were probably the only people in the casino that were psyched to leave with just $66.  But hey, if we had spent our own $75 to play, we would have lost $9.  I'm pretty sure we could never make a living from professional gambling.  Thank you "free" vouchers!

6. 2 tickets to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay - this was really cool!  I don't think I would've ever paid $16.75 a person to see it, but it was an awesome exhibit for free.  I especially loved the little pool of rays that you could reach in and touch!

Here is the trophy for Kyle Post, winner of coolest husband of the week.  Thanks for the surprise weekend sugar muffin!!