THE PAGNOZZI FAMILY: August 2014

After a long summer my munchkins went back to school. It was great spending the summer with them, but I think everyone is ready for a routine around here. Maybe not Vincent. I know he will miss them a lot when they are at school.

Hana is entering 2nd grade at 48.5 inches tall and 56 pounds. She is blessed to get Ms. Scott for her homeroom and Ms. Heathcox for her switch teacher. Ricky had them. They are the definition of a "perfect" teacher. I believe Ms. Scott truly teaches for the love of it. She is nurturing, but yet firm. She makes learning fun. She is a teacher that will go out of her way. She has a couple friends in her class from last year. Hana is going to have a great year. So far all her days have been "perfect."

Ricky was pretty bummed after meet the teacher. He did not get the teacher he was hoping for, nor did he have any of his close friends in class. I was a little nervous the 1st day for him. Mainly if he will like the teacher. The whole year depends on the teacher/student relationship. To my relief he really likes his teacher, Ms. Cabahug. She is new to the district. She used to teach 5th grade and was also the head of a dept for many years. I really think Ms. C will challenge her students. Ricky will have to work a little harder to keep his "A" average. Ricky said the 1st day she was under the impression that they were pretty fluent in long division. All the kids pretty much just stared at her. She also has Ricky interested in reading. As soon as he got home on the 1st day of school he begged me to take him to buy "The Giver". I'm just keeping my fingers crossed he finishes it.
He still sees his best friends at recess. The only complaint he has is that the days are long.

Praying that my kids will have an awesome year and that they will stay safe.

Hana picked this outfit out with daddy. I think they did a great job.

Vincent graduated to a big boy car seat.

Ms. Scott

She's super excited.

------I have no classroom pictures with Ricky bc when we got to his classroom almost all kids were already there. We didn't even go in with him. He went straight to his desk and we said our goodbyes. It's 4th grade so it would have been a little odd. ---------------

After our PR trip all I wanted was a weekend getaway for just me and Ricky. I was thinking a quiet lil bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg for the weekend. We would tour some wineries, climb Cross Mountain, walk Main St and visit the places I lived. I saw a nice quiet weekend. Ricky saw boring.
I told him I would plan Fredericksburg, but if he wanted anything different he needed to take charge. Well, weeks kept passing. I was pretty much losing hope. At dinner 1 night he let me know that he has a surprise for me and we are going to VEGAS!! Everything was lined up. His sister, Lynn would watch the kids. We would be gone from Tue night to Sun afternoon. He also went a step further and planned most of our activities. All I had to do was take the kids to Bastrop on Tue and be back in time for our 10:30pm flight. It worked out perfect. We flew Spirit (they have amazing deals). It's pretty much alacart. We decided to pack 1 bag. After we stuffed it, I forgot there was a weight limit. Of course we were 10lbs over. The lady at the counter was extremely helpful. We were able to run into an airport store, buy and $8 bag and unload some of the contents into it. The flight was packed and ahead of schedule each way.
After we landed we took a shuttle to our beautiful hotel, The Monte Carlo. Ricky picked it, bc it was basically in the middle of the strip and it had a great pool. Which featured a lazy river and wave pool. We did not use the pool area 1 time.
It was great getting in so late. There was no line to check in. We unloaded our luggage in our room and headed downstairs to explore the casino and grab a bite to eat. I guess I had beginners luck. I played the 1 cent machine and won $13!! We were off to a good start.
The next morning our agenda was to explore the hotels. That was going great. All I could say is Ah-mazing. The themes and mall areas. I have never seen anything like it. It's like a city within a hotel. So, we were walking from 1 hotel to another. There were many people who tried to suck you in (cheap tickets, time shares, shows etc). We finally got sucked in. We weren't responding to the guy and with that he kept adding free stuff. Finally after about 30 min later I reluctantly agreed. I also knew if this ended badly I would never hear the end of it. We grabbed a quick lunch before we came back and did the time share at The Jockey club. It lasted 2 hours. Was very convincing and I really wanted to sign up, but I knew better. Just not worth it. Our sales guy was a trip. I think he worked for the Mafia at one time (not really, but made many comments to make you think he did). Everyone was great till the very end. When they had to get the last guy to come and try to convince us he was a jerk when he finally realized there's nothing he can do. Most of us were there just for our freebies. We got a $200 voucher to Casino Royal to play a slot machine (didn't win a thing. The guy said we could cash out after $100. Not so much). Ricky played Craps and won $165 on a $3 table. $200 gift card to Restaurants.com (never really used it there. Hoping to get some use out of it in Houston). Tickets to a hypnotist show. Tickets to a comedy show. $50 visa gift card and a voucher to come back for 2 nights at the hotel (probably have to do the time share tour again). As much as we didn't want to go, it was a blessing in disguise.
After the time share tour we both felt like our energy was zapped. We went back to the room to get ready for dinner on top of the Palms. Nove, a short cab ride from our hotel. The restaurant was 5 stars all the way. The view of sin city at night was breath taking. The food was some of the best I have ever had. It was an Italian restaurant. We started out with an antipasti appetizer. It's one of the best things I had and our whole trip. For my main meal I had lobster ravioli. It just melted in your mouth. Ricky had a pork chop with aged balsamic. I had a bite, and it was amazing. After the meal we spent time just taking in the view of the city. After dinner we decided to use our "free" tickets for the hypnotized, Marc Savard. I just don't get it. I know what I saw was real, but how?! He made the people do some crazy stuff that they would never ever do. Mind boggling. At the same time he kept it entertaining and funny. After we walked back to our room and were in bed by 12:30am.

Thursday we woke up and headed out to finish the hotel exploration. Again, I was taken back at how extraordinary most of them were. No interruptions this time. Around 5pm we went back to our room and got ready for Cirque Du Soleil - Ka. I'm speechless as to what they can do. It was a great show. This one did not have a ton of the acrobatic stuff, but more of a story line. After the show we went and tried this Japanese restaurant in our hotel. I can't even describe how good their tempura was. One thing they included was lemons. Weird, right? So good though. We both ordered their ramen noodle soup. Sounds basic, but it was on a different level. Enough, that I didn't mind that it was $17 per bowl. After we ate we decided to walk the strip and head back to Casino Royal and play Craps. On our way there we saw the fountains in front of the Bellagio. I have heard about them, but I had no idea how extraordinary they are and how much power really goes into them. As we continues to walk (people and music everywhere) we noticed an outside bar/club (Quad) with a live band. Mr and Mrs Smith. They were so good!! We caught less then an hour of them. After that a D.J. came on and mixed his stuff. We had a great time dancing most of the night away. I had flip flops on so it was that much better. The bartenders would throw bottles around and reminded me of the movie Cocktails. At times they would give free shots. I'm expecting shot glasses. Nope. You lean your head back and they just pour it in. They poured a lot too! I didn't participate. I was already having a great time. As we left we stopped at Casino Harrahs. They had a dual piano bar. Of course, right by it was a craps table. I'm not sure what happened. I think we lost $20. As we headed back to the hotel we stopped at a lil pizza place. You order buy the slice. The pizza was yummy. We went to bed around 4am.

Friday we woke up close to lunch time. I wanted to go eat at the hotel Paris so we headed that way. I don't know what I was expecting, but it didn't seem like Paris kind of food. I ended up having clam chowder in a bread bowl. I had a lot!!! Ricky had an Italian Sandwich. After we just walked and continued exploring the hotels. We walked by Quad again and a live band was playing. They specialized in 80s music. They were really fun to watch. They sounded great, but they also spent a lot of time talking and just making fun of stuff. We sat there for a little while. We headed to Planet Hollywood to catch a 4pm Illusion (magic) show, Nathan Burton. The pre-show was hilarious. I laughed so much and so hard that I cried. I don't think that has ever happened to me. The magic show was pretty awesome. The whole time you're sitting there asking yourself how did he do that? I really just don't get it. It's one heck of an illusion. I'm floored.
After the show we went back to our hotel room to get ready. On the agenda was a Pub Crawl. I have to be honest. I had no desire to go on a PC (pub crawl). I tried cancelling it, but the lady would not bc I'm not the one that booked it. My thinking was, why do I have to pay for someone to take me to clubs when I can go myself. They are EVERYWHERE!! Was I wrong!! I am so glad that he booked it and the lady would not let me cancel it. We met our group at the Bellagio. There were about 20 in our group. Ranged from all ages. Our host was Linda. She was very good at her job. After we checked in we didn't have to be back for about an hour. We went to a lounge Lily. I was already doubting the PC, but this made me doubt it more. They did give us 2 for 1 drink tickets. Even those prices were a joke. Two well drinks were $14 with the coupon. I could have kicked myself. I could have played slots and got free drinks from the Casino. At least this way I had a chance of winning.
A selling point of the PC was that your club entry was paid for (I'm sure was very high) and you did not have to stand in line.
The first club we went to was at the Bellagio. The Bank. It reminded me of Houston clubs just on a much bigger level. They played good dance music and we spent the hour dancing. When it was time to meet up again we were escorted to a party bus. They had free drinks on the bus. Beer and Mikes hard lemonade. Linda did a great job on getting people relaxed and dancing. Our 2nd club was nothing I have ever seen before. Ghostbar . It was a freak show. There were sesame street characters dancing, panda, Tom and Jerry, and a handful of midgets. Every so often they would have a performance on the stage. Once it was a transvestite another time some burlesque dancers. The music was good and very up beat. We didn't dance much at this club. There was so much going on. I don't think i'll ever see anything like it again. Back to the party bus we went for our next destination. I have to say we had an amazing time on the party bus. We were bummed when we had to get off. It was a great time with a group of people. We tried to persuade Linda to stay on. The last stop was at the hotel Mandalay Bay. The club Light by Cirque Du Soleil. We tried the dance floor for awhile. The music was awesome, but with mainly a bass it was hard to dance. Well, unless you jumped the whole time. The dj and music were a show enough. Definitely an experience.

Saturday, our last full day. Our flight back was Sunday at 1:30am. We finished seeing hotels we were not able to get to and just took in the scenery. Early evening we ate at a Brazilian style steak house. I have to say it was kind of a disappointment. After dinner we had an 8:15pm show of The Jersey Boys. It was a great performance. The music and acting was phenomenal. The show was long, so Ricky was in a panic about getting to the airport. We made it with plenty of time to spare. I think I was even able to get a nap in at the terminal.

Everyone said I would do a lot of walking and come back thinner. Well I did a lot of walking, but I definitely didn't come back thinner. We definitely had our fair share of food.

This was definitely a memorable trip. Vegas is much more than I expected. I think what also made this trip so amazing was that it was just Ricky and I. We had no kids to worry about. So instead of giving all our attention to the kids we were able to focus on each other and have fun with out the worries. I'm so glad that we had this opportunity. Other than missing my kids and wanting to see their precious little faces, this was one vacation I did not want to end.