Las Vegas July 2006: Alex Surprise

As part of a welcome home celebration for Ry, I wanted to surprise him with reservations at the highly acclaimed Alex Restaurant at The Wynn. He'd been talking about wanting to go since it opened so I thought- what better time to celebrate! We packed up and took a quick flight to Las Vegas Saturday and right after checking into our room, we put on our suits and robes and headed down to the pool.

We lounged in the sun, swam in the beautiful pool and had one too many drinks... our kind of vacation! It was so nice to relax and just be together. By 6pm it was time to get ready for Alex... Ry had no idea where we were going but maybe he figured it was Alex since I made him bring his suit!

We got all dressed up and I surprised him by stopping in front of Alex and saying we are here! The look on his face... he was so excited!

They sat us at a beautiful table and the musical symphony began... service was amazing and each course was better than the one before it... courses just came and came.. it was never ending!

By the time the actual entree came, I was full! Thankfully I was wearing a loose-fitting dress and managed to get it all down... trust me, it was well worth it! To top it off, the 3-course dessert ending was amazing and I just wish I could of asked for a to-go box but, I knew that was so NOT appropriate! We rolled out of Alex stuffed beyond belief (I think that was their intention) and happy to have experienced the top restaurant in Vegas... it was a magical night! Sunday was spent relaxing by the pool and then we went shopping to the Forum shops at Cesar's Palace. It was a quick trip but well worth it... nothing like a FUN Vegas weekend!

4th of July Weekend 2006

Another Conkle, Jamison and Mcousek 4th of July Weekend! Since 4th of July was on a Monday this year, we took the liberty of celebrating the holiday the entire weekend before! Saturday night we all had a delicious dinner at Maestro's, it was so fun to have everyone at one big round table.

On Sunday, Cliff and Marty have friends that live above a private beach so they gave us access to it for the day! We spent the day relaxing on the beach, playing frisbee and picnicing on yummy food. Nothing is better than summer time in Laguna!

Since Ry and I both had Monday off, we decided to take a little road trip to Ojai for the day, just the two of us! We spent the day lounging at the Ojai Resort pool and guess who we saw?? Ryan Phillipe, Reese Witherspoon and their two cute kids! It was quite the celebrity spotting, we thought. We watched them lounge by the pool and hang out, right along with us!

Here is Ryan Phillipe (in the cowboy hat)... you think we could sell it to US Weekly?!

After lunch and a couple drinks by the pool, we decided to go bike around Ojai... it was such a quaint little town surrounded by orange groves and vineyards... very serene.

After biking around, we headed back to the resort for dinner before the firework show. We had a great dinner on the patio and since we had to wait a little longer for our food, they gave us two complimentary glasses of champagne! It was the perfect little treat.

After dinner, the Ojai Resort had a firework show on their lawn, it was SO fun seeing the fireworks up so close.

And it was also fun watching the show with the entire Phillipe/Witherspoon family next to us! Double entertainment! It was a nice extra long weekend, taking advantage of these as much as we can.