Happy Birthday Chip!

I'm always sad when April 24th is over.  But this year we had a new reason to be excited for April 25th.  Chip's birthday!!  For his birthday we got him a day at Day Camp at Petsmart.  He LOVES to play with the big dogs there and always comes home exhausted (which is a bonus for us).  He had day camp on Saturday and we picked him and Macie up on Sunday after we got back from Vegas. 

Chip spent a lot of the day sleeping, but he did wake up to go on a walk and for his birthday treat!

 He ate his, and even shared one with Macie!

This was the most awake picture I was able to get of him on his birthday

Chip has been such a cute addition to our family.  He's always full of energy, spunk, love, and randomness.  I always tell Brent that I've never met an animal that makes me laugh as much as he does. 

This was the day we met him.  We knew he was going to be trouble, but that didn't stop us..

How could you resist this face?  He still always makes this face.  He's such a happy go-lucky guy

Chip loves:

Playing with toys

Wrestling with Macie (he still lets her win)

Licking Macie's head

Looking out windows

Socks

His friend Ellie

 -Going on walks
-EATING
-Running around like he's crazy
-Petsmart Day Camp
-Playing with other dogs and making new friends
-Chasing kitties

Chip does NOT love:
-Being left alone
-Getting put in his crate
-When Macie gets attention and he gets ignored
-When he wants to play and Macie ignores him

Chip can:
-Sit
-Lay down
-Wave bye
-Jump and twirl
-Leave it
-Bow (sometimes)

Chip's stats:
Weight: 25lbs
Height: Tall enough for Macie to walk under
Head size:  Huge.  Especially his nose.

Happy birthday buddy!  We love you so much!

Happy Birthday to me, Las Vegas style

About a month ago I got a card in the mail from Brent that said I needed to check the dogs into the Pet Hotel around the time of my birthday because we were going on a trip! He wouldn't tell me where, but he said clues would be coming. The only other clue I got (and it was a big one) was that we were flying somewhere. Finally on tax day, he let me guess where we were going. I guessed Vegas, and I was right! What I didn't know was that he also invited my mom to go with us.  And then my sister and godfather decided to come along, too!  We got there at 8am on Thursday and started partying!

We went and watched the baby lions play at MGM

We loved the gardens at the Bellagio

Brent surprised me with tickets to 'O' that night.  We were in row A.  I thought that there would be a few rows in front of us that might be reserved for people, but we were the VERY FIRST ROW.  It was actually a splash zone :)  Not quite as extreme as Shamu, though.  It was so awesome to be that close.  And it was such an awesome show!  It was my first real Vegas show (other than the Tournament of Kings and 'N Sync when I was younger) and I was not disappointed!

Friday we walked around a ton and went shopping.

 The new city center was really neat to see, and it's HUGE!

My godfather left that afternoon and that night the rest of us went to Freemont Street.  This dog was part of a magic show.  His name was Elvis Pawsley and he was so adorable!

We ended up deciding to go to the magic show that night and it was very entertaining.  I actually got called up on stage to help with a trick!  I was pretty shy but there was one point where he told me to dance while he drew my card and I busted out a booty dance.  Brent was proud :)  Here we are with the Magician and his assistant.  I'm holding a picture that he drew of my card I had drawn.  It was such a cool trick!

Saturday was my actual birthday and my sister had to leave early in the morning.  So my mom, Brent and I went and partied it up for one more day.

We went shopping, rode the roller coaster at New York, New York (PAINFUL and so not worth the $30) and went to the Coke Factory to try the "Flavors around the World"

Some of the flavors were actually pretty good (Fanta Kolita was my favorite) while some made us downright gag (Beverly from Italy)

I didn't know what I wanted to eat and I was tired of eating at buffets so I decided to see if they had a Cafe Rio in Vegas.  And they DID!  So we entered it into our trusty GPS and set off to find it.

I was so happy that I got it for my birthday lunch!

When we got to Cafe Rio we noticed that right next door a Nielson's Frozen Custard had just opened next door!!!  It was fate (and gluttony)!!!!  Brent and I shared the one I'm holding.  I just had to point that out.

Here is a picture of Brent with our rental car that we named Gregg the Egg

It's a Mazda 5, which is pretty much a combination of a car, van and station wagon.  It was the strangest car I've ever ridden in.

For the rest of the day we went down to the Stratosphere, Circus Circus, Treasure Island and took a ride going south on the strip.  It was so fun to relax and people watch.  We ended up getting home this morning and were finally in bed at 3am. 

I had such amazing birthday and I'm so lucky to have a husband that would plan such a fun surprise trip.  Thanks so much baby for the great time and for everything you do!!!! 

He who has yet to be named

I should have figured when we were going car shopping that we were going to probably be buying a car that night.  After test driving the one we wanted, we knew we were HOOKED!  But of course you have to play it cool, so the salesguy doesn't see how much you want the car.  We feel like we got a great deal on it and it's the most fun car I've ever driven!!  Brent said that even though his '05 Honda is now my car, I can still drive the new one sometimes :)
So say hello to the newest addition to the family!

Our Audi A4 Quattro!

I wonder what poor Tinker is thinking...

There are so many cool features on this thing that I didn't even know existed!  It has heated mirrors and a heated rear window and at 41 degrees it automatically kicks on!  Also, I love being able to listen to my Ipod in the car!  One cool feature that it has that I'm not quite used to yet is bluetooth in the car.  My friend called while I was driving the music shut off and it said, "Call from Alycia".  Well that's awesome, except I didn't know how to answer the call!  I figured it out and it was so cool to just be able to talk while you were driving without an actual bluetooth (the speakers are up by the inside front lights).  And if I want to call someone, I just say, "Call Brent" and it will call him!

Also, it has a fun prank feature.  I'm sure it's not supposed to be used this way, but I think it's hilarious.  You can set a speed warning and if the person driving the car goes over a certain speed, a loud beep starts going off.  Well the best part is you can set the speed warning at 20 mph!  Brent would kill me if I did it, but I keep thinking about him driving to Seattle in the morning and the speed warning going off the whole way because he didn't know how to shut it off :)

There are a lot of other awesome things that I don't really understand yet, but it's fun to mess around with everything when I'm the passenger.  The biggest problem we're facing right now is what the name is going to be.  I think since Brent gets to drive it the majority of the time I should get to named it :)

The Audi dealership actually accepted Tinker as a trade in, but since she's dangerous to drive they're sending some guy named Junior to our house to pick her up :)  I wonder what Junior is going to look like, because this is what I'm picturing...