Our very attentive watch dog

I feel bad because Bella gets so much more blog face time than Samson, so I decided to post some cute pictures of Samson "standing guard" at our house. He likes to sit on the arm of our loveseat/top of our end table so he can have a good, clear view out our front door window. He truly is our little watch dog!



Charlotteville,Va

We took a mini-vacation to Charlottesville, Va last weekend. The event that spurred this mini-vacation was my cousin's Josh's wedding on 10/10/10, which was set to occur at 10:10 am, however it ran a little behind schedule, however, I digress. Anyway, we had a great time exploring Charlottesville, including a visit to Thomas Jefferson's homestead, Monticello, which means "little mountain" in Italian. We were reminded again of what a brilliant man TJ was. Amazing. The city of Charlottesville also holds claim of being home to Dave Matthews and John Grisham. It is a very beautiful part of the country, that's for sure. Retirement area, perhaps???

Looking out across the vegetable garden area of Monticello

Preston pondering away in the little "thinking" house of Jefferson, where he came up with all his good ideas.

Another view of the "thinking" house and vegetable gardens

Preston posing with TJ, who was a pretty tall man for his day

The beautiful front lawn of Monticello (where we had just witnessed a marriage proposal!)

Once again in front of Monticello

We are now at the lodge at Montfair the evening before the wedding

Me and my little cousin, Rachel, who isn't so little anymore!

Bonfire

Posing with the groom, Josh, who was my partner in crime throughout childhood

Cousins' pic

Us with my parents before the wedding

Having fun with Rach

It was a beautiful day out by the lake

What happens in Vegas...

...stays in Vegas! However, below are a few pictures showing some of the highlights of our trip. It was definitely a fun, memorable week. With all the scheduled activities involving the ACEP conference and dinners, we never had time to see any shows, so we would love to go back one day to be able to do that!We were able to walk around at night after dinner though and look at several of the beautiful hotels.

The gorgeous centerpiece that greeted us in the foyer of our hotel, the Four Seasons

Our 1st view of the strip, looking out of our hotel window

Outside at Mix Lounge, on top of The Hotel

Night view of Vegas, looking out from atop of The Hotel

My first Black Jack experience! I want to give a shout-out to Dr. Roman...Thanks for being a great coach!

Us again after a very long day...at this point we had been up for 26 hours (with the time difference and extremely early flight that morning)...there's so much energy in Vegas though! Not as much as New York, but close :)

Preston with his "twin" brother Dennis. Apparently staff at UAB get them confused all the time!

Hanging out with friends Brooke and William, once again at Mix Lounge

Here we are at Treasure Island, to watch the pirate/siren show, per Patrick's suggestion.

Hanging out with dolphins at a dinner hosted outside in the gardens at The Mirage

Preston suffering the same fate as Siegfried (or Roy, I forget which one)

Up close with one of the BEAUTIFUL white tigers in the gardens at The Mirage. They truly were gorgeous.

Some of Preston's fellow residents, having a good time on the dance floor

Posing in some of the cool seating inside of The Mirage

Preston's GQ pose

Here we are outside of The Bellagio, awaiting the fountain show to start. The beautiful Paris hotel is in the background.

One of the fountain shows that occurred every 15 minutes in front of The Bellagio, my favorite hotel. We stayed and watched 3 shows our 1st night to witness...they were our favorite part of Vegas. Each show we saw was choreographed to different music and each was phenomenal!!!

Some more of Preston's fellow residents, bonding after a nice homestyle Italian dinner

Dennis with one of the Italian gentlemen serenading us

A view of the golden exterior of The Mandalay Bay, sitting next to the pool of The Four Seasons. Not only were the chairs extremely comfortable, but a personal pitcher of ice water with lemon was constantly filled at my chair, popsicles and frozen melon balls were brought around and offered, and pool staff members walked around and offered to "spritz" me...it was nice being so spoiled!!! No other pool experience compares!

Our anniversary dinner at Alize, the award-winning Andre Rochat restaurant atop The Palms, included a personalized menu greeting for us!

Us and our view of the Las Vegas strip, from Alize

The restaurant treated us to some scrumptous chocolate covered strawberries and cookies :) Those along with our delicious chocolate souffles, made it an absolute perfect dessert!!!

Topping off a wonderful anniversary dinner by going back to The Bellagio for some more romantic fountain shows

Our anniversary evening and Vegas trip coming to a close...Thanks again to some good coaching (and a Black Jack rules card given me by Preston) we ended the trip riding a lucky streak!!!