I'm So Bad at Blogging...

Ok, so I've been really lax lately with the whole blogging thing. My goal is to write a couple different blogs today to get adequately caught up, but not make the entries too excruciatingly long. We'll see if that actually happens...

So a couple of weeks ago, Tyson and I had our big housewarming party to break in our new house (even though we've had several get-togethers and football parties there already since we moved in). We had a huge turnout, way more people than we were expecting, and we had SO MUCH fun! We had people from both sides of the family come to visit, including Tyson's grandparents from Atlanta who drove three hours to see us, and several friends and even coworkers. It was so awesome getting to see everyone and visit and share our excitement. And I was so proud of Tyson and I for pulling off a good party with good food and fun!

As if Tyson and I haven't been busy and on the go enough, last week I had to go on an unexpected business trip for work to....Las Vegas! Yeah, I just had to go, haha! My company is in dire need of a new accounting and operations software, and the front runner in our software search just so happened to be at an air conditioning/heating/refrigeration expo in Las Vegas. So the company sent me and another coworker out to Sin City to get some more information and talk to the program developers. We stayed at the Bellagio overlooking the Bouldvard and the Fountains, and had an all out amazing time. Below are a few pictures from our trip:

This is the view from my 18th floor hotel room at the Bellagio.

Another view of the city, this one from the 3rd floor of the Hilton Las Vegas.

This inside of my room at the Bellagio.

The beautiful Fountains at the Bellagio.

Vegas at sunset.

The Bellagio from Las Vegas Boulevard.

The lobby of the Bellagio.

While we were there, we ate at Circo, a fantastic restaurant in the Bellagio. I had a duck-stuffed pasta with orange cream sauce, and I had a carmelized banana dripped with chocolate fudge for dessert. We also went to Margaritaville, did a little gambling at the slot machines, went to the minus5 Ice Bar, where everything is made of ice - the walls, the tables, the chairs...even the glasses they serve your drinks in. It's negative five degrees inside, and you have to wear a fur coat and hat to go in! It was such a COOL experience! (Pun intended.)

This is Tammie and I in the ice bar all bundled up!

We got back in time for SBXLV....for those of you who can't decode my abbrev speak, that's the Super Bowl. Again, we hosted a little get-together at our house, and I have to say, there were many highlights for the day, but the main one was NOT the game. First off, my brother's girlfriend, Erin, brought Just Dance 2 for the Wii, which was a huge hit for the girls. Such a fun game! And then probably most importantly, our friends Chad and Andee brought their sweet, sweet baby, Kenadie. (Collectively, we refer to the trio as Chanadie, haha.) Anyway, Kenadie was our core entertainment for the night. She is the happiest, most curious, funniest toddler ever...even our friend Graham, who is not a kid person, said he would like to take her home for a few days. She is the cutest!

So that's just a few things that have been going on with the Patricks lately. We have a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks too, so there are no signs of slowing down! This weekend we are going to a rodeo with some friends, next weekend is another fun outing planned (but I can't mention what it is yet because it's a surprise to someone who might read this...), the next weekend is a family trip up to Gatlinburg to get in some last minute skiing and snowboarding before the season is over, and the next weekend is my best friend's wedding! Only 22 more days until Abbey and Tanner tie the knot, yay!

I will try to get better about this whole blogging thing. I really do like to write and I love to read my friends' blogs just to stay up to date on their lives, so I'm sure there are people out there, even if not many, who like to stay up to date with ours. But as you can tell by my blog content, we've just been so busy lately! Hopefully things will start slowing down soon. Might not make for as interesting reading, but maybe it'll be an outlet for my more creative side. I know it's hiding in me somewhere! Til next time...