A week and a half ago, Tommy and I hit a milestone in our marriage, 5 years married! That’s right, we celebrated our 5-year anniversary. It’s hard to believe that 5 years has gone by since we said “I do.” To celebrate our anniversary, we took a trip to Las Vegas! People who know us may have been surprised by our decision to go to Vegas, but it’s always been on our list of places to see. We decided to seize the opportunity and see what the city is all about.

This trip was our first time being away from Jaden for more than one night. Leaving him wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but of course we missed him while we were gone. It helped to know that our baby was in good hands. He was able to spend time with both sets of grandparents while we were away. Even though we weren’t with Jaden I still felt connected to him, thanks to technology. Our daycare uses an app service to send updates so we were able to keep up with all of Jaden’s activity and his teachers were great about sending us lots of pictures each day. Our parents were great about sending us updates before and after daycare and we were able to FaceTime every evening.

As we were planning for this trip, I have to admit I was a little nervous. I really had no idea what to expect. I’m thankful for my husband because he was really proactive in planning things for us to do. He’s good at that. Below I share a few highlights from our trip.

1. This trip to Vegas was my first time flying west of the Mississippi River. I really enjoyed the view from the plane. It was cool seeing mountains and canyons as we flew through Colorado and Utah.
2. Rest. I can’t put into words how good it felt to get away for a few days, taking a break from work and all other responsibilities. I think I took a nap almost every day (mostly because of the time difference), but having the ability to do that was nice.
3. I didn’t realize there would be so much to see in Las Vegas. We walked a good portion of the Strip and explored several of the hotels. If you’ve been to Vegas, you know there are definitely plenty of other SIGHTS to see. I can’t tell you how many show girls, people in costumes, drunks, and street performers we saw. Vegas was definitely a good place for people watching.
4. Our favorite part of the trip was seeing a Cirque du Soleil show called “O”. If you ever go to Vegas, I highly recommend you check this show out.
5. We gambled for the first time. It took us a few tries to figure out how to play the slot machines, but after we got that hang out it I actually won some cash. That was pretty exciting!
6. On our anniversary, we essentially had a day full of dates. Our morning started with breakfast at a restaurant in a neighboring hotel. We then enjoyed a few games at Top Golf and a visit to Madame Tussaud’s. Later, we enjoyed a nice dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant in our hotel. And after dinner, we took a quick visit to Fremont Street. We had a busy day, but it was fun doing so many activities together.

In all, our trip to Las Vegas turned out to be a fun way to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to spend one on one time with Tommy. For the last year, it’s been the 3 of us. We love our son and couldn’t imagine life without him, but it was good for us to get the time away to reconnect as husband and wife. In the end, our marriage benefited from this time away which will ultimately help us to be better parents to our baby boy.