Vacations Thus Far..

It seems like time has gotten the best of me. Since the last time I've posted, life has become hectic. Work is overwhelmingly busy and I seem to have had a busy social life. Which is hard to complain about :)

The first weekend in February, the whole family spent a weekend in Galena, IL. Mom and Howard had given this as one of our Christmas gifts. We rented a 6 bedroom farm house to hold all 12 of us. The weekend was spent skiing, shopping, eating great food, and wine of course. (Most of my activities involve wine, duh!). I've been to Galena before a couple summers ago, so I've already gotten to experience all of the cute shops, old historic architecture, and charm. This time we obviously went in the winter, which allowed us the chance to go skiing. If you've never been there (and aren't a pro at skiing), this ski resort was pretty fun. There were a good mix of easy to difficult hills. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't even compare to Colorado. But for a local ski resort, it wasn't too bad!

The weekend in Galena flew by, but great memories for each of us.

This past weekend, Hope Henkenius and I went out to Vegas. This was somewhat a last minute trip. The opportunity came and we jumped on it. The weekend we went happened to be the same timing as the Nascar races. So, we were amongst (spelling?) many midwesterners with their Nascar gear. It was a blast though. Hope didn't have any luck with the slot machines. I did pretty decent, but stupidly, we had agreed to split any winnings. (Why did I agree to that!?!) ha! Our weekend pretty much revolved around gambling, amazing food, and wine. (weird!). Saturday night was our night to go all out with dinner/drinks. We choose a restaurant at the Palazzo(Venetian). Lavo was a hip Italian restaurant. This was probably one of the best restaurant experiences I've ever had. (of course my filet and wine were delicious). I'll post just a few pictures...