Girls trip to New York

My great friend Liz flew to Pittsburgh on Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day) for a visit. She had never been to Pennsylvania, so it was fun to show her around a bit. She enjoyed relaxing in the movie room in the basement and cuddling with the dogs. Mason was her clear favorite. I love when friends from out of town come to visit. We got up super early on Friday morning and Keith took us to the airport. We flew to New York City and got right on the subway to our hotel. We stayed at the W hotel in Midtown East. It was the perfect place! They let us check in early; at 9:30 AM and upgraded our room. After getting settled in the hotel we got back on the subway and headed downtown to shop. All of that shopping worked up a serious appetite so we went to Balthazar's for lunch. Bobby Flay says they have the best french fries that he has ever eaten. We definitely got TWO orders and finished almost the whole thing. THey were awesome. Then we continued shopping for the rest of the day. We planned to eat out but were so exhausted that we got some New York style pizza to-go and ate it in our hotel room.
The next day we started with the Sex and the City tour. It was really fun to see all the stores and restaurants featured in the show. I was suprised how popular the tour was. Our time slot had 2 full buses! After the tour we spent more time shopping. I loved the NBA store. We got back to the hotel with just a few minutes to relax. Then we headed out to a fancy italian dinner. After dinner we had tickets to see the Broadway show "A Little Night Music" Liz knew one of the main actors in the show. The orchestra and signing was great!
Sunday morning we headed up to the Manhattan Church of Christ for services. They had a really wonderful service.
I cannot believe how fast the weekend flew by. I had such a great time with Liz. I am so proud of how much we walked. We only took a cab to dinner on Saturday night and Church on Sunday morning. That was really because we had on uncomfortable shoes. Hopefully I didn't slow Liz down by being a preggo person. It is crazy to think that by the time we take our next trip I'll have a baby girl. I am so thankful for great friends. I appreciate them making the extra efforts to keep in touch and stay close; even though I am living so far away.

Trip to Vegas

Our company hosts a leadership conference each year. The past two years the meeting has been held in Vegas. Anyone who has talked to me recently knows how excited I was for this trip. The snowy weather in Pittsburgh made me want to get away even more.
The trip was truly great! We had wonderful weather the whole time. I even wore my flip flops. It was really nice to hang out with my coworkers and catch up with everyone. We saw the Cirque show "O" this year. It was like synchronized swimming on crack. The whole show was based in the water but they had acrobats and fire too. We were totally on sensory overload. Our group really loved the show. We had a wonderful italian dinner at the hotel before the show.
Monday night was the cocktail party and dinner with our company. It is so much fun to see everyone dressed up. My friend Rodney won an award this year. Our team was really pumped up for him!!
We had some great speakers at the conference. One of the presentations was on this book entitled "The Flip Side" It highlights your behavior constraints. I was suprised to see which constraints I scored the highest. The book has a test that you take to see where you rank with each constraint. I would recommend this book to everyone.
Our Ops team did a bit of acting in the conference again. Rodney and Brittany played Caesar and his assistant (we stayed at Caesar's palace). Several of us acted in skits. I acted in a skit on my own. I have fun doing things like this for work. I don't think I'd be comfortable acting with friends or family; but for some reason I have fun with it at work.
We finished the conference on Wednesday and everyone flew home. I got in at almost 1 AM because of the 3 hour time difference. Keith was there to pick me up. He had several fun suprises at home to show me. He worked on the baby's room, purchased and setup a blue ray player, and fixed a couple other things around the house. He also had 2 dozen pink roses in a vase for me. I love to have fresh flowers in the house. I'm glad to know that he missed me while I was away. I also came home to 4 dogs instead of 2. We are dogsitting for one of the residents while they are on vacation in Florida. Thankfully the dogs love playing together and get along well.
The sun is finally out here and the snow is really melting. It is still really cold, but I'm thankful for the sun. Now that my Vegas trip is over I am looking forward to my friend Liz visiting from TExas. SHe will be here in less than 2 weeks. SHe and I are going to New York for a weekend of fun! Then KEith and I are flying to ARizona. We will get to spend time with my mom and Keith's brother Josh and his wife Steph. Lots of great things to get excited about!!!
Everything is going well with Brooke. She is kicking all the time and my belly is expanding every day. My next visit is on the 17th. I am be taking the glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes. I will try to post some new belly pics soon.