las vegas!

lance and i spent the better part of last week in las vegas for the international builders show. we went to it last year in orlando and it was a great experience so we decided to go again this year. there are so many new products out there to learn about and we each took several classes that i think are going to help us out a lot on some of our new developments. of course, just like last year, my favorite part of the show are the appliance exhibits...also a favorite is the kohler exhibit. they have the most amazing and innovative bathtubs and bathroom fixtures! i can only dream that i will one day have some stuff as nice as that. i love appliances in general, but they are also the place for all the free food! and good stuff too - they invite all these guest chefs in to demostrate the stoves and ovens. delicious! and i learned this year (while standing in the longest starbucks line EVER!) that the sears exhibit bakes fresh chocolate chip cookies everyday. how did i not know that?!? anyway, we had a great time and came back to oklahoma loaded down with lots of fun ideas to try out.

we didn't take ethan and miles, it would have just been too hard with the long days, though i did see several people with strollers and bjorns walking around. i can't even imagine! i did miss the boys so much and missed miles even more since i had to constantly pump on the trip. grrrr...it is a lot of work and i don't know how exclusively pumping moms do it! the las vegas convention center obviously isn't meant for a pumping mom. we had brought the car adapter so i could just pump there, but our little rental wasn't up to carrying the load of it and we somehow flipped a breaker the first day. i searched for good bathrooms to pump in and found only one with a plug close enough to a stall that i could pump in private...but unfortunately it was about a 20 minute walk from there to the car and i didn't want to keep the pump with me all day so i ended up pumping in the bathroom near the parking lot. fun times since the only outlet was by the sink. i am sure most of the women knew what was going on, but there were definitely some surprised faces. at first i was really self conscious, but as the trip wore on i just decided i didn't really care. i was glad to get home and take a break from the pump. lynn and donna watched the boys for us and loved doing it - we are so lucky to have family nearby to help out - but they were definitely ready to give them back to us on friday night!

most of our days were taken up with the convention, but we did get to go out to dinner two of the nights we were out there so that was a lot of fun. we tried out the italian restaurant at the bellagio - good, but maybe too fancy for us, though the desserts were amazing! we also got invited to a vendor party at a mexican place in the pallazo. lance was so excited since it meant a free meal (and open bar!) he's already thinking of who he can ask for free meals next year. i wished we had had more of a chance to walk around vegas. it is just such an amazing city. there is constant construction going on and so much had changed since we had been there last. crazy stuff. we didn't really take too many pictures, but i thought this was a fitting one to end my post with. me and my constant companion (in case you can't tell...this is my medela pump - i think i spent more time with it than i did with lance!)