Vegas Birthday Celebration

Celebrating Lola and Papa's birthdays! Every year, they go to Vegas, so to Vegas we shall go!

We arrived after midnight on Saturday since we left a few hours after I got home from work. Our first night there, me and Jeric were ready to sleep. Hahaha. Zoë, the party animal she is, didn't sleep and was also hungry! LOL. Jeric ended up post-mating McDonald's for her. And while she ate, we fell asleep. Hahahaha. Apparently she was up for a good while and super bored too. When Jason and Iban came back up from gambling, she greeted them when they walked into the room. Hahahaha.

Then, when Marky moved off the bed because he felt stuffy with the boys, she got off our bed real fast and joined him. She played with him a bit, but eventually, he fell asleep too. And, she eventually came back to bed and slept too.

We woke up the next day refreshed and ready to party! Lol, JK, no partying in Vegas with baby girl.

Before we headed out though, Zoë wanted to check out Lola & Papa's room. She really just wanted the balloons. Haha. And of course, a quick jump on the bed!

Now time for lunch! I've been dying to try out this sushi spot, Sakana Sushi, that the guys have been raving about. They go there every time they have a guys trip. So, that's where we went!

Look at that sushi!! The colors are super vibrant. They also give you a larger slice of fish on top of just the right amount of rice. They also had udon noodles in a miso base for Zoë.

They also have a shit ton of appetizers. One, bulgogi nachos, is Jeric's fav. So, we definitely had to get that.

And afterwards, we each get one item on the dessert menu! Zoë got the tempura ice cream.

After lunch, everyone went back to the hotel except for me, Jeric and Zoë. We took her out to Circus Circus so she can have some fun.

She played a ton of games, some where she's a winner no matter what and some that were a bit harder to win. First, she played the fishing game and came out with this red crocodile.

She tried this game twice, but no price either time.

We gave the horse racing game a try too, but mommy couldn't help her win this one either.

She did win one super hard game though. And she did it all on her own! No pic of it, but she played the Tic-Tac-Toe game where you gotta toss a softball into a box that's lined with 9 squares and hope it rolls into three in a row.

Well, she did it!! She tossed the first one in and were like cool, you got it into the box. Then came the second one, which landed right above the first, so we were like, ooooo, you just need the bottom box baby! She tossed a ball, but it didn't land in the box. But of course the worker was kind enough to give her a do-over. Which she threw and, OMG! it rolled into the bottom box. Three in a row! Yey!!!!! She then had a choice between two prizes, either a really ugly flat stuffed banana or a retro, old-school, Circus Circus snapback. Mommy and daddy didn't say anything, but we were both silently praying she'd pick the hat. And she did! But, it was because it was pink. Hahahahaha. You go baby girl!!

After Circus Circus, we got back to the hotel, chilled for awhile and then met everyone over at Gordon Ramsey's Burger restaurant for dinner. It's Lola & Papa's fav spot in Vegas.

Soooo good!

We ended the night with Jeric and Zoë staying in the room while me, Iban and Jason went down to gamble.

We waited for a blackjack table that had spots for us three with a decent minimum. When we found one, the dealer was a little bit more than halfway into the deck. We wanted to start with a fresh deck, so we sat there and waited for them to finish up. Meanwhile, Iban disappeared. When we got the fresh deck, dealer offered me to cut the deck, so I did.

It started off
meh. Win one here, lose a few there. Then Iban finally came back and joined us. Apparently, he hit up the craps table and did decent. Back to our table though. We were really doing horrible. Iban just lost his last chip and I was down to my very last. Thankfully I won that. Then one several more. This table was actually 21 + 3, where there was a side bet that you can play. Basically, your first two cards plus the dealers top card are in play. If you get a straight, flush, three of a kind or royal flush, you basically get paid at least 5 to 1. I hit that a few times and was back to even. We kept playing after that and at one point me and Jason has stacks of chips. Jason had a rule he follows though. Two loses in a row and he gets up. He hit that and told me and at that point his stacks were starting to dwindle some. So, I was like, ok, should we go cash out? But, I guess he didn't want to make me get up since I was winning big. So he said nah and we stayed. Big mistake. He lost all his money and I ended up breaking even. I mean, thank goodness I broke even, but still. He lost. And we both could have left winners. Oh well, it was fun though!

And that was Vegas!

Long Drive Home

Time to go home!

Despite all the drinks (and then some) and sleeping after 5am, I still woke up at 9am! While packing up all my stuff, Jeric texted me asking if I wanted to eat brunch with the fam. Since all the gals were asleep, I figured that I should. Especially since I missed out on celebrating with Mom Samoza for her 55th.

So, I showered, woke up each gal for a quick goodbye and headed down to the lobby to with for Jeric to pick me up. When we got back to the hotel, I got to kiss my little baby! I so missed her! She was totally knocked out tho. Hahaha. Apparently she was the last "man" standing. Baby girl was wide awake while everyone was fast asleep. Hahaha. She certainly knows how to do the Vegas!

When I finally did wake her up she was a little grumpy, but still happy to see me!

For brunch, we ended up at a filipino buffet. One we've been to ages ago. They had so much good stuff, but I must say I was disappointed. Not everything tasted as good as it used to.

And now, time to head home! Mom and Dad Samoza were staying in Vegas for another night, while the rest of us headed home. Now was when the sleepiness got to me. Buuuut, just my luck. Zoë was wide awake and missing her mommy. Which meant, mommy must engage in everything Zoë. Hahaha.

I tried so hard to sleep, but every time I drifted off she'd either yank her Owl Pillow away from me, ask for her blank, cry when she kicked the blanket onto the floor, make me watch what she was watching on the iPhone, ask for milk, give me back her bottle, and then repeat (not necessarily in that order)! Hahaha.

And that was it! Bachelorette done and back to HOME SWEET HOME!

Maegan's Bachelorette Nt II

Time for round 2!

Started off the day with all of us getting ready. Desiree, Marissa's cousin, also just got here around noon. By the time she finished showering, we all headed downstairs to just find a spot to eat. Then, we headed back up to put on makeup and get our hair done.

For daytime, we all wore some jeans and then met up over at Caesar's. We were actually thinking we were late, but when we got there, half the girls weren't ready yet and Maegan was still sleeping. Hahaha. That worked out though because a handful of us still had to put the goodie bags together. They turned out super cute!

Love the print outs with our names. These are going to be used for our arrested lineup photos, which we won't get to see until Maegan's wedding day. Can't wait!

Here's what we got in our goodie bag!

Shot glass with our name etched on it, survival kit, diamond ring shot glass, our bride shirts to wear with our jeans today, and of course, can't forget the penis straws. LOL!

After we all opened our goodie bags and took our line up shots, Maegan opened all her gifts and then we all walked the strip in our shirts.


Buuuut, we totally didn't make it far. Lol! We went one hotel over to the Bellagio and gave up. It was just waaaay too cold and we also needed to make sure we all got back to our rooms to get ready for tonight.

Plenty of shots later, we were all ready to party for one last night. While we were waiting in the lobby, the bartender whistled at Maegan and then said he'd give her and her ladies a round of shots. I'm sure he didn't realize that there were 16 of us! LOL. Still, he honored it and dished out 16 shots of Hennessy and a bunch of chasers.

Bottoms up!

And tonight, we ended up at Hyde over in Bellagio. While walking around earlier, we met one of the workers who said he could get us into Hyde. We did have a spot over at XS again, but we had to be there at 10:30 and tonight, there was no way, so Hyde it is.

I think I was a bit drunk tonight. But still, no head changes or swaying and whatnot. Just had a really good chat with Maegan and whole lot of fun with all her girls!

Glad I got to meet all her girls! Was such a great weekend! Woohoo Maegan! See you all April 6th!

Maegan's Bachelorette Nt I

Maegan's getting married soon, so it's party time!

I didn't have a ride out to Vegas, but since Jeric and his fam were all heading out there too, I rode with them. They were all heading out there to celebrate Mom Samoza's 55th birthday. Bummer that I wont be there though.

Anyhow, we finally got to Vegas at 5, but totally didn't get to the Venetian until like 5:30. The strip was packed! Just way too many events going on... St. Patty's Day, a Police marathon from Baker to LV and March Madness. That pretty much meant, way too packed!

When I got there, I had to quickly say bye to Zoë. And when I walked away she cried! :( Sorry baby! You wont see Mommy for a few days.

I was staying in the Venetian with girls who're married or dating someone on Glend's side, Kat, Marissa, Katy and Jenny. There was also a 6th person coming tomorrow, Desiree, who's Marissa's cousin. Right when I got there, I hugged them all and then it was go, go, go! We were on crunch time. Katy popped open a beer for me and Marissa did my make-up.

The other girls that came down, all of Maegan's friends, were staying over at Caesar's Palace. They wanted the deco setup at their spot since Maegan was staying with them. Pretty much so she can enjoy the deco the entire weekend. That also meant that someone as bringing Maegan over to our hotel while me, Kat and Marissa scurried over to their's to get all the deco setup.

It was crazy because there was so much to do and not everything was going to plan. Deco kept falling because tape wasn't working on their walls and some of the banners were too heavy. But, we managed and got everything up at least.

If we had more time (we literally had 40 minutes to do it all) we would have definitely had everything up. None-the-less, Maegan was surprised and loved it!

Now time to pre-party and they definitely had their suite super prepared. Check out their tub of Hennessy!

Meanwhile, Zoë is monitoring it out with Dada!

Back to the party...

So we all headed out to Marquee to meet up with a promoter for table service. Originally it was supposed to be like $60/girl, which was definitely the right price. But then, when we all got into the Limo, the price went up to $135 a girl. At that point, we were all ready and had already turned down the other plan, which was a free table over at XS. We would've all just had to pitch in for 1 bottle over there, which would've been no more than $30 a girl. So, we were pretty much stuck with paying $135 a girl. And that's pretty steep for a party of 15 girls! But that's not the worst part. Once we got to our table, which was told was right near the stage (yah, it wasn't anywhere near the stage), the price went up another $35/girl! Ugh! So expensive. $170 a girl, times 15 girls...that's 2,5k! Oh well, as long as Maegan has a good time, which she did!

Time for more shots of Hennessy!

Me, Katy and Marissa headed over to the dance floor and made it all the way to the front of the stage! We danced there and were totally hoping French Montana would come out soon. Of course he did't. And after a good while, we just headed back to the table for more drinks and fun!

it was about 1:50 am and still no French Montana. Half of Maegan's friends had left already too because they were sleepy. The rest of us stayed until Maegan was ready to go, which was a bit after 2:00 am. So we all made our way to the bathrooms and then headed out. And of course! The moment we're on the way out they announce that French Montana's finally coming out. Ugh! No one was really down to stay though, so we just left and headed back to Caesar's to chill and hang out a bit.

Eventually, we headed back to our hotel and we were all hungry as eff. So we went up to the room to change into comfy clothes and then went back down to a Cafe, ordered our food, and because none of us could keep our eyes open, we ended up asking the waiter if we can have them box it all up to go instead of bringing the dishes to our table.

I ended up ordering myself a freaking pizza!

I only ate two slices and knocked the hell out! Hahaha.

...and, so weird. I didn't really get drunk. Buzzed, yes, but not even that much. I didn't feel fuzzy or off at all. And all I drank was pretty much Hennessy and a lot of it! I did feel nauseous at one point and that was when I cut myself off. Not bad, not bad!

Playtime for Zoë

We had plenty of time to kill before heading off to the Rise Fest, so we decided to have some fun with Zoë. We took her over to Excalibur for some kid zone exploring!

We all played the horse race game where you roll a ball into holes to make the horsie speed up. It was awesome cuz we just played against each other and got little prizes for Zoë. She got a cute Monkey and Fox that she carried around with her all over the place. It was cute because they had to ride with her on every ride she went on!

Here she is with them on the train ride.

Dada also had some fun with her on a ride. Pwahahaha. Can't believe it didn't break down! Guess they built the rides to withstand the bigger kids too!

Zoë's Mini Fort

We headed off to Vegas for the Rise Fest! Yes, I know. It was pretty crazy to go when not even a week had passed since the horrific shooting took place. But, we had these Rise Fest tickets purchased ages ago. They weren't issuing any refunds and at the same time we all figured that security would be beefed up by a ton. So off we went. That's all I'll talk about that sad incident because I don't want to take away from the wonderful experience we had at the Rise Fest.

When we got to our room, it was pretty late, so we unpacked and then chilled for a bit before deciding to head out to find some food and maybe even gamble some. We pretty much got to Vegas early this morning. So after all that, we all knocked out.

Jeric and Ivan had their no days off routine still going strong in Vegas. They both woke up early enough to hit the gym. Meanwhile, the rest of us slept in some. Zoë did wake me up though and she had fun running around the two joint rooms. Then she asked me to make her a fort and so I did!

She really loved her little fort and took her iPad with her inside!

Road Trippin'

Woohoo, our very first road trip with the witto monkey. Where too? Vegas!

Zoë fell asleep long before we left, since we ended up hitting the road after Marky got off work at 11pm. Which was really good actually because she ended up sleeping for the entire way there. We didn't get there until 5 in the morning and dang, it was already hot and the sun was already popping up. Me and J were tired though, so after hanging around with Zoë and watching her walk all around the hotel room, we went to sleep. Zoë mostly hung out with my phone in the middle of the bed, but she eventually fell asleep too.

Ivan and Marky went down to gamble and both came back up losers. The craps tables at Excalibur were no good.

We all woke up again around 11 am and headed to the food court to grab food. After filling our bellies, J tried his luck at the craps tables and ended up losing $50.

I took Zoë over to near the fun way zone to wait for all of the boys. There was a little shop there and it had an M&M statue that Zoë gravitated towards.

And then sat down among all the pretty chandeliers.

Now time for some Zoë fun! We took her to the midway area in Excalibur and had her play some games. She totally had a blast playing all of them!

We started off with the fishing for duckies game. J had her hold the fishing pole and the ended up winning a blue Nemo!

The next game we spotted that had a decent prize and wasn't too expensive was the ping pong toss game where you toss ping pong balls over and try to get them in small bowls that float along a pool of water. I tried letting Zoë toss them herself, but she just ended up dropping a few balls into the gap. Hahaha. I threw the third one myself and woohoo, I landed her a prize! Medium sized too since the bowl was blue! The worker was also nice enough to give Zoë another try at the two she dropped into the gap, but still, she couldn't figure out how to throw them. Hahaha. And, after seeing how I tossed mine, she saw that they needed to go into the bowls and wanted me to carry her closer so she can drop them right in. Pwahahaha. Smart cookie!

This is the medium prize we got. Hahaha.

On the way out, we saw that there were some cool crane games that were only $1 and you have unlimited turns until you win a prize! We saw one with a bouncy ball, which would totally be a whole lot of fun for Zoë. She grabbed the joy stick and moved it around, which was cool because she could keep trying over and over and it wont end until she actually gets her ball. Which was totally the right call! She had a ton of fun playing with that ball afterwards.

J took Zoë back upstairs cuz he was still tired while me, Iban and Marky stayed downstairs to gamble. Iban and Marky were over at video craps. I was supposed to join them, but the machine I sat at wouldn't take my money, so I ended up over at real craps. It was fun, yes, but I came out a loser. I lost $60. *womp, womp, womp* I did stay there for over 2 hours though, but never, not once, was I ever up. The rollers were horrible! They'd win me some money and then when I had a ton of money out on the table, they'd crap out! Boooo!

After losing more than half my gambling money, I too went back upstairs to nap. Zoë was still up and playing with Marky. We tried to get her to nap with us, but that totally didn't work. After our wonderful nap, we woke up to find that everyone was heading down. Zoë was already downstairs with Lola and Papa. So, we got ready and went down to meet up with everyone. We couldn't find anyone over at the midway though, so we thought, eh, Zoë's good, lets go gamble!

J found a table that had spots for both of us and we waited for us to actually roll before playing. I did play the field for a roll and it paid out, but then, we saw that the table just kept crapping out. Ugh! When it was finally J's turn to roll we put our money down. But, boo, he crapped out! I was next to roll and hit lucky 7 off the bat. I even hit my number for my next roll. Things were looking up. Bummer though, J didn't have that much money to play. Even worse, he was like, ok, I'm gonna toss this all out there. I had a number in play and he put bets on every single number that would pay out. Like, literally, I could roll anything except 7 and he'd win money. And guess what I roll? A mother friggin 7! Womp womp womp! I lost J the rest of all his money and lost my roll. I still had money to play with and totally made a bad judgement call by staying on that table. The next guy crapped out and lost me the rest of my money. I should've took my money and tossed it in a slot machine. I'd have better luck there!

Well, guess it's time to find Zoë and enjoy the rest of our trip with her. We found them all downstairs in the midway area. Apparently Zoë's been having tons of fun with Lola & Papa as they took her around on all the kiddie rides!

When we met up, Marky and Papa were trying to win Zoë a large toy off of the horse race game where you have to roll a ball into slots to move the horse along.

Boo, they did not win. Jeric and Iban tried afterwards and they too came out losers. This hotel is just total poop! Lol.

Well, everyone seemed to have worked up an appetite, so time for our family Father's Day dinner! We headed over to Planet Hollywood to grab some grub over at BURGR and we made the mistake of deciding to walk rather than take the car. At least Lola & Papa had a super cute picture with Zoë.

Yah, total big mistake because it was so friggin hot! The sun was no where to be seen, yet, it felt like it was blazing right in front of us. Zoë even knocked out on the way there and she only wanted me to carry her. Mama was exhausted. Haha. Luckily, half way there, she was super knocked out and didn't notice the transfer from me to Dada.

When we finally made it to BURGR, the wait time was 45 minutes to an hour. Everyone else headed over to the casino while me and J took the sleepy Z out into the shops area. That's when J noticed her diaper was super heavy and I totally didn't think to bring a few diapers and wipes out with us. Luckily the ABC store had diapers and wipes! Although, they seemed a tad expensive. Still though, baby girl needs a diaper change.

While changing her, she did wake up for a second, but then, when she was fully changed and back in Mama's arms, she totally fell back asleep.

And finally, food! Or so we thought. We were buzzed stating that our table was ready thirty minutes later. But when we got there, ugh, it took a whole lot longer! Thankfully Zoë slept through it all and when we were finally seated, she slept through all that too and didn't wake up until we were pretty much done eating! Hahaha.


As for food.. we all had a platter of the Mushroom Poutine for an appetizer, which is basically fries with gravy, duck bacon, cheese curds, and vinegar pickled shallots.

This was the first time we ordered this and by gosh was it finger licking good! Definitely ordering this the next time we come back here.

For entree, I ordered myself the Crown Burger, which had aged mimolette cheese, arugula, fine herb aioli, and dried tomatoes. Delicious as ever!

And of course some Truffle Fries.

Now for the long walk back in the smoldering heat! At least Zoë's awake so she can enjoy the pretty lights and all she can see. We first stopped at these awesome fountains on the way back for some fun pictures. Even had Zoë touch the water, which was such a good idea because it was so refreshing. The water was ice cold to touch, a refreshing contrast to the hot hot heat. Zoë loved it a ton!


Also took some other cute photos along the way.

Then we were back at the castle... our home away from home.

And it was time to sleep so we could be up early for the trip back tomorrow.

The next morning, Marky and Ivan had to make a trip back to Planet Hollywood because Marky forgot to cash out his ticket. And lucky them! They came back winners! They both basically won their money back if not more! Ugh, me and J would be the only losers on the trip back home. Time to grab lunch at Raising Canes and head home.