Update

It's been exactly a month since I last posted. Ahh! Where did the time go?  I feel like we have done a lot this past month so here goes...
In between Matthew's summer term and fall term we had a little break so we made a quick trip to Indio, CA.  We went there last summer and had so much fun we decided to go again.  It's only about 3 1/2 hours away so it was very worth the trip.  Not that there is that much to do in Indio, but the place we stayed has several fun pools and play areas for the kids. We went with our good friends the Kmetzschs and had a great time. Our boys played so good together and kept each other entertained the whole time.  The adults had fun chatting and playing games in the evenings.  I completely forgot my camera so these are from my phone.

On one of the days we drove about to 30 minutes away to Palm Springs, CA.  On our way we passed this huge windmill farm. I mean, like windmills as far as the eye can see.  Apparently it is the 7th biggest windmill farm in the world.  It was actually pretty neat to see.  We stopped and took pictures. 

Palm Springs has a lot of history and was old Hollywood's vacation town. It has a cute downtown area that we walked around and we even passed Marilyn Monroe's house there and Elvis's honeymoon house. We had to get a picture under the huge Marilyn statue. (darn blogger for not letting me rotate this pic)

We stopped in this hat shop and all had fun trying on hats.

Such a great little get-a-way with friends!

Then about a week and half later was labor day weekend. We realized Matthew had Friday and Monday off so we quickly decided we wanted to go somewhere.  We talked to Matthew's parents in Utah and decided to each drive half way and meet in Vegas!  I'm so glad we did! It was a quick last minute plan but worth the trip.  

While trying to decide what to do while there we found out it was the opening weekend for Wicked to be playing.  We have been wanting to go see it together since we've been married but haven't had the chance yet.  Matthew has seen it once before we met.  However, tickets were expensive or in the nosebleeds so we weren't sure if it would work out.  

Well all of that didn't matter because I won 2 front row tickets in a raffle!! 

 My button says "I won the Wicked Lottery!"

We found out about this raffle and decided to take our chances. It was worth a shot. We had to show up 2 hours before the show, put your name in a box and if your name was called you won the chance to buy $25 front row seats. Well guess whose name they called?!  Yes, mine!!  Woo Hoo!  I couldn't believe it.  Me and about 10 other people won tickets! 

The show was so amazing.  My face I'm sure looked just like a kid in the candy store the whole time.  Especially from the front row!  We could see their faces and emotions and it was just so fabulous.  It also worked out perfectly that Matthew's parents were there to watch our kids.

Here we are in our front row seats

Such a fun and night!

Other than that we mostly hung out, swam and enjoyed our long weekend break.  It was slightly cooler here too so it was a nice little break from intense heat. 

 We also got some voucher to eat at one of the Casino's buffets. So we were able to walk around downtown and have lunch. This is inside the Venetian. 

 Matthew's sister Aubrey came too.  It was so fun to see her and catch up.  Austin and Aaron played so well together the whole time. They were really cute together!

 Austin was so sad to leave so no smiles from him.

Now we are back in the swing of school. Matthew has a short term of classes right now and then will start rotations in October.