the phantom date.

for christmas this year i was majorily surprised with 2 tickets to phantom of the opera at the venetian for saturday, january 7th!! i couldnt wait for the day as we had decided to make it a date with dinner before to really make it a date. originally i was going to be off that day so we could spend the day lounging around together and doing a few errands after my long 10 miler in the morning. then i my schedule got fuller and fuller with an open house in the morning and a hair conditioning in the afternoon. so the errands moved to sunday and the 10 miler became a super early 415a alarm.

the morning and afternoon seemed to fly by with an awesome 10 miler, successful open house, a lunch craving satisfied at jasons deli, i was falling asleep under the dryer at the hair salon. i knew a nap was going to be in order, just didnt realized it was that bad haha. so i curled up on the couch while richard was out with friends watching the football game.

we had planned to leave at 7p so we could make it down to the venetian to find somewhere to eat with plenty of time before the show. i had checked out a few places online and saw a few good places but wasnt sure was gonna dig them. hes more of a meat and potatoes guy, not so much the fancy food. i knew there would be somewhere no matter. we finally decided on the grand lux cafe and it was amazing! it had a wide selection, my meal was sooo good, and richard devoured/inhaled his. the cafe was right next to the theater so we didnt have to hurry.

delicious! and plenty for leftovers:)

the line really wasnt bad and i was getting really excited with all the people. we got into the theater pretty early and had fantastic seats, 7 rows from the front. i had seen phantom about 6 years ago in new york and richard had never seen it or anything like it. we werent allowed to take pictures in the theater, i tried to sneak one and this really mean lady yelled at me.

 the show was amazing!!! it was totally different then the new york show. there were fireworks and the chandelier came down on the crowd! i was super glad we werent sitting a few rows back haha. we headed home afterward, not before stopping at almost every sweet shop and bakery to find a delicious dessert for me to take home.

red velvet, one of my favorites!

it was a great night and we had so much fun talking together! we seem to be doing more grown up things lately, shows, new dinner places, group movie dates (thats this weekend), adventures on the strip for new years. i really dig it:)

the lion of a date.

living in las vegas we access to some pretty cool things throughout the year. concerts, award shows, rodeos, and cirque de soleli shows, sometimes they even offer local discounts! i had been wanting to see the lion king at mandalay bay since it arrived in vegas a few years ago, but something else always seemed to come up. plus tickets were at least $100/person which adds up pretty quickly.

source

i heard awhile back that they were doing 2-for-1 local tickets and that at the end of the year it was leaving las vegas forever. i missed mama mia, which was there before and was determined not to miss this one too. after my best friend tiffany went and raved about it i knew i had to figure out a way to fit it in. i thought i would have to convince richard quite a bit harder to go, but he was in as soon as i suggested it. we started looking at the beginning of november for a good weekend and with all the holidays and things going on it was going to be a tight squeeze. we finally decided on sunday the 20th.

we also decided to make it a date night, you know, dinner and a show. we made sure to run all our errands saturday and my long run early in the morning sunday so we could have plenty of time to relax sunday day till the show. we got a little dressed up to make it really fun and decided to try carrabas for the first time. last summer when we visited his aunt and uncle they raved about carrabas the whole time we were there. it was time to finally try it! we went a little early, about 545p because we weren't sure what the wait would be. turns out we walked right in and sat down.

dinner was really good as we were both starving! we had amazing conversations. very grown up and lots of good things about what the future might hold (i can't give away all the good stuff:) ). soon it was off to mandalay bay for the show! I had picked up the tickets the day before so it was easy to go right to the theatre. there were tons of people milling around waiting to be let in to sit. we checked out the souvenir store then it was time to find our seats.

time to celebrate the circle of life!

the show didn't actually start till 815p because so many people were late. once it started it was amazing start to finish! it had all the great things from the movie and then some. the animals were fantastic and the music was so good. it was a little different from the movie, for example rafiki was a woman and it felt a lot more african savannah rather than disney. timon and pumba in fact were really the only 2 characters that looked like the movie. but it was soooo good! I highly recommend it to anyone that loves the movie:)

we made home quite a bit later than I thought we would, but that's ok. the show, dinner, and all the conversation was completely worth it. we had an amazing night and a very different date night for us. it's fun to shake it up sometimes:) hakuna matata!

the super pretty tree in mandalay bay.