After a day spent exploring in the wonderful MGM Grand, Brother, Kristin, Boyfriend and I, decided to take our extreme love of crime shows to the next level and enjoy our very own CSI Experience. However, despite the adventure being based around the television crime show CSI, we took it upon ourselves to instead stick with our personal favourite and solve crimes NCIS style.

Now, anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting my big brother, would already be aware of his seriousness towards this mission. Apparently, although it was simply a fun game that we had of course paid for, it was now our duty to save the world.

Anyone who has ever watched NCIS, would also know that within seconds of arriving, he had already appointed himself to be DiNozzo. He would be Tony DiNozzo, Boyfriend would be McGee, Kristin would be Kate and I would be Abby; all chosen specifically, by none other than my big brother of course.

To be quite honest though, the character suited him perfectly.

As to be expected, given the fact that we were all over the age of twenty-one, within about fifteen minutes of our mission beginning, both McGee and Kate had lost almost all enthusiasm and Miss Abby was not far behind them. It would seem that the CSI Experience was not quite as in depth as we had all hoped, but was designed with a more younger generation in mind.

Mr. Tony DiNozzo however, was in his element, still going strong in an attempt to save the world. He continued to jot down clues, check and then double check suspects, read through text messages the victim had received on the night of her death, match tire marks to the vehicle leaving the crime scene, complete chemical testing to see just which drugs were left on the scene and in turn, come up with the suspect that he believed to have committed the crime.

Like always, he was 100% correct.

After putting our answers into the computer however, he then went on to answer the questions to each of the other three crime scene’s, without having ever seen them. Questions which believe it or not, he actually managed to get correct, every single time.

So although McGee, Kate and Abby may not have had the most thrilling time, at the very least, Mr. DiNozzo came out with yet another ego boost. After all, he was the one who managed to save the world.

Even before we left for our big American adventure, one of the very first things on the top of my Vegas to-do list was to follow my love for chocolate across the country and visit M&M’s World.

Today I did exactly that, with a very, very big smile on my face and let me just say, never in my whole entire life have I seen a chocolate shop quite this extravagent. Then again though, given that we were in Las Vegas, I probably should have known better.

There were four floors in total, each of which had been filled from top to bottom with delicious M&M’s chocolates and endless M&M’s merchandise. Ladies clothes, mens clothes, baby clothes, souvenirs, stuffed toys, chocolate dispensers; you name it, they had it. My personal favourite however, was a wall filled entirely of M&M’s chocolates. A wall filled with chocolates in more colours than the rainbow and more flavours than I ever knew existed.

It was official, I never wanted to leave.

Just in case that wasn’t impressive enough though, on yet another floor, you then had the option of personalising your very own M&M’s chocolate. It was nothing short of amazing.

Needless to say, I was of course under strict instructions from my five chocolate loving bestfriends back at home, to return with the prettiest coloured chocolates that I could get my hands on. So after searching for a few moments and toying with the idea of creating my own, I soon found a pre-made box with the exact colours that I had wanted; dark purple, lilac, baby pink, baby blue and turquoise. All of their favourites, all the way from Vegas.

Luckily for my girls, I was unable to eat the chocolates myself and so they managed to survive the trip home. Although, just between you and me, if there had have been even the slightest chance that I could’ve eaten them, there is no way in the world that they would have made the distance.

With that being said though, I was still more than happy to wander those four floors of heaven and not eat a thing. So happy in fact, that I am more than cetain I will be returning to this little slice of chocolate heaven at least three more times before we leave. After all, I haven’t quite memorised the endless colours of their chocolate rainbow just yet.

This morning at around 8:00am, a maxi taxi arrived at our house ready to take us, as well as our one hundred and one suitcases to the airport. This morning, for possibly the first time in my life, I was actually on time.

Obviously though, the pilot must not have got the message about me being on time for once, because he decided to delay our flight from Brisbane to Sydney for a little over three hours. So just in case over twenty-four hours of travelling wasn’t quite enough, we now had an extra three hours on top of that before we could even leave.

As you can imagine, I was not a happy camper.

After walking up and down the airport at least five times and going in to every single store at least double that, the pilot was finally ready to leave and we were finally able to begin our journey.

After a few extra hours spent on the first of many planes, we had finally arrived at stop number one; Sydney and given that we had just spent hours upon hours waiting at the Brisbane airport, a change in scenery was of course a welcoming sight. A sight that was made even more welcoming by the big, beautiful shops and the countless duty free stalls that filled the walk ways.

Unfortunately though, compliments of the very same pilot who had delayed our first flight, it was now touch and go as to whether or not we would make our connecting flight, which made it more than a little bit difficult for me to fit in some last minute shopping. So with Brother and Kristin leaving from the front of the pack, Dadda not far behind them, Boyfriend almost pushing me to go faster, while doing everything in his power to stop my eyes from wandering to the shops nearby and Mumma at the back of the pack struggling to make the distance, I would say that we definately set a new world record for speed walking through that Sydney airport.

It was definately an experience to say the least.

Luckily for all of us, we managed to make it onto our connecting flight with only a few minutes to spare. Not so lucky for me however, the shelves and shelves of beautiful perfume that I had left behind, was now just a distant memory.

Next up we had a ten hour flight to Honolulu and considering I had just flown a little over an hour and a half to get from Brisbane to Sydney and the novelty had already well and truly worn off, I was not at all looking forward to it. Luckily though, I had my boy with me, who as well as being amazing company, just happened to be a seasonal flyer.

The original seat we were given was next to a lovely old couple. A lovely old couple who within the first five minutes, did nothing but talk up a storm. Now don’t get me wrong, I love friendly people, especially friendly old people, but when it comes to a ten hour flight, they aren’t exactly a first choice of travelling companions. So with that being said, the very second we were in the air and the seat belt sign was turned off, we snuck our way into the back row; a row which was originally completely empty, before we had of course come along and set up camp.

It was by far our best decision yet.

There I was, laying comfortably across all four of the tiny seats with my head resting on Boyfriends lap, snoring my little head off for what seemed to be most of the way there. I of course awoke a few times to eat my pre-packed Red Rooster chicken and salad for dinner, brush my teeth and get changed into my bed socks, but aside from that, we both passed the time with our eyes closed, drifting off into the land of dreams.

Eventually though, enough time had passed and we had arrived at stop number two; the Honolulu airport. Although it wasn’t our final destination, given that over the past ten hours there was absolutely no food on the plane that I was able to eat, forcing me to live off of my pre-packed meals and snacks, the thought of an actual meal by this stage was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Needless to say, as soon as we stepped off that plane, I of course found my way to the nearest food court, which to my surprise sold roast chickens and salad. It was almost too good to be true.

After ordering my meal and opening my take away container, I soon found out that my suspicions were correct; it was indeed far too good to be true. The roast chicken that I had ordered was not exactly average sized piece of chicken that I was expecting, but was instead a whole entire bird, similar to the size of a full grown turkey. It was hands down, the biggest piece of chicken that I had ever seen.

Now normally, I wouldn’t be complaining, except for the fact that it tasted a lot like oil and absolutely nothing like the chickens we have back at home. I’m not sure what it was exactly, but going by it’s sheer size alone, it definately wasn’t chicken. It was however, absolutely huge.

So just like that, the excitement that I had previously held towards my lovely chicken and salad, had almost instantaneously disappeared and just like that, my pre-packed snacks were looking better by the second.

About another hour had passed and it was again time to board our third and final plane. Just seven more hours to go and we would finally be in Las Vegas.

Again, my seasonal traveller of a boyfriend managed to steal us some better seats than we had originally started with, along with a few more pillows and a few more blankets and so we were officially good to go. Things were of course still looking a little disappointing on the food front, but we would be arriving in Vegas soon enough and I could have all the food my little belly desired.

Slowly but surely, seven hours in the air had soon passed and before we knew it we were flying over the Las Vegas strip. After over twenty-four hours of travelling, we were finally flying over some of the biggest most beautiful buildings that I had ever seen, in a city that took the term city lights to a whole new level. If anything was going to make over twenty-four hours of travelling without any decent food worthwhile, this was it.

Walking off that third and final plane and knowing that we were finally in Vegas, was one of the greatest feelings in the world and knowing that we had two weeks to spend in a city that never sleeps, was something I couldn’t even begin to describe. Just in case all of that wasn’t enough though, just as we arrived, right there in the middle of the airport sat the biggest most beautiful poker machines that I had ever seen, just calling out our names.

It was then in that exact moment, that I knew with absolute certainty; we were in for the trip of a lifetime.

After today, I think I managed to set a new world record; about one million hours of packing and not one single tantrum and for me, that was quite an achievement.

For a girl who can’t seem to pack for even one single night without turning into a frustrated, cranky little monster, the thought of packing for three whole weeks was nothing short of a nightmare.

Today though, I surprised myself.

Not only did I manage to pack my entire suitcase without having even a single tantrum, but I somehow managed to leave a few of my clothes still in my wardrobe. The girl who always packed everything, had finally left a few things behind and for possibly the first time ever, she was even able to fit her pillow in the top of her suitcase and still zip it up.

It was nothing short of a miracle.

After today, it would seem that maybe this little twenty-one year old girl, really was growing up after all. Which was probably just as well, considering she still had twice the amount of luggage that a normal person would have packed.

When you think of the term ‘Fashion Parade’ you almost instinctively imagine pretty girls, pretty clothes and a runway performance like no other, or at least that’s what Mumma and I had in mind on our way to a fashion parade fundraiser this morning.

As it turns out however, we had unknowingly signed ourselves up for something completely different.

The pretty girls, the pretty clothes and the runway performance had been replaced by lovely old ladies, with clothes that were best suited for those very same lovely old ladies and a runway performance indeed like no other. It would seem that I had stepped into a fashion parade that was about fifty years ahead of my time.

The fashion side of things however, was not even close to the worst of it. It was around the time that I heard the words sing-a-long that I knew I was in trouble. Before I knew it, a room full of lovely old ladies were mid chorus and I was again left wondering, just what it was that I had gotten myself into.

Cadillacs and cataracts, and hearing aids and glasses.
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses.
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings.
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak,
When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don’t feel so bad.

Sitting there, praying for it to stop, I was now certain that this was far from the fashion parade Mumma and I had in mind. So far off in fact, that I had never before witnessed anything at all quite like it.

Needless to say, although the event was organised for a wonderful cause, a cause that I was more than happy to donate too, spending my Saturday morning listening to a room full of lovely old ladies sing their version of My Favourite Things was not quite what I had in mind for the day.

Earlier last year, while I was going through my Nicholas Sparks stage, one afternoon my wonderful big brother went to a little old second hand book store and returned home with a present; ‘The Lucky One’.

At the time, my stud of a boyfriend was still on the other side of the world, so anything that would help make the weeks pass by, be it even just a little quicker, was always appreciated and like most of the Nicholas Sparks books that I had read, it didn’t take long before I was hooked. Eventually though, like all books, sadly it came to an end and like all good books, I was left wishing that it hadn’t.

Eventually though, a few months had passed and by this stage my boyfriend was home again. Upon his return, whilst telling him every little detail of my life that he’d missed while he was gone, I of course told him about the wonderful book that I had read earlier that year and about how it helped me pass the time. Aside from a brief conversation with him about the basic story line though, I hadn’t thought about that book in quite some time.

That was, until I saw the title of that very same wonderful Nicholas Sparks book on the cover of a life size movie poster, right there in front of me in the middle of the shopping centre. It appeared that the ‘The Lucky One’ had been made into a movie; a movie that would be out in cinemas in just a few short months.

I was completely over the moon.

Boyfriend had obviously noticed my excitement towards the movie on the poster, because I was able to talk him into taking me to the very first screening, without any persuasion at all. That wasn’t the best of it though, it wasn’t even close. The best part was, that it wasn’t just any screening we would be going to, we were going to a Chicks at the Flicks screening.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to go to a Chicks at the Flicks event, just to get one of those little bags full of surprises and finally see what all of the fuss is about. Tonight, compliments of my lovely Boyfriend, I was able to do just that. Tonight I was going to see a movie that was based on one of my favourite Nicholas Sparks books, with my favourite boy at a real life Chicks at the Flicks event; something I had been waiting to do forever.

Now, given that the word Chicks is the first word in the title of the event, I was of course assuming that there would be quite a few more girls than there would be boys and considering Zac Efron was the lead actor, I knew there was a fairly good chance of my assumption being correct. What I didn’t assume however, was that there would be no boys at all.

Whilst looking through the little bag of surprises I had been waiting a lifetime for and realising that it was not actually a sample bag filled with lollies, chocolates and dreams, but was more of a ‘beauty products, pads and tampons waste of money’ kind of deal, I had yet another realisation.

Looking around a crowded cinema tonight, completely full of females, I could see just two males. Just two males who were kind enough, selfless enough and brave enough to take their wife and their girlfriend to an event such as this.

One of which was an adorable elderly man who after a lifetime with his beautiful wife was still holding her hand, smiling contently and the other was my amazing boyfriend.

It was then, after seeing that beautiful elderly couple, that a smile spread across my entire face. It was then that I realised yet again, just how lucky I truly was.

If what I saw tonight in that crowded room full of people, before the movie had even began, was in any way an indication of what my future may hold, then I really was the luckiest girl in the world. The luckiest girl in the world who was going to be very, very happy for a very, very long time.

Sitting there in that cinema tonight, seeing that adorable elderly couple who were still so obviously in love, somehow made me more sure of everything I had already known. That boy who I had sitting beside me, just happened to be the very same boy who I imagined myself sitting with, sixty years from now. A boy who could quite easily be my eighty-two year old loving husband someday, a boy who even after a lifetime together, I am certain would still sit there holding my hand with a smile spread across his beautiful face. A boy who would not only make me the luckiest girl in the world, but also the happiest.

So although Nicholas Sparks may have written a number of famous love stories, stories that I love nonetheless, after tonight, as far as I was concerned, it was the love story that I was still busy writing that made me the luckiest of them all.

After tonight I would say that it’s official; next time we organise to have a girls night out, given the way that we tend to act whenever we’re all out together, perhaps a crowded restaurant isn’t the best place for all of us to catch up. In fact, to be perfectly honest, after tonight I don’t think we should really be allowed out in public together at all, ever.

For as far back as I can remember, having all five of us in the same room together was always a recipe for trouble and considering that it had been months since we had last seen each other, I’m not quite sure why I expected things to be any different. I do know however, that the people sitting across from us were most certainly regretting their decision to have their romantic dinner date at Sizzler or at the very least, were wishing they had chosen a table on the other side of the room. Chances are though; regardless of where they had sat in the restaurant, they would have still been able to hear us all laughing.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we weren’t at all misbehaving and we were of course still using our manners, it’s just the topics of conversation we had chosen for the evening were perhaps not the usual dinner date discussions; not for public dinner dates at least. For us though, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

Despite being one member of our wolf pack down, we still found ourselves in fits of laughter for what seemed to be the entire evening. At one stage, I think we were all laughing so hard that we completely forgot we were in the middle of a crowded restaurant; a restaurant where the other guests that were dining, probably didn’t pay $30 just to hear our inappropriate conversations and endless laughter.

In our defence though, I think that’s the sign of having real, true friends.

When you can be completely yourself around each other, flaws and all, regardless of where you are.

When you can laugh at yourselves as well as each other, without being even the slightest bit offended.

When you don’t have to think about what you say before you say it, because regardless of what comes out of your mouth, you know that you won’t be judged.

When the people around you know every single one of your dirty little secrets and yet they still love you just the same.

When you’re having such a good time with each other that the rest of the world cease to matter and for that one brief moment, time almost stands still.

That’s when you know you have real, true friends.

When regardless of where life may take you, you know that these people will always, always be there. To laugh with you, to cry with you, to smile with you and to make your life everything that you imagined it would be.

Tonight I was lucky enough to spend the night with four out of those five people and although one of them may have been missing from the evening, she was still there with us in spirit. So despite what the other people in the restaurant may have walked away thinking, I walked away with a smile on my face, counting my blessings and thanking my angels for those five beautiful people that I am lucky enough to call my best friends.

I guess you could say that as far as dinner dates go, this was definately a favourite.

About once every month or so, Mumma and I make our way into Wickham Terrace in the City for an appointment for my skin and as luck would have it, today just happened to be that day of the month.

Like always, we arrived a little early so that we could have lunch at the cute little cafe downstairs before we needed to be up at my appointment and like always, I ordered chicken and salad. Chicken, lettuce, carrot, tomato, beetroot and cucumber to be exact; no pepper thanks and no salt, I have my own.

Yes, I carry my own salt around with me, Himalayan Rock Salt to be exact and yes, when I pull a random salt shaker out of my handbag in the middle of a cafe or a restaurant, more often than not people do tend to laugh. I think I’ve become accustomed to the giggles and the stares by now though, probably because I’ve been taking it with me everywhere I go for the past year. It’s like my mobile or my purse, I almost feel lost if I ever leave the house without it. Sad really, I know, but before you judge you should probably try it for yourself, I promise you that you won’t be disappointed.

Now, given the amount of times that I eat chicken and salad in any given week, I have come to know the exact taste of everything on my plate. On this particular day though, upon receiving my beautiful plate of salad, I noticed that the chicken tasted a little funny. It was still a meat-like flavour, but it seemed to have a little bit of a fishy taste to it and as much as I hate to say it, a bit of a fishy smell too.

I couldn’t quite work it out at first, but after a few mouthfulls I finally put my finger on what it was; the chicken on my plate was definately not chicken. Obviously, the girl working in the salad section had zero common sense, as it appears she must have used the same tongs for my chicken as she had for the tuna, casually leaving a few pieces of tuna on my plate in the process. However, considering I cannot stand the smell of tuna let alone the taste, she had just officially ruined my lunch.

After spitting out my most recent mouthful, I of course returned my half eaten plate of salad and waited for a fresh one to be made. Sure enough, almost as quickly as I had returned it, a new plate of meat and salad appeared on the table in front of me.

Now, I say meat and salad and not chicken and salad, because despite asking for a fresh plate to be made, the second plate had exactly the same problem. So much so, that I was starting to think perhaps they were just playing tricks on me.

Either the girl behind the counter really had no common sense after all and had done exactly the same thing she had the first time that she put the meat out or the chicken that they were selling was a hybrid; half chicken and half tuna, because that was definately not any kind of chicken that I had ever eaten before.

Either way though, considering it would have been the second time that I had complained, I decided it would be rude to send it back again. As well as that, they had just officially put me off both chicken and tuna for quite some time. So instead of complaining, I left my plate on the table, politely said thank you and walked away still hungry, compliments of the lovely lady who decided to ruin my day.

Let’s just say that next month, I won’t be ordering their hybrid chicken.

Today is Easter, which means this morning the Easter Bunny came and although I wasn’t able to eat the chocolate that he left, I was still just as excited as what you would expect a five year old to be.

Like every year, my beautiful little Easter Bunny had been and gone by the time I woke up and like always she had left my chocolate out on the kitchen bench for me to find. This year though, instead of eggs, she had left the cutest little Easter chicks that I had ever seen. They were called Samantha Chicks and they were absolutely adorable. So adorable in fact that I was almost pleased I couldn’t eat them, because their little faces were just far too cute to chomp on.

After finding my easter presents and falling completely in love with my Samantha Chicks, I decided that it was time to return the favour. Boyfriend had stayed over that night and was still fast asleep, so I did what any loving girlfriend would do and I left him an easter egg trail.

Creme Eggs are his favourite and given that they often only come out at Easter time, I of course bought him a whole entire carton. There were forty-eight eggs in total, about thirty of which I spread out along the ground, starting from my bedroom door and going all the way into the playroom where he would find the rest of his eggs, it was an Easter masterpiece.

Although he obviously had a feeling it wasn’t actually the Easter Bunny that left the trail and going by the smile on my face, I would say that I probably gave it away within the first five seconds, he was still extremely impressed. So impressed in fact, that not only did I get a million and one hugs and kisses, but later that night he took me to the North Lakes Fair just so that he could win me an Easter teddy.

Mumma came with us of course and we met up with my very beautiful and very pregnant bestfriend and her Fiance.

Now, those of you who already know me, would know that I like Carnivals even more than I like chocolate, and that is saying a lot. So although it was Easter, a night at the Fair was still ten times more exciting than any easter egg hunt could have been.

Mind you, this particular Fair wasn’t exactly designed with people of our age in mind. Considering it was a little bit on the smaller side, I would have guessed that the target audience was more than likely ages ten and under. I didn’t overly mind though, at the end of the day it was still Easter, I was out at a Carnival with three of my favourites and I could rub my beautiful bestfriend’s baby belly as much as I wanted; what more could a girl want?

 Just in case that wasn’t enough though, just to top it all off and make it an absolutely perfect night, my stud of a boyfriend ended up winning me my Easter teddy after all. He may not have been a teddy as such, but he was big and he was beautiful and I loved him from the very second he fell into my arms.

Dear World, I’d like you to meet Flip; the newest and fattest member of my beautiful penguin family.