We had always fancied going to Las Vegas so in August 2001 , I booked a trip to coincide with John's birthday on Feb 17th. It was VERY hard keeping it a secret and making sure I always got to check the post every day. But all went well and I made a laminated 'invite' signed by Father Christmas inviting us both to go to LV in the Feb. In our old house, we had an open fire and I poked it inside the coal bucket for John to find on Christmas morning. He was so excited especially as it was only weeks away. I had booked for a week at The Mirage which was spectacular as are all the hotels along the strip. We are not gamblers and set a maximum for the week - once we had spent that, that was it! Fortunately we did pretty well and actually came home with £100 more than we went with. On John's birthday we had breakfast at the amazing hotel breakfast buffet. We arrived at the restaurant at around 9.30 and were still there at 2pm. Had breakfast , talked til the cows come home and generally put the world to right. We talked about anything and everything and by the time we had stopped , it was lunchtime so we had an awesome rib roast dinner. We were both so comfortably 'filled' an afternoon nap was very much needed before we hit the lights in the early evening.John said it was one of his best birthdays ever. The following day I had booked a helicopter trip over the Grand Canyon with lunch included. We were gobsmacked when we waited for the taxi to arrive only to find it was a stetched limo just for the 2 of us! It was a very tiring week but well worth all the chasing round looking at all the hotels and experiencing all the entertainment.. The following year I managed to get a timeshare week in las Vegas and we saw Celine Dion at Caesars Palace - what a show - she was amazing. Love you and will miss experiences like this with you John. xxxxx