What happens in Vegas

We spent the weekend in Vegas with Aaron's parents and siblings (all but one) to enjoy upscale living at a really awesome timeshare. It was a whirlwind of a trip but tons of fun. We left the 4 older kids with friends and jumped on the plane.

Highlights of the trip:

• leaving from Bellingham Airport, so close to the house was awesome!
• Incredibly nice apartment/hotel/room
• Family
• Hoover Dam
• Geocaching
• Spending time with Aaron
• Sleeping in
• Steaks

Darren loved turning the water on and off all weekend.

Lake Mead is in the background. We didn't find one of the caches that brought us to this place but the view made it totally worth it.

Driving to Hoover Dam met us with the view when we turned the corner. I laughed when Aaron and his Dad both reacted with a robust "WOW! Look at that!" This bridge is being built and is pretty incredible to see. The new road will bypass the Dam and allow traffic to move more smoothly.

Inside the Dam. Enough electricity is being made behind us to light 1 million homes (and I am pretty sure that Megatron was being held in the next room).

My Dam boys. Come on, you knew it was coming. The Dam tour was awesome and even the dam tour guide made jokes about the dam elevator, the dam stairs and even the dam camera policy! I could go on and on with a bunch of dam jokes but I don't want to bore you any more.

I would post a picture of the group but you know what they say, "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". That is the only explanation of my camera not making it back. It is on it's way (thank you Budget and Asian lady and Fed Ex). We had put most of the pics on the laptop before we left and that is why I even have any--in case you were wondering.

Next trip to look forward to is 10 days in SJ! Just over a month away we are pretty excited.

So close I could almost smell it, but then...

We have had some pretty nice weather lately. I have really been looking forward to spring. Lots of sunshine, hardly any rain and even some warmth! Last week we had days in the 50's and it felt awesome. A few daffodils in my yard have even sprung out of the ground. I'd take a picture but the only thing around tonight is snow. Yup, 5-6 inches of it. It was raining pretty good today and then it started snowing, the temperature dropped and the snow kept falling.

Poor Justin had to deliver papers this afternoon. Luckily he had an early start since the kids got out of school early today. He was cold and tired when he got home but really likes earning the money.


Alex and Amanda spent ALL afternoon outside. I love how they love to play in the snow. Brittany did join them post picture. I am pretty confident that there will be at least a 2 hour delay and probably yet another snow day tomorrow. Oh well, we love going to school til the end of June! (That makes 4 days we have to make up so far- 3 snow and 1 flood). Oh, and the white thing in AJ's mouth? Snow.

10 years in the making...

I have to confess that the memory card to the camera was found a week ago. I had put it in the Wii so Amanda could choose a picture and doodle. When she asked if she could doodle I realized the card was probalby still there. She ran down to check and came up and confirmed that indeed, the memory card was in the Wii. Her comment, "I didn't know that was one of the fairies hiding spots!" So, here we go again.


10 years ago we bought a card to collect the state coins. When Aaron was in Montana last month he received the last one of the collection. Hard to believe we got it 10 years ago, before we left Utah! Much has happened since then and most of it good.

This will be a short post but wanted to include this pic of Amanda and her friend Jared. They are good buddies and love to play. This particular day they wanted to have a picnic downstairs so I let them set it all up. They brought their lunch downstairs and voila, here you go. Lots of imagination and fun when they get together.