Viva Las Vegas!

Carter needed to attend the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas this year, and when we found screaming deals on the trip, I got to tag along! I want to give another HUGE thank you to my wonderful mom and step-dad for caring for our children so I could go. We had such a terrific time! We had not ever taken a "just the two of us" vacation before, but now I'm thinking we need to do that more often. Loved it!

Some of our favorite sites:




New York, New York is mind-blowing! It seriously recreates the NYC skyline, with a rollercoaster looping all around it. Inside it feels like you are walking through a downtown city neighborhood, or Sesame Street (sort of).



Classic Las Vegas.



I really liked this picture, showing the gorgeous Paris Casino and Eiffel Tower, until I realized I'd framed it so Carter is sprouting a hot air balloon out of the top of his head. Ooops!


I must have taken twenty pictures inside Cesar's Palace. The marble pillars and statues are breathtaking. Walking around in there is a great lesson in Greek Mythology. I tried to take pictures of lots of it, knowing Jayden is really into that, but I did have a hard time finding decently clad statues to show my 12 year old son. There was a cool animated statue show depicting the fall of Atlantis, with water and fire shooting all around.


Next I have to mention the conservatory in Belagio. It was an incredible botanical paradise in the midst of all the lights and smoke. We were there over Chinese New Year, so several casinos had really neat oriental-feeling themes. I walked several miles out of my way so I could come back here with my camera to get these pictures!



Everything in there was alive and growing, even the panda. I loved the water show in front of the Belagio, too, but didn't get any pictures.

This is just me being silly. I've always had a thing for Elvis. Carter is okay with it since he's dead. I saw a cool Elvis look-alike one day on the strip and was dying to take a picture with him until we realized they charge you money to pose for a picture. I didn't want it that bad. But then I found an Elvis M&M who posed with me for free. HeeHee.

Favorite memories of the trip:

* Carter took me to eat Korean food! We were the only non-native kimchi eaters there in this little restaurant down a semi-scary alley from the strip. That's always a good sign. The food was sooooo good!
*Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville... pirates on stilts, exploding volcanoes, a giant blender big enough to swim in (no, Carter, I didn't take any pictures of the girl who swam in it) and their "Save the Ta-Ta's campaign." Hmmm.
*Wandering around the casino in the Tropicana like two oafs from Idaho looking for a penny slot machine that took pennies. There weren't any, so we bagged the gambling idea.
*A very confused bartender holding two Shirley Temples...
*Stepping completely out of "Mommy mode" and coming back so refreshed.
*Being "wined and dined" by Hills Science Diet in the penthouse of Mandalay Bay... They have a very exclusive, extremely fancy appreciation party for a bunch of their biggest clients. That might not include us normally, but we KNOW people! A friend from vet school works for them now and got us invited. So we tried to act sophisticated as we perused tables of completely unrecognizable gourmet delicacies and marveled at how the other half live.
Here we are with Scott Carter and Zach and Lisa Bruneel, also great friends from vet school.


This is the view from at least 50 stories up, on the balcony at that party.



The conference presented Foreigner in concert! It was a good old fashioned classic rock, let your hair down and relive the eighties concert. We were a little more in our element here, and we had a great time!


The best memory of all was a having a four-day-long date with my husband and finding that we still have a really good time together. Love you, Carter!

2009 Family Pics

I LOVE having photographers in the family! Carter's sister Lynette took family pictures for us this Fall, which I just loved. I have a link to her photography blog if you want to learn more about her work. So I made a slideshow to share some of my favorites...

No family blog would be complete without the yearly shots from the pumpkin patch and our adorable trick-or-treaters.
Kyler and Shaylie had a ball in the haybail maze, along with their friends from preschool.


Brennan didn't love the maze as much. He couldn't keep up with the bigger kids and soon I heard him calling, "Mom! I lost!"

All of us on the hayride. We had a terrific time. It was really windy, as you can see, so no cracks about the crazy hair!

Bubba's perfect pumpkin.

As I was paying for the pumpkins at the end of the day, I looked down and noticed Brennan sampling one of the Indian corn cobs from the pretty decorations. I don't think it was as yummy as he'd hoped.

Brennan as "SpiderCan." (That's what he called himself. He talks really well, but for some reason he got mixed up when I sang him the song...you know - Spiderman, Spiderman, Does whatever a spider can!")



Shaylie, working the Hula,Hula..



My adorable werewolf, Kyler. He was quite offended when someone said he was a cool lion. "Didn't he notice my teeth?" he asked.



Makenna, too sweet to be a mean witch.



Jayden as Legolas. I finally gave in and let Carter show him the Lord of the Rings movies this year, and Jayden is hooked, just like his dad. From this angle you can't see his cool quiver and arrows. Notice the pointy ears, too. Thanks, Oscar, for letting Jayden borrow your stuff.



And finally, Carter and I went to a Halloween party as Miss America and Runner Up. I didn't get a great picture, but it was pretty funny. See the mascarra dripping down Carter's face?

The Great Sugar Caper

The pictures say it all...

Election Day!

Here is your friendly reminder that today is Election Day! I figured all you Google Reader people might at least get this in time to go vote. Polls are open until 8pm.
In our town we are voting on a new mayor, two city council seats, and an important bond issue for a new jail. In these small, in-between elections every vote really counts! I hope we will all exercise this precious right.

Happy Voting!

Still Alive

I am so far behind in blogging the events of our lives. But I had a minute this evening and I thought just for fun I'd post a random bunch of fun pictures of our crew just to show that we are still alive. I'll get caught up eventually. It's on my list. But meanwhile, these are the faces that make my world go round...













Darth Jayden

Goin' On a Bear Hunt!

I'm not s-s-s-scared!

Carter was excited to draw a bear tag in a cool area this year. He had offers to go out with several guys he knows who run bear dogs as a hobby. He invited me to go along (or did I ask if I could come?) Anyway, what a neat experience! This is how it works...When we reach the hunting area, they bring their dogs up to ride on the top of the truck. They are belted in nice and safe. Then they drive slowly down the road until the dogs catch bear scent and start barking. They release one dog to take off and see if it's a good trail. If it's not, the dog comes back, but if it takes off howling, they release the pack. They all crash through the forest following the bear - sometimes for miles, until the bear finally climbs a tree. The dogs keep it treed by making the loudest racket you've ever heard. We follow the GPS radar things in their collars (and the noise). When we arrived we took lots of pictures and watched the bear a while. It wasn't huge, but it was beautiful, and it's sure something you don't get to see everyday. It was fun watching the dogs work, too. You could tell they just lived for this. They were amazing! Carter went out the next week again and took the Teachers Quorum for an activity, and Jayden got to tag along on that trip. Carter had no intentions of actually shooting a bear (unless they treed a monster, I suppose) but we had some neat adventures just watching them.

4th of July

Before I change the patriotic background I suppose I ought to blog our holiday. Now, I'm sure that my little travel log of our 4th of July weekend can't possibly be terribly interesting to most of the world, especially a month after the fact. But for the sake of our own memories I'm blogging it.

Carter had July 3rd off work (Yipee!) so we decided to check out Eagle Island State Park. We'd never been there before, but we'd heard it was a nice place to play and swim. We loved it! There was a big playset, a waterslide although we didn't go on it, lots of grass and trees, and a nice beachy area along the river. It is not the Caribbean, but if you lay in the sand and close your eyes you can pretend.


These are the kinds of moments I hope they remember...








So, with sun and sand - and lots of junkfood, we had one terrific day!

On Saturday, the 4th of July we decided we'd head over to Melba for the festivities. This was a first for us, and I think we will make it our new tradition. Carter joked when I said I wanted to go to the parade in Melba that we'd see nothing but horses, tractors, and FFA floats. Well, we saw lots of horses, tractors, and FFA floats, and it was great. I guess I'm a small-town girl at heart, but I think this is what America is all about.





On this float rode veterans of WWII and Korea. Oh, the stories they could tell...

Now, it wasn't ALL farmers. There were also classic cars and pretty girls. At the end of the parade Jayden nudged me and pointed out Miss Idaho, who had just joined her family after riding in the parade. I tried to get him to ask her for a picture, but there was NO Way. Makenna and Shaylie really wanted a picture with a real, live beauty queen and she sweetly obliged. Sorry, I don't remember her name. Maybe Jayden does.



After the parade we enjoyed strolling around craft booths and games for the kids. We ran into several friends and even our cousins, the Breshears! The kids got to ride a tractor/train together.
That evening we had a BBQ with Grandma and Grandpa Robinson and we made homemade ice cream. Yum! We played with a few little fireworks and then we drove back to Melba to see the real show. The day reminded me how blessed we are to be members of our beloved family and this great nation.