What Happens In Vegas...

Gets posted to my BLOG............................

So last weekend we went to Vegas with my parents. My former boss at Beneficial has a vacation home down there and she graciously let us stay there. I was a little worried about the weather because the forecast was showing temps in the 111 degree range. My worries did not let me down, it was HOT! Check out my van thermostat:


Road trips are so different from when I was a kid. These days, everybody has some sort of electronic device to watch or listen to. I didn't have anything to watch so I just took pictures of everybody else.




You know what's sort of funny? The whole way to Vegas I kept telling the boys how much fun they were going to have swimming in the pool...we get to the house and the pool was malfunctioning and the water was nice and green from all sorts of gooey stuff! That's a big ol' DISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS on the kids!


The main reason we went to Vegas was to see my Aunt and Uncle who live there. My Aunt had her leg amputated about 5 weeks ago so we went to say "hi". I was so proud of my kids, they didn't ogle or stare at her bandaged leg at all, I thought for sure we were going to have some awkward conversations (like the time Carson asked the checkout guy at Costco what color his skin was...) but it never happened. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of my relatives so just think of my dad and add a few years and that's what my Uncle looks like.

After we did the family thing we ventured to Vegas Boulevard and went to Mandalay Bay. They have a Shark Reef there that was pretty entertaining. The kids absolutely LOVED it. I liked it too except staring into all the water filled tanks made me so motion sick--am I getting old or what??!


The kids loved touching the sting rays!



Here's a picture just for Natalie: I was trying to get a good picture of the jellyfish. It looked harmless until the flash caught the nasty greasy handprint of an unknown visitor. After I dry heaved a little, I remember Natalie hitting my sliding glass door, almost breaking her nose. We were so concerned for her nose but she just wanted somebody to go wipe the greasy forehead mark off the glass! Good times!!


Here is a jellyfish picture minus the grease:


Saturday night we went to a buffet dinner at one of the Casinos. Parker was lovin' the soft serve ice cream!


My Uncle bought the boys stuffed animal dogs from the Casino. Of course, the dog's name was lucky and Parker hasn't let this dog out of his sight since the second he received it. Awwww, cute.


After dinner we went to see the flower displays at the Bellagio. Don't mind the shiny face, even though it was almost 10pm it was still 105 degrees!


We watched the water show at the Bellagio--twice. That was about all we could stand of the heat so that ended our experience on Las Vegas Boulevard!




The ride home was pretty uneventful. Here's one last photo of Parker with his Lucky dog. What a nut!

Camping!!

Thursday night we prepared ourselves to go camping with our good friends, Ryan and Natalie Jones. I spent a good chunk of Thursday carefully preparing and packing, making lists and checking them thrice. We left my house 2 hours later than I wanted to, 9:00pm. We exited in Springville to head up the canyon and I casually said to Sam: Did you grab the sleeping bags? Sam quickly replied: No, I did not.

An hour later, Curtis and Shandy hooked us up with sleeping bags and I think we gave Curtis a big laugh. I felt kinda dumb until he admitted that he and Shandy went camping one time and forgot sleeping bags AND their tent. Phew, I guess it runs in the family....wait, that isn't a good thing....crap.

After our stressful Thursday night, the rest of the weekend was so much fun. Lucky for you (I hope) I had my camera handy!

Why can't Carson just eat pudding and not get it all over his face? Well, it goes back to those genetics...I remember Curtis eating a chocolate ice cream cone and getting ice cream all over his forehead and the backs of his ears! At least we know what Carson will look like with a goatee!


This would have been precious, but then Parker had to shove his finger to his nose...


Ryan and Natalie's daughter is Ivy. Here she is with Parker. Parker is going to hate my guts (and I won't blame him) when he is a teenager and sees this picture.


Recipe for getting a toddler to take a nap while camping: Stay up really late, run around in the hot sun, play in the creek for a few hours, lay in hammock with a wet shirt over face. SUCCESS


Of course, Phase 10 is a great game to play while camping. Sam has reason to look upset here. That is a crappy hand...where are the other 4 cards Sam-I-Am?


Here is a cute picture of Carson and I. Well, "cute" is relative. I stink and I have a sweaty face and Carson has apparently been eating dirt. I felt so bad, Carson has Hay Fever, a recent discovery, and his allergies were awful the whole weekend. You know those cute little cotton pieces that float around in the Spring? Those are evil specs that cause Carson to have swollen itchy eyes and a stuffy nose that makes it impossible to breathe normal. Benadryl didn't help either so if anybody has a suggestion I'm all ears!


One morning a really pretty black and white butterfly flew into our camp. Carson casually sat next to it and pretty soon he had charmed the butterfly onto his hand. Of course, he breathlessly said "This is the best day of my life!!" I called him the Butterfly Whisperer the rest of the day.




Since we weren't very high in the mountains, we got hot. In the valley the temps were in the upper 90's. EVERYBODY should know by now that I hate being hot. I was starting to feel the crankiness monitor rising when somebody suggested we go check out the creek that ran next to our campground. It proved to be a winning suggestion! We brought our camping chairs into the creek and hung out here during the hottest part of both days. Brilliant!! The first picture is hysterical because Sam snapped the picture right as Parker fell off a rock and soaked himself!




Parker spent most of his time finding rocks underwater, then throwing them back into the creek and making big splashes. He literally did this for a couple hours!


Whose legs are these?


Here is Parker waking up on Sunday morning. Isn't he a cutie? He loved sleeping in the tent! I think he felt pretty grown up. Sam slept in there as well, he has already put his sleeping bag away by the time this picture was taken. I felt the need to explain that because I knew somebody was going to think I let my 2 year old sleep by himself...although the thought did cross my mind....


So that was camping. It was so much fun, I want to do it again soon with a larger group of people from my neighborhood. I would also like to find a campground that is higher up in the Uintas because, again, this place was a little warm!

Today was also Father's Day. Happy Father's day ya'll! We had the yummiest dinner at my parents house...Filet Mignon! My dad was a tiny bit bitter because he had to grill his own Father's Day dinner. Trust me dad, you'd hate for me to try it and ruin your nice meat!



Sam got some stylin' shirts and some sweet "thongs" as my dad calls them, even though we keep reminding him that the kids these days call them "flip flops".



Well, now you've had your 20 minutes of reading for the day, Laura Bush is proud of you. I'm so tired and I'm going to sleep good in my own bed tonight! Don't let the bed bugs bite.......................

Swim Lessons

Carson had his first swimming lesson today. All morning he kept saying "Mom, I REALLY wish you didn't sign me up for lessons!" I just kept telling him to chill out and relax because he was going to have so much fun. Sure enough, he absolutely loved the swimming lesson!
He is 2nd from the left in this picture. Check out his form!! What a pro...



Parker was TICKED that he couldn't get in the water! I kept laughing at his sad face but that made him even more upset. Shocking.


To explain my remarks from my previous posting, I thew up every morning on the way to my own swim lessons when I was little.
Our lessons took place at Thunder Ridge, which is at the top of a hill, with really curvy roads. Every morning we wound our way up to the pool. My mom forced me to eat breakfast and I would get deathly carsick on the way to the lessons. We would pull over, I would lean out the car door, puke up my Tang and off-brand cereal, and then my mom would continue up to the pool. I felt like garbage and my family was like "have fun, don't cry, listen to your teacher...." and that was that. Needless to say, I don't know how to swim as of this day!

Kindergarten Graduation

Well, Carson's school didn't do anything spectacular for the completion of his Kindergarten year. I didn't get a graduation when I finished Kindergarten either so that's cool.

However...

At the beginning of the year, Carson's teacher gave me this laundry list of things Carson needed to accomplish by the end of the year to receive an award. So, all year I dutifully made sure he did these things, such as count to 100, know the 25 sight words, have perfect attendance, participate in PTA contests.... We did all of it. So when he came home without any awards I asked him if anybody received anything. He said most kids in his class got gold medals but he didn't earn one so he didn't get one. I'll admit, I was TO'd. Carson didn't care at all, instead he decided to make his own medal. It was so funny...he cut out a circle of paper. With a gold crayon, he drew himself sitting at his desk. Then he found some ribbon and taped it to the "medal". Here he is, proudly wearing it.


Then we went to Applebee's in honor of Carson. My parents came too and they made a big deal of Carson graduating. It was very sweet.


Then we took Carson to Target and let him pick out a toy. He chose a Spongebob video game. It's been a hit at my house. I've even mastered one of the games! It brings me back to the ol' "Super Mario" days of Junior High and High School and Nintendo (we called it No-Friend-O).



As Sarah mentioned on her blog last summer, kiddie pools fully count as a bath in the summertime! Yipeeeee! This really simplifies the bedtime routine. ha ha ha



Proud moment: We have raised Parker well. He ALMOST likes ice cream as much as his daddy!


Carson starts swimming lessons tomorrow. This will be his first experience with swim lessons...wish him (and me) well. Let's just hope he doesn't throw up EVERY day on the way to his lessons! OH yeah, that brings me back to my childhood. Thunder Ridge anyone?

Great Weekend

I love this sequence of pictures of Parker. What a nut!





On Friday night we were going to go for a drive up Butterfield Canyon. We couldn't find our way, so we stopped at this awesome park in Herriman instead. The boys had a blast and it was a beautiful night! Sam and I were both a little surprised when Parker scrambled up this "rock" wall.



Saturday morning I finally put to good use the Christmas present that Fern gave me in 2005...outdoor flowerbed lights! I know, I'm super lame but it required some electrical work and that made me procrastinate.



The night effect is beautiful, especially once all the summer flowers get big and bushy!



Saturday afternoon we attended the temple sealing for Sam's sister, Shauna, to her husband Scott. They were married almost a year ago and Saturday they were sealed. It was awesome! We didn't really get any pictures but I wanted to mention it.

Saturday night we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon with some friends from our ward: Ryan and Natalie Jones and Russ and Amy Adams. Natalie's sister and brother-in-law were also there. We just went to a camground and had dinner. It was a hot day in the Salt Lake Valley but it was perfect in the mountains!! Some highlights: Parker, of course, fell and skinned his knees; Amy's daughter almost fell in the fire and her grandma reached out and caught her so fast I almost didn't believe it(she must play video games to have such excellent reflexes!); Natalie's brother-in-law trying to teach Carson how to roast hot dogs and marshmallows without burning them; Parker playing "peek a boo" with Natalie's daughter, Ivy; Ivy falling into a little pond and getting totally muddy; Ryan "roasting" Ivy's pants over the fire to dry them out; eating dutch oven Peach Cobbler....the list goes on and on. It was so much fun!








Yummy Peach Cobbler!


Here's some funny stories and you'll be GLAD I didn't take pictures!
I was at the grocery store on Saturday afternoon with Carson. While I was in line to buy my groceries, Carson started crying. He said he felt like he was going to throw up. I told him he should go to the mens restroom and HURRY! As he was walking away from me, I saw his cheeks get big and I realized that he was holding the 'stuff' in his mouth until he could make it to the toilet. After a few scary seconds I was relieved when he did make it! After his episode he was just fine.

Sunday morning at about 3:00am, I had a nice surprise from Parker. He woke me up and told me he threw up. So, sure enough, his bed was covered in the 'stuff'. After Sam cleaned Parker up and I cleaned up the bed, Parker threw up while he was standing in the bathroom. So we put him in the bathtub and cleaned him up...again. While Parker was in the tub I had a heart to heart talk with him. I explained how he should throw up in the toilet instead of wherever he happens to be standing at the moment. He seemed to understand. I got him out of the tub and put him back in bed. As I did, he said "my tummy hurts". I asked him if he needed to throw up. He nodded in the affirmative. So we raced back to the toilet where I stood for about 10 minutes while he braced himself in front of the toilet. I kept saying "do you REALLY need to throw up?" He would calmly nod his head and stand there patiently. Finally, after 10 minutes he really did throw up in the toilet! I was so proud of him! After he was done he went to bed. Sam and I went to bed too. About 30 minutes later I heard him running. I raced out into the hall and there was my little guy proudly throwing up in the toilet again!

So, he can't go potty in the toilet, but he can throw up in the toilet! Sam says it's a good thing because we couldn't very well put a diaper around his face...

One final experience tonight: tonight we had "cousins dinner" at Curtis and Shandy's house. My parents rode with us in our van. On our way home, we were waiting to turn left from Bangerter Highway onto 90th south at the red light. I was sitting in the front passenger seat. All of sudden, a deer ran past my side of the van, turned left in front of us (at the red light) and ran up 90th south! Cars were totally driving right in the deer's path, it's a miracle it didn't get hit! The rest of the way home Parker kept saying "I can't believe that deer turned left!" In fact, I'll bet you he wakes up saying that too!

Have a good Monday everybody!