So Long Vegas

Early Sunday Morning the honeymoon was over as we headed back to Texas.  The beautiful sunrise made being awake so early worth it though!

Thanks for the great 15 years.  We have had ups and downs, but we keep coming through it all together!  I'm looking forward to enjoying another 15 ... and beyond!

Thanks for the amazing Anni-Vegasry!

Saturday Vegas Style!

Saturday we started our morning at the spa!  We had booked a couples massage with the hotel and had a wonderful morning.  After all of the walking my feet and legs were so grateful for this day.  This was Jeff's first massage and he really enjoyed it.  There were separate rooms for the men and women so after our massage time we relaxed together for a while in the conservatory then separated to check out the cool stuff.  I think I could have stayed for hours, but Jeff didn't want to stay too much longer.  I tried out all of the cool stuff ... sauna, steam rooms, whirlpools, before I headed out to meet up with Jeff.  When I got out he wasn't there.  I was running late so I was surprised that I beat him out.  After he finally came out he mentioned that their lounge area had huge TV's with the football games on.  He mentioned if he had known earlier he could have stayed all day :).  I guess we will have to go again!  

After we were all ready to head out again we decided to check out Fremont Street.  It is a long street with vendors and performers and such.  There were a couple of places set up with music and we saw a few street performers.  I think it would have been better later at night.  

We did find this cool wolverine foam hat for Jeff :) (that he didn't buy)

We also found some fried twinkies and oreos!  They were only $1 each!  Jeff got a hot dog and fries for $1.50 too.  It was probably the cheapest food we found in Vegas ... and it was delicious!

The Twinkie was so huge ... and soft, and yummy!  Have I mentioned that I like desserts? 

Check out all of that warm goodness!

 Jeff was having way too much fun watching me make a mess while I ate my desserts.  They were totally worth the mess though!

We decided not to go for the gondola ride this time ... that is actually one of the things we did do 15 years ago!

The Venetian is so beautiful though!

We ended up seeing Luxor and Mandalay Bay later that night.  I think Mandalay Bay is beautiful!  

Oh, I love this man!  I'm so grateful for all of the work that went into this trip and what a great time we had!  It was refreshing to be away from everything and enjoy our time together!  Thank you for all you do for me and for our family!  Luvu!

Feeling Blue

Our last night in Vegas we had tickets to Blue Man Group!  I had really wanted to go 15 years ago on our honeymoon, but since Jeff spent most of that time sick we didn't end up getting to do much of anything.  This time has totally made up for that first honeymoon.  

Blue Man Group is so awesome!  We ended up front row right next to the "splash zone".  I was kind of worried because I didn't expect that and wasn't dressed to be splashed... with paint!  It worked out well and we never got splashed :).  

They are so great and I love that they can do their whole show without words!  They had such a great time and really interacted with the audience too! 

Here is one of the group literally climbing through the audience.  He stood next to Jeff for a while, but I couldn't get my phone ready fast enough to get that shot.  

I love the pipe drum band part!

Blue Man Group Selfie!

 Can you tell he is trying to take a selfie with a selfie stick.  I don't think we made it in the shot though :(

They had this fog machine going and as they hit the drums the fog came toward the audience ....

 And turned into amazing smoke rings! 

By the end of the show it was a crazy party scene!  

 Fun Everywhere!

After the show the group and their band hung outside the auditorium to take pictures with their fans :).  Jeff and I got our photo too!!

The support band :)

I would have gone back and watched their show again it was that fun!  I think the kids would love it too!  What a great way to end a fabulous trip!  
We Love Vegas Baby!

Show Time!

Once we arrived in Vegas we had the day to relax.  We were staying at the Venetian Hotel, which was amazing!  We had seen it on our Honeymoon 15 years previous, but now we got to stay there!  The rooms were absolutely beautiful and huge too!  It was so nice to relax!  We took a nap and walked around the strip.  We wanted to be sure we timed our shows the next evening since we had two shows to go to!  

The first night we went to Terry Fator, a Very Terry Christmas.  It was really cute and he was amazing!  He is a ventriloquist and a performer so he does his own singing and his puppets sing too.  It was so easy to forget that he was their voice!  His voices are so different it really is amazing!  I thing our favorite puppet was the annoying neighbor Dougy.  I can't believe we didn't get any photos of him or his puppets!

The next night shows were Le Reve and Bill Engval

We started at the Wynn Hotel to watch Le Reve the Dream.  They were so talented!  There was no lines being spoken so sometimes the story line got a bit lost, but really beautiful and amazing to watch!  

Pre-show Selfie!

Before it started.  Even just the staging was amazing!

Water, fire, people on ropes and hoops, diving, swimming... everything happening at the same time!!

Underwater synchronized swimming.... so crazy foot action!  This went on for like 5 minutes!

We left amazed. 

After the show we headed on over to see Bill Engval.  It was his only night in Vegas and I was so excited to get to see him live!  He is hysterical!  He just talks about life, but then it always comes together into something funny.  He talked about his wife having menopause, his time on Dancing with the Stars, knee surgery, building their own house and such.  Again,  we didn't get any photos though :(.  It was a great night and I laughed so much!  

By now my feet were feeling all of the walking I had been doing in Vegas.  I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the next day or not.  Time to rest! 

American Adventure ... Razor Time!

On Friday Jeff had us scheduled to go with American Adventure Tours, on a 2 person Razor 3 hour ride!  We drove out of the city and had the desert all to ourselves!  We got oriented and ready to go, when suddenly our tour guides bike stopped working :/.  He took me in the razor and hunted down the other tour going on at the same time.  We would follow along with them (the ATV's) while he figured out what to do about the bike.  When we were hunting them down he drove so fast and crazy!  It was AMAZING!  After getting the ATV's back and us joining them we were driving sooooo slow.  I was so disappointed, especially after getting to go on that awesome ride just minutes before.  We followed along up to the top of a nearby mountain for our first stop.  We were only going like 10 MPH at top speed.  It was a slow form of torture.  We got some fun photos while up there.  On our way down the Razor didn't want to drive ... it was overheating because it didn't like to drive so slow.  

Our guide finally showed up with a working bike and we separated!  I was so happy that we were on our own again!  It was fun to get to really drive fast!  Jeff really did well driving and getting used to the speed!  The course was pretty rough with lots of woops, turns, and rocks.  We drove across this big dry lake bed and we were able to get above 50 MPH!  We took another break after that.  We hung around waiting for the ATV riders to meet up with us before we headed out again.  

Our guide felt bad that we really hadn't had the best experience and he took us out for an extra 20 miles of awesome trail to try to make up for it.  This time I got to drive.  I did take out a bush, but overall it went well :).  By the end of our drive the Razor was overheating again... this time from going too fast for so long :).  

It was time to head back and pack it in.  I think those last 2 hours were some of the fastest of my life!  It is awesome to be out driving with the wind in your hair and enjoying the great outdoors! ... oh, and lots of dirt!

On top of the lookout 

The awesome Razor

All done for the day!!

What a great activity away for the hustle and bustle of the strip!  

Happy Anni-Vegasry!

For our 15 year wedding anniversary Jeff surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas!  He planned it back in August and got tickets to 4 different shows and everything!  He had everything all lined up to leave the kids and get out of town.  This is definitely the best anniversary yet!  Way to go Hunny!  It was a huge surprise!  

He showed me a power point that he made to ask me to Vegas ....

Now, he didn't say what this was ... just put the computer down in front of me.  I was a little taken off guard and not sure if this was for real.  It took me watching it a few times to ask if we were going to Vegas, and if this was real?!  

So fun!  These are all of the things he had planned!

He gave me a couple week notice which was good.  It gave me a chance to get some things set before the trip.  I was so ready to get away after waiting those 2 weeks!  

On the plane to Vegas!  

Way to go Hunny!  You did a fabulous job planning something fun and totally surprising me!  Happy Anni-Vegasry (Friends reference)

Food Challenge!

This is our 3rd year to participate in the 4-H Food Challenge!  The kids really have a good time learning about food and being creative as they create meals.  Our kids were on 2 teams.  The boys were the I'mpastas and I was their team coach.  Sandra was on the Fancy Five and Miss Angela was their coach.  

It was interesting to be the coach of the teen boys.  Last year I helped with Sandra's and  Grant's teams, while Angela worked with the teen boy group.  Angela has been doing this for years and years so she was actually ready for a switch to a different team than her son was on and I was ready to get these boys in shape so they could go to district.  It was a good switch, even if it was an adjustment for both of us ;)

After many and many weeks of practice and working with teen boys it was time for the county competition!  There were 4 teams at the county level and the top 2 moved on.  Our club had three of the four teams so we had a good chance of claiming both spots.  I really hoped that all of my kids would move on to district!  Well, Sandra's team came in 2nd and the boys came in 3rd.  They were really disappointed.  I was too.  I guess the hard part was after working with the boys and watching the girls for the 6 or so weeks it was pretty obvious the younger team was just better.  It was really just their creativity.  I don't know why the boys don't do more creative things, but they have the knowledge and the speaking skills... even the cooking skills.  I guess when they make scrambled eggs with vegetables and the girls make sunny side eggs, the girl team wins.  Really though, on their judges notes there were several comments about kitchen safety so I wonder if that was just enough points to nudge them out (Sandra's team had similar notes tho).  

After all of the disappointment, the boys will survive and hopefully come back with more gusto next year!  We have also seen Sandra have some natural talent for cooking and even just performing under pressure.  It is wonderful to see her progress.  Her team really did as well because she was on it.  It was her idea to do the sunny side eggs ... she has never even made them before!  We do watch a lot of cooking shows so I guess that's where she gets it from :). 

Anyway ... here are some fun photos of the county competition on November 9th

Ready ... Set ... Go! 

My little ones :)

The boys working on their dish!

Sandra's team ready to go present!

Boys turn

Talmage is talking in front of the judges right now!

So exciting

The boys dish!  It looked fabulous!  Oh, and I love Grant totally photo bombing this pic ;)

Boys with their 3rd place awards. 

Sandra's team getting 2nd!  

Sandra's team went to district on December 2nd.  I stayed home to take Clark to speech.  I sent Sandra with Carla and I also helped Carla out by getting her daughter to and from her class.  It all worked out. 

At district they ended up in the fruit and vegetable category.  They got the ingredients for a salsa (not sure if they ever figured that out tho) and turned it into a smiley face meal.  They scooped out two of the tomatoes and filled it with chopped veggies and that was the eyes.  The mouth was a grilled mango, and I can't remember what they used for a nose.  They were so creative!!!  

They were up against 7 other teams from other counties... and they won first place!!!  I was so happy for Sandra!  She did everything she was supposed to and did awesome on her speech... let alone being a creative genius!  

Way to go Fancy Five!

Too cute!
Jamie, Abby, Sandra, Valerie, and Ian

Love her!

I think what is so amazing about Sandra is that she is able to think up amazing ways to combine the ingredients into something unique!  I know that I am too programmed into following a recipe that I don't think like that.  She even has a desire to go to culinary school and actually work as a chef!  Sandra can do whatever she sets her mind to do!  We love you chica girl!