Vegas Baby

This year, like all years, the boys and I wanted to do something fun for Spring Break. With two failed attempts to visit my Grandma in Lake Havasu, we opted for a trip to Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas....where we could venture to the sun and surf (albeit manufactured) with warm weather, comfy beds and Haagen Dazs. And at nearly the last moment, my friend Melissa E decided to grace us with her wonderful presence!

Day 1 Wednesday:

We got to Vegas and before we could even begin to unpack, Brenden and Ethan already had their swim trunks on and flippers in hand. It was the cutest thing, so I couldn't say no. We went down to the pool and they claimed to be closed! It was merely 5:38 and they didn't close till 6 officially, but they wouldn't let us in. So, we spent the next half hour walking around looking for the "ghost spa"...that's the spa (jacuzzi) that people were trying to help us find that never actually showed itself to us. So, we unpacked and went down to see the Shark Reef Exhibit! That was very cool and I got the boys shark tooth necklaces afterward. After that, we went out via a kinda scary rail tram to Excalibur, and walked through New York New York (the kids called out "THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!!" hehe - I explained that it isn't the statue) to the MGM Grand where we looked at REAL LIVE sleeping lions and ate Nathan's hot dogs and Haagen Dazs ice cream. Yum! Finally, we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Day 2 Thursday:

We woke up early, put on our swim gear and headed down to the pools where we remained the rest of the day. To our dismay, they don't rent inner tubes there anymore, so I had to buy one for $23.71. YES, $23.71! The Mandalay Bay boasts 3 regular pools and jacuzzis, a lazy river and a huge wave pool with lots and lots of sand. The weather was 82 degrees and beautiful and the time spent there was absolutely fantastic. We all had a blast!!

That night, after a little R and R in the room, we went over to the Rio to try their buffet. We almost did the seafood buffet but opted instead for the "World Famous Carnival International Buffet." It was good, but a bit overwhelming if I do say so myself. The buffet itself is probably a mile long if you string it all together. They have so many food choices that my brain and my stomach didn't know what the heck to do. Brenden stuck with pizza mostly, and Ethan mostly crab, shrimp and sushi (that's my boy!). I can't remember what I had. It's all a blur! After Rio, we went back to our little home away from home and got ready for bed and watched Ethan make shadow puppets on the wall (very fun). Melissa went down and did some gambling, but my little ones didn't want me to go! I told them that I would just wait for them to fall asleep then (hehe), but I decided to stay and watch some MTV...that was actually fun since I almost never watch TV at home, especially dumb TV like that! hehe.

Day 3 Friday:

We woke up early again and headed for the pool. We only planned on being there an hour because we needed to check out of the hotel and do some other stuff in Vegas. We were out there for about 45 minutes when the weather turned FREEZING. There was a sudden mass exodus! So, we got ready, packed our bags and got outta there! We headed to Blueberry Hill for breakfast. Ethan and I each had the special: a Tiger omelet and pancakes. It was SOOO good. Best thing we ate in Vegas. Brennie had the kids Pancake special. Yum Yum!!
From there, we headed to Circus Circus for some game time. We ended up staying there for FOUR hours!! Melissa and I watched the kids enjoy all kinds of rides in the Adventuredome from Sponge Bob 4D to Laser Tag (their favorite). From there, we headed out of town, stopping only at Stateline to get gas at Terrible's in exchange for $20 in free slot play at Buffalo Bills. I did that while Mel took the boys to the arcade. Boy that was five minutes of FUN! I love Jacks or Better! Finally, after battling STRONG WIND GUSTS alllllllll they way home, we arrived in our home town at about 11pm!

All in all, an awesome family trip!!

Camera cord and Vegas

I have looked for the last five to ten minutes for my camera cord/cable so that I can download the ohhh so cute pictures from our family (and friend) trip to Vegas this Spring Break; but alas the darn thing has decided to get up and walk away YET AGAIN!

The Vegas blog entry will in fact be a tale in pictures so you all will have to wait just a little longer!

Here cable cable cable!

:)

Never Gonna Kiss a Girl

I am writing this blog so that I can remember to tell the story on Brenden's wedding day.

Yesterday, Brenden and I were running some errands and he started telling me about how he would never ever ever ever neeeevvvvvvvvver ever evvvvvvvvver never never never ever kiss a girl.

My response - Sure you will - someday.

Brenden's response -- No, never ever never ever ever.

My response - OK, not a problem.

So tonight, the boys, my sister and I went out to Steer N Stein and I was telling the story. Brenden put his hand up in front of his face, waving it up and down with an "eee, eee, eee" sound and said, I will never kiss a girl, not even when I'm married! Kellie said, You have to kiss a girl if you're married and Brenden said Nope, not me...with more hand waving and "eee, eee, eee" noises. LOL

Check it out

My nephew Ryan Lee, eating cake by himself on his first birthday. It was an absolutely wonderful, fantastically hilarious sight. Enough said.

Fish Not Kickin Anymore

The first post I ever did on this blog was about our fish, our unnamed Gourami who was the sole survivor of a bunch of fish I bought a long time ago. He moved with us, in a vase, and I finally got him a bowl to replace the aquarium he used to be in.

A few minutes ago, Brenden came in and asked me what happened to his fish. The fish isn't in the bowl, he proclaimed! HUH? So, I went to examine the bowl. Alas, the fish was, in fact, missing! So I asked around to find out if anyone took the fish out. Nope!

Slowly, Brenden and I walked back into his room. We looked around and gasped when we saw the fish, laying still under a table and chair, a few feet away from the bowl he called home.

Poor fishy. He somehow got out of his bowl, and then proceeded to move himself over a number of feet across the floor, under a table, finally settling beneath a chair, where he died. :(

Brenden was sad. And wants new fish.

Love

I was folding clothes earlier tonight and Brenden came over and layed on my lap. We talked about how he smelled like fish even though he had taken a bath. We talked about the scrape on his right arm. It got there when he was climbing a tree. We talked about books he had read recently so that I could write them on a form for school. He layed on my lap and smiled up at me talking to me with rosy cheeks and chapped lips. He layed there until he fell asleep.

Earlier today, I went to the school for Ethan's End of Trimester Awards Ceremony. He received an Honor Roll award and a surprise award for Outstanding Merit in the Science Fair. (He was one of only about 10 kids in the entire fourth grade). Four kids received Science Fair awards that were in frames because their projects had gone on to the District Science Fair. After the ceremony, Ethan came up to me and hugged me and told me with a big smile on his face that he knew why he didn't get an award in a frame. He said that his teacher Mrs. Murray told him that the four that went on to District got him by a tiny hair with the speech portion of the project, and that was it! He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him too.

My little guys are so special. Words can't even describe.

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

My poor little baby cakes Ethan was diagnosed with Hand Foot and Mouth Disease today! His daddy dropped him at school and the nurse called me at about 9 am telling me to come get him! Apparently, it is highly contagious, but will go away without treatment. He is off school until Friday! I told him to STOP licking his hands in place of lotion!!! Ewww, huh?!

That's not actually Ethan's hand above - just a pic from the internet to show you what Ethan's hands sort of look like. :(