Gary and I recently went to Las Vegas to celebrate my 40th birthday. We did a lot of fun stuff and ate A LOT of good food. Here are a few pictures of all the fun things we did.

This is the view out of our hotel room. We stayed at Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa in Henderson. This is the 3rd time we've stayed there and we love it.

On Monday, June 21, we went to the Atomic Testing Museum. They don't allow you to take any pictures inside the museum, but this is the hand-stamp they give you when you go in. We thought it was pretty funny.

On Tuesday, June 22, we went to Mt. Charleston, which is northwest of Las Vegas. We hiked to a waterfall and this is along the trail. It was really pretty. We saw a lizard on the trail that had an electric blue tail but it was too fast to get a picture. Darn!

Towards the top of the trail, there was actually still some snow on the ground. I'm not sure what the elevation was, but the temperature dropped a good 20-30 degrees from in town.

This is the waterfall at the top of the trail. Very pretty.

I laughed pretty hard when I saw this sign.

Part of the package we had at the hotel included a $50 dining credit so we ordered room service for my birthday breakfast. It was delicious!

We celebrated my birthday, June 23, with dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, a french bistro restaurant. Our server was so nice. My creme brulee had a candle in it and she offered to take our picture. The food was delicious. Our table was in the doorway to the patio and we had a wonderful view of the Bellagio fountains.

On Thursday morning, June 24, we went through a session at the Las Vegas temple. The grounds at the temple are beautiful.

I actually took this picture upside down as we drive by on the strip. It turned out pretty good.

Today was a beautiful day. Just a little breeze and plenty of sunshine. After the snow we received a few days ago, it was a welcome change. So, since it was so nice, I decided to do some yard work. This does not happen very often because, I hate yard work. If my yard was done and nice the way I wanted it, then I might enjoy it a bit more. I pulled weeds in the flower bed in the front of my house that will some day be my herb garden (hopefully sooner than later).
Here are some before, during and after pictures of the work.

I'm not really sure how all these weeds got in here with how cold it has been, but they must really like the snow.

Another view from the front. It looks like I already planted but they are just weeds.

About halfway done. There were some weeds in the bottom portion that were huge! They may have had their own gravitational pull.

Colby was my big helper today. He pulled a bunch of weeds out of the bed and he helped me clean off the porch furniture and the doormat.

Finished product. I love the way it looks right after I get done. The dirt is all dark and looks so nice.

This picture is going to help me figure out what to do with this space. I really want to make it a herb garden but we will see what happens.

Easter 2010

Easter was a lot of fun at our house. We colored eggs while the boys had 5 days off from school. Here are some pictures of the fun times we had.

Can you ever have too many colors to dye eggs with?

This is supposed to be my sunset egg. I don't know if you can see the subtle shading in the colors from yellow on top to orange and then red on the bottom. I just thought it looked cool.

Spy egg hanging out in the yellow egg dye. He was trying to infiltrate our party!

Some of the beautiful eggs we colored. The boys had a ton of fun. We colored almost 3 dozen eggs. They probably could have dyed another couple of dozen but we didn't have any more.

Easter morning! The Easter bunny brought them Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel along with lots of candy, kites, flip flops and books.

Mom and Dad weren't left out of the treats. The Easter Bunny brought us Sherlock Homes and some yummy candy!

There were eggs in very interesting places in the house.

Had to make sure the eggs were hidden really well.

Cohen had a ton of fun finding eggs. Cameron decided he was too grown up to look for eggs so he helped Cohen find some.

Even Dad got in on the action; finding eggs on top of the "plateau".

I really need to post on here more often. I have a bunch of pictures on the camera to put on here also. Hopefully, within the next couple of days, I will get them downloaded and a new post will appear.

Recently, we decided that Cohen was big enough to "graduate" to a big boy bed. We found one at Ikea (my favorite store) and promptly fell in love with it. Apparently, a lot of other people fell in love with it also, because it took two trips to Ikea before they had the bed in stock. Here are some pictures of the fun time we had putting it together.


Here is all the stuff required to build this bed. That box was so heavy!

Instructions are for people who don't know what they're doing. That is why I always use them!

Cameron was a great helper despite the obvious lack of enthusiasm.

Almost done. Just need to attach the slats that will hold the mattress.

I'm a big kid now!

Finished product! Mom built most of the bed and dresser by herself. Cohen even has a little "hideout" underneath. He has already had a picnic with a brother and reading time with mom under there.

This is the coolest bed EVER!!! And it's all mine!

Fall Leaves

Last week, I received a phone call from a neighbor who lives up the street. Brother Williams is an older gentleman who advised me that the leaves in his yard were raked into a pile and I could bring the boys up anytime to play in them. So the boys and I went up the street and played for a while. Then we got some big bags and cleaned up our mess. The boys had a great time and did a little service too. Way to go boys!


Carter and Cohen playing in the leaves and having a great time.

Mom took this picture laying in a pile of leaves.

See how cute I am! Take my picture!

The 3 Musketeers and some weird kid puckering his lips.

One cute toddler! This was only the second time he's ever played in leaves and he loves it.

Go Big or Go Home!

Cameron has had a few "mishaps" over the last few weeks. Here are a few pictures to explain what happened.
Warning: A few of the pictures are kind of gross!

This is a black eye Cameron received from a friend a school. They were goofing off, slamming each other in the shoulder and the friend's head hit Cameron's eye. Result: very beautiful black eye.

Cameron was running to catch me after swim practice because he thought I didn't see him and was leaving him and he ran into a sign at the fitness center. Ran right into the edge of the sign and sliced his head up nice.

This is a close-up of the cut. The white part in the middle of the cut is his skull!

This is what it looked like after the stitches. The nurse practitioner who put the stitches in did an amazing job. She had a really nice, straight cut to work with also.

Cameron only needed to have the stitches in for 5 days. This is what the cut looked like after the stitches came out. He will definitely have a scar but hopefully with some good after-care (he has to make sure he wears sunscreen on it for a year anytime he's in the sun), it will not be too noticeable.