Las Vegas!!

This weekend, Daniel and I got to take a weekend trip away with my co-workers and their spouses. My boss decided last summer that we all needed to take go to Vegas together and paid for our airfare and hotel....with some added little perks along the way. We had such a great time!

We closed the office a little early on Thursday (and stayed closed on Friday) so we could all catch a flight out that night. Luckily, almost all of us (12 out of 14) were on two adjacent rows so we could chit chat on the flight.

Monica and Stacy Dr. S and Margarita

Andrianna and Lisa

We had a very nice ride to the hotel....


A group shot before we all loaded into the limo to go to the hotel.

It was a little snug getting 14 people plus luggage into a twelve person limousine, but we made it work!

Daniel and I getting cozy in the limo...

We stayed at the Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip and it was gorgeous! They have trees and waterfalls everywhere...both inside and out. They have recently remodeled all of the rooms and they are quite nice.

After a late night Thursday filled with getting acquainted with the hotel and all that fun stuff, we decided to spend Friday seeing as much of the Vegas Strip as we possibly could. Everyone split up and did their own thing for the day. Daniel and I walked almost the entire strip and back, twice. We had a lot of fun, but my feet were definitely tired of flip flops by the time we got back to the room....next time I should just wear my tennis shoes, even if the flip flops looked cuter! :)

One of the parking lots outside of a hotel was filled with 'dream cars' that you could rent for the day. They were a little out of our price range so we just took a picture of Daniel with the Lamborghini.

One of the stores we went into was M&M World. It was four stories filled with all things M&M...I loved it! You could even custom make your own bag of M&M's with whichever color of M&M's you desire. We only bought a small bag of their newest creation...we at least had to try it!

Here is a picture of the Eiffel Tower replica outside of the Paris hotel.

Most of the hotels have a theme and are decorated accordingly. This is a picture of the pirate ship that is outside Treasure Island.

One of our favorite hotels to visit was the Bellagio. The inside was full of fresh flowers (and animals made out of flowers) and the dancing fountains were outside. What a great combo!

We watched the fountains when we were there in the afternoon, but we had to go back and see them that night so we could see all of the lights that go with them. They are very cool!!

Self portrait!

When we left the fountains, we rushed back to our hotel to see the volcano erupt outside. They do this every hour and it was really cool!
We were so worn out from all of our walking on Friday, that we spent most of Saturday just hanging out at the pool and cruising around some of the shops and hotels that were closest to the Mirage.

Saturday afternoon, both Daniel and I got to go to different shows. Three of the guys went over to watch the finale of The Ultimate Fighter (UFC for those of you who do not know). They had a blast and got to see some really cool fights and some famous people.

Everybody else in the group all joined up again to go see Mystere by Cirque du Soleil. It was absolutely amazing!! The things those people can do was incredible. I really wanted to take pictures, but you are not allowed to take cameras into the show...sorry! Here is the link to a clip I found on youtube if you are interested in seeing what it was all about.

We were a very tired bunch on the plane back home today, but we had a blast! We are already talking about when we can all go back! :)

Indecisive Reader

Apparently, Kenna could not decide what book she wanted to "read" this afternoon. When I walked around the corner, this is what I saw.

She just made herself comfortable! It didn't take her long to figure out she could read a lot better if she was sitting up. It is a little hard to turn the pages of a board book while you are trying to hold it over your head.

I am so glad that my little girl likes to read!

Fence Building Party

I have a fence!! I am so thankful that Daniel is such a handyman and that he has a great family that is willing to come help. Last night we had an impromptu fence building party and this morning I could look out into my yard like normal!

Yesterday, Daniel, Gerry, Solomon, and Josh spent several hours out in the heat repairing our fence while the rest of us played indoors. Daniel's sister, Sarah, and her family were also in town for the weekend so we decided to make an evening out of the party and threw together something for dinner. After all of the hard work we thought the guys deserved some food and relaxation inside with the air conditioning! Joel and Michael also came and joined us for dinner when they got off work. We had a lot of fun eating, watching babies, and playing Apples to Apples (some of the boys were playing ping pong). Thank you, Thank you!!

Don't those pictures look more normal?

I had to stick this picture in from this morning...Kenna found a fork in her diaper bag and decided that it would be better used as a brush...anybody else thinking of The Little Mermaid?

She also found the wheel for MarioKart on the Wii. She has carried this around all morning and is trying to practice driving. I guess she should be really good by the time she is 16 if she starts practicing now!

Of course, if she is going to be driving with one hand, I would probably stay out of her way!!

Storm Damage

Wow - that was some storm last night! We were on the northern edge of the storm so things south of us were probably a lot worse, but we definitely have some clean up to do. Kenna just kept looking out the window at all of the wind, rain, and lightening and commented frequently with one of her favorite words "whoa." The only part of the fence on our northern side that is still standing is the part that Daniel and my Dad spent some time reinforcing a few months ago. That part had started to pull away from the posts so they screwed it all back in....not thinking that they should do the rest of the fence to keep it from falling down in a freak windstorm! After the wind and rain died down a little bit, Daniel had to go looking for the lid to the sandbox. Crabbie's lid had blown two streets over and was still going. We have several empty lots in our area and the wind was just whipping through the wind tunnels they created....taking our fence, sandbox lid, and other furniture with it! We also have a tree (the one in the front part of the back yard) that may not make it....it was sideways for a fairly long time...Daniel staked it back into the ground so we will see what happens next.

I am just glad that Daniel was home! Anybody want to have a fence-raising party? :)

Weekend pictures

So I already told everyone that my parents came for the weekend but now I have some pictures to show how much fun we had!

Kenna got to take her first ride on the carousel at Stonebriar and had a blast for the first half of the ride; then she decided she wanted to ride the rest of the time in Pop's arms....but she still enjoyed it.On Saturday we were driving through the neighborhood we noticed a garage sale with a kids shopping cart. When we were in Florida, Kenna loved Izzy's baby stroller and pushed it all over the condo. We said we were going to get her a stroller of her own to push but have not had a chance so we were very glad to see the shopping cart. Kenna absolutely loves it and has started pushing it around with her baby in the front and her cars and balls in the cart.

(side note...last night I was picking up Miss K's toys and found my hairbrush in the shopping cart...what is going to be next?)

We also got to spend some time at the pool. We did not go until later Saturday evening and it had already started to cool down but Kenna didn't seem to mind.

Worn out

My parents decided to come visit Miss K for the weekend. Occasionally they will say that they are coming to see Daniel and me - but most of the time they say that it has been too long since they have seen Kenna. I am used to it by now... ;)

Kenna had a blast with her Mimzi and Pops and would hardly slow down long enough to take a breath. She just played and played and played. Friday night, she had her first ride on a carousel at Stonebriar but I will have to wait for my parents to post those pictures on their blog since they took the pictures on their camera. We also went to the pool for a little while on Saturday, but the rest of the time was just full on play time.

Apparently they just wore her out completely because this is what I saw when I went to check on Kenna during her nap this afternoon - and she stayed that way for two and a half hours. (I did move her foot out from between the slats) We had a blast and can't wait for them to come back again soon!

My Little Cowgirl

I have a cheap straw cowboy hat that I will occasionally wear when I go to the pool or the beach. Ever since we have returned from Destin, the hat (which I never even wore while we were there) has been sitting around the living room and Kenna has been playing with it. Apparently she really likes hats now that she wore hers all week! It is really important that she gets to put it on herself.

The last few days, the hat has been spending the night hanging on the fireplace tools....a place that is very visible from Miss K's rocking horse. Yesterday when I was holding her on the horse (she still likes to dive off), she noticed the hat and had to wear it while she was riding. I don't know where she got the idea that you have to have a cowboy hat to ride a horse....but it is fairly accurate! This picture just reminded me so much of a old black/white photo from the early nineteen hundreds when people were afraid to smile....she was smiling while she was on the horse but I must have snapped the picture right before she decided she wanted down.

She looks so big! I am sure that her uncle Cade will have her on a real horse soon enough!