Vegas . . . again!

The reason for our trip was to surprise Cameron's brother Bret (who lives in St. George) for his 50th birthday. Jane wanted all the boys to come down and surprise him. After her accident where she broke her hip (4 weeks ago) she decided to tell him that Cameron and I were coming down with her to help her on the plane, etc. and we'd stay at my parents. But little did Bret know that actually 5 of his 6 brothers would be arriving also for the big surprise! Cameron and I kind of messed up since we got split up on the drive over (some of us rode Harleys) and we (along with Jeff, Kerry and Bonnie) went straight to his house (I knew how to get there). He was very surprised to see us and even more surprised at the restaurant to see everyone else who came. We had an excellent dinner at Red Dog (although we had a very overwhelmed waitress dealing with our large group) . The place served great bbq and everything else homemade and Cameron and I thought it was the kind of place that deserved to be on the Food Network show "Diners, drive-ins and Dives."

Bret with Eric and Corbin (in the back)

Afterwards, Cameron and I stayed at my parents house and stayed up visiting with them. Rain kept us there in the morning so my Dad was able to beat Cameron at pool for a while. Then when it started to clear we went to lunch with them and Kerry, Bonnie, Kellen and Jordan (nephews) at Players.

Then the 6 of us took of for our drive back to Vegas via the Valley of Fire. I'd never been through there and it was beautiful despite the colder weather.

The Harley guys - Cameron, Kerry, Kellen & Jordan

Lots of cool red, rock formations to see all around.

Kellen thinks he's such a stud!

We managed to beat the rain out of there and didn't get hit although it looked like it was coming!

The next day we headed down to Lake Mead with Kerry and Bonnie.

They had been to Vegas many times but had never ventured down this way or to Hoover Dam. Although we'd already been twice in the past 14 months we were happy to ride with them. (I might have been less than happy about it during the ride when we were getting blasted by wind!)
Then we once again we took Route 66 (Kerry and Bonnie had never been on it ether) so we took it to Oatman and back. Fun and beautiful but less enjoyable than our other trips. (Didn't help that I had a horrible cold this trip.)

When we got back to Vegas they treated us to dinner at Texas de Brazil which was a new experience for me - having waiters bring around huge skewers of meat and slicing you off the kinds that you want. Finished off with a great piece of cheesecake with a fudge layer and topped with tons of caramel! This whole trip really was based around eating some great food and riding Harley's. I think Cameron and I each gained 3 pounds (luckily I can just blame mine on being pregnant).
This was the view outside our hotel room at the Vdara. It is the Bellagio lake fountain show (I guess that's what it's called). It's the first time I've really got to watch it since usually we have just driven by when it's happening. I took a picture of our room (we stayed at Vdara 3 nights) but it was not a good picture and unusable but it was an awesome, quiet 5 star hotel that just opened and it doesn't have a casino in it (it's connected to the the Bellagio and Aria both which do) so it was nice not to have a smoky and loud lobby area.

We arrived home to happy kids who had been very well cared for by the babysitter. Mia decided to be extra clingy yesterday but who could blame her! She spent the long weekend playing with Mason over at Kip and Gigi's house.

Eagle

So we are loving our new neighborhood and have discovered another benefit to living on the lake surrounded by nature . . . bald eagles. Soon after we moved in our bishop told us that usually in February bald eagles can been seen fishing through the breaks in the ice on the lake. A few weeks ago I came home from church early with Mia and discovered just that. A bald eagle sat on the ice in the middle of the lake for probably 30 minutes while I watched it (on and off) taking pictures and looking through the binoculars (which now have been permanently in our kitchen window). Later after everyone else came home we saw it come by and land on the ice a few more times and one time just fly by. One other day I saw it down here but since then I've regulary seen 2 bald eagles farther down the lake when I drive the girls to school. I can't believe I thought it was so cool to see bald eagles in Alaska and now I get to see them in my backyard!

Announcement!

Today I am 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant with our 5th child! Since I didn't know my exact date they let me have an ultrasound to find out for sure. I was 2 days off and they moved up my date to August 22, 2010.

For those who have a hard time finding heads or tails on an ultrasound - The babies head is on the left (profile) and then the body is on the right. You can't really see the legs in this picture but the hand is by the face.
This one the head is on the left (below the word legs) and you can see the legs are curled up and crossed in front. Definitely not letting us peek at the gender today! Jane came with me to the ultrasound along with Chelsea who was home -sort of sick.

So that's the announcement! It's going to be a long, hot summer for this pregnant mama.

Favorite Flower

For lack of my own ideas and I don't want my blog to just be a journal of what we do - I have decided to get ideas of what to blog about from here.

This weeks idea is to tell what is your favorite flower and why?

I don't think I have a FAVORITE flower. I took a flower arranging class while at Ricks college and got a real appreciation for all kinds of flowers.

So here are my top picks for different reasons:

Calla Lilly's remind me of home in California. I was very disappointed to learn after getting married and moving to Washington that these flowers do not grow well here in my area and need lots of care - which since I'm not a gardening kind of girl, yet - I won't be planting these beautiful simple flowers any time soon.

I also attempted to grow Jasmine in my yard in West Richland and sadly they didn't survive the winter either. I love the fragrant smell these brushes have and they also reminded me of my house in San Jose.

Gerbera Daisy's are just the perfect thick daisy that are fun and come in lots of different colors. My girls now have lots of different silk flower clips that look like these flowers.

Lavender and lilacs are 2 flowers that I love and that I successfully grew in my yard here in Washington. I love the look and the smell of both!

Tulips are a favorite because they remind me that spring is coming and they are beautiful and come in so many colors. And to me anything that reminds me of spring = happy! One of these years I'm going to make it to the Tulip festival over on the west side to see all the beautiful fields of tulips that come up in April.

It's always nice to receive roses from my husband (like these that were delivered last Valentine's). I will be happy to receive roses anytime. But I don't really like to grow roses either. They seem to be too high maintenance. I used to think I LOVED lily's (also in the arrangement) but have realized the past few year that although I love how they look, they just smell too strongly (stinky). So I can appreciate their beauty but don't want them in my house!

And for future reference also: Carnations are ugly and cheap and don't belong in any flower arrangement or yard of mine!

Who knew . . .

That besides the deer that roam our neighborhood and are often found in the sagebrush or along the shore near our home, and the geese that have spent every day honking, flying and landing on the mostly frozen lake, and twice I've seen coyotes running across the ice . . . but now we found out that there are also porcupines! Max (our loving yellow lab) found out for us the hard way!I've managed to pull out about 10 of them but I think I may be making a trip to the vet tomorrow to get the rest. I give up!