Viva, Las Vegas!!

So, this past weekend I decided to take a little trip and visit my sister Amber in Las Vegas. Her hubby, Jared decided to abandon her in favor of a golf tournament and weekend with his family. So, I flew out on Friday night and Amber picked me up at the airport about 4:30 or so.

It's always a little strange to leave home, be in a plane for an hour, and then arrive at your destination at pretty much the same time you left...got to love time zones! Amber and Jared even call time zones art, they have six clocks hanging in the stairwell, all set at different times for different locations around the world. I have to admit, that it's a cool idea, as well as a way to save you time when you're wondering what time it is in Singapore.

Anyway, back to the actual trip. After dropping my stuff of at her house, we went to The District to shop a little and eat dinner. We bought matching necklaces (I know, cheesy huh! But it's a cute necklace) at this store called Francesca's (I believe that's its name) and then waited for a while to eat at the Elephant Bar. Amber was starving by the time we were seated, but we were able to look at a menu while waiting and pretty much ordered as soon as the waitress started walking towards our table. Amber got a salad, and I got a Mahi Mahi dish...mmm, it was SO delicious!

I think this is the salad Amber got, and this at least kind of looks like my meal...

After our very satisfying meal we headed home to veg in front of the TV, and perhaps even learn something by watching the news.

We were supposed to go boating early Saturday morning, but we found out it have been cancelled due to expected high winds and a mild illness among one of the intended boaters. So the next day we had to settle for sleeping in and hanging out at the pool for an hour or two, tragic huh!

Every time I go to a pool I protest laying out because I get sunburned easily. Amber has always dismissed this as simply paranoia, but was taught a valuable lesson this past weekend...I burn within like 10 minutes, haha. I kept telling her that I felt like I was burning and she would say "you're fine." And later that day when I was trying on some clothes, I showed her my burns and she had to laugh, because we were hardly out in the sun...my lounge chair was even sitting in the shade!

OH!! I can't forget this. While we were chatting and sitting by the pool, this guy came to set up some air, jumpy toys for a complex BBQ later that day. (I don't know what the things are called, sad). He was rather large and was having some difficulty getting around and even breathing I would say. I could hear his raspy breaths everywhere he went. It was kind of sad actually, we let him in the pool area to try and find some plugs for the air pumps. It seemed to take him a long time to get things set up. We didn't go to the BBQ, so sorry if you were anticipating that particular story from the weekend...it's not going to happen.



Picture of Amber and I...kind of scary (me, not Amber) it's such a close up! What's going on with my eyes?

We showered after being at the pool, and then Amber did my hair, as seen in the above picture. (also note, I am wearing the incredibly cute new necklace)
she thinks I should grow my bangs out, and I did like the way she did my hair, so it's a definite possibility.

So Saturday afternoon we went shopping, pretty much just for me. I needed some clothes I could wear to work, and what better place to shop than Las Vegas?

After an exhausting afternoon of lightening my wallet, Amber astounded me with her culinary abilities. She made quesadillas with chicken and cheese, heated up a can of black beans, and cut up some fruit for us to eat. It was a five star meal all the way.

We went out one more time that night, so I could use a cold stone gift certificate. I had my birthday cake bowl of sugar and fat (soo, good. It had cake batter ice cream, rainbow sprinkles, fudge, and brownie bits) while Amber settled down with her lactose free pint of strawberry Rice Dream. I think their advertisements should say "An ice cream like dessert made completely from rice, you won't think of ice cream at all while you are in THIS dreamland!" (or something like that)

We watched Blades of Glory. It had some pretty funny parts, but isn't a movie I would highly recommend due to quite a bit of crudeness. Although, I guess what can you expect when it's a movie about two guys doing pair figure skating...right?

After the movie and some more musings about life and how I am not an amiable person, it was off to bed...for we had an early morning the next day...church started at 1:00pm!

Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting at Amber's ward. I saw and was introduced to her various friends, they all seem very nice. We left after that so that I could pack, so Amber could have time to warm up a can of soup (Progresso vegetable...with noodles! It was really good), and so we could make it to the water show at the Bellagio before I had to leave to come home.


We said our tearful goodbyes (at least I know Amber was crying on the inside) and I headed to my gate to wait for the plane. Unfortunately it was about thirty to fourty minutes before I realized that I was sitting at the wrong gate, not to mention that I had pretty much walked around in a circle to get to my gate, I didn't realize that my gate was right at the beginning of the C gates. (this might make more sense to those of you who are familiar with the Las Vegas Airport, sorry if you are not one of those privledged millions)

So, in conclusion, it was a really nice weekend and I was glad I got to spend some time getting re-acquainted with my sister!

The Fire Alarm That Wasn't

The lights start going off, the alarm is blaring...of course you aren't going to think it's a real fire drill, they hardly ever are, right? So we are all sitting around, enjoying the club like feel of the strobe light, when Becky calls and says she saw smoke in the stairwell...oops, perhaps we should have been evacuating.

Then, we hear an overhead page saying that all the employees and patients have to evacuate the building. We grab our stuff and head out, and as usual, everyone is standing at the main entrance to the hospital, all unorganized and frazzled, waiting for any news.

Apparently someone got stuck in the elevator, and some huge panel came over from the wall next to the elevator and covered it up, made it inaccessible. We ended up out there for two minutes, thinking we might get to go home early, when they told us that we could go back in, it was just someone who was fixing the tiles on the roof who managed to create a flame.

Now everyone was trying to get on the elevators to get up to our floor, the 5th floor, and there was just as much chaos as when everyone thought there was a blaze in the building!

Back to work for the next hour and a half, oh well, at least we got to breathe some fresh air and take a break for a few minutes!

Camping with the Family

Our family went camping for my niece, Elizabeth's, birthday this past July. (she's the one in the pink) All the kids were as dirty as can be, especially Evan, the littlest. But they certainly were having fun climbing over rocks and running around with sticks...although I'm not so sure that was the best idea.

Nathan ended up sleeping in Eric's (Bonnie's then Fiancee) tent. Five-thirty the next morning he's pounding on the mattress pad..."wake up, it's morning!!" Eric thought it best to wake up rather than to risk Nathan attempting to start a fire in the pit by himself. He was such a good sport.

Heather, Brooke, the kids and I all spent a little time in the afternoon down at the stream, soaking our feet and watching Katelyn fall 2 or 3 times as she walked barefoot on the slippery rocks...she was wet from head to foot!!

Mom and Dad even made a cameo appearance on Friday, with Grandpa trying to take the grandkids 4-wheeling. Dyke and Nathan got to go for a spin, but then the machine stopped mysteriously and wouldn't start again. Unfortunately that signaled the end of 4-wheeling for the day. (the can-am is back from the shop and working fine now, by the way)

Mom stayed close to camp, chatting with heather, doing an ever-present crossword puzzle, and trying to stay out of the sun.

We all had tacos for dinner, and peach cobbler which Brooke made in her dutch oven, although she forgot to add the eggs, it was really good. She tried to add them in when she realized she had forgotten them, but at that point we would have had peach cobbler with sunny-side-up eggs on top!

The parents left for the evening, hitting a deer along the way, but luckily, they suffered very little damage, only mild heart attacks and a bent bumper.

Overall, it wasn't too bad of a camping experience and it was fun to have the family there...all except Amber and Jared of course. We will have to plan another camping trip next year when we can ALL go again.