Saturday, June 23, 2012

Easer 2012

One of Ellie's favorite parts of Easter is dying eggs. I bought 5 dozen eggs and I'll bet she did 3 1/2 dozen by herself! While the other kids took their time and made their eggs pretty, she just scribbled on them and threw them in the dye. They had a hard time keeping up with her! Ellie got a themed Hello Kitty basket from the Easter Bunny. She had a swim suit, sidewalk chalk, jump rope, stickers, etc along with her candy and some sunglasses. I had to work the morning of our town Easter egg hunt so Chelsey got up and took Treven and Ellie to the campus. I was so proud of her that she would do that for her brother and sister. She even took my camera and got a few pics for me! Treven got a water basket from the Easter Bunny. He got a nerf water gun, some water balloons, and some soaker balls along with his candy. Here is Treven waiting for the start of the campus egg hunt! Treven's water basket. Mikayla got a new beach bag, some summer shorts and tank top, and some new sunglasses and flip flops along with her candy. She had been working almost seven days a week plus going to school, so she didn't get to really participate with all of the Easter prep this year. It's a bummer getting older! Treven and Chelsey each did such a good job on their eggs. They drew pictures and funny faces on theirs. It was almost a shame to crack them and eat them! Chelsey got a glitter-filled basket this year. She got a shirt and cami, some glittery flip flops, some bracelets, and some new perfume in her basket.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Reserve your retreat spot now!

The October retreat for 4 Girls and a Dream is filling up fast! Registration opened today and we already have 7-8 spots reserved! Registration is $105 for early birds and $120 for non-early birds. The fee includes three days/two nights lodging, all of your meals for those days, a fun project, and an amazing welcome bag! I haven't seen any retreats for a better price anywhere! The best part, is the friendships we've developed over the last few years with some of the most wonderful, talented ladies around! Don't come if you are expecting to sleep a lot! There is too much laughter and giggling for that!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Easter Egg Hunt Invitations

I haven't had much time to really get crafty lately, but I always try to do hand made Easter Egg Hunt invitations. (Mostly so I can show Gary that I DO use some of my stamps!) This is the ones that I made this year; not my favorite, but I did like the colors! I love the bakers twine bow on the card. It kind of jazzed up a rather plain front! More Easter pictures coming soon!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Vegas!

Starting our Vegas Adventure! We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel and had a great time! So many adventures that we'll never forget! Like getting lost in the WORST part of town and seeing gang members; trying not to look but not run either! Walking forever! The loser van driver that told us he would pick us up on Fremont Street whenever we called and when I called, he texted me back that he was off duty. Getting on a city bus that was WAY overcrowded and then it broke down halfway home! All in all, we needed a few days away and that's what we got! It was so much fun and hopefully we can do it again soon!
Before I even start my actual post, I have to apologize! I swear I uploaded these pictures in the correct order, but somehow they are all jumbled together and not where I wanted them. I'm not very good with these things, so rather than delete them and start over, I'm going to run with them in the wrong order! On our first night there, we knew we had to take the kids to the pirate show at Treasure Island. It's always really neat with the singing and dancing and the cannon balls and fireworks and the show this year did not disappoint! We stopped by earlier in the day to make sure we knew what time to go so I got a few pictures of the outside scenery. Lucky for us because when they do the show at night, it's so dark my camera had issues focusing and getting shots with all the movement! All over Vegas are characters that will pose with your kids for 1.00 or 2. We came upon (I think) Bumblebee and he really hammed it up with Treven. I got several shots and we had a good time with him! Back to another day shot at Treasure Island! This is of one of the pirate ships. During the actual show, it moves across the water and has huge sails that come up. There are pirates up in the crows nest and they shoot off some amazing cannon balls. When the cannon balls hit the water, you can feel the water spray and when the cannon balls hit their targets, you feel heat coming off the ships. So cool! This is the shopping district at The Venetian. It's so beautiful and elegant inside with some amazing shops that you just want to look through the windows at! There are stores there that sell things that cost as much as our house! There was one shop that had all crystal things that I'm sure would have left us poverty stricken had something got broken! Here is another one of the street characters. This one was at the Venetian and I swear you wouldn't know he was a real person until you looked at his eyes. He stood so perfectly still until you got close enough to see his eyes moving and blinking. He was really cool. There was another really neat one of John Wayne on Fremont Street, but I didn't get a picture of him. What is a trip to Vegas without a visit to the M & M store? We literally spent hours going through all four floors! So many fun things to pick from and places to pose! Back to the Venetian! Before you go in there are canals going around and through the hotel. They have gondola rides for sale and these are the boats waiting for customers. I kind of would like to go, but I'm thinking it would be money spent better somewhere else! More posing shots at the m & M store. There is one floor that has racing cars and Nascar related M & M stuff. We got some more shots there, but I tried to limit how many I put on the blog! We had lunch at the Harley-Davidson cafe the second day we were there. To be completely honest, it was the best food we ate the entire trip except for Burger king when we got to Tremonton. It was also quite expensive! For lunch, it was $125 including the tip. Ridiculous! Treven loved getting to see something that excited him, though and the bikes are really awesome! This is the outside of the New York New York hotel. We planned to ride the roller coaster, but the price was outrageous. We ended up taking the kids to the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus instead. It's basically a Lagoon and they could ride anything and everything all day for the same price as one ride on the New York New York roller coaster! We stayed at the Excalibur hotel and there was an arcade downstairs where they do their jousting show. Talk about stinky! You could smell the horses and the horse poop all through the arcade. It about made me sick, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They played and had no trouble convincing Gary to try to beat Mikayla at the strong arm contest. Another out of place shot! This was back at the Harley-Davidson cafe! Again, out of place! I wanted this shot last! After we spent the afternoon at the Adventure Dome and the evening on Fremont Street, Treven was so tired, he fell asleep at dinner! I didn't get any shots on Fremont Street, but I wish I had. This was our favorite part of the trip! We had so much fun that I just didn't even get out the camera! Guess it's more important to live the memory than to capture it! The Adventure Dome was really cool. Tons of rides and things to do and it's all inside! The kids went on everything you could think of for $25. Water rides, roller coasters, 3-D shows, etc. It didn't look really big, but everything just wrapped around everything else and every time you turned a corner, there was another ride.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Vegas Bound!

We decided that we needed a little family vacation, so we took Mikayla, Chelsey, and Treven for a few days in Vegas! None of the kids had ever flown before, so it was really fun to watch their expressions during take off and landing! Treven was particularly nervous. He sat in the row with Gary and I and of course, he wanted the window seat so he could watch as we flew over cities and mountains. The girls had to sit in a row by themselves in front of us. I couldn't really see their expressions after take off, but they were really excited before we took off! More pictures of our Vegas trip to come!