Spring Happenings

 Spring is in full swing over here, and there are only 3 weeks of school left. The weather still sucks. We are dealing with every day being gloomy, windy, and hanging around 55-60 degrees. So, not terrible, but not great. I need some sunshine and warmth in my life. We are getting some rain which has been really nice, but I want some spring weather already. 

Anyway, Elliott's soccer games have started. All of the games have been pretty miserable to sit through weather wise, but Elliott's team is 3-0 and he is really enjoying his team. He has practice once a week, and pretty much one game a week. So, between that and Emma's schedule, and school and work, we are keeping busy. Most weeks we have something going on every night of the week. So, our weeks can get a little crazy. 

Emma has not started games yet for softball, but she has practice twice a week right now. She is really enjoying softball this year, which is a nice change from last year. Her confidence is building, and I hope she has a good season with her friends. 

This past Tuesday, we went to "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" at Jefferson High School. Jim and Barb came with us. It was a really good play, and the kids really enjoyed it. I always like to try and support the high school theatre departments and attend some of their shows, and I am never disappointed. 

Speaking of plays, we had our Spring Showcase at Bethel last night. The kids did a play called "A Kid's Life" and it was about what happens when the power goes out and kids these days have to entertain themselves without electronics. 

The evening started with a piano recital. Both kids did really well with their pieces. Elliott got really nervous, and he looked like he was going to burst into tears at anytime. But, he held it together. He played his pieces really fast, but got through them with minor mistakes, and he did a really good job. Emma looked less nervous, and she did really well. She made a couple mistakes, but overall they sounded wonderful and I am a proud mama. 

The play also went well. It was cute and the kids did a nice job. Elliott continued to be nervous, but he got through all his lines and songs just fine. His ears were so red though I thought they were going to start on fire. Emma provided some comedy during the play with her lines, and she really committed and did really well. She likes to perform and it shows. 

It was also an author fair. So, Elliott did a book report poster and Emma did an author study board. Both their projects turned out really well, and they proudly showed them off to us all. 

It was a busy evening, but a good one. We ended the evening with cheesecake and then went home. Elliott went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a sleepover and we took Emma home to relax and call it a night. 

Today was another busy day. I started it off with a visit to the gym, then we headed to Sam's' Club to find some lunch to bring out to the Greenhouse. The Greenhouse is open for the season, so we headed there to help out, bring lunch, and then collect Elliott and bring him back to town for his soccer game. Emma decided to stay at the farm for a sleepover this time, and we brought Elliott to his soccer game at 3:00pm. He won his game, and then we took him to Triple Play to spend his Greenhouse earnings. He was one happy little boy. 

Then, we went to Everest for supper, and then home to unpack and relax. Tomorrow, we have church, then the Greenhouse to help and get Emma, and then lots of rain in the forecast. So, I may spend the rest of the day washing bedding, or cleaning, or doing something inside. 

Here's hoping for warmer, sunnier days soon!

Las Vegas- Day 3

 Sunday was our last full day in Vegas. We started the day off by having a fancy breakfast at Primrose. The food was really good, and the coffee was really good, but it was definitely a little pricey. We enjoyed our breakfast and then we headed to "The Arte Museum". It was a really cool immersive museum. One room had projections of waterfalls, and it sounded like, smelled like, and even felt like you were in waterfalls. 

We spent a good 90 minutes in the museum just checking out all the sights and smells. We really enjoyed it, and all I could think about was how much Emma would have loved it. There was even a part where we could draw a picture, scan it in, and it would be animated and walking around on the wall. It was pretty cool. 

After the museum, we continued walking through casinos and checking out the strip. We shopped for some souvenirs and enjoyed some walk around beers. We also did some shopping at some of their pretty famous shoppes on the strip. We found a really good Mexican Restaurant for lunch. We had the best meal there and just really enjoyed every second of that meal. We even got table side Guac, and it was amazing. 

We talked about doing some gambling, but we just never were really motivated to sit down and gamble. We were having too much fun taking in the sights and people watching. In the afternoon, we found a bar with live music and just enjoyed some drinks and music for a while. Then, we headed to the MGM Grand to see the Cirque Du Soleil show "Ka". I really enjoyed the show. The storyline was hard to follow at times, but the acrobats and performances were amazing. The stage was hydraulic, so it was crazy the way they would make the stage go straight up and down, or move sideways, and other crazy things. We really enjoyed it. 

After the show, we were hungry for supper. We went to Eataly at our hotel, and had some homemade pasta, which was absolutely amazing. We had some really good food and drinks on this trip. Once we were full, we headed to our room to pack and get ready for our early flight the next morning. We had such a good trip, but by this point we were ready to head home the next day. 

On Monday morning, we got up at 4:00am, and got ourselves to the airport for our 6:00am flight. We had a nice flight home, and then Jim came and picked us up at the airport and brought us home. We were happy to be home, got some laundry going, and then headed to bed for some naps. 

Once we were rested, we cleaned the house, got unpacked, and then went and got the kids from school. We showed them pictures, gave them a couple souvenirs, and gave them plenty of hugs and kisses. 

We had a really, really good trip. I could see us going to Vegas again in a few years, maybe even to catch a Twins game when they play there eventually. We also have more show and food to try. I think next time, we might invite another couple or some friends along to change the vibe a little. We had a wonderful time!

The Arte Museum 

Our drawing- it said Miss you Emma and Elliott 

These Lanterns were really cool 

Made out of licorice 

More drinks (and food) 

Our show

Kinda tired, maybe a little buzzed 

Las Vegas 2024 Day 2- The Grand Canyon

 The second day in Vegas was a road trip to the Grand Canyon. John booked a tour bus for us to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. The bus came and picked us up right at our hotel at 6:45 am. John and I stopped to get a coffee and then met the bus to leave. We had an old coach bus, and John barely fit in the seat. Our host was a comedian, so he talked a lot about the history of Vegas-and tried to keep things light and funny on the bus. 

Our first stop was at the outdoor Welcome to Vegas sign. It was smaller than I thought it would be, and a little underwhelming, but it was fun to get some selfies by it. Then we headed to "The Omlet House" which was basically like a local Perkins. They called in our breakfast orders, so when we got there the food was pretty much ready. Our food was pretty good, and I got some banana bread for the road, and we were off again. 

The next stop was the Hoover Dam. It was pretty cool to see. It's crazy how big it is, and how much cement it took to build the Hoover Dam. We hiked up to the pedestrian bridge, took some pictures, looked at it for a while, and then headed back to the bus. I'm glad I got to see it, but I didn't need to stay any longer than we did. 

Next up, we made the trek to the Grand Canyon. It took a couple hours to get there, and it was a pretty boring drive. Once we were there though, it was amazing. Our first stop was Eagle Pointe. This was the area that had the overlook bridge made out of glass. So, basically you could walk out on this bridge hanging over the Grand Canyon, and stare straight down. I thought it was awesome. And beautiful. And breathtaking. It was crazy to look down and see birds flying below you. It was hard to comprehend how high up in the air we really were. We were not allowed to bring any belongings out of the bridge, so we had to lock everything up in a locker before we went out, so I couldn't get any pictures from up there. But, it was amazing. 

After we were done on the bridge, we walked around to the other lookout points and took all kinds of picture and selfies. Eagle Pointe is named because the rocks look like an Eagle. So, we took all kinds of pictures of that and admired the view for a while. 

Eventually, we saw all we needed to see, and we headed to the next point. The next area was called Guano Point. This was really named after bat poop. The story is that in the 1930s, two men floating down the Colorado River looked up and saw a large cave with all kind of guano in it. Guano was a popular ingredient back then in fertilizer, dynamite, and some makeup. So, they did what any normal person would do, and they decided to mine bat poop out of a cave. So, they strung a cable across the grand canyon, set up shop, and started mining. By the 1950s, most of the poop was mined, and then a U.S. Air Force pilot accidentally hit the cable and disabled the whole process. After a lawsuit was settled, the mining company never opened up again, but the mining equipment still sits up on that point. 

Guano point does have absolutely stunning views of the Grand Canyon. We ate lunch up there, and then walked around and explored. All of this land is on tribal land, so there isn't much for regulations or anything, so there are pretty much just drop offs everywhere around the canyon. It didn't worry me too much, but if our kids would have been there, I would have been having a stroke. 

We walked around, took a lot of pictures, and just took in the sights. It really was awe-inspiring how big and beautiful the Grand Canyon really is. We did fit in a little souvenir shopping, and got ourselves a little crystal cactus that says Grand Canyon on it, and we got Emma an authentic dream catcher. Then, we headed to the bus to go back to Vegas. It was a long drive back, with some napping involved, and then we were back to our hotel. 

After going to our hotel room to freshen up, we decided to do some more exploring. We walked the Vegas Strip again. We went to Cesar's Palace, the Mirage, and Venetian and walked through the lobbies and casinos. We also found a place where we could see the Sphere from a ways away and we watched that for a while. Then, we were hungry and ate supper at the Crack Shack. It was really good, and hit the spot. And we even found an Ube Shake there, and it really slapped. 

We spent some more time strolling around and checking out the sights, but then we started losing steam. It had been a long day after all. So, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night. 

Our hotel lobby 

The famous Las Vegas Sign 

The Omelet House 

Hoover Dam 

The Grand Canyon, Eagle Point 

The Glass Overlook Bridge 

Guano Point 

Las Vegas 2024 Day 1

 Just like last month, time has gotten away from me, and we are almost through the month of April. John and I snuck in a little weekend trip to Vegas 

The Friday we left for Vegas, we dropped the kids off at school, and then we finished packing and headed to the airport. Bryant was nice enough to give us a lift, and we were on our way. Our flight left Sioux Falls at 12:24pm and we landed in Las Vegas around 1:00pm, with the time change. We got an uber, and then headed to Park MGM, our hotel. 

We lucked out with a pretty nice day when we landed. It was sunny, and a nice warm 80 degrees. We checked into our hotel, dropped off our luggage and then did some exploring. We walked the strip, bought some beers to drink while walking around, and just enjoyed ourselves. We catch a fountain show at the Bellagio, then we went inside and checked out their Botanical Gardens. They had a beautiful tea party/flower theme, and it was very pretty and smelled so good in that room. Almost everything in their display was made out of real flowers. It was really cool. 

After the botanical gardens, we were getting pretty hungry, so we ate some lunch at Nacho Daddy's. We got a surf and turf nacho to share, and I got a margarita while John got a beer. It was amazing! Then, we headed to Brew Dog, a brewery on the strip, and got a couple beers. It was a fun place, but their beer selection was a little meh for me. 

After all the alcohol, we decided to head back to hotel and chill a little. Then, just for fun, we went and checked out the pools (our hotel had 3 of them) and even went for a short swim since it was so nice out. After swimming, we cleaned up, and then headed to the Minnesota Wild Hockey Game. One of the reasons we booked this trip when we did was to catch a Wild game, So, we watched the Wild take on the Golden Knights. It was a really fun experience in a nice, big arena. But, it was a terrible game. The Wild lost 7-2. So, we left after the second period. We walked around a while to see the strip at night. We also stopped at New York New York and grabbed a big slice of Pizza, and then eventually we headed back to the hotel at call it a night. We were pretty tired after all that, but we had a great first day. 

The view of the Strip from the airplane 

Our pools 

The Bellagio 

Inside the Bellagio 

Botanical Gardens 

Nacho Daddy's 

Brew Dog 

The view from our hotel 

T Mobile Arena- full of energy