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 

April 1, 2024

 Well, just like that, March has rushed by and it's now April. Although, you wouldn't know it by the weather. Today has been snowy, wet, and cold and windy. Unfortunately, spring looks like it is in no hurry to get here. 

Emma wrapped up basketball a little over a week ago. They had the Tri-State Basketball Tournament. It went ok. They ended up losing all three games, but they got a t-shirt, and they had some fun playing together and they improved a lot over the year. Now, we are shifting gears to softball. Emma was supposed to start practice today, but the snow put a stop to that. So, once it gets a little nicer, we will start having some practices. 

Elliott is getting ready to start soccer. His first practice is next week, and his first game is a week from Saturday. I sure hope the weather improves soon. But, Elliott is excited. I just have to get him some new cleats, and we are ready to go. 

We also went to a couple Summit League games this year, and got to watch the Jacks win the summit league championship. Both men and women went to the NCAA tournament. They both lost right away, but it was fun to watch them. We have been following the March Madness tournament, and it's sure fun to watch such good basketball. 

This past weekend was Easter. The weather was not great, but we had some nice gatherings. On Saturday, we drove to Mankato for the day. Rachel hosted Easter and we had ham balls, 7 layer salad, cheesy potatoes, fruit and veggies trays, strawberry dessert, roll ups, deviled eggs, and ice cream cake. Needless to say, we didn't suffer. 

We spent the day visiting, eating, and we went for a chilly walk. We also celebrated Elena's 7th birthday with the ice cream cake and presents. After a light supper, we headed back home. We made it home around 8:30 pm which wasn't too bad, but we all headed to bed pretty quickly because we had to be at church at 6:10 am the next day. 

On Sunday, we went to sunrise service at 6:30 am. The choir sang 3 times during the service, and then we had the Easter breakfast afterwards. It was a busy, fun morning. Then after breakfast we had the festival service before finally heading home to change, and get ready to head to Jim and Barb's house. 

At Jim and Barb's house we had pork loin and ham, deviled eggs, cheesy potatoes, veggie tray, pea salad. and cheesecake, brownies, cupcakes, pecan pie, and fruit pizza. We hit the desserts a little hard. We also put on an easter egg hunt for the kids in the greenhouse. Then we just spent time visiting, playing Uno and Rummicub, and just having a nice day. 

The kids decided to spend the night, so they are still out at the farm. They are on spring break all week, and I have the week off as well. So, today I spent the day getting new tires and an oil change, getting caught up at home, scheduling Intek to come and clean our vents, working on a will, and paying bills. Its been a really productive day, but it hasn't been very relaxing. 

The rest of this week is pretty busy as well. Elliott has a birthday party tomorrow, and then Emma gets her braces on Thursday. We also have some appointments and shopping to get done during the week. As well as piano and reading and all the normal things. This spring break is going to be full of tasks and jobs, but it will feel so good getting some of these things done. 

Appreciation Cake at work 

Summit League Champ Trophies 

Shooting hoops 

Open Gym with the Skyforce 

Easter in MN

Happy Easter!

Wrapping up Basketball and the GPLHS Tournament

 This past week was pretty busy and crazy. We are finally wrapping up the basketball season, which both sad and kind of a relief. I love to watch Emma play basketball and it's been a fun season for both teams, but I am ready to get some weeknights back again. 

Emma's YMCA league had their end of the season tournament this past week. Emma played on Tuesday evening, and they beat the other team by quite a bit. Emma played hard, scored some points, and was fun to watch. On Thursday evening, they played for the Championship. They ended up coming up short. The other team just plain played better. Emma's team struggled to make their shots, they were not rebounding well, and they just didn't show up enough to win the game. Some of the girls were pretty upset by the outcome, but overall it was a really good season and the girls played well and improved a lot over the season. 

Emma was a little upset about it, but overall she was proud of the season and said she played her hardest, which she did. Her YMCA league is still having some practices because they have the Tri-State Tournament at the end of March. So, we still have a little bit of basketball left. 

On Friday evening, we randomly found out that the Jefferson girls basketball team was having their last home game to either lose and go home or win at go on to play playoff basketball. So, we decided to go. We brought Hannah T with us, and we enjoyed a really good basketball game. The girls were really interested in the game the entire time, which was nice to see. Elliott got kind of bored, and just walked around for a lot of the game. 

On Saturday, we woke up early to head to Watertown for Bethel's last basketball tournament of the year. Bethel was playing in the recreational league, so they just had three games to play and that was it. Bethel ended up going 3-0 (for the first time ever). They played some good basketball (and some not-so-good basketball) and ended up winning all their games. Emma played really well overall. We still need to work on rebounding and aggressiveness at times, but she is getting the concepts down, and just need to work on fine tuning her skills. 

My parents also came to the tournament and enjoyed some basketball games. In between games, we went and got some coffee and walked around. After the last game, we went to Dempsey's and had some beers, played some games, and then ate some pizza for supper. Finally, around 4:30pm we checked into our hotel and went swimming. 

We ended up with the pool to ourselves for a good hour, before other people came in and we left. We cleaned up, and then played some games in the lobby. Elliott now is obsessed (and pretty good) at Rummy Cube, and we also figured out how to play Skip-Bo again, and everyone was enjoying that. By 10:00, we were all pooped and headed to bed. 

Today, we ate some breakfast at the hotel, played a few more games, and then headed home. We are currently working on laundry, house cleaning, and just relaxing a little before our weekend is completely over. 

This next week will be quite a bit quieter. We only have one basketball practice, and no games. And really nothing else going on. I don't know what we will do with all our free time. 

We had a really nice weekend again, but I'm ready to not pack for a hotel again next weekend. This week, we have braces to look forward to with Emma. She get them on on Tuesday! Wish us luck!

Elliott's bird he made in Science class 

YMCA league 

Second Place!

Bethel's Basketball Team 

Dempsey's