Playtime in Vegas

Brandan and his Dad had a conference in Las Vegas so we decided to tag a long and have some fun with grandma while "Daddy" worked.

First things first, shopping. We went to the forum shops at Caesar's Palace and of course had to take a picture by the horse.

Addie took a picture by Aunt McKenzie's Boyfriend at FAO Schwartz. This is called an Ugly Doll and it couldn't be named any more accurate. They had all these "ugly dolls" for sale I mean I was blown away that they thought people would actually buy these. 

They are so...um.... ugly.

The girls had to ride the life size animals. I love this store we could pretty much just play with everything and then leave. After the toy store we went and watched the fishies in there big aquarium. The girls couldn't get enough of that. 

Then we ate at Cheesecake Factory!!! 

When we got done shopping we went over to the Mirage and went to see the new baby dolphin and the baby tiger. They don't do any shows but you can get pretty close to them.

Here is the baby dolphin. It took everything I had not to get in there and swim with him. He was so cute and little. 

The Mom and baby.

Ok so here is something interesting they told us before we went into the garden, they said "Lions mark their territory by lifting up there tail and spraying urine. So if the lion turns around and lifts its tail at you run for cover, and the can spray up to 20 feet"

So I am looking at the lion and growling at it, and I look down to get my camera and I feel this sprinkle all down the side of my arm. YEP! sure enough that stupid thing sprayed urine on me. I was so embarrassed. I got out my Purell and took a little bath.

It happened again to someone else later so I didn't feel that dumb.

We were pretty tired at the end of the day. We went to go check into our hotel and rest. 

We got lucky our room at the Planet Hollywood (which I would highly recommend best stay for $89 I have had)  had a view room that looked out onto the fountains at the Bellagio. The girls loved watching from our room but we really couldn't here the music that far up but it still was amazing.

Another thing that Wendy taught me was to Valet Park. The best thing I have ever learned, all you do is tip them thats it and you don't have to walk through those scary parking garages with kids.

Taylor, Brayden, and McKenzie (Brandan's brother and sisters) all came down the night before. Planet Hollywood has these Miracle Mile shops and they are great and have great stores. Build-a-Bear was one of them so we all went in and made a bear. Thanks to Grandma. 

( Thanks Wendy for providing the fun) above is "the heart ceremony" those of you who have been to build-a-bear know what I am talking about.

Washing the bears.

washing the bears, (cousin) Jesse is wondering where the water is.

The girls walking through the casino back to our room with there bears on their backs.

A girl and her bear.... in a casino :)

Happy Halloween!!

My mom came over and took pictures too, so of course they paid more attention to her than me. I took what I could get.

Don't they look Beautiful. My little girls are growing so fast. Pretty soon its going to be prom dresses instead of halloween costumes. 

(hopefully there will still be prom and halloween after this election)

Kate my little poser.

 The girls love to get dressed up and get their picture taken.

Photo Shoot with Grandma.

I bought this fake eyelashes for Addie and she wore them the whole night.

It took some convincing. After I put them on she looked in the mirror and said "Mom, I don't look like Belle with these on I look kinda..." (then she made a scary face) I told her to go get a picture of Belle and I would show her that she has big eyelashes. As she went to get the picture I was praying that Belle had big eyelashes in the picture. Sure enough she did and that was that she wore them the rest of the night. She did want to take them off every once in a while but I just told her that I wanted to take mine off too and she didn't say anything else about it.

We had a neighborhood pot luck right before Trick-or-Treating.

 Luckily it was nice weather!!

Brandan's Halloween costume was this cone on his head that said"CAUTION Gas Leak Below" He thought it was so funny...

My costume consisted of fake eyelashes and black makeup. I did have black lip stick on but I had just eaten so there are just remnants of black lip stick.

We just went Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood nothing to extensive. 

This was the candy break we took. The girls couldn't take it anymore they had to have a piece of candy!!

Pumpkin Carving

We all had a great time carving pumpkins! We are officially ready for Halloween! 

All of us are sitting behind the pumpkins we carved. 

The girls after a bath with all of our pumpkins!

Its hard getting a good shot of pumpkins lit up at night with our camera, so here is the best one.

Here are Addie's and Kate's pumpkins pretty darn cute!

Me helping Kate out with her pumpkin carving. We got this new electric pumpkin carver at 

K-mart, it is wonderful I would highly recommend getting one it made pumpkin carving go so quickly.

Addie loved getting her hands in there and getting the "squishy stuff" out as long as she had on a gloves. 

The girls wanted to paint pumpkins like the ones at the store. So we bought some little pumpkins and let them paint them.

Addie's really looked like a face...Kate's? not so much.

Hiking in Zion

We decide to go Zion with Brandan's family over "fall break" formally known as UEA (whatever) 

Anyway, we decided to have brunch at the Bumbleberry Inn Restaurant then go into the park. once into the park we took a shuttle. Brandan and I were talking about how different it was now. The last time we were in Zion was when Brandan proposed to me almost 7 years ago on New Years. If you haven't been for a while it has changed a lot. No cars! Which is actually a nice change I remember hearing the buzzing of cars while we hiked and now you don't. Back to the story... We took the shuttle to the  Emerald Pools Hike. We thought the Grandma's and Grandpa's would like that hike better than Angel's Landing ok and also our kids. Brandan and I took the long way. I didn't think not going to the gym for a week would really make that big of a difference... IT DID. lets just say I was glad I didn't attempt to do Angel's Landing like I wanted to. After we hiked around a while and saw all the beautiful fall colors, we decided to head back. I think we all thought at the same time. "We can't leave without ice cream" so we got some ice cream and walked down to this little ranch that has domesticated elk and buffalo.

I bet you can't tell we had ice cream by Addie's face! 

Buffalo... huge buffalo

Katers loved playing here this was her favorite part. 

I kept throwing food at this elk and it would scream at me it was so funny. I don't know if it was screaming but if you ever have heard an elk call it sure sounds like they're screaming.

This is our little family up by Emerald Pools. We had a great time. I kept thinking to myself why don't we come here more often. I really need to take advantage of the beautiful places me. It was so fun thanks for inviting us grandma and grandpa. 

Guilty Pleasures

Ok so I am sitting here doing my blog surfing and I decided I want to share some of my guilty pleasures. 

First and foremost: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies the ones that are so simple you get spice cake mix, one can of pumpkin and chocolate chip and whawlaa an extra 5 lbs tacked right onto your hips but holy cow it was worth it. ( actually it is a weight watchers recipe and you can eat as many as you want and they have 0 calories) 

Second: Blog surfing. I love getting caught up in the blog web and going from blog to blog reading shamelessly about peoples lives. Thanks for blogging guys!!

Third: The music on my blog.... I know its weird but sometimes I just go on my blog just to hear the music. 

Ok, so I want to hear some of your guilty pleasures please comment it will be fun !!

CANCUN

And so it begins our wonderful trip to Cancun that Brandan planned for my Birthday surprise. We had a great trip and we are so grateful for all those that helped with our kids. We couldn't have done it with out you. Cancun was beautiful! I rediscovered why I fell in love with Brandan and we are truly best friends. I couldn't imagine my life with out him and our beautiful kids. I was rejuvenated and ready to come back and be a mom. This, I think is a mandatory thing for every couple. It doesn't need to be Cancun, though I highly recommend it, it can be anywhere just get away and rediscover your love for each other and your kids. 

This is the view from our hotel room. It over looked this cool little lagoon. My hair went curly and fizzy as soon as I got off the plane it was raining so I instantly had a fro. So my hair will be curly from this point on. 

The hotel was really nice and all Inclusive which I think is soooo much better then a cruise!

Brandan did such a good job booking the whole thing. 

Thanks for the greatest Birthday ever!!!

So on my Birthday it started out nice but then it started raining so we decided to go down town to "Market 28" Its where all the so called "cheap stuff" is well we found out there was a Costco down there and we wanted to see what it was like. It was exactly the same as here just a whole section of alcohol. So we had some costco pizza which tasted the exact same. then it started to rain hard. and this is Brandan trying to catch a bus home. I took the picture from under some shops. It was so fun to be out in the pouring rain in Mexico with Brandan. At least Brandan knew Spanish. I really did have fun in the rain we were laughing the entire time. 

This is on the party boat to Isla Mujeres. when Isla Mujeres (which means island of women) was first discovered by the spaniards they didn't find anything but a temple and statues of pregnant women. They later found out that it was the island of fertility and so when the Mayans wanted their crops to grow better they would visit the island, and when women wanted to get pregnant they would visit the island. Our guide told everyone that if you didn't want babies then go to the hotel and go straight to sleep. No hoochy coochy . 

The water was this color everywhere. True paradise

This is the view from the beach side cafe we ate at. 

Brandan, Coke in hand, at the very tip of the party boat we took to the island. 

This is Tulum some mayan ruins. It was beautiful. 

Look at that ocean. Really, if you ever get the chance to go to Cancun, go to Tulum and make time to swim in the ocean there. We didn't have very much time here so we didn't get to swim and it was really hot so we really wanted to. 

This is an Iguana they were hundreds of them at Tulum

Isn't it amazing what these Mayans could build!

Me with my constant companion a virgin pina colada. Our hotel was all inclusive so all the drinks you want. Yes we would get funny looks asking for virgin drinks but hey we at least got our moneys worth

We went to a place called Xel-HA to snorkel it is a place where fresh water and salt water mix. We saw Sting Rays, we took an underwater camera but we have to develop it so I will post it if and when we get it developed. 

This is us in a hammock after we went snorkeling.

Look at my HOT husband!! This is the beach right outside our hotel. It was so fun because there was a sand bar right in the middle of the ocean you would swim out to it and catch some awesome waves back into shore!!

We are so sad to leave...

The last Sunset we saw in Cancun

My Birthday Surprise

Ok, I just have to say that I have the best husband ever. My Birthday is on Tuesday the 30th of September. Last night Brandan brought me flowers and a card . In the card Brandan said that he had planned a trip to CANCUN for my birthday (which I kinda already knew about because of a bank statement... long story) the card also said that "to find the dates look through all the petals of the flowers and find numbers and try to place them in the correct way." So thats exactly what I did and we are leaving this Sunday AAAAHHHH!!! What an awesome surprise! We are leaving from September 29th - October 4th  a whole week!!! I also want to thank my in-laws for volunteering to watch our girls I know its along time but I really appreciate it.  I know they are going to love having a week with Grandma. So I am off to pack for CANCUN! Oh man I wish I would have stayed on my diet for a while longer so I would look smokin' hot but oh well we are going to have the best time. Thanks Brandan for a great Birthday present.