happy birthday!!

...to my favoritest cowboy!! I love you!!

4th celebrations

This year for the 4th, I wasn't feeling well. Clyde took the wardlings to see some fireworks. Jacob and Penny were very tired, as it was way past their bed time when they arrived home.

baby Jared

The day we returned from Vegas, my sister had her baby. He has a head full of hair and is squishy soft. He started out needing to be in the NICU, but all is well now.

I swiped a few pictures of him from Ashley's blog. :)

Congrats R and J!!

back at the pool

It wouldn't be summer for us here at the brown house without swimming. We bought a pool pass this year. We figured that we had to go at least 6 times to get our money's worth. Goal accomplished. We are now enjoying as much pool time as we can squeeze in.

on a jet plane

Clyde and I have been planning on a trip from some time now. We really didn't do much for our 15th wedding anniversary so in February, (our 16th) we planned a week get away with some good friends of ours Michael and Victoria. Destinations were thrown around and we decided on Vegas. None of us had been there and we could score a time share that Victoria's family had. Perfect. We made all the arrangements and have been saving up to go. Thanks to my folks for watching our Wardlings while we were away and our neighbors who took care of our animals, house etc, we were able to stay away for 8 days.  We flew out of Charlotte. Had a quick flight to Atlanta and then into Las Vegas.

First view of Vegas...

We had such a nice time being with each other and our pals. I have done my best to get pictures up on the blog though they may not be in order and really I should've taken notes while I was there to remember everything that we did. 

First impressions of Neada...Hot. Dang Hot. (Though it is a dry heat...) It is still hot. My hair looked pretty good in the dry heat. The 104* day wasn't the hottest day that we were there either. I think it got to 110*.

more to follow...

photos from vegas

vegas shows

That's right blog readers, Celine Dion is back in Vegas. (When did she leave??) We, however, did not go to see her.

 We did however, go to Cirque du Soleil and saw Mystere.  That was a fabulous show. My only regret is that I was still so jet lagged that I found myself nodding off during the show. This is a must see show when you go to Vegas. The costumes (as that is what I tend to notice first) were spectacular and then all the acrobatics and routines were amazing as well.

the Bellagio

After visiting the Hoover Dam, we wanted to walk around and see Vegas at night. I like it better at night. We really wanted to see the fountains at the Bellagio. It was really neat to see.

As we were waiting for the fountain shows, we noticed all the water mice/rats that were climbing under the railings. It was gross to see them as they were everywhere.  

Mormon Fort

While driving around one night, we stumbled upopn a Mormon Fort, which was the first settlement in Vegas. We went back the next day to see it. There was a whole $1 entrance fee. The fort got me thinking about what the early Mormon settlers must have thought about moving to a desert and how hard the life was. It also got me thinking about building a fort in our back yard. Let's just say some idea bees are buzzing.

Vegas Temple

The Vegas Temple is a very pretty temple. It was closed for renovations, so we just toured the grounds. We spoke with the contractor, who happened to install the new tiles in the Raleigh Temple a few weeks ago. He sounded just like the Bishop in Napoleon Dynamite. Nice man.

the Hoover Dam

When planning our trip, we heard lots of opinions on going to the Hoover Dam. Some of our frinds said they loved it and to take the tour, or to skip the tour, or even to skip the visit to the dam entirely. We wanted to see it and for us, it was a very cool thing to see. We enjoyed our tour and visit to the dam.

The innerds of the dam.

 We walked out on the bridge to take this photo. That  day was probably the hottest day we spent in Vegas. I think all the concrete from the dam made the day hotter. It was worth it though.

leaving vegas...

This was our last picture of the trip...it was taken before going to the airport to fly home.

I enjoyed my time with Clyde. He always makes trips fun! love you!

Synopsis:

*I was surprised by all the smoking...it is everywhere... and all the open alcohol containers and public drinking, as it was everywhere too. I was also surprised by the amount of nudie advertisements and cards that people tried to give us. Sin City gets it's name honestly.

*The mountains looked like big dirt clods to me. Being able to see for miles and miles was also different. I like the mountains here in NC better than in Arizona and Vegas. Everything was so brown. It is pretty but I think ours are prettier.

*I liked Vegas better at night.

*We saw a homeless man peeing on a building in the broad day light. We also saw an older Asian lady get arrested and on that Vegas Cops show. (I was wondering if we would see any filming of that.) Also the Pawn Stars shop is in a dumpy part of town on the Vegas Blvd. And we didn't see any Sisterwives...

*UNLV is a pretty campus, but really, does studying take place??

*Food is good, but learned where not to go. It can also be quite expensive. If you go off the strip for a few blocks, there are other eateries. Also- In and Out Burger sucks. Five Guys and Smashburger (my favorite) are way better.

*Mystere Cirque du Soleil is worth the money to see. Bellagio light show was very pretty. Treasure Island show was cheesy. Next time I must get photos of Kotton Kandy, the transvestite on the street.

We had a great time, but I don't know if we would return to Vegas on our next vacation. Very happy that we got to spend time together and got to see Sin City with our good pals.

take me to the ballgame

Right as school was getting out for the summer, my Dad asked me on a date...to the ball park. A company that he works with was celebrating their 10th anniversary and celebrated by hosting a party. I got to go and meet the folks that my Dad works with. We had a great time! We were on the big screen during the 7th inning stretch and I caught a foul ball. Awesome! After the Grasshoppers lost, we hung around for the fireworks. Awesome time with my Dad!!