Skye Hits the Jackpot

After we were done at Build-a-Bear (see previous post), we went into an arcade at The Gateway--Chad's idea. While he went off to get some change, I gave Skye a couple quarters from my purse. She played this game where you pull a big lever down, the wheel spings, and you get the number of tickets the arrow lands on. At first I wasn't really paying attention, and thought she got only 5 tickets. Suddenly, as the tickets started pouring out, I noticed the number 1000 on top! You had to get at just the right angle to see, but the wheel had actually landed on this thin spot worth 1000 tickets! It was so cool! I couldn't believe how long it took for all those tickets to come out! Here she is with the prizes from her winnings (and those of Chad and Leisha). What's with the weird pose? Don't ask me!

She ended up with quite the collection. She got a dog, a Care Bear, three packs of play money, some Silly Bandz, and several pieces of chocolate. And then there's Kitties. What a day she had!

Kitties--the final product, complete with a Hello Kitty (or Mimi as Skye has named her) purse and all!

The Newest Member of Skye's Family

For Christmas, my sister and brother-in-law gave Skye a gift card to Build-a-Bear. We hadn't used it yet so decided to go with them while they were in town visiting a few weeks ago. She picked out a kitty that she names Kitties. So creative, huh?! Giving life to her new kitty!

Giving Kitties, the newest member of her stuffed animal family, a big hug!

Kitties takes her first bath.

Then it was off to pick out an outfit.

She found this puppy in roller skates and tied its leash up on a hook!

Inputting information for Kitties' birth certificate.

With Leisha and Chad--the ones who made this all possible!

Kiss the Skye -take 1

Let the Home Improvements Begin!

Owning your own home is all about changing it, right? Wouldn't it be nice to get a house that is already perfect for you in every way? Some people probably get that lucky. We have a pretty good house, but one of the most horrible things about it is the flooring. First of all, whoever decided carpet in the dining room was acceptable? It's sooooo much easier to clean up a hard surface than carpet. And whoever decided ugly linoleum in the kitchen was acceptable? We certainly didn't, which is why we've spent the last couple of weeks remodeling our floors! We got the dining room finished and are in the process of doing the kitchen. So here's the before (with stupid carpet)... And the after!!!! Beautiful, isn't it?!
But the in between is what really matters. It took a lot of work, but was so worth it!
Luckily, we had some help. After pulling up the carpet, we (meaning Lance) had to nail backer board down. His friend, Dave, came over one night to help with it.

I cleaned. Oh yeah.

And Skye helped by keeping us entertained!

She also helped paint the primer on the floor (the picture turned out blurry). Then it was time to lay the first tile. Luckily, my sister and brother-in-law were there to help. They put this kind of flooring (peel and stick vinyl tile) in their house so it was great having them there to help.

There's no turning back now!

The girls were the assembly line. We'd get a tile, peel off the back, then hand it to one of the boys! So exhausting...he he he! And talking of help, my younger brother helped a bunch, too.

This is after laying all the tiles, but before putting the grout on.

Lance grouting the floor. This is what took forever.

Me cleaning the grout off.

Lance helped, too!

And there is our beautiful, new floor. We love it! I can't wait to have the kitchen finished. It is such an improvement!

The Flowers Are in Bloom Again!

Last year at this time, I was photographing mexican poppies that were springing up wild all over our rock yard. I wasn't expecting to get blooming flowers here already! But here they are! I just randomly had crocuses come in my yard. They were beautiful and smelled great, too.

Remember the roses Lance got for me? For some strange reason, I've always wanted to photograph red roses on the snow. It snowed not too long after he got them so I took some outside to get pictures. It might be a weird concept, but I'm sharing them anyway!

Vegas Vacation: Final Chapter

This is why we have loved going to Las Vegas in the past: Behold beautiful Red Rocks! This is the funnest place I have ever climbed. Lance has even said it's the funnest place he's climbed and he's been to several other states and even Canada and France to climb!
Unfortunately, we have had some disasters here, too. If the weather isn't nice, you can't climb, and you're miserable. One of the lessons we learned is that while climbing crags around where we live may not be as cool or as beautiful as Red Rocks, it's still climbing. Why go on a vacation to do something you can do close to home. A vacation should be about doing something you normally wouldn't be able to do.

And as great as Red Rocks is, we also decided it's not worth being in Vegas for. As we walked the strip, we were bombarded with dozens of illegal immigrants handing out adds for prostitutes. Even after I made Lance walk on the other side of the sidewalk, they would reach around me to try and hand him one. I finally grabbed one, threw it to the ground, and loudly announced, "He's already with a girl!" A girl in front of us (who was with a guy) turned around and congratulated me, then said, "Unfortunately, they probably don't understand what you said." Everywhere you look, there's pornography and totally depressed people gambling their lives away. I mean, have you ever seen some happy, smiling person in a casino? I sure haven't! So we decided that we probably won't ever go back to Red Rocks or Vegas again.

Luckily, we did still have some fun while we were there. We visited some friends who live there whom we haven't seen for a long time. We at least got to go climbing with them at the local climbing gym and had a good time. Of course, I think the most excited one was their dog, Seyla, who was always Lance's biggest fan. Even though it's been years since she saw him, she totally remembered him! She got sooooo excited!

We also went to the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History. This is what pre-historic buffalo looked like!

The reason we went there was to see the King Tut exhibit they had. There were some actual artifacts from his tomb and ancient Egypt, and they had also re-created what it looked like when they found it. It was really cool and definitely worth the trip!

So was this!

And this!

The other thing that made the trip at least half worth it were the shows we took it. We saw the Tournament of the Kings at Excalibur. Lance had never been to anything like this so it was a lot of fun. We routed for the Dragon Knight! We were the loudest section so it was awesome. I was just trying to re-create my band trip from over ten years ago!

We also saw Mystere by Cirque du Soleil. You aren't allowed to take pictures at the shows, so I got this from the internet. There were some weird parts to it--Lance kept talking about French humor. I guess I don't get it. But it was also quite amazing. If anyone ever gets a chance to see one of their shows, I would recommend it!

So the vacation wasn't a total loss, but I'm definitely heading to the beach for the next one we go on!