May 2013

May started out with Makayla being invited to her first ever sleepover by herself! Grandma Diane invited her and cousin Ava to spend the night. She came home with art projects and had a good time.

We took Grandma Diane (and Grandpa Matt) out to dinner early for Mother's Day and visited.

Speaking of visits, I visited my Grandpa and Grandma Bjarnson too. Boy, are they getting old! They have to have help cooking and cleaning and with administering their meds.  Grandpa has lost pretty much all of his physical strength and Grandma has lost pretty much all of her mind.  So together, they make one complete healthy person, but separately...... not so much.  Grandma asked me at least 4 times if my boys were my grandkids.   And my mom said she called the police a few days ago because grandpa left the house too cold for her, so she wanted him arrested. We love her anyway!

We went on a double date with my brother Danny and his wife Dixie again.  I must say, Danny looks exactly like Ryan Reynolds, it's uncanny!

Our Las Vegas trip was a wonderful getaway.  It was fun and great to get out of town.

We stopped in Cedar City for a few nights on the way home from Vegas.  They opened up a brand new park that same weekend, and boy, was I impressed with it! I have never seen a tunnel slide 3 stories tall at a park before.  We will have to visit that park more often when we travel down south.

We tried a new ice cream place called Sub Zero there.  The shop actually makes your ice cream right in front of you with whole milk and liquid nitrogen. Watching them create it was pretty trippy.

Cedar City also had a traveling carnival there, so we let the kids go on a few rides.  I enjoyed a caramel apple and Scott braved going down a huge slide with his brother Bryan.

What is the first thing we did when we got home from our vacation you ask? Well, we went to Nickelmania.  We really do enjoy playing arcades. 

All that playing can make you tired!  I had to snap a photo when I found the boys sleeping on the couches.  Cute boys!

I have some very sad news to relay.  Scott's sister Christie, only 34 years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer this month.  She found some lumps and the doctors investigated.  Sure enough, cancer.  It has spread enough that it is consisered 'Stage 2' out of 4 stages.  She will have a masectomy in a few weeks and then start chemotherapy and radiation treatments, where she will lose all her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes.  She is such a beautiful, vibrant soul, and I am very sad she is having to deal with this huge challenge.  She has 4 boys from age 2 to 11.  She has been in our prayers a lot, and we hope things go the best possible for her.

 

Christie's family came up to go to Lagoon over Memorial Day with us.  One last hurrah before her surgery.  I would have to say, the weather was fabulous and the parking lot was only half full.  We were able to hop on all sorts of rides and thoroughly enjoy the day.  I know that was one of God's tender mercies in letting her really soak up some good memories.  She definitely was the most excited of all 16 of us to be there!

Our house was a zoo with 11 extra guests!

Grandma Paxton turned 90 years old on May 30th!  She is a sweet, quiet, happy lady and we thought we should celebrate by taking her out for dinner.  We went to Lonestar Steakhouse and celebrated her longevity.  We sang to her and were happy to be be in her company.  She is pretty healthy too!

We ended the month by sneaking in another trip to Nickelmania, splashing in the rec center pool, and an exciting visit to Planet Play.  There are some fun things here in the valley. I don't think we could ever move!

Las Vegas Baby!

Sometimes you just wanna get out of town. You need a break from the everyday drama. Vegas just happens to be a favorite spot of ours, especially mid-week because you can get hotel rooms for half off.  We talked Miss Pulley, Makayla's teacher, in to giving her end of level test early so we could hit the road.  I may or may not have bribed her teacher with a gift card. ;) Our daughter had 3 days off school the next week because of the testing, and since she was done early, we got out of dodge.  Our first stop was Cedar City for a night.  Scott's parents wanted in on the fun, so they joined us. We were off to Vegas Monday morning.

View out our window

We stayed in The Excalibur. It was a good choice, because the kids thought they were staying in a castle, and the entire basement is one big arcade.  Our family loves arcade games!

Our first destination was M&M world and the Coke Factory.  We saw the 3D show and then sipped sodas from around the world. I got a kick out of how Lincoln was so possessive of a few flavors like pina colada and an apple berry one, and when anyone tried to sneak a taste, he squealed loudly to show his dissatisfaction.

Next up was Murray the Magician magic show.  He was a top 10 finalist on America's Got Talent recently.  Too bad he didn't do one single big trick.  On tv, he made a full size train engine dissapear.  For his show, he mostly did card tricks.  Even though we got the tickets half price, we still felt jipped.

We then ventured out to some of our favorite television show sets.  We took a trip to Pawn Stars shop on the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard.  We didn't see any of the famous people that are on tv, but that's normal. We didn't see them our 2 previous trips here either.

We also found Rick's Restorations.  They fix up worn out antiques into shiny new looking deals.  We saw Rick, his wife, his brother, and his son. It was 109 degrees this day, hot, hot, hot!!!



The Boneyard



Scott and Rick's brother

The random thing is we accidentally pulled in to the wrong parking lot for Rick's Restorations and we ended up in an iron decor shop.  We and Marv and Vickie ended up buying some yard decorations there, like pretty butterflies and dragonflies made of metal, and an ant made of big stones.

Of course we had to squeeze in some swimming!

We went to Circus Circus to see the circus acts and not surprisingly, to play some more games.



One evening we tried to catch the volcano at the Mirage, but it was canceled due to wind.  Another night we walked down to the Bellagio to see the dancing water music show, but again, too windy and canceled.

We just had to see the pretty flowers at the Bellagio.  They are so gorgeous and creative in their displays.



We stopped on Freement Street to check out things.  Normally we get fried twinkies, but nobody was hungry this time around.  Lincoln was a hoot chasing pigeons every which way he could.  He really thought he could catch one and must have tried with over 20 different pigeons.  Yes son, the bird is up there.  It got away from you. :)

We visited Ceasar's Palace and caught a strange show with fake gods having a duel.

On to our favorite part of the trip, The Pinball Hall of Fame Museum.  This is a place that Scott researched out before we went.  It is an actual arcade/museum with antique games, retro games, and new games; all for the pleasure of playing.  All you have to do is provide your own quarters and the fun is yours.  We absolutely loved this museum so much that we took a second day and went back to double our enjoyment!

The antique machines have bell and doorbell sounds when you play. There must have been 25 different older pinball machines to play.

This pinball machine, Orbitor 1, just used air and magnets, pretty trippy to see your ball magically floating without the force of gravity pulling it down.

Some other pinball machines I had fun playing, a Looney Tunes one and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

This place really was awesome because it had several antique machines to use.  We got popcorn, a clown to dance, and a body rejuvenation jiggle for 25 cents each.

We even got gumballs for one penny a piece.  Supposedly it is the last working penny gumball machine in America.

The kids had a blast because this place had several crane machines to win a toy or a ball. They also had lots of plastic bubble machines and sticker machines.  My kids of course were delighted to go back.  We will definitely keep this on our MUST SEE list for future trips.

After 4 nights in Vegas, we headed back to Cedar City for a couple more nights.  We stopped at our favorite place in St. George, Paula's Mexican Diner and then visited a dinosaur museum.

Supposedly, this guy in the picture was digging the land to build a home when the rock slipped out of his dump truck and landed on its side.  He could clearly see dinosaur prints and claw marks, so they preserved the land and built the museum right on top of the site.

Then we headed back to Cedar City for 2 more nights and hung out with the cousins.  What a fun trip! Now, back to reality until the next time we can sneak away.