Another Vegas trip

The day after school got out we headed down to Vegas to meet up with Dan's brother and his wife for a quick trip.  It was an awesome way to start off summer break!  In some ways I feel like we've done everything there is to do in Vegas (well all the clean things), but the two things we still needed to do were visit the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and go to a Cirque du Soleil show, so that's what we did!

We started the day off by eating lunch at Claim Jumper, which we love.  We then headed to the Shark Reef, which was really cool!  Made a quick stop at NY NY arcade (can you guess why?). Ate dinner at the crepe place in Bellagio (highly recommended), and finished the night with the Cirque du Soleil show Ka (amazing!!!).  Went to bed that night and headed home the next morning after a nasty breakfast buffet at South Point (will never stay there again).  All in all, minus the nasty buffet, it was a really fun trip!

And now for the pics...

Shark Reef tunnel!

Ben, Rachael & Dan

By the shark tank!

Jellyfish!

Sting rays.

Did you guess right?  Back at the NY NY Arcade for some giant claw game action.
Nope, still didn't win!  Maybe next time.

Yummiest crepes ever!

Mmmm... chocolate @ the Bellagio.

The fountains are always a must see.  Especially beautiful at night.

This show was literally mind blowing!  They did things I didn't think were humanly possible.  We really loved it!

In the Ka theater.  I don't think you're actually supposed to take pictures in here, but after the price we paid, I think they owed it to us :).

 I now want to see the Cirque du Soleil show "O" next time.  I've heard it's the best!  Hmmm... maybe for our anniversary in August?

Solar Eclipse

Just a few weeks ago there was a solar eclipse (when the moon passes in front of the sun) and St. George just happened to be a great place to view it.  My sister Noelle, her husband, Jared, & his parents all drove down just to see it.  Along with them we also invited some neighbors over and had a little solar eclipse party in our front yard.  It ended up being one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

You have to wear these special glasses so the sun doesn't burn your eyes!

Noelle and me!

The neighbors!  More and more people showed up once they heard we had the best setup and treats!

I took this picture with my phone of the eclipse!  Even the camera lens had to be covered with the dark glasses.

My high tec brother in law was able to hook up his computer to their telescope, so everything you could see through the telescope also appeared on his computer screen.  It was so cool!  A great way for lots of people to see the eclipse close up.  Plus it was nice being able to come inside the air conditioned house for a break.

Once the sun went down we stayed out and used the telescope to look at the night sky.  We found Saturn!  This is the view through the telescope.  It was SO cool.  You could see it's rings, which was awesome!  It was a lot clearer in person, a little blurry on the camera.

It was such a fun evening!  We liked being astronomers for a day.

We love visitors

A couple of weeks ago we had some family come visit us!  We love visitors!  My brother Tim, his wife, Katie, and their 2 boys, Chase & Riley, spent a few days with us and we had lots of fun!  Since I took so many pictures I decided to make some collages to show what we did.

Played around the house with these 2 cute boys!

Went to the downtown splash pad & carousel.  I think these photos turned out so cute!

Had a bbq & s'more night.

We also went swimming, shopping & took the boys to see the temple.  Also, I know in the above photo I am showin a little leg, haha... it's because we had just gone swimming!

A few things about the boys... Riley loved having me help him and whenever I picked him up he loved to touch my hair.  It was so funny.  He would also say to me often "I play anga birds on your phone."  So super cute!  Chase is one of the smartest 4 year olds I know.  He told us all about dinosaurs and said he likes to "explore, investigate and discover!"  He wants to be a doctor when he grows up and knows more about the human body than I do.

We had a great weekend!  Thanks for the visit!

the twins

Below in my City Creek post I said I didn't have any baby blessing photos, but now I do!  So here they are... pictures from our twin nephew's baby blessings.

The happy family!

Us with the sweet twins, Jamis & Tanner.

With big brother, Mason.  He is a fabulous big brother!

We're so happy we were able to visit family up north and be there for this special day!

Summer!!!

It's here!  I survived the whole school year!  There were days where I wasn't sure I would make it :).  I am soooo excited.  Time for vacation, relaxing, flip flops, popsicles, pool days and finishing up all of my projects.  Hooray!