Vegas

In Caesars Palace by the fountain

 I love vacation!  This one was no exception!  I have been to Vegas twice previously and each experience has been different from the time before.  Th first time I was about 10 or 11.  Mom worked for the airline and Vegas was trying the "family friendly" vibe.  The family traveled with Chuck, Judy and Claire (Fay wasn't alive yet) and made a long weekend out of it riding the rides at the MGM theme park (which no longer exists.)

My next trip to Vegas was in 2006 with my wild and crazy (and wonderful) girlfriends.  We were

The night time view from the top of the Stratosphere

all of legal age for drinking and ready to party.  So we did.  Hard.  I remember walking out of the after hours club as the sun was rising out last day there.  I have fond memories of that trip.  We most definitely lived it up! 

I already knew this time was going to be different.  For starters the company was different.  Adam and I went with my future father-in-law, future brothers-in-law and their girlfriends.  Another difference is I'm older.  It's amazing how much life can change between the ages of 21 and

After lunch at The Top of the World Cafe

27!  I'll just say I can't stay up as late, I can't drink as much and crowds give me anxiety.  Like I said before though I love vacation, and this one was no exception.

We flew out of Colorado Springs on Monday evening.  After we made it to our hotel (Stratosphere) and got a little settled in we ate at Roxy's Diner at the Stratosphere.  The other kids decided to go out exploring.  Adam and I went to bed.

Tuesday Adam, Pops (his dad) and I went to the hotel buffet then to Caesars Palace and did some

Daytime view

walking, shopping and window shopping.  They have such fancy stores there!  I was joking that I didn't know how to act because the fanciest places I'm used to are Dillards and Macy's.  Haha!  The only place we made purchases was H & M.  How I adore H & M!  We met up with the others and did some more walking on the strip.  We ended up at Denny's that night for Dinner.

On Wednesday Adam, his brother Scot, girlfriend Jamie and I went to The Top of The World Cafe for lunch (which doubled as breakfast.)  We got to see the neat view of Vegas from up there as the restaurant slowly rotated to show the 360 degree
view!  Next we headed downtown to Freemont St.  It was fun seeing all the old places and old signs.  Adam and his dad are experienced Vegas go-er's and they have their favorite hot spots to go on Freemont.  We headed back to the hotel to get fancied up for Rob's birthday dinner at the Rio's Seafood Buffet.  It was sooooo delicious!  We had a great time together talking and eating way too much.  I think there was an unspoken competition between Adam and Scot on who could fill their baskets with crab, lobster and shrimp shells the highest.  I think Scot won.  We stayed out for a bit that night and did some more exploring.  We walked the strip and went into several different places.  While we were in Bally's we crossed paths with Jeffery Graber, a friend from Bethel!  I had seen on facebook that he said he was coming and made a comment, jokingly, about us maybe crossing paths.  That's exactly what happened.

Thursday was our last full day there.  We started the day

Live statue

 hanging out at the pool.  We played a bean bag version of washers and sat in the hot tub.  It was the coolest of all the days we were there, but we HAD to go to the pool.  Adam and I stayed in the hot tub while the other crazies played a rousing game of volleyball in the pool.  I refused to play and Adam was pretty pleased with that refusal because it was a good excuse for him not to play.
 After our time and the pool we headed to Excalibur decked out in St. Patty's green where we purchased tickets for The Tournament of Kings, a dinner show.  We hung out around Excalibur until the time of the show.  We were again presented with way too much delicious    

Toasting at the California

food!  The show is set in Medieval times.  We were each served soup in a bowl with a handle, no spoon.  A Cornish hen, potatoes and broccoli with no fork.  We enjoyed the show and cheered for Spain since that was our section.  We gave it our all, but it just wasn't enough.  We didn't win.  Adam and I spent the rest of the night walking around mostly with Pops and visiting casinos.  We played some slots and enjoyed the night.

On Friday after sleeping in, it didn't leave us time for much more before we caught the shuttle to the airport.  Brother Rob, girlfriend Naomi, Adam and I made one last trip up to the

top of the Stratosphere.  The plan was to ride the rides, but we didn't have enough time.  We caught the shuttle and headed back to the airport.  Our travels home were uneventful and safe.

I was completely exhausted that night and on Saturday.  I made myself get out of bed about 11:30 a.m.  If I didn't keep moving I was pretty sure I would go back to bed, so I took Adam lunch.  Yes, the poor guy had to work the day after we got back.  I was so glad I had the weekend to recover!  I got all of the laundry done on Sunday and felt like the home was ready for the start of the new week even if my mind and body weren't.

I think I'm finally getting back to my sleep schedule.  Now I have to start thinking of all those things I kept putting off until "after Vegas."  It's after Vegas now.  Time to get busy!

Outside Circus Circus

Waiting to fly home

You're kidding me!

I know, right. I have some nerve trying to pick up where I left off and pretend like I had nothing to say the last 3 1/2 months. I had plenty happening in that time. So much in fact, I haven't had too much time to blog. My apologizes for ignoring you, The Animals Know Things. Here goes...

After Jack was born April was filled with visits to my apartment where Marika, Nathan and Jack were living. He is such a joy!

The first weekend in May Adam and I took a trip to Salt Lake City for motocross. It was piss poor weather for the drive there, while we were in town and then fine on the way home. That was a bummer. We drove all that way to sleep in the hotel and get cold cold rained on and see about 30 minutes of boys on motor bikes.

Memorial Day weekend was filled with fun! I went to Boulder for a birthday party and to see my beloved Joel and Emily. Then later that weekend cousin Kirk arrived to spend the summer here and work with dad.

May also brought more visits to the apartment to see sweet little Jack and of course Nathan and Marika. :)

June was a busy month. I traveled to Minneapolis for Rachel's Bachelorette Party. We had a BBQ Friday night with the boys and Saturday night was Bachelor/Bachelorette party night. The girls had a ball hopping from one party joint to the next!

Later in June, I got to be in the audience for the first live Tornado Magnets (the band Adam plays in) show! They did a great job and the night was so much fun!

Nathan, Marika and Jack left for a trip to Idaho to visit Marika's family on the July 1. My birthday was July 2nd, just like every other year. I had a great day and spent the evening with friends downtown. If you know me well, you know that my birthday celebration didn't end at midnight on July 2. The majority of the entire month of July is my birthday, at least in my head it is. :) My good friend Rebekah and I decided to throw ourselves a 27th birthday party since her birthday is July 15th. We busted it out high class. We hosted a cocktail party complete with drinks and lots of delicious food. We had a fantastic time with everyone!

The next weekend, Adam and I were on a plane headed to Kansas for Rachel and Shawn's long awaited commitment ceremony! They got married on July 17th, surrounded by beautiful loving people and a whole lotta fun! It was a reunion of sorts for Bethel College friends and there was a great turnout of BC peeps. We also got to party it up with Shawn's friends. I would say we all fit together quite naturally. On Sunday before flying out, Adam and I went to see my dear friend Sara and her baby boy, Nolan. That was the first time I had met Nolan and he was born in January. It was due time! What a sweetheart he is. We also squeezed in a trip to the Salt Mine Museum before almost missing out flight home. (Literally, we were told we had to run to the gate.) Another fabulous weekend.

N,M&J came home after about 3 weeks in Idaho and were able to begin moving into their house! After 14 long months of owning the home and not being able to occupy the residence, they were ready for sure! It is such a beautiful home. Gillis Homes quality!

Mary, Ken and Megan arrived in Colorado on Tuesday, August 3rd and stayed until their drive home Monday the 9th. We were able to have a good ole Gillis get together in Loveland at Pete and Marilyn's. We ate yummy food and played games. We left the Beutke family behind in Loveland and they started their trip home from there. It was really fun having Kirk around for the summer and having the opportunity to get to know him as an "adult." :) It feels strange around the house without him.

I guess that was my summer in a nutshell. I can't believe it took me as long as it did to post. If you had the patience to read through this entire thing you get mad props. Stick with me. I'll try to do better.

24 hours of a great time!

On Tuesday evening I headed out of town with my friend Adam on our way to Albuquerque, NM. We couldn't leave until after he was done with work for the day. We left Pueblo somewhere around 8:00. We had a great road trip through the remainder of Southern Colorado and into New Mexico. What a time! When we arrived in Albuquerque we had several choices in hotels and picked the Isleta Hotel & Casino. It was beautiful! So fancy and awesome! The kicker...it was pretty inexpensive! Woo hoo! We checked in around 1:30 a.m. and headed to the casino for a bit. We didn't stay too long, just long enough to lose some money on the penny slots.

After sleeping on a cloud, we ate the yummiest breakfast burrito in one one of the hotel restaurants. Only $2.99. I would go back just for that. We lost $10 more in the slots before we headed back into town to pick up the fireplace for dad. The whole reason we got to go on our mini vacation was because of this fireplace. The owners of one of the houses dad is currently working on picked a keva fireplace from Adobelite Fireplaces. We had the pleasure of meeting Jim, the man mom and dad have been working with at Adobelite. He was a grandpa type funny man. We have some funny quotes from our hour there with Jim. After loading the fireplace we hit the road again.

The way home was just as fun as the drive there. We made it back to Pueblo just in time for Adam to make it to bowling. I watched one of their games and then hit the road again headed for the Springs in his truck loaded down with the big fireplace.

I am so glad that it worked out to take this trip. Now it's getting my crap together before I leave for Austin on Oct. 1. I'll have some time after that until I start my new job as a child welfare caseworker for El Paso County on the 13th!

Winfield in the year of our Lord 2009

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Mini-apple-less

Friday mid morning I boarded a plane at the Colorado Springs airport on my way to see the Combdings! I arrived in Minneapolis on Friday late afternoon. We went to Rachel's super cute place and met Shawn there. After chatting it up for a while we headed a few blocks down the road to Pizza Luce'. If you ever have the chance to eat there, do it. If you consider ordering the Garlic Mashed Potato pizza, do it! You'll love it guaranteed, or it's on me. We shared a pitcher or two and made our way back to Rachel's place. On Saturday, Rachel and Shawn had planned to surprise me by taking me to brunch and a show at the Guthrie. As it turned out, Shawn was only able to join us for brunch. He had to work. :( We dined at the Level Five Cafe' preshow. Rachel and I then enjoyed the production When We Are Married . The show was very well done. After the show we walked around a little and went outside on the thing that juts out of the side of the building. That's where we had this cool view!

Saturday afternoon we hung out and talked. It was so nice to be with Rachel again. It had been a while since we had the opportunity to catch up on life in person. That evening their friends were throwing a party at a place called Stella's. We went a little early and ate downstairs. After the meal we went up stairs and joined the party!

We danced the night away, or at least until they started kicking us out!

I would be okay if that never happened again.

On Monday morning I woke up (later than intended) and moved as quickly as I could (not very fast at all) to feed the kitties and take my shower so I could go help mom in the office for a few hours.

After both kitties were eating, I started the dishwasher and jumped in the shower. I normally wouldn't share this much information about my shower time, but I believe this to be blog worthy. I shampooed my hair and put in conditioner. I started to shave my legs and all of a sudden the water pressure drastically reduced to a dribble out of the shower head. I was confused about what might be happening but I stood there for a minute or two waiting for it to start up again. Then I started to get cold.

I realized that I maybe shouldn't be running the dishwasher at the same time as the shower, and that was probably what was causing the lack of pressure. So, reluctantly I stepped out of the shower with conditioner in my hair and shaving cream on my legs grabbed my towel and ran to the kitchen and stopped the dishwasher. I thought, surely now I can finish my shower.

I went back to the bathroom and turned the faucet on again. Nothing. I told my self that the water needed to make its way through the pipes again, so I just needed to count to 30. I counted and still nothing. I kept trying to be patient and try it again and again. I was dreading the thought of having to leave my house with conditioner in my hair and shaving cream residue on my legs to finish my shower at mom & dads.

Finally I decided that it probably wasn't the dishwasher. I had thoughts running through my head like, did I forget to pay the water bill? after about 15 minutes I decided it was time to call the office. The lady who answered didn't know of any work going on in my building, but said she would ask the maintenance manager and call me back.

After another 10 minutes of walking around in a robe waiting for a call I turned on the faucet in the kitchen. Water was coming out with normal pressure. Hooray! I put a note on the door for maintenance in case they came to fix it. I didn't really need any of them seeing me unclothed!

I quickly finished my shower. The water pressure was normal for the entirety of shower part II. I got out and continued my routine getting ready noticing that my hair was especially easy to comb through!

As I was getting ready to walk out the door to the apartment office, my phone rang. It was the lady I had spoken to earlier. She just wanted to let me know that maintenance had to do some work in my building and turned the water off for a little bit. It's back on now though!

Thanks for the notice! Thanks A LOT!

Helping the Smith Goerings pack and party and other fun adventures!

Two weeks ago tomorrow I made a spur of the moment plan to drive to Kansas City to help Joel and Emily pack in preparation to move to Austin. On Thursday afternoon texting back and forth, Emily jokingly said that I could come help her pack. So, I did. I left on Friday morning and drove to Salina. There I was able to meet up with Jenny and her girls at her mother-in-law's pool! It was a short visit but I was SO glad to be able to see them! Here are a couple of shots from the pool.

After I left Salina that afternoon I continued my trip to KC. I was so happy to get there! I hadn't seen Emily since December! Emily had prepared Totino's party pizzas and champagne for us and also for Heidi! I hadn't seen Heidi for a long time either, so needless to say I was pretty excited!

Later in the evening Joel arrived home from a Royal's game with Mark Smith and a couple other friends. We hung out a little longer until bedtime.

The next morning I was awaken by Toby, Emily, coffee and a muffin. It was fantastic! We got up and spent the day packing. That evening J&E's kickball and Hallmark friends had planned an evening in Westin, MO at the Westin Brewing Company. The party of 20 began the evening dining at the American Bowman Restaurant. It was a beautiful evening to spend outside. I was able to learn to know some of the people at our end of the table. I learned a lot about the world of Hallmark. Fascinating really!

After dinner we went next door to O'Malley's Pub! It was a very cool place that was really far underground. There after we made our way through the crowd to hear the live musical talents of Flannigan's Right Hook! They were a very fun, not to mention good looking, cover band from Kansas City. We enjoyed their music all evening in the sweet underground pub!

How could I resist taking a picture for my kitty O'Malley?!? I know he doesn't care...but I do!

The next day we slept in later than the morning before. We attempted to get some packing done, but we were not as successful as the day before. Emily and I ran to the grocery store to buy "supplies" for the party at their house that evening. We bought all kinds of good stuff including 40 hot dogs! Joel was the master of the grill and we all ate and drank well!

As most of my experiences partying at the Smith Goering house, we all eventually ventured inside for a dance party! Loved it!

The next morning one flip-flop short, I drove to South Hutch to Mennonite Manor to pop in on old friends. I was only there for about an hour or so. Then I was off to Marion to spend the night with Sara!

Sara and I walked to Pizza Hut for dinner and as we were finishing our meal the power went out! So sorry Pizza Hut that you weren't able to ring up our order so we got it for FREE! Ha! After pizza we drove to their farm where they are building their new home. Then we were off to her sister-in-laws to see the cute little kittens! We watched the last episode of The Bachelorette and then it was bedtime. It was a short visit with Sara but well worth it!

I didn't realize how much I missed Kansas. Not enough to move back, but it was home for 8 years. I'm glad that I am in a spot to make such quick plans! I loved having to opportunity to see so many people who are so special to me!

I could have sworn we rode 30!

Not having a job certainly has it's advantages (along with it's disadvantages, but lets not even go there). Leah and I decided on Tuesday to go on a bike ride on Wednesday. I hadn't ridden my bike for real in a while and I was really looking forward to it! So around 2:00 we started pedaling towards the church in search of a bike path Judy told us about.

It felt so good! Not only the exercise but just the relaxing familiar motions of riding a bike! I was feeling very proud of myself being as out of shape as I am for how good I felt. We found the trail by church, but I'm not sure we followed it exactly how Judy was describing it. Oh well. We got to the point where we were pretty close to Joe's work so we decided to go see him! (approx 5 mi. so far)

After visiting Joe, we were still feeling good so we decided to bike to a trail that Leah used to ride when she was growing up. I don't know exactly where we were but I know we got onto it somewhere off of Tejon. We ended up at Goose Gossage park. (add approx 3 mi.) At that point, we decided that we would keep going on the trail to a bike shop that Leah used to ride to. We both needed to relax a little and refuel with a Power Bar. So the journey continued.

I can't say that I was still feeling quite so awesome at this point. I was out of water and I was pretty tired. I was thankful that we were nearing the bike shop. We kept riding. As we went further we realized that the bike shop was actually much further North than we had thought. So we took a turn off the trail thinking it would lead us to a park where they would have restrooms and a water fountain. No such luck! It was not a park at all! It was a new shopping center that was being built along Nevada! There was no drinking fountain in sight! (add another 2 mi)

Instead of continuing on we decided to turn and head for home. We began to head South on Nevada until we hit Mt. View Lane. We turned and what did we find?!? Oh Thank Heaven! A 7 eleven! We stopped there to share a Power Bar and each get a Gatorade. (add 2 mi) Although I wasn't feeling the same energy as when we started our bike ride, I was feeling much better after this stop. We continued east on Mt. View until we came to Austin Bluffs (another mile) and got to ride down the big hill!

At Austin Bluffs we caught the trail we had started on and decided to take the bridge that took us right to Flintridge. Now I don't know if it was just me yesterday, but I never knew how long of a street Flintridge was! We rode from Flintridge to Westwood and took that to Leah's place. (adding another 3 mi) After we locked up my bike and she carried hers up the stairs we collapsed for a while and did some stretching. We were wiped out!

Did you do the math? As far as my map quested guesses tell me, that's 16 miles! Craziness! A little too ambitious for my first time on a bike in about 2 years. I could have sworn we rode 30! Yea us!

Leaving Kansas

There are probably several things I did not do while living in Kansas; but there was a short list of things that I had never done in Hutchinson. So, I just did them.
1. I had never been in the 4th St. Dillons...now I have been.

2. I didn't even know where the Hutchinson Zoo was located...now I do.

3. I had never driven South of Adams on 4th...now I have and there is a whole world of Hutchinson that I never knew was there.

4. I had never seen the historic salt marker in South Hutchinson...I still haven't. Allan and I tried, but couldn't find it. I guess spending the money on new signs is probably worth it. At least I tried.

5. I had never been to the Underground Salt Museum...now I have been!

So my list was a little silly, but I had really wondered about these things and now I know what I was missing!

Last Sunday I went to the Salt Museum with my friend Philip and his son Zane. It was pretty cool and I'm glad we took the time to go. I have my camera packed away somewhere, so I had to use my cell phone for pictures. Here are some shots from the visit.

Preparing to go underground. Everyone had to wear hardhats and oxygen things (in case of a fire.)

Old machinery left behind. On the tour we learned "What goes in the mine, stays in the mine."

Halfway through the tour we stopped and collected chunks of salt for souvenirs.

Huge chunk of salt.