The life of a log

Monday we ventured out the the Nature Circle at Long Hunter State Park. The theme for today was logs life.

Nathan brought his snake because it can crawl in and around logs.

He got to hold it up to a log and show how he blended in.

She read a story that was actually very cool. In a nutshell, when a log falls off a tree it harbors animals and becomes soft and then animals move out and more move in and eventually after years and years it crumbles back into dirt where it will grown into a new tree.

The rangers had found logs in the park and brought them up for the kids. They were all given magnifying glassed and Popsicle sticks. They used the sticks to look under broken pieces or to make holes in the log to find bugs and other things.



Then we met up with a friend and her group of moms in the park at the kids play area and ate lunch and let the kids play. She has a son that is just a little younger than Batman and they had the best time running around together.

Batman

This is what he wore Sunday to church (thank you to our friend for the clothes and shoes!). I though he looked soooo cute!

The shadows are bad here but you can see the whole outfit.

And I love this smile.

Check out the hair. He loves it spiked and I had to fix it at least four times that day. He woke up the next morning and there was still hair spray in it!

My cutie.

And here is a video of him writing his letters. We have pretty much stuck with using the wooden pieces but have started writing them on the chalkboard. We have I think 6 more capital letters to learn (and K) which was today's letter and I hope to be done with capital letters by the end of September and move on to lower case letters. We are still doing his reading book and he knows all of his phonics sound and can sound out some words when he slows down enough! The video is long but it just shows him writing his letter.

Las Vegas it is!

Well he was surprised and we had the most wonderful weekend away. So wonderful to not have any responsibilities and just have fun together!

Picture at the airport. This in one of several what I call "cheesy pictures", where you hold the camera up and take a picture of yourselves.

My sister picked us up at the airport. Another surprise. She brought me a big bottle of wine and a bag of chocolate for my birthday. We worked our way through about half of the bottle over the weekend. We enjoyed each taking a large glass to our steak dinner on Saturday night and then we didn't have to purchase wine with dinner!

First on the agenda, a large drink. Then off to play tables.

Friday evening we went walking after our show.


Our Saturday bracelets. lol. The buffet at the hotel offered a deal where you could purchase breakfast, lunch and dinner for one price. It ended up being a good deal for us since some of the buffets were upwards of $20 for one meal.

Brother-in-law checking out the licorice in the candy store.

The boys chatting as we walked. This was our last walk because we discovered the trams after that! So much quicker!

Yep we caught them kissing in public (most of you will understand this!)

Another cheesy picture on the tram.

Ok, the lemon. Story here. On Sunday we went down to the downtown Las Vegas district to find some food. Well, we couldn't find anywhere to eat and no where to park without paying money. We finally found this restaurant in a casino that served breakfast, which by the way was the worst breakfast I have ever had. And I don't say that lightly, I can pretty much eat anything I order, but this was awful.

Back to the lemon, the waitress brought us all out waters and when she gave Chris his glass she noticed that the lemon still had the sticker on it. She quickly took it back to get another one. Well she came right back out with the glass above with another lemon and another sticker on the lemon. Needless to say, he didn't drink it. But we thought it was so funny.

This was in the downtown area. I love my zoom because I was all the way on the other side of the walkway to get this.

And Elvis smoking.

A huge painted picture on the wall of the entire downtown area.

T.J. didn't want to feel left out.

Gold and Silver Pawn. Does anyone watch Pawn Stars? Well I think it is on the History channel?? But Chris always watches it. It is located in Las Vegas so we had to go in while we were there. It was extremely busy and they had a line set up so all the tourists could go through. They said that the owners are there Monday - Friday and filming. It was Sunday so we didn't get to see them.

Inside of the pawn shop.

Another cheesy picture in the car.

On the way back from our Sunday morning trip to downtown and the pawn shop we stopped at Circus circus. We caught the magic show while were there. Definitely a lot of kids and lots of fun things to do but it allll cost money. It was definitely not my favorite hotel to visit.

All in all, I don't know how we could have made the trip more perfect. I have already been asked several times "when can we go back"!

The other hotels

My first comment was "I want to see everything!" Well I it is not possible to see everything in a long weekend. So I guess we will just have to go back.

My sister and her husband at a $200 bottle table. Now I did not know what this meant but from her explanation, to occupy one of these premium tables, you have to buy a $200 bottle and then you can invite your friends to sit with you. They were just posing because it was still early in the day and not prime time for purchasing tables.

This was at the Mirage. We only entered here briefly. Our intention was to go back on Sunday so we could go to the Ice Bar. Where everything is completely made of ice including the stools, mugs walls etc. For $25 per person, you get into the bar and you get a parka and one free drink. In otherward, you get a $25 drink and an experience in an ice bar. We ended up not making it back. Oh Well.

Bellagio. We made it once to see the fountain show.

Paris Hotel.

this was a pole dancer outside one of the hotels.

Luxor

More luxor

Mandalay Bay. This is probably where you would want to take the kids. But it was expensive! Great pool area and it has an aquarium, but you have to pay to get in.

We had fun playing with the projector. This is what it looks like when you are not moving.

And when you are.

Me and my sister.

Yep, so the guys. Sorry if anyone is offended! lol.

Venetian.

The gondalas at the Venetian.

This is the ceiling at the venetian, outside where you catch a cab.

On Sunday we traveled down to the Old Las Vegas, or Downtown Las Vegas and walked around. Here is a shot of the walkways that were lined with stores and casinos.

The Shows

We saw four shows.

On Friday evening after we arrived we saw the "Tournament of the Kings". It was at Excalibur.

This one all four of us saw together. It was very good and everyone liked it. I mistakenly thought that the horses would not bother me because I have not had to use my inhaler in years but I was wrong. I am definitely still extremely allergic to horses and about half way through the show all I was worried about was breathing in an out so I didn't get to enjoy the show as much as I would have liked.

Picture of Merlin before the show started.

Our dinner. You eat everything with your hands. A whole chicken, red potatoes, biscuit and broccoli and then you even got dessert to eat with your hands.

On Saturday we went to see Blue Man Group. Let me tell you it was fantastic. Chris loved it and I can actually see in our future planning trips to where their traveling team is performing because each of the performances are different.

It is coming to Nashville in November. I would take the chance to go see it. Plus it is much cheaper here than in Vegas.

Blue Margaritas. Yes they were good but they were extremely overpriced! I am talking $14 a drink, but hey, we got the whole experience right.

We sat just a couple rows back from the "splash zone". Glad we did because I would not have wanted to wear the trash bag for the entire show. But paint, water, captain crunches, or any number of things could have splashed on you.

The band.

One of the guys.

The whole team came out to pose for pictures after the show.

It was a great performance!

Then Saturday late night we saw another show at the Luxor,

Sunday evening we went to see Cirque Du Soliel Zumanity at the New York, New York Hotel. It was the 18 only an up sensual Cirque show and it was once again a fantastic show and worth the money for the performance. It was very much a well done performance and we enjoyed it very much!

Dressed and ready to go to the show Sunday.

Here is a billboard about Zumanity that you could actually see outside our hotel room window.

There were so many show to see in Vegas that you can never see them all. But the ones we did see were wonderful and perfect for our weekend away.