Things I Didn't Know

     Before we moved to Las Vegas, we had really only been here a handful of times, and usually in passing, never spending a significant amount of time here. I thought I knew a bit about Las Vegas, but there have definitely been a few surprises for me. Did you know these things?

    1. There are a lot of pine trees here. I mean, I knew there were a lot of palm trees, but pine trees? Yep. We even have one in our front yard, which we recently had to get trimmed because it was touching the wall, and the HOA didn't like that, even though the HOA trees on the other side of the wall are touching the wall, and apparently that's okay. But I digress. Pine trees in Vegas - it's still weird to me, but they're everywhere.

    2. There are wild horses and donkeys here. First of all, I would have though that Las Vegas was too hot for horses, but apparently I know absolutely nothing about horses. Las Vegas has a long history of ranching (which I also didn't know), so there were thousands of horses and donkeys brought here. Some inevitably got free, and not only survived, but thrived. Also, Vegas has hosted the National Rodeo Finals since the 80's. So yep, big horse culture around here. We have actually seen some of the wild donkeys, but not horses.

    3. There are motorcycle cops here. I don't know why, but this is very amusing to me. It makes me think of CHiPs every time I see them. Ponch may have been my first celebrity crush.

    4. There is a ski resort about half an hour away from us. Not even kidding. We've been up to Mount Charleston in the fall, but not the winter yet. Maybe next year we'll have to go sledding up there or something. I heard you have to have snow chains on your tires though. Not even kidding.

    5. Las Vegas gets four seasons. It might not be as in-your-face as in other places, but it's just enough. Rain and snow in the winter (mostly the snow is in the mountains, but occasionally it will hit the valley), blossoms in the Spring, lots of sunshine in the Summer, and there are deciduous trees here, so we do get some changing colors in the Fall.

    Things my kids didn't know about Las Vegas:

Joseph was surprised by how standard the suburbs are, away from the strip downtown. 

Madelyn didn't know it would get so cold in the winter. Granted, not nearly as cold as the winters we came from in Nebraska (I swear I have PTSD from that), but it did actually snow/hail for just a bit one day this year.

Alex was surprised by all the cool things on the strip - he'd heard about it, but didn't really know what it was all about. He especially wants to go to the top of the Stratosphere.

Turkey Day

 Some of Joe's family were able to gather for Thanksgiving. We rented an Airbnb, and are determined to do it again in a couple of years. We ate until we were stuffed, laughed until we cried, and started a 2,000 piece puzzle that was nearly the death of us. Notice I said started, but not finished. Here's to 2024!

There She Goes

    Cora left in August to go work at Disneyworld for 5 months. It used to be that you could put in requests for different areas that you'd like to work in, but not anymore. It's all a crap shoot. You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit. Her first pick would have been to work in Galaxy's Edge (the Star Wars section of Disney World), but right before she left she got an email that said she be working in Liberty Square ATK. Once she got there she learned that ATK meant attraction, and she could actually get assigned to Liberty Square OR Adventureland right next to it. We knew that the only attractions in those two lands were Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Tiki Room, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and the Haunted Mansion. Then later that same day she got another email that confirmed what costume she would be wearing - HAUNTED MANSION! We were stoked. But then we learned that out of all the Disney College Program students, 140+ people didn't show up on that first day (crazy!), so they said some people might be getting their positions switched. Luckily that didn't happen to Cora. She met her roommates, and one of them happened to be from Ephraim, UT. Most of the first week was just giving them time to settle in, but then they got to work. 

    She absolutely loved working at Haunted Mansion, especially during the Halloween parties, because they got to use makeup and cobwebs to make themselves look more ghoulish. Here are some fun pictures that her and her co-workers took.

Following are the Pros and Cons of doing the Disney College Program, according to Cora.

    Cons: The heat. It's no joke. It was probably the hardest part about my job. And if you are there during the rainy season, you can expect to get soaked at work often. You won't save any money (they don't pay much). Transportation is going to suck, even when you bring your own car (but they do offer free transportation to pretty much everywhere you need to go). Hours are totally random. You could be working so much you're exhausted, or you could barely get enough hours to pay rent. I've had both. And rent is expensive. People can be jerks/creepy, even at a Disney park.

    Pros: You'll be working with a lot of like-minded people (if you love Disney). It's a great energetic community, and I made a lot of good friends. There are always things to do in your spare time. Never a dull moment. You get to know the parks so well (it's free for you to go to the parks whenever you want). The dorms are amazing. There's a gym, several pools, outdoor picnic areas, a basketball court, and so much more. There are so many activities that the DCP hosts (like behind the scenes tours, and after hours parties where they have the parks to themselves, and get free food). Honestly, some of the most fun I've ever had is working at Disney World. 

    Cora also told me that her supervisor was hoping that she'd extend her time so that she could make her a trainer (she would have extended if she didn't have a boyfriend waiting at home). It was always great when guests would leave her good feed back or give her little gifts. She loved "making magic" for the guests. 

    Andrew was able to go and visit her while she was there. It was his first time to Disney World, and they had a great time together.

    We also go to go visit her, but we'll save that for a later post. 

One Day More

     In October we took the kids on a quick one-day trip to Disneyland. Is one day enough? No. But what can you do? One day is a long time anyway (my family didn't even make it until closing), and we got plenty in.

    As we rode the tram from the parking lot to the parks, Alex had the biggest grin on his face, and he was like, "I'm just so happy!" It was a super cute moment. I felt the same way.

    We wanted to go for Halloween time, decorations, seeing people in costumes, great temperatures, and the Nightmare Before Christmas layover at the Haunted Mansion. It's a great time of year to go. For some reason there were a whole bunch of black birds sitting in all of the trees at the entrance, and I don't know if they realized it was Halloween time too, but they were really adding to the ambiance. 

We gave Alex a hard time for vandalizing the park when he pulled this leaf off a bush.

I made the HUGE mistake of riding Space Mountain, which I haven't done for many, many years. Turns out, it was for a good reason. Thanks to the ride for this perfect shot of everyone enjoying themselves, and me willing myself not to throw up.

After that ride I had to lay down for a half an hour. Then it was time for dinner, but I couldn't eat. Me, Joe, and May ended up going back to the hotel, where I took a 2 hour nap before I finally felt better. The boys stayed in the park that whole time, and then I went back to meet up with them, while Joe and May decided to stay in for the night.

Our last ride of the night was Pirates of the Caribbean. We were the very next to get loaded onto the boat when the ride completely shut down. Since we were first in line, we were last to exit the building (at least of those still in line). It was crazy to look back and see it empty.

And we got to see how they were evacuating the people on the boats - they had to disassemble part of the iron railing, and then put this ramp across to let the people off. Crazy.

And finally, Alex insisted that we get blue milk. So we did.

It was magical. The day, not the blue milk.

    And speaking of Halloween, we didn't do much for that this year. Seriously, when's the last time we DID do much for Halloween? It's been a hot minute. I did don my purple wig for the ward party, which is always one of my favorite things at Halloween. There was a couple there dressed as Steve and Robin which I really appreciated.

At home, to avoid my dogs barking at all the kids trick or treating, I just left this sign out with a caldron full of candy. The kids were happy. The dogs were happy. But at the end of the night, we still had an almost full caldron of candy, so that went to my kids, who didn't go trick-or-treating this year. 

And so ended October.

We Labored to Relax

     For Labor Day some of my family got together at my Dad's new house in Washington, UT. Unfortunately, Joe was on call that weekend, and Rebekah got sick. We decided to do some tubing down the Virgin River. It was so much fun! Even though the river was low, and we kept getting stuck, it made for some pretty funny moments, so there was a lot of laughing. 

    We also went swimming at the local Rec Center, and Marie snapped this perfect shot of me getting kicked in the face by Alex - about 5 kids were hanging onto me at the time, and I was pulling them through the lazy river. Good times.

    The girls all went to get pedicures/manicures, and the boys went to an arcade of some sort. When they came home, they knocked on the door instead of just coming in. I opened the door to see this sight. I have no idea what they were going for, and I'm not sure they did either, but it was pretty funny.

    Dad and Lynn were great hosts, and their new house is really lovely. Some of us are ready to commit to going back next year and doing it all over again.

Leftovers

 What to do with random, leftover pictures? Put them all in one post.

    Joe and I individually like to take the kids out on dates occasionally. I took Alex out and talked him into going to Buffalo Wild Wings, because I like me some wings. We ordered 20 wings with 4 different sauces, and we ate them ALL. Eating 10 wings by yourself is a lot of wings, in case you didn't know. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to finish, but we soldiered on. By the end we were pretty much dying, but Alex said, "We should do this again, and get different sauces." A man after my own heart.

     I'm a sucker for  a good summer rain, and Las Vegas does not disappoint. It actually rains here more often than I was expecting. Whenever it does, I like to go outside, breath deep, and enjoy the sound and smell of it. Bonus points for when I can get my kids to come out with me. I talked Alex and Joseph into jumping on the trampoline during one downpour. Pure joy!

    Speaking of rain, around the end of July and beginning of August we had several days of very heavy rain in a row. In fact, there were a few casinos and parking garages downtown that flooded. At the same time we experienced some water damage of our own, right above the back door to our patio. 

    I noticed the paint starting to bubble. We ASSUMED that it was from all the rain. We assumed that water was leaking through a crack in the overhang over our patio, and getting down into the wall. We noticed this right about when it stopped raining, so we thought it would dry up and we'd get someone to take a look at it. Well, you know what happens when you assume - it makes an ass out of you and me. I bet you didn't think you were going to get called an ass in this post, did you? Anyway, the spot kept getting bigger, despite the lack of rain.

Come to find out, it had nothing to do with the rain at all, but a leaky toilet!

We got that sucker fixed up, but do you think we've finished patching up the ceiling? The answer is no. 

    In September I started a job as a PCA (personal care assistant). I help mostly people who are long-lived (that sounds better than elderly, right?)  who aren't as spry as they used to be, and need some extra help that isn't of a medical nature. It could be anything from helping them get dressed/showered, to taking them to appointments/grocery shopping, to cooking meals for them, to just keeping them company. I only work part time, and I enjoy it. We're required to wear scrubs, so here I am.

Growing UP

     May (that's what Madelyn goes by now, if I haven't mention that already - it's her middle name) turned 17 in July. She wasn't with us at the time because she was visiting her cousin in  Utah. It was only supposed to be for a few weeks, but life is constantly throwing us curve balls, right? May decided that she wanted to move to Utah and live with her cousin (and my sister Lorraine) for the coming school year. As you can imagine, my first thought was NO WAY!!!!!!! But I didn't say that. Instead I said I'd have to think about it. After Joe and I thought about it, and prayed about it, and I asked a trusted friend who is a therapist to tell me what to take into consideration when making this choice....we decided to let May make the choice herself, and let her know that she always had the option to change her mind and come home. That was hard, but in the end, I think it was the best possible thing we could have done. Long story short, she decided to move back home at the beginning of November, even though she'd made some good friends there, and even had a job. There were no feelings of resentment, and she came home with a different perspective about our family dynamic and, I think, about us as parents. I've been so happy to have her back home, and things have been good. 

    May's favorite place to eat is this Chinese buffet here, but you might be surprised by why. They have a lot of seafood at this buffet, and the first thing she always goes for there is a plate full of muscles.

    I feel like this is a good representation of the fact that May marches to the beat of her own drum. She's always been a unique individual, and I love that about her. And she's growing up into such a beautiful young woman. 

We love you May!