Quite the View

 Apparently I only update my blog every 6 months or so now. That seems reasonable. So, going back to July...

For the fourth of July we walked over to the side of an overpass near our neighborhood, rather than going somewhere specific to watch fireworks. We were not the only ones who had this idea. From there we could see out over the entire valley, and see ALL the fireworks. The pictures make everything look so much further away then they were. Trust me, it was better in person.

We can see the strip from there (which is about 25 minutes away). In the picture you can see the red dot on top of the Stratosphere, and the rest of the strip to the right of that (next to the big firework in the foreground on the right). Again, it looks much closer in person. It was a pretty good view, but I missed seeing fireworks really close up, so maybe we'll do something different for next year. There are a lot of casinos that do fireworks.

Also at the beginning of July, Cora and Andrew (that's her boyfriend) came to visit again. We went to the Neon Museum, which has a collection of old, iconic Vegas signs. We saw the Brilliant show, which goes into the history of Las Vegas. There were lights and projections and music (which was awesome, and which we danced to a little bit - they encouraged people to dance, but only a few did). It's not super cheap, but I thought it was well worth it.

So Weird

 Cora came to visit in June with two of our nieces, Cassidy and Anna. The main thing they wanted to do while they were here was to go to Meow Wolf. If you don't know, Meow Wolf is an art company that creates large-scale immersive art installations around the country, and the 2nd one they made is here in Vegas and is called Omega Mart. We did not realize going in that there is an overarching plot/lore to the Omega Mart, with clues and information hidden throughout the place. It is hard to understand, and impossible to explain, so I won't even try. We were there for 2 hours, and I feel like we only discovered the tip of the iceburg. That being said, and in spite of the fact that we all loved it and I would recommend it, we all agreed that it's a one-and-done kind of attraction....unless you get super obsessed with figuring out the whole narrative, in which case, you could probably spend days and days there. I would definitely want to go to their other installations. It's just cool. Oh, I should say, it is definitely a sensory overload, so this exhibit is not for everyone. Also, I don't think young kids are going to want to spend the time necessary to figure out the narrative, which includes reading letters, watching "boring" videos, and other such things, but they might enjoy it just because it's cool to look at.

I swear, none of these pictures do this place ANY justice. After that we went to Black Tap, which had good burgers and crazy shakes that look amazing but taste bland.

Best quote of the day was from Anna - "So you're telling me I wore pants for nothing!"

Explanation (although I tempted to not give that any context) - There were a couple of slides in the Omega Mart, but they have rules about what you have to be wearing in order to go down them (for safety reasons). We thought you had to be wearing pants and not shorts (which might not be accurate), but when we got there the slides were closed, so pants weren't necessary anyway. 

The cousins also learned that Joe is not above bribing people to come and visit us, so.....make of that what you will.

It's Pretty Old

I got called as one of the Activity Day leaders (easiest job ever), and for one of our upcoming activities I went to scout out the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort (which I didn't even know was a thing) to see if it was worth going to. It is. It's a state park now, and they have a great little visitor's center and video presentation that tells all about it. Established in 1855 by Mormon missionaries, they only lasted a couple of years before they up and left because things weren't working out too great. But the fort traded hands a few times (including being run for many years by the "First Lady of Las Vegas"), and it has a very interesting history. 

I was literally the only person there, and there was only one person on site working at the visitor's center, so I'm not sure how popular it is, but I think the girls will like it.

They've Come and Gone

Cora and her boyfriend (not going to share his name yet) came to visit us in May, just for a day and a half. We took them to Red Rock Canyon. The kids hiked around for a bit at a couple of spots, and it was making me VERY nervous from my vantage point. I know that if I had been with them I probably wouldn't have been nervous at all, but perspective man, it's everything.

We also went to Avenger's Station at Treasure Island. They have some pretty cool costumes, props, and interactive displays, but this is not a very big exhibit. Definitely a one and done.

 

Cora was looking at my pictures after and she saw this one (above) and said, "Of all the pictures you could have taken of us, and this is all you came up with?" Hahahaha!

We also walked the strip for a bit and ended the night with some really good pizza at Eataly.

We can't wait for them to come back.

He Was Born That Way

 Alex turned 15 in April. Alex came downstairs that morning dressed like this.

He said it was "Dress like Bob Ross day" at school. I thought he was just making it up, but no, it's a real thing. The dogs barked at him when he came downstairs with the wig on, which he just happened to have because he was Bob Ross for Halloween.

Let me see if I can come up with 15 things about Alex, because ya know, he's 15.

1. Alex was in the school choir this year. Next year he's on the choir board...whatever that means, but good on him. He saved up money to go on the choir trip to California (they got to go to Disneyland and the San Diego zoo). He earned almost all the money by doing ONE fundraiser in 2 weeks (World's Finest Chocolate Bars). He sold almost a box a day during the lunch hour. Who knew he was such a salesman.

2. Alex was in one play at school this year, Freaky Friday the musical. He played the grandpa. He probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if the Seniors weren't so mean to the Freshman. He said he doesn't want to do another one until next year, when he's no longer a Freshman.

3. Alex is an artist, so I guess it makes sense he dressed like Bob Ross for Halloween. Let me see if I can find any of his recent drawings......... Here's one, and a shoe that he started painting. The kid is talented.

4. Alex says he wants to be a surgeon when he grows up. Makes sense because he's good with his hands. Really I think he just wants to be rich.

5. Alex wants to be rich so he can go to Disneyland all the time. He believes in the magic.

6. Speaking of magic, one of Alex's favorite things lately is doing magic tricks with cards. He got a deck for Christmas, and practices all the time. He's definitely got me stumped on a few of them.

7. Alex has entered that dreaded teenage boy phase of mumbling. I know my boys aren't the only ones. It's the weirdest thing, but it's a thing.

8. Alex has suddenly become very picky about food. He used to not like mushrooms, and that was about it. Now he doesn't like pasta, apparently. What the?! And a bunch of other things.

9. Alex loves sandwiches. We always eat out for the kids' birthdays - their choice - and I can't tell you how many times Alex has chosen a sandwich place. This year we went to Firehouse Subs.

10. Alex has never had a piano lesson in his life, but I showed him a few things when we were visiting my Dad, and they had sheet music of Bach's minuet in G, and Alex had learned half of it by the time we left.

11. Alex is serving as the second counselor in the Teacher's quorum at church.

12. Alex's favorite thing to say is, "Don't talk to me", and then I say, "Try again", and then he says, "I love you".

13. Don't tell him, but I think Alex is stronger than me now. It's getting difficult to hold him down when I need to hit him. JUST KIDDING! I meant tickle him, of course.

14. The truth is, I like Alex. He's fun, and funny, and kind, and smart, and all the things.

15. Also, the kid is NEVER serious.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Spring Break Staycation

 Not much happened in March or the beginning of April, although we did have some visitors. Marie and Antoine came to celebrate the anniversary and show their kids where they got married, which was the wedding chapel in the MGM, which hasn't been used since everything shut down in 2020.

And Jesse and Jeannette came during their kid's spring break. We went to the Venetian to walk around and get some gelato, and Jesse just happened to run into one of his missionary companions from Italy. 

We also took a very quick trip to Utah to meet Cora's boyfriend. Nope, not going to show you a picture, but I will of the cousins, just for the heck of it, in order of height, not age. FYI, the order of ages from left to right are 19, 14,13 ,16, 21, 9, and 15. That's hilarious.

Then in April we also had our spring break. We decided to just do stuff around Vegas because Joe had recently switched jobs and didn't have any PTO accrued. We let the kids each pick something that they wanted to do, and we went from there. Places we went: Teppanyaki.

The Shark Reef at Mandaly Bay - very cool, but not very big, and definitely not worth the cost.

Go-carts. So much fun.

And last, but not least, we went to Nelson ghost town, which was very cool. There is a family that owns the place, and they actually live on the property in the old hotel (first picture), and another guy who live there in a very crooked house (second picture) who does tours of the old mine there - he is VERY knowledgeable about the place, 

I thought the rules were kind of funny.

Thank goodness they didn't make us use an old outhouse, although the restroom looked like an old outhouse (below, left of the old Texaco station).

Apparently this is a popular place for weddings, in the old chapel. There was one going on the day we were there, so we couldn't get any closer to the chapel.

And that's it. That's what we did.