Jun 28, 2012

Not an Entirely Golden Nugget of a Trip

Rob had a hazards training class last Friday in Las Vegas. Of course, we made it a family adventure. I decided to have us stay in a part of Las Vegas that I’d never been before, Fremont Street. I figured we’d all have the most fun possible if we just kept this a low-key trip and use all of our time swimming. Therefore, I wanted to stay somewhere with a super fun swimming pool.

The Golden Nugget was actually quite a nice place to stay. The casino was in an entirely separate wing of the hotel so we never had to walk through it. Perfect. We did walk by a few slot machines and the kids thought they were pretty cool, especially since they’ve been into Chipwrecked lately. The chipmunks do a bit of gaming and so Nate and Madeleine knew exactly what they were.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Back to the swimming pool. There was a good bit of shallow-enough-for-wading area, a couple of waterfalls, a tunnel area, a waterslide, and in the middle of it all, a shark tank!! It was so fun to swim right up to the glass and watch the beasts come toward you! The waterslide went right through the tank also. We all thought it was awesome. Of course, the kids mostly wanted to be in the hot tub. I remember doing the same thing when I was young. I was a little worried about the pool crowd, but every one was respectable. Here are some crappy phone pictures.

120623_0003

Nate sure looks tough. Those floaties really do it for him.

120622_0001

120622_0000

We ventured out the hotel to Fremont Street, on which the hotel borders. There is an overhead light and music show put on every hour at night.

 

The whole area is catered to a more, shall we say, mature crowd? There were very few kids and very few adults our age. Which actually, we appreciated. It toned things down a little. But don’t worry, there was still plenty of 90's saxophone playing and drunken dancing going on.

But that’s about it as far as the positives of the trip go.

All three kids slept the entire way to Vegas, which was smokin’ cool. But…it was because they were sick. Madeleine was okay, just felt a little off. Nate had strep throat. Bad. He wasn’t able to swallow anything. There was only one place in Vegas where we could’ve taken him but when we looked it up online, lots of reviewers warned people to STAY AWAY; that it was a filthy and horrible place. We ended up going to the InstaCare in St. George on the way home. By that time, his throat had open ulcers. He was hating life. Caroline would prove to get sick and have a high fever all the way home. When we took her in to the doc at home, she didn’t have Strep, but another virus.  Nate is just now able to eat normally again after 6 days and a lot of pain meds. Poor, poor kid. Caroline is fine now as well. Madeleine never did get sick. She has a supernormal immune system.

Anyway, not the best trip. At least we had fun swimming.

Jun 24, 2012

California Vacay: Wayfarer’s Chapel

Continuing our drive around the Palos Verdes peninsula we drove over Portuguese Bend, an active landslide, much to Rob’s delight. He found this completely fascinating. After viewing the huge scarp of the landslide from the road (way too large to photograph) we drove over the part of the landside where the road was constructed, and reconstructed, and reconstructed, etc, etc – you get the idea! The road crews were onsite doing continual repairs to the most twisted and damaged sections of road Rob has ever seen.

We made a stop at the beautiful Wayfarer’s Chapel, designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. The spot was so beautiful and serene perched on top of the hill overlooking the grand Pacific. How far we felt from the crowded city.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

 

Rob and I have determined that if we ever were to live in the Los Angeles area, Palos Verdes would be the area we’d want our home. All we need is about $5 million +. No biggie.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

 

See that cliff down there? That’s our next stop, Abalone Cove.

Jun 16, 2012

California Vacay: Cabrillo Beach Tidepools

Cargo Ship, Port of Los Angeles, California
Photo taken by madlyinlovewithlife

On the fourth day of our trip in good old California we drove by the port of Los Angeles on our way to Cabrillo Beach. We all had a good time driving over multiple bridges and observing so much portish stuff. The large cranes were incredible. 

After the port we made our way to the tide pools at Cabrillo Beach. While walking past the beach to the tide pools we observed this scene and Julie made this image. Love the blue tones!

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug


Nate on his way down the boardwalk.



And here we are!



A few close up images of the action. Who knew seaweed is so cool looking?



Ohhhh, that shell looks tasty.


I think I'll have some! Thank you!



Looking up and down the coast. 


We were all kinds of blown away by the large number of mussels. Check out these images! 





Cara was good enough to let me carry her around the tide pools. 


And some more carrying....





Squishy!! We love all the shells ingrained on the rocks.





Madeleine was pretty nervous about getting out into the tide pools. However, after a while she warmed up.



Nate loves to explore (he reminds me so much of Julie).


He thought this thing used to be a restaurant because there was so much fast food trash inside. Haha.

Jun 14, 2012

My Week in Absurd Little Drawings

All of this is 100% factual. No exaggerations were needed.

 

Sunday Night

Rob: Looks like I’m going to Arizona tomorrow morning.
Julie: Okay

Later Sunday Night

Rob: Never mind

photo

Monday Morning

Rob: Looks like I’m going to Arizona tonight.
Julie: Okay

 

Later Monday Morning

Rob: Never mind.

photo (1)

 

Tuesday Morning

Rob: Looks like I’m going to Arizona tonight.
Julie: Okay

 

 

photo (2)

 

And off he went. But not before…

 

photo (3)

 

Nate vomited in the middle of the night.

photo (4)

Rob: What’s going on?
Julie: He puked.
Rob: Huh?
Julie: He puked. Can you grab a bowl while I take off all his sheets and remake his bed?
Rob: Huh?
Julie: A bowl.
Rob: A bowl?
Julie: A bowl!

photo (5)

 

Tuesday
(After Rob had left)

Mom: Come here, Cara, lay on my chest. You don’t seem to feel very well.
Cara: BARF!!

photo (6)

 

Wednesday

No explanation needed.

photo (7)

 

Thursday Morning

Clerk: Time to renew!
Julie: I renewed last month.
Clerk: Looks like you upgraded instead. That’s good!
Julie: I didn’t want to upgrade, I wanted to renew.
Clerk: Oh, well. You upgraded. Now you have to renew. $55 again please.

photo (8)

 

Thursday Afternoon

Julie: Can you tell me the sale price on these boy shoes?
Clerk: Looks like they’re not on sale.
Julie: Even though there are twenty-five bright red signs everywhere saying “All shoes on sale”?
Clerk: I guess not.

photo (9)

 

Kids: Rides!!
Mom: I have enough quarters for one ride.
Kids: Yay!
Cara: Whaaa!!!

photo (10)

 

Mom: I forgot the jeans that we need to exchange in the car. Grrr.

photo (11)

 

Julie: Where are the toddler girls jeans?
Clerk: I guess we don’t have any.
Julie: You don’t have ANY toddler jeans? I need to exchange these.
Clerk: Nope, I guess not. Maybe in a few weeks. Can you wait a few weeks?
Julie: No.
Clerk: Just exchange them for something else.
Julie: Fine.

20 min later…

Clerk: Can I get your email address for your membership? Oh, sorry. See this teeny sign? We discontinued our KidVantage Club. You can’t exchange any of those without a receipt.
Julie: I have never needed a receipt before because of my membership info. Can’t you look up my purchase? That’s why you have my email address.
Clerk: No. I can only see some purchases. You have to go home, sign in, print out your receipt, then come back. Would you still like to buy those anyway?
Julie: No.

photo (12)

 

Thursday Evening

Wheeler Farm. Barbed wire.
Nate: Whaa!!

photo (14)

 

Kids: I have to pee!

photo (15)

 

10 minutes after the previous pee...#2 was on its way.

 

photo (16)

 

Mom: Great. The only restrooms nearby are next to the gigantic playground.
Kids: Can we play?!
Mom: No.
Kids:Whaa!

photo (17)

 

DrawingPadApp (2)

 

On the way home.

Kids: La La Mickey Mouse! La La Goofy! La La Donald Duck!

photo (19)

 

Mom: Mom’s turn. Ooh, I like this song! La La La!
Kids: Whaa!
Mom: La La La!!!

photo (20)

 

 

Thursday Night

 

photo (22)

photo (23)

 

Later Thursday Night

Nate: Mom, when am I going to have a little brother to play with?
Mom: I don’t know. But you play so well with your boy cousins!
Nate: But I play so well with Cara, too. That means I’m ready for a little brother!
Mom: Dad and I don’t know if we’re ready for a baby.
Nate: But I am! Whaa!

 

photo (24)

 

Even Later Thursday Night

Julie: Yuck!! There’s that huge moth that has been flying around in here for three days! And it’s still alive! Let me find a box to scoop you up in and set you free finally. Shiver.

 

DrawingPadApp (1)

 

Latest Thursday Night

Julie: Finally. Alone with my Costco bin of donut holes.

photo (25)