Independence Day Festivities 2013

As a side note, there are some fires in the mountains pretty close to our house and they were raging huge on the 4th. I took this picture from the exit ramp on the way home. You can really see the smoke funneling up there in this photo. So pray for all the families who have evacuated Mt. Charleston and the firefighters up there.

On the 4th of July this year, both Troy and I had to work, so we didn't get home until about 530pm. I raced over to Carolyn's (our nanny) to pick up Avery and Troy got some BBQ stuff together. We are blessed with a wonderful small group from church that we have spent the last few holidays with. All of us are not Las Vegas natives and don't have family around, so we spend holidays together...how cute are we?

For Easter, we had a potluck at our house. On Memorial day, we went BBQ'd at another couple's house and for the 4th we had another HUGE potluck with everyone at another couple's home in our neighborhood. It was a BBQ and everyone brought some meat and a side and we all kinda shared when everything was done.

I was the most impressed with the desserts, which the hosts provided. HOLY COW they were awesome. There was a Chips A'Hoy lasagna thing with layers of chocolate chips cookies dipped in chocolate milk and layered with Cool Whip and chocolate sauce. I died. It was awesome. There were brownies, fruit salad, and cupcakes where you could pick your icing of choice. There were a couple preggos there, so be assured, there were some seriously happy fetuses. And children.

After eating, we headed outside for some kid friendly fireworks. There were these things called "Pop its" that you throw at the ground and they make a cracking noise. Avery preferred to step on them. Poor girl seems to have gotten her coordination from her momma, so aiming and stepping at the same time was not easy for her...

The second she stepped on one, she would go chasing after Troy, who was holding her box, saying "more please, more please, more please" and making her best begging face. I mean, who could say no to that?

She loved it and went around stomping on the wrappers of ones that were already popped. She was actually pretty good at spotting ones that had been thrown, but didn't pop, so she sure showed us! Cackling the whole time. Love her.

No "in the air" fireworks were allowed. Hunter had bought a package of permitted ground fireworks for our viewing enjoyment :) The kids loved it! Avery kept wanting to run up to them... between Troy grabbing her shirt and the other kids holding her hands, we kept everyone safe. As of right now, Avery is the youngest child in the small group...but that will change soon because 3 of the 6 of us are preggo. Something in the water, huh?



As you can see, Noah kept trying to hold Avery's hand, but she would rip her hand away to get closer to the sparks...eeek! But look how cute all the kids are!

Here's a front shot of the kiddos all being sweet to each other. And Avery standing in the back, protected from running up to the fireworks.

We eventually pulled her into Troy's lap, which made them both very happy :) Even though after every firework, she would jump up and clap and say "AWESOME!!" Her Dad taught her that...he was so proud.

After the fireworks were over, everyone headed over to a neighborhood park for an HOA sponsored Independence Day celebration. I went home. I had to be at work seeing my first patient at 630am. Yuck. Too bad I forgot it was the 4th of July and apparently fireworks are involved. ALL AROUND MY HOUSE. So even though I had good intentions to go to bed early, it didn't really work out in my favor because people were celebrating. But that's okay, I got some good snuggle time with Optimus because he is terrified of fireworks. And Avery slept until about 945 the next morning.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Anyone else do anything fun?

Grand Junction, Junction, What's Your Function?

Song anyone? 10 points to the first person who knows...

If you follow me on instagram (barnesdailycircus) you know that we were traveling last weekend. Despite all my concerns and fears, Avery was a freaking CHAMP on the plane. She flew as a lap infant and our flight was direct to Junction. It was only about an hour and fifteen minutes, but it gave us a good indication of how Avery will do when we fly to Florida next month for my sisters wedding (5 hour flight, 2 hour layover, 1 hour flight).

We went to visit Kyle and Rosa. They are recently engaged (CONGRATS!!) and have been to visit us 4 times since we moved to Las Vegas in August. It was DEFINITELY our turn to go out for a visit. We were pretty pumped.

We got there about 5 on thursday afternoon. Before we lost the light, we headed up to the Mesa and went for a drive. It was gorgeous. Apparently, they (the town) are waiting on approval for Independence Monument to be approved as a National monument. Ain't it purty??



Here's a picture of Avery, Troy, Kyle, and Rosa looking over the Mesa. Good looking group, eh?



That night, we put Avery to bed and had a BBQ on the back porch (bratwursts with grilled onions, peppers and asparagus) and sat out on the porch with a nice, comfy fire.

Friday morning, we got up and went for a short hike (about 2 miles) to go and see the Colorado River.



Then Troy veto'd anyones vote for lunch with Chick-fil-a. There isn't one in Las Vegas and Troy has been going through extreme withdrawal for some. He was SO excited. He double fisted. He got a sandwich and nuggets. With sweet tea. And fries. And he larged his order. Fatty. Just kidding, honey...LOVE YOU!



After lunch, we headed back to the house so Avery could nap. We hung out and chatted and then headed out to dinner at a local restaurant/brewery that has really cool/unusual pizzas. They gave Avery pizza dough to play with while we waited. She LOVED it. It made me think that she might be ready for playdoh soon. As long as she doesn't try to eat it.



That night, we went back to the house and watched a movie on Netflix and chatted.

Saturday morning, we woke up and the weather was pretty yucky. Well, pretty. But yucky for any outdoor activity that we were planning. But we saw some snow.



Then we headed to this indoor kids place called Bananas. It cost 8 bucks for Avery to "jump" on any of the indoor inflatables for an unlimited time. She was definitely one of the smaller kids there and I was FREAKING out about her getting knocked over or hurt. But she held her own and figured out some of the mazes and slides by herself!

JUMP!



She caught some serious air. She liked to jump up and then just throw herself onto the ground.



We kind of had a hard time with directions. She wanted to climb up the slides and slide down the ladders.



Rosa couldn't go with us to Chick-fil-a the day before because of work, so she suggested we go again. Troy was all, "DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO ASK?!?!?!?" So, off we went again.

This time, Avery got to meet the "Eat Mor Chik'n" cow. I thought she would be super scared, but she did GREAT!



So I took video. She signed "thank you" to the cow for his milk. So funny.





We headed home to put Avery down for a nap and when she got up, the snow/rain slushy was done and we went for a walk around their neighborhood/town.

The next morning, Kyle suggest that we drive to Utah to check out some of the parks and scenery. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I started feeling a little carsick from the looking straight up from inside the car thing, so I only got a couple pictures. It was GORGEOUS.

And my first time to Utah.



And here are some of the formations.



We left later that afternoon and had an easy flight home. YAY AVERY!

Thanks Kyle and Rosa for hosting. We had a great time visiting with you guys! Can't wait to see you again!

Kyle Visits (!!!) and Mandalay Bay Aquarium

This is our 4th time seeing Kyle in 4 months. It's crazy. Before moving out here in August, I don't think we had seen Kyle 4 times in 6 years. He came to visit in August and we saw him again in November for a camping Thanksgiving (or Friends-giving) and then we saw him on New Years Day when he and his new fiancee drove from California back to Colorado. And then 2 weeks ago, he came to visit again!! We love that he can fly here on Allegiant Air for less than 100 bucks roundtrip. AMAZING. SO amazing, in fact, that our family of 3 is flying to visit him and Rosa in March!

I only documented one of the days that he was here though. He flew in late on a thursday and his first stop was dinner at In-N-Out burger. He smelled the bag the whole way home chanting "it smells like college."

On friday, we got up and headed down to the strip to have lunch and go to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.

We decided to make it easy and satisfy everyone's cravings by hitting up the buffet at the casino.

Avery was excited. She had a ton of fruit and some noodles. She ate WAAAY too much dessert. She ate 2 cookies and when we were ready to walk over to the reef, the guys decided that they were taking ice cream cones for the walk over there (it was probably a quarter of a mile from the buffet to the reef).

Here's Avery with her cookie:

She walked the whole way to the reef while Troy and Kyle bribed her with their ice cream cones. We kept joking that we could get her to run forever if we could hang it on a rope in front of her face attached to her back while she ran.

But here she is, taking an ice cream break from her sugar high running.

We got a discount for being "locals" now that I have a Nevada drivers license, so that was nice. Avery didn't want to sit in her stroller, so all through the aquarium, she got chased or we carried her.

Here's Troy teaching her about the piranhas. They actually had a guide standing there to guard the tank because I guess people have been dumb enough to try and stick their hands in...

The beginning part was all "exotic" water animals. Like komodo dragons, snakes, etc. So it was very rainforest-y in there. And humid. Poor Troy started sweating immediately. And if you know him, that means it's serious.

Here's Kyle, Avery, and Troy. They're precious!

There were 2 parts in the reef where you walked into a giant tube and the fish surrounded you. Avery liked that. Here is us looking at the fish. I think she signed "fish" about 500 times while we were in there.

This fish will FOREVER remind me of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo." This is the fish that was so expensive that he accidentally put in the blender after he broke the huge aquarium. I started laughing when I saw all of them in the exhibit.

There was a whole cylinder of jellyfish. Eeeek. Very pretty though. I love this picture:

This is Troy and Avery looking in the giant shark tank at the end. It's super dark in there and there are parts where the floor is plexiglass so you can see down. Another eeeek! But I love their silhouettes. Look at her little curls. Haha. SO sweet. And more baby sign of "fish."

And then we went to the gift shop at the end. It's amazing what we will do to get Avery to laugh:

His sideways grin makes me smile.

Avery was super wiped out on the way home from all the fish signing. And running for some motivational ice cream. Her normal nap time is at 1pm, but we didn't get home until about 3. Oooops. That's okay. It was all in the name of science! Her Aunt Betty would be proud of her science day!

My Friend Wrapped ALL of our Christmas Presents. And I Baked. And Burned Cookies. And Suck at Decorating Them.

I had a much deserved girls night this week. And it was a productive one :) Filled with Christmas-y fun! And wine. And movies. And cookies.

My friend Katie loves wrapping Christmas gifts. I hate wrapping Christmas gifts because why spend so much time doing something that gets ripped open and thrown away in seconds? I love baking Christmas cookies. Katie hates baking Christmas cookies because it's messy and makes tons of dishes.

Katie wrapped all our gifts. I baked all of the cookies. Win-Win.

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, and chocolate chip cookies and drank wine. Katie wrapped 40+ gifts and drank wine.

This is Katie relaxing and wrapping gifts...it literally took her almost 2 movies to finish them all. We watched "The Holiday" and "Elf."

I made a big mess. I have NEVER used cookie cutters before. Ever. And I SUPER suck at decorating them. I actually burned a batch...ooooops. Too much chatting and laughing.

Evidence here. Luckily, Katie opted to take hers home and frost them later. Or she would have ended up with a hot mess.

Needless to say, we had a good time and both got something tangible out of our evening. Win-Win. Am I right?

So, to my family and Troy's family: You can thank Katie for all of your gifts being wrapped. You're welcome.

They got mailed yesterday. Be on the look out! We were "that family" in the post office. I swear. Military families should get discounts at the post office for Christmas mailing. We mailed 7 boxes and 5 flat packages. UGH! And we packaged most of them IN the post office. With a toddler. Let us all pause to imagine the chaos. You. Are. Welcome.

Anyone else hate wrapping presents? Or hate cleaning up baking messes?

YES! More pictures of White Sands!

YAY! Got some more pictures and some of them are HILARIOUS! And awesome. Go Kristen. You also have mad skills.

I am overloading y'all with pictures from one day. Sorry. Not really. My blog. Avery just makes me smile.

Here are the boys and the babies. I love dads using baby carriers. It's just precious.

Helping baby girl walk in the sand. This was before I gave up and decided that she could go ahead and roll in it.

Really cool pictures of the sand.

It's uncharted territory. So pretty. This is what I would imagine the moon would look like. Before the astronauts landed. Maybe. There's no wind on the moon. So maybe there wouldn't be dunes. Anyway...

Family photo! Nice work Kristen!!

No baby punching here! She's hugging Bella. Bella loves Avery. It's so sweet.

I LOVE THIS! I busted out laughing when I saw it. Kristen looks so happy and Bella is like "WHAT IS THIS ALL OVER MY FACE!?!?!"

Avery eating sand. Attempt at family photo 1. And Optimus is missing.

I think I am probably jiggling Avery to get her to smile. The camera caught me in mid "YAY white sands!!" And Troy is trying to keep happy dog from running away. Awkward strain in his face. You may not see it, but I do.

This one is ok too. Awkward underside of my neck. I think my favorite one is the above one. Any votes for which one should go in the house?

This might be my favorite. Avery looks SO happy. And they look like a professional cheerleading team. So cute :) Troy saw this picture and was like "Whoa. I didn't realize I was throwing her up so high. I'm a good parent I swear." He caught her every time. Don't worry.

Ok I'm done with White Sands 4th of July pictures. For real. But aren't they precious??

Alamogordo Zoo Petting Exhibit

It is currently "monsoon season" in Alamogordo. It starts in July. When Troy told me that, I was like, oh ok right. It hadn't rained one day since I arrived. Troy had flown everyday since I arrived June 11th. The last day he flew was July 3rd. He then flew again on the 16th. It really has been yucky weather. Not raining, just overcast. We can't really hit up the pool. Because (SHOCK) it's kind of cold without sun and then you add in the crazy wind.

We were starting to get bored. So on the 9th, we decided to hit up the zoo. It was pretty much a bird exhibit. The most exciting animal they had was this. An alligator. Okay, not exactly a petting zoo exhibit, but if you ask Swamp People, they would beg to differ.

This is a black swan. He was angry. He was chasing this one duck all over.

My camera kept taking pictures and focusing on the fence. This is a picture of a monkey like Marcel from Friends.

Peacocks are so beautiful.

Ostrich.

I don't know what this is, but his neck skin is a pretty color.

Emu with scary devil eyes. I swear, he was plotting my murder.

Avery checking out the birds.

Zack blocking the sun. So jealous that he'll wear sunglasses. Avery will not.

Our group checking out the otters.

Riding the lion.

Riding the bison.

Getting ready for a high five. She totally does it.

Happy girl in the swing. Even though the zoo was a sad, sad zoo. Avery was glad to get out of TLF. We were too.

Mostly birds, right? Lets be fair. There were some other animals there, but I couldn't get pictures because it was "too hot" for them. Like a bear, some bobcats, a cougar, and a few wolves. I have to give credit where credit is due :) I wouldn't let Avery pet those...

Anyone been to an awesome zoo? Or even an amazing petting zoo?