5. It takes a village. Our village in Vegas is bigger than I knew until I was gone.
When you are a military family and don't live near any family, it is really easy to feel isolated and alone. Sometimes on days when I have no plans with the kids and Troy is at work, I get in this weird funk.
I get in this circular thinking where I'm like, "I miss my family. And my friends. I don't know anyone. I need to make more friends. Troy needs to get out of the military so we can be closer to our support system. I don't think I can do this today. I just can't. I miss my mom. Maybe I'll FaceTime her. Why isn't she picking up? Is she mad at me? I'll try my sister. What could she POSSIBLY be doing that is more important than talking to me? My family hates me. Why isn't Troy home today? I wish he could just take leave. Everyday. Except for when I have to work. He should only work when I work. I need to get a grip. I need more friends." And it goes on and on.
But here's the funny thing. I went on this trip and there were several people who stopped by, brought Troy dinner, invited them over, and checked on them while I was gone. Some of it was planned and some was unexpected. And they all called or texted with updates on how Troy and the girls seemed to getting along without Mommy there. While I was gone and getting phone calls and message with updates, I kept thinking, "Wow, our support network in Vegas is really great. I'm a whiner. They're really stepping up to help us out. This is great!"
I'm not saying that Troy couldn't have done it by himself. I have NO doubt that everyone would have been alive when I got home. But I AM saying that they might have lived on chicken nuggets, french fries and green beans the entire time I was gone. With an occasional mac n cheese or peanut butter and jelly. On that diet, their gallbladders would have been going crazy, but no one would have been dead.
Troy only worked 2 days the whole time I was gone. He said it was funny because when he initially submitted leave for that week and his reason was to stay in town at home with the kids, some of the dads he works with were like, "oh no, 10 days all by yourself with the kids? Eek, good luck." So on the 2 days he went in to work, people were saying things like, "Are your kids still alive?" or "Are you guys ok?" He was actually a little offended, which I thought was cute. At one point he called and said to me, "You know, you were with the kids for 2 months while I was at SOS. And you've had them for a couple weeks while I did other TDYs. I can handle a few days. They're my kids too."
Respect. That's a good daddy right there. Love him.
Showing posts with label Vegas Adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vegas Adventures. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Fall 2014 Family Photos
So here we go again. I'm going to try this blogging thing. These are SO outdated...like 6 months old. People who got a Christmas card from us have seen some of these, but it appears that there are a lot of people reading this blog that I wasn't aware of. I will be address this in my next blog...which I am off to write now -
We decided to have some professional photos done the weekend after Caris and Kinley turned one year old. ONE!
We headed out to Floyd Lamb park (it's the peacock park to Avery) and it was a little chillier than we thought it would be, especially with the wind. And the coordinating outfits that I selected weren't super warm/didn't have sweaters or jackets to match, so we just decided to tough it out. "Tough it out" meaning the high that day was like 67 with some wind also. Eek. We have definitely adjusted to the desert weather.
Here is the all girl picture.
Here is one of us sitting on a low bridge thingy.
Sitting on a big tree.
Avery is RIGHT in the middle of saying "cheese" here. Can't you tell?
Caris had JUST started walking when this photo shoot was done. Kinley is still happy to sit and not move. I wish you could have seen me just outside the frame. I would hold Kinley up in standing and let go right when the photographer took the picture. Which is why it looks like Kinley is sloooooowly lowering herself to the ground. Because she's like "eh, I'm good sitting right here."
Family picture with Optimus. He got put in the car right after this. He thought the peacocks were squeaker toys. And he couldn't stay calm. Although, he was only in about 5 shots total so I think technically, he won the "most photogenic award" since all of his pictures were awesome.
The babies took some "One Year" pictures. I just love those little faces.
AHHH! They're so cute. I love them.
Sharing. It's very rare right now. And it was captured in a photo :)
I wish I knew what faces/noises we were making when this picture was taken. I would make it all the time.
So if you live in the Las Vegas area, we had a great experience with Dancing Frog Photography and we will definitely be utilizing Erin Kelly's business again.
We decided to have some professional photos done the weekend after Caris and Kinley turned one year old. ONE!
We headed out to Floyd Lamb park (it's the peacock park to Avery) and it was a little chillier than we thought it would be, especially with the wind. And the coordinating outfits that I selected weren't super warm/didn't have sweaters or jackets to match, so we just decided to tough it out. "Tough it out" meaning the high that day was like 67 with some wind also. Eek. We have definitely adjusted to the desert weather.
Here is the all girl picture.
Here is one of us sitting on a low bridge thingy.
Sitting on a big tree.
Avery is RIGHT in the middle of saying "cheese" here. Can't you tell?
Caris had JUST started walking when this photo shoot was done. Kinley is still happy to sit and not move. I wish you could have seen me just outside the frame. I would hold Kinley up in standing and let go right when the photographer took the picture. Which is why it looks like Kinley is sloooooowly lowering herself to the ground. Because she's like "eh, I'm good sitting right here."
Family picture with Optimus. He got put in the car right after this. He thought the peacocks were squeaker toys. And he couldn't stay calm. Although, he was only in about 5 shots total so I think technically, he won the "most photogenic award" since all of his pictures were awesome.
The babies took some "One Year" pictures. I just love those little faces.
AHHH! They're so cute. I love them.
Sharing. It's very rare right now. And it was captured in a photo :)
I wish I knew what faces/noises we were making when this picture was taken. I would make it all the time.
So if you live in the Las Vegas area, we had a great experience with Dancing Frog Photography and we will definitely be utilizing Erin Kelly's business again.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
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!
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!
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Avery Proves She is NOT a Superhero. She bleeds.
Our family has a free YMCA membership because our home is over 30 miles from our base. It's a great perk. It has free childcare, free classes, an indoor AND outdoor pool, and did I mention that it's free? For some reason, previously, I had associated YMCAs with low income areas with programs for families without the resources for safe activities. I don't know why. Boy was I wrong. It is SO nice. And we are really enjoying it!
I have been going to the gym about 3 times per week, which if you know me AT ALL you know this is a huge deal. I hate hate hate working out. Hate. However, now that I have a child and the child care is free, it's awesome. I am doing something good for me and she gets playtime/socializing time. I get to work out, read, listen to music, watch TV, take classes, whatever. All of a sudden, exercise has become "me" time. Which is amazing and a super motivational reason to go work out.
Recently, I decided that it was time for Avery and I to use the indoor pool every once in a while. They have a therapy pool and it is 92 degrees. AKA BATH WATER. It is SO nice and toasty. And Avery loves it. I think she's going to be a little water baby.
On tuesday, Troy and I took her swimming. She was taking great joy in going backwards down the stairs up to her neck and then climbing out and going to a deeper part of the pool (that was exactly the same height as the water) and lowering herself into the water up to her chest before lifting herself out of the side of the pool. This became a great game for her...of running and seeing how fast she could lower herself into the water from side to side.
Of course, we had already been swimming for over an hour and she was starting to get tired. But if you have kids who love water, it doesn't matter how tired they are, they are going to keep playing. Troy was in the water and I was sitting on a bench next to the area she was making laps and kept "catching her" to keep her from running. Of course on her last lap, she totally slips and goes down face first onto the pool deck and totally splits her chin wide open...
I immediately scoop her up and take her into the locker room to check it out and change her clothes because we were heading to Target to pick up the last of our Christmas gifts.
She quit crying pretty quick (I stuffed a bottle of milk in her mouth) so I could look at it. She has a Harry Potter lightening bolt cut right in the bottom of her chin. She is bleeding line a stuck pig. I change her out of her suit and put her clothes on. And she bleeds all over the neck/chest part of her shirt. It was looking all "psycho" up in that area.
I gather all of our stuff up and we all walk out to the car (Avery included, we try to have her walk all the time) and I'm like "TROY WE NEED TO GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM!" And Mr. Calm is all "Eh, we'll get some new skin at Target and she'll be fine." And then Mrs. Freakout is like "YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK!!! YOU DON'T LOVE HER AT ALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!"
We get into Target and there is more blood all over her face and shirt, which I am continually mopping up with a wipe from her diaper bag (which now looks brown instead of white). And I am now "that mom." You know, the one who grabs things off the shelf and immediately opens them and pays for them later? With a first aid kit.
We taped up her chin and she was not bothered at all. And didn't seem to be in any pain either. This is after we got the "new skin" on there.
And here are the pink "Hello Kitty" bandaids that she has been wearing.
I took her to the gym the next day and while I was waiting to drop her off at childcare, some other moms made me feel so much better when they saw her pink bandaid. They both said that their kids have also had scraped up faces. One mom said "my daughter fell off a curb and scraped her whole nose up and wore bandaids for weeks." The other mom said that her son fell 2 times in 6 months tripping over the hearth on the fireplace and split his chin in the exact same spot both times. At least I know it happens to everyone :) And baby girl seems fine!
I have been going to the gym about 3 times per week, which if you know me AT ALL you know this is a huge deal. I hate hate hate working out. Hate. However, now that I have a child and the child care is free, it's awesome. I am doing something good for me and she gets playtime/socializing time. I get to work out, read, listen to music, watch TV, take classes, whatever. All of a sudden, exercise has become "me" time. Which is amazing and a super motivational reason to go work out.
Recently, I decided that it was time for Avery and I to use the indoor pool every once in a while. They have a therapy pool and it is 92 degrees. AKA BATH WATER. It is SO nice and toasty. And Avery loves it. I think she's going to be a little water baby.
On tuesday, Troy and I took her swimming. She was taking great joy in going backwards down the stairs up to her neck and then climbing out and going to a deeper part of the pool (that was exactly the same height as the water) and lowering herself into the water up to her chest before lifting herself out of the side of the pool. This became a great game for her...of running and seeing how fast she could lower herself into the water from side to side.
Of course, we had already been swimming for over an hour and she was starting to get tired. But if you have kids who love water, it doesn't matter how tired they are, they are going to keep playing. Troy was in the water and I was sitting on a bench next to the area she was making laps and kept "catching her" to keep her from running. Of course on her last lap, she totally slips and goes down face first onto the pool deck and totally splits her chin wide open...
I immediately scoop her up and take her into the locker room to check it out and change her clothes because we were heading to Target to pick up the last of our Christmas gifts.
She quit crying pretty quick (I stuffed a bottle of milk in her mouth) so I could look at it. She has a Harry Potter lightening bolt cut right in the bottom of her chin. She is bleeding line a stuck pig. I change her out of her suit and put her clothes on. And she bleeds all over the neck/chest part of her shirt. It was looking all "psycho" up in that area.
I gather all of our stuff up and we all walk out to the car (Avery included, we try to have her walk all the time) and I'm like "TROY WE NEED TO GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM!" And Mr. Calm is all "Eh, we'll get some new skin at Target and she'll be fine." And then Mrs. Freakout is like "YOU DIDN'T EVEN LOOK!!! YOU DON'T LOVE HER AT ALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!"
We get into Target and there is more blood all over her face and shirt, which I am continually mopping up with a wipe from her diaper bag (which now looks brown instead of white). And I am now "that mom." You know, the one who grabs things off the shelf and immediately opens them and pays for them later? With a first aid kit.
We taped up her chin and she was not bothered at all. And didn't seem to be in any pain either. This is after we got the "new skin" on there.
And here are the pink "Hello Kitty" bandaids that she has been wearing.
I took her to the gym the next day and while I was waiting to drop her off at childcare, some other moms made me feel so much better when they saw her pink bandaid. They both said that their kids have also had scraped up faces. One mom said "my daughter fell off a curb and scraped her whole nose up and wore bandaids for weeks." The other mom said that her son fell 2 times in 6 months tripping over the hearth on the fireplace and split his chin in the exact same spot both times. At least I know it happens to everyone :) And baby girl seems fine!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Alopecia and Internal Affairs
#1: Alopecia - Optimus Style
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about our dear first-born, Optimus. His hair was falling out for no reason that we could see.
We took him to the vet. And in this post, I outlined all of the choices that she gave us regarding how to deal with his balding issue. We decided to have the blood panel done to see if there was anything abnormal going on with his hormones or enzymes and make sure there was nothing systemic going on. Well she called us the following week and all was well with his blood work.
Fortunately, his hair is growing back in. Unfortunately, it is continuing to thin in other areas. The whole right side of his body looks like a cheetah. He's mostly red and then where it is thinning, the fur is very blonde. So he's kinda polka dotted looking on his side. Poor baby.
Our policy for dealing with it is, if it doesn't bother him, it doesn't bother us. The highs here are in the low 70s. You read that right. He isn't used to that kind of heat year round, so for now we are assuming that his beastly self isn't used to the weather. He's adjusting. Like us. But he's eating and pooping fine. He's acting like his normal self so we are letting it go for now.
#2: My Speeding Ticket
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the asshole cop that pulled me over and gave me a ticket. He wasn't an asshole for pulling me over, but for the unprofessional way in which he conducted himself when he pulled me over. You can read more about that with direct quotes here.
I did file an online complaint through their official site on monday afternoon. I received a phone call regarding my complaint from the internal affairs office on wednesday, 2 days later. The officer took a statement from me over the phone and asked me a lot of questions regarding what happened when.
He also asked me what I would like to see happen to rectify the situation and laid out all of my options.
1. He could inform the officers boss and make sure he is not a repeat offender or have any other complaints of this nature against him.
2. I could file an official complaint and a file on the officer would be opened. This would entail me going down to the station for a tape recorded session and there could be court charges filed against him if it was shown that he violated the code of conduct.
I told him that what I REALLY wanted was for the officer to apologize to me. I told him that even though I knew it was unreasonable, I wanted an apology and an acknowledgement that the officer knew his behavior was wrong. I expected the investigator to be like, "Ma'am that is never going to happen." But instead, he was like, "Okay, well let me see when your court date is. It should be on your ticket that you were issued. Let me pull it up."
Troy had noticed it on monday, but the officer had put TROY'S name under the driver line (the car is insured and registered in Troy's name) and put the vehicle vin number under the license number AS WELL AS putting the wrong car color. The officer said that he would have to look into that and get back to me regarding the validity of the ticket, considering it was improperly filled out.
However, I was encouraged by the fact that the officer was like, "Oh let me see when your court date is" when I told him I wanted an apology. I felt like he ACKNOWLEDGED that I had been mistreated and was deserving of an apology after I told him my story. And I was glad that it seemed like he believed me. I felt SO much better just having someone who would be considered a co-worker of that jerk make it seem like he also thought I was owed an apology.
I told him that I wanted to go with option 1. I just wanted this officer's supervisor to know that he had acted unprofessionally. I am not sure if he was having a bad day or what. I would hope that this is an isolated incident, but if not, his supervisor would be made aware and could reprimand him in whichever way he deemed appropriate.
We hung up with him saying that he would get back to me regarding the ticket. We'll see. I have the number of a law group that one of my co-workers recommended. I haven't heard back from the internal affairs officer and it's been about 2 weeks. So I'm thinking I'll give the law office a call and figure out what I'm supposed to do now. Because I am certainly not going to just PAY the penalty, when it appears the points and fines would go towards Troy's license. So I guess I owe you guys another update about this. Especially if I wind up in court face to face with this guy...
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about our dear first-born, Optimus. His hair was falling out for no reason that we could see.
We took him to the vet. And in this post, I outlined all of the choices that she gave us regarding how to deal with his balding issue. We decided to have the blood panel done to see if there was anything abnormal going on with his hormones or enzymes and make sure there was nothing systemic going on. Well she called us the following week and all was well with his blood work.
Fortunately, his hair is growing back in. Unfortunately, it is continuing to thin in other areas. The whole right side of his body looks like a cheetah. He's mostly red and then where it is thinning, the fur is very blonde. So he's kinda polka dotted looking on his side. Poor baby.
Our policy for dealing with it is, if it doesn't bother him, it doesn't bother us. The highs here are in the low 70s. You read that right. He isn't used to that kind of heat year round, so for now we are assuming that his beastly self isn't used to the weather. He's adjusting. Like us. But he's eating and pooping fine. He's acting like his normal self so we are letting it go for now.
#2: My Speeding Ticket
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the asshole cop that pulled me over and gave me a ticket. He wasn't an asshole for pulling me over, but for the unprofessional way in which he conducted himself when he pulled me over. You can read more about that with direct quotes here.
I did file an online complaint through their official site on monday afternoon. I received a phone call regarding my complaint from the internal affairs office on wednesday, 2 days later. The officer took a statement from me over the phone and asked me a lot of questions regarding what happened when.
He also asked me what I would like to see happen to rectify the situation and laid out all of my options.
1. He could inform the officers boss and make sure he is not a repeat offender or have any other complaints of this nature against him.
2. I could file an official complaint and a file on the officer would be opened. This would entail me going down to the station for a tape recorded session and there could be court charges filed against him if it was shown that he violated the code of conduct.
I told him that what I REALLY wanted was for the officer to apologize to me. I told him that even though I knew it was unreasonable, I wanted an apology and an acknowledgement that the officer knew his behavior was wrong. I expected the investigator to be like, "Ma'am that is never going to happen." But instead, he was like, "Okay, well let me see when your court date is. It should be on your ticket that you were issued. Let me pull it up."
Troy had noticed it on monday, but the officer had put TROY'S name under the driver line (the car is insured and registered in Troy's name) and put the vehicle vin number under the license number AS WELL AS putting the wrong car color. The officer said that he would have to look into that and get back to me regarding the validity of the ticket, considering it was improperly filled out.
However, I was encouraged by the fact that the officer was like, "Oh let me see when your court date is" when I told him I wanted an apology. I felt like he ACKNOWLEDGED that I had been mistreated and was deserving of an apology after I told him my story. And I was glad that it seemed like he believed me. I felt SO much better just having someone who would be considered a co-worker of that jerk make it seem like he also thought I was owed an apology.
I told him that I wanted to go with option 1. I just wanted this officer's supervisor to know that he had acted unprofessionally. I am not sure if he was having a bad day or what. I would hope that this is an isolated incident, but if not, his supervisor would be made aware and could reprimand him in whichever way he deemed appropriate.
We hung up with him saying that he would get back to me regarding the ticket. We'll see. I have the number of a law group that one of my co-workers recommended. I haven't heard back from the internal affairs officer and it's been about 2 weeks. So I'm thinking I'll give the law office a call and figure out what I'm supposed to do now. Because I am certainly not going to just PAY the penalty, when it appears the points and fines would go towards Troy's license. So I guess I owe you guys another update about this. Especially if I wind up in court face to face with this guy...
Monday, November 12, 2012
So. I Got My First Speeding Ticket. And the Police Officer COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE RUDE.
This morning, I woke up and took a shower. And got ready for work. And got Avery out of bed to go to Carolyn's house (our nanny). I dropped Avery off and got on 215 going east for 2 miles and then merged to get onto 95 going south.
I look in my review mirror and see a motorcycle cop while I am on the 1/2 mile ramp from the beltway to merge on the highway and going about 60 mph. I think nothing of it because I wasn't speeding or breaking the law. I am getting ready to move onto 95 south and I see his motorcycle lights flash for about 5 seconds and I am confused. I think that he is signaling me to get out of the way so that he can get by faster. So I drive a bit to the right side of the road to let him by (the exit ramp is long and raised and only 1 lane) but he keeps on my bumper and so I merge off the road.
I was FREAKIN SCARED. I have NEVER been pulled over. EVER. No warnings, no traffic violations, no nothing. Perfect driving record. Until today. SO I am shaking. He takes his sweet time and gets off the bike and walks up to my side of the car and while I get my license and registration. This is what I am thinking:
Oh God. License and registration. That's what the cops say in movies. I have both. Go me. And I found them. Crap. I'm going to be so late for work. I don't have anyone's phone numbers. How am I going to call them? If I reach for my phone, will he think I have a gun and shoot me? Was I speeding? Nope. Oh crap, I wonder if my plates are expired. Hmmm (looking at registration), nope I'm good. Maybe my taillight is out. Oh no. I hope he takes his helmet and sunglasses off. He looks scary. I would hate to drive a motorcycle when it's this cold outside. Yuck. Oh CRAP here he comes. Maybe if I leave my Christian radio on he'll have pity. Oh God. Stop shaking. Don't cry. DON'T be that girl who cries. Don't do it.
He walks up to my window and I roll it down. He does not remove his helmet, sunglasses or move his little microphone from in front of his mouth. So I can see NO identifying features of his face.
Cop: (while yelling because we were on the highway and he didn't take off his helmet to hear me) License, registration, and proof of insurance.
I hand it to him and wait a beat while he looks at my license.
Me: Is there a problem?
Cop: (very rudely) Oh. So you think I'd give you a ticket without telling you what your traffic citation is?
Me: What? No. I just don't know what's wrong.
Cop: Are you telling me that you don't know what your speed was back there?
Me: I was going 65.
Cop: Right. I clocked you going 66.
Me: Okkkkaaaaaayyyyy?? (still waiting for an explanation)
Cop: The speed changes from 65 to 45 within a mile or so as you approach 95 because lights start on the north side of 215.
Me: Oh ok, I didn't realize that. I was on the highway for less than 2 miles.
Cop: (dripping with sarcasm) Did you pass your test for your drivers license?
Um Hello. The sarcasm AND question is just mean. Of course I passed the test. Would I be driving if I hadn't? You are in the suburbs of Las Vegas. This is not the strip at midnight. I am not drunk. Or a prostitute. Don't treat me like that. I am wearing scrubs and on my way to work with a car seat in the back. Hello. Sarcasm not needed. Suburban mom right here.
Me: Excuse me?
Cop: Why did it take so long for you to pull over?
Me: Your lights weren't flashing when I saw you. There are cops on the highways all the time. And I didn't feel safe pulling off to the side on a 1 lane, raised highway, entrance ramp where people are getting ready to merge at 70 mph.
Cop: (still dripping sarcastic and yelling over the noise) Well if you had passed your test, you'd know that you are supposed to pull over when you see an officer behind you.
I OBJECT!! But I didn't say that. I know that you are allowed to pull off at ANY spot where you feel comfortable. Which I definitely didn't. As it was, I pulled over in a construction zone between cones. Just sayin'. I could have called the police department to confirm that a real police officer was following me if I wanted. All within my rights okay?
Me: awkward silence while thinking ^this^ over.
Cop: (While looking at my license because it is from Delaware) Are you visiting Las Vegas or are you a local?
Me: I'm a local, we just moved here in mid August.
Cop: And you're on your way to work?
Me: Yes.
Cop: I need your local address. What is it?
Me: (Gives him address)
Cop: (yelling) I need you to speak up!!
Me: (shouts address)
Cop: (still yelling) LOUDER!
Me: (shouts address)
Cop: (yelling louder) LOUDER THAN THAT!
Me: (takes registration from Cop and writes address on it)
He goes back to his motorcycle to write up my ticket. And I proceed to cry. He was so mean, sarcastic, and inappropriate. I literally couldn't believe how rude he was. And my only reaction was to cry. Not sobbing. Just a tear every once in a while.
So he comes back with my ticket(s) and hands me my speeding ticket. So then he says:
Cop: Here's your ticket. Sign here. I reduced the speed to just say that you were 5 over. (only good thing he did or it was a reckless driving...ew)
Me: Thanks. What do I do now? Do I pay, do I call court, do I call my insurance? I've never done this.
Cop: Directions on the back. And I have to write you an additional ticket.
Me: What? Why?
Cop: You told me that you moved here in mid August. Thats two and half months ago.
Me: Okkkaaaaaayyyy
Cop: It's Nevada state law that you change your license, registration and insurance within 30 days of taking residence. (tries to hand me ticket)
Me: (puts hands up and pulls them away from the ticket) WHOA WAIT. My husband is active duty military and our insurance and registration is in his name. We don't have to change that stuff because he is active duty.
Happy Veterans Day you JERK! Kidding. I didn't say that.
Cop: (awkward pause with ugly look on his face because I was right and he wasn't expecting that response) Oh......well I didn't know that.
Me: (voice shaking and tear coming down face) You've been very rude, sarcastic and unprofessional (I may have said inappropriate). Be nice. I've never done this before and don't know what to expect.
Cop: Well, act like an adult and suck it up. It's time to put on your big girl pants. (I am shocked into silence) Have a good day.
And he turns around and walks back to his bike.
Seriously. If I was speeding, that's fine. I get a ticket. But really? No need to be rude. He was on a serious power trip.
Here's the kicker. I got back to Carolyn's and told her and her husband (who is from Las Vegas) what happened. Talon said I should file a complaint for his behavior and that his name and badge number should be on the ticket. I pull the ticket out and hand it to him and he's like "NO. WAY. I have to call my sister."
He calls his sister and sure enough, the cop is her ex-fiance. I tell her the whole story and she's like, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT!! I KNEW HE WAS A JERK. I'm so glad I broke it off with him."
Small world. I did file a complaint. Because really? SO rude.
Advice anyone? Pay the ticket? Contest? Anyone else have a horrid police interaction? Make me laugh please. I still haven't talked to Troy. Maybe he'll take pity on me because he was so mean.
Anyway, here's the picture. Opinions?
I look in my review mirror and see a motorcycle cop while I am on the 1/2 mile ramp from the beltway to merge on the highway and going about 60 mph. I think nothing of it because I wasn't speeding or breaking the law. I am getting ready to move onto 95 south and I see his motorcycle lights flash for about 5 seconds and I am confused. I think that he is signaling me to get out of the way so that he can get by faster. So I drive a bit to the right side of the road to let him by (the exit ramp is long and raised and only 1 lane) but he keeps on my bumper and so I merge off the road.
I was FREAKIN SCARED. I have NEVER been pulled over. EVER. No warnings, no traffic violations, no nothing. Perfect driving record. Until today. SO I am shaking. He takes his sweet time and gets off the bike and walks up to my side of the car and while I get my license and registration. This is what I am thinking:
Oh God. License and registration. That's what the cops say in movies. I have both. Go me. And I found them. Crap. I'm going to be so late for work. I don't have anyone's phone numbers. How am I going to call them? If I reach for my phone, will he think I have a gun and shoot me? Was I speeding? Nope. Oh crap, I wonder if my plates are expired. Hmmm (looking at registration), nope I'm good. Maybe my taillight is out. Oh no. I hope he takes his helmet and sunglasses off. He looks scary. I would hate to drive a motorcycle when it's this cold outside. Yuck. Oh CRAP here he comes. Maybe if I leave my Christian radio on he'll have pity. Oh God. Stop shaking. Don't cry. DON'T be that girl who cries. Don't do it.
He walks up to my window and I roll it down. He does not remove his helmet, sunglasses or move his little microphone from in front of his mouth. So I can see NO identifying features of his face.
Cop: (while yelling because we were on the highway and he didn't take off his helmet to hear me) License, registration, and proof of insurance.
I hand it to him and wait a beat while he looks at my license.
Me: Is there a problem?
Cop: (very rudely) Oh. So you think I'd give you a ticket without telling you what your traffic citation is?
Me: What? No. I just don't know what's wrong.
Cop: Are you telling me that you don't know what your speed was back there?
Me: I was going 65.
Cop: Right. I clocked you going 66.
Me: Okkkkaaaaaayyyyy?? (still waiting for an explanation)
Cop: The speed changes from 65 to 45 within a mile or so as you approach 95 because lights start on the north side of 215.
Me: Oh ok, I didn't realize that. I was on the highway for less than 2 miles.
Cop: (dripping with sarcasm) Did you pass your test for your drivers license?
Um Hello. The sarcasm AND question is just mean. Of course I passed the test. Would I be driving if I hadn't? You are in the suburbs of Las Vegas. This is not the strip at midnight. I am not drunk. Or a prostitute. Don't treat me like that. I am wearing scrubs and on my way to work with a car seat in the back. Hello. Sarcasm not needed. Suburban mom right here.
Me: Excuse me?
Cop: Why did it take so long for you to pull over?
Me: Your lights weren't flashing when I saw you. There are cops on the highways all the time. And I didn't feel safe pulling off to the side on a 1 lane, raised highway, entrance ramp where people are getting ready to merge at 70 mph.
Cop: (still dripping sarcastic and yelling over the noise) Well if you had passed your test, you'd know that you are supposed to pull over when you see an officer behind you.
I OBJECT!! But I didn't say that. I know that you are allowed to pull off at ANY spot where you feel comfortable. Which I definitely didn't. As it was, I pulled over in a construction zone between cones. Just sayin'. I could have called the police department to confirm that a real police officer was following me if I wanted. All within my rights okay?
Me: awkward silence while thinking ^this^ over.
Cop: (While looking at my license because it is from Delaware) Are you visiting Las Vegas or are you a local?
Me: I'm a local, we just moved here in mid August.
Cop: And you're on your way to work?
Me: Yes.
Cop: I need your local address. What is it?
Me: (Gives him address)
Cop: (yelling) I need you to speak up!!
Me: (shouts address)
Cop: (still yelling) LOUDER!
Me: (shouts address)
Cop: (yelling louder) LOUDER THAN THAT!
Me: (takes registration from Cop and writes address on it)
He goes back to his motorcycle to write up my ticket. And I proceed to cry. He was so mean, sarcastic, and inappropriate. I literally couldn't believe how rude he was. And my only reaction was to cry. Not sobbing. Just a tear every once in a while.
So he comes back with my ticket(s) and hands me my speeding ticket. So then he says:
Cop: Here's your ticket. Sign here. I reduced the speed to just say that you were 5 over. (only good thing he did or it was a reckless driving...ew)
Me: Thanks. What do I do now? Do I pay, do I call court, do I call my insurance? I've never done this.
Cop: Directions on the back. And I have to write you an additional ticket.
Me: What? Why?
Cop: You told me that you moved here in mid August. Thats two and half months ago.
Me: Okkkaaaaaayyyy
Cop: It's Nevada state law that you change your license, registration and insurance within 30 days of taking residence. (tries to hand me ticket)
Me: (puts hands up and pulls them away from the ticket) WHOA WAIT. My husband is active duty military and our insurance and registration is in his name. We don't have to change that stuff because he is active duty.
Happy Veterans Day you JERK! Kidding. I didn't say that.
Cop: (awkward pause with ugly look on his face because I was right and he wasn't expecting that response) Oh......well I didn't know that.
Me: (voice shaking and tear coming down face) You've been very rude, sarcastic and unprofessional (I may have said inappropriate). Be nice. I've never done this before and don't know what to expect.
Cop: Well, act like an adult and suck it up. It's time to put on your big girl pants. (I am shocked into silence) Have a good day.
And he turns around and walks back to his bike.
Seriously. If I was speeding, that's fine. I get a ticket. But really? No need to be rude. He was on a serious power trip.
Here's the kicker. I got back to Carolyn's and told her and her husband (who is from Las Vegas) what happened. Talon said I should file a complaint for his behavior and that his name and badge number should be on the ticket. I pull the ticket out and hand it to him and he's like "NO. WAY. I have to call my sister."
He calls his sister and sure enough, the cop is her ex-fiance. I tell her the whole story and she's like, "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT!! I KNEW HE WAS A JERK. I'm so glad I broke it off with him."
Small world. I did file a complaint. Because really? SO rude.
Advice anyone? Pay the ticket? Contest? Anyone else have a horrid police interaction? Make me laugh please. I still haven't talked to Troy. Maybe he'll take pity on me because he was so mean.
Anyway, here's the picture. Opinions?
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Dragging Troy to A Drag Show
So my mom came to visit a few weeks ago. She got here at 10pm on wednesday and then it was off to the races. We went to bed wednesday night and then got up thursday morning and drove to San Diego to visit Laura and her mom Kim (who is my mom's first cousin). You can read about my last visit here.
This is a picture of my mom with Laura (the brown hair) and me when Mom and Kim were about our age.
Isn't that cute??
Anyway... We were in San Diego doing girl stuff from Thursday to Saturday (when we drove back to Vegas). Then on Sunday we went to church and went to Costco. My mom's cousin came over with his daughter on Sunday night. Then on Monday, Troy and I both worked and Mom stayed home to have Grandma time with Avery. Tuesday morning, we were like, "OH GOD. You're leaving tomorrow and we haven't done ANYTHING Vegas-y." That's a word.
So I started looking online for a show that we could go to on a Tuesday night. Unfortunately, a lot of shows have their "off night" on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There weren't a lot of choices, but I FINALLY found a "Vegas-y" one called "Las Vegas Divas." And you guessed it!! Based on the title of this post, it was a drag show.
It was at the Imperial Palace on the strip. I was able to get a sitter for Avery last minute (YAY!) and we headed downtown. We parked at the Imperial Palace and walked through the casino and grabbed some drinks at Fat Tuesdays. We have more cups to add to our collection. We keep cups from bars in our car so that when we go downtown we don't have to pay the "inital cup fee" again. Refills on drinks are like half the price. Anyway, we got some drinks and went out to watch the fountain show at the Bellagio, which was really cool. I'd seen it in lots of movies, but it's better live.
We walked back to the Imperial Palace. The hotel was kind of a shit hole. Let's be honest. Especially since we walked through Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio. The best part about the Imperial Palace was that all of the dealers were dressed up like a character. There was Michael Jackson and Dolly Parton and some others. That was fun.
We got refills on our drinks for Mom and Troy (I got voted the DD. Of. Course.) and snuck them into the show. We were LITERALLY in the front row. Which was awesome, because Mom and Troy were just drunk enough to let everyone around us hear that they were excited about being so close so they could check out "how well the guys hide their junk." Face-palm.
The show started and Joan Rivers was the host. She looked awesome. The real Joan Rivers already looks like a drag queen so it was pretty much perfect.
Each person played 2 personas. I didn't get pictures of all the people, but here are a few examples:
Whitney Houston and Diana Ross where played by the same guy. Girl? I don't know what's politically correct here...
This is Celine Dion and Cher. How awesome is Cher?? The answer is: THE MOST AWESOME!
And then there's Lady Gaga and Britney. He/she was wearing jeweled PANTIES for each persona. And let's talk about this. We were sitting in the front row. And my mom is SLAMMED. And Troy is SLAMMED. And I was sitting between them. So to talk to each other, they are "whispering." Which has to be done over my lap. So they are doing like the stage whisper.
Troy: Ok, where's the penis?
Mom: That is an excellent tuck job.
Troy: I see no evidence of man there.
Mom: He's hot.
Natalie: Seriously, they can hear us.
But for real. The guy/girl who played Lady Gaga and Britney was AMAZING! Like better than real Britney. Had a better body than 95% of the girls I know. As a dude. For shame Natalie, for shame. GO TO THE GYM!
I got a picture with Britney after the show. I googled him just now and found out he is super famous. He was on "The X-Factor" as a Britney impersonator. His name is Derrick Barry. Google him.
Troy was relieved after he saw them all up close. He was like, "um, they're hot from far away." And then after seeing them up close with all their makeup and wig glory, he was like, "um, not so much hot from close up."
But for real. The thing I was most upset about was that there was NO live singing. I know that they are dudes and probably can't hit those notes. Their job is to IMITATE those divas in looks, swag and dancing, but I was still disappointed they they ALL were lip-syncing.
The other ladies that were there were Beyonce/Tina Turner, Mariah Carey/Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton/Bette Midler.
It was pretty amazing overall. Go see it.
This is a picture of my mom with Laura (the brown hair) and me when Mom and Kim were about our age.
Isn't that cute??
Anyway... We were in San Diego doing girl stuff from Thursday to Saturday (when we drove back to Vegas). Then on Sunday we went to church and went to Costco. My mom's cousin came over with his daughter on Sunday night. Then on Monday, Troy and I both worked and Mom stayed home to have Grandma time with Avery. Tuesday morning, we were like, "OH GOD. You're leaving tomorrow and we haven't done ANYTHING Vegas-y." That's a word.
So I started looking online for a show that we could go to on a Tuesday night. Unfortunately, a lot of shows have their "off night" on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There weren't a lot of choices, but I FINALLY found a "Vegas-y" one called "Las Vegas Divas." And you guessed it!! Based on the title of this post, it was a drag show.
It was at the Imperial Palace on the strip. I was able to get a sitter for Avery last minute (YAY!) and we headed downtown. We parked at the Imperial Palace and walked through the casino and grabbed some drinks at Fat Tuesdays. We have more cups to add to our collection. We keep cups from bars in our car so that when we go downtown we don't have to pay the "inital cup fee" again. Refills on drinks are like half the price. Anyway, we got some drinks and went out to watch the fountain show at the Bellagio, which was really cool. I'd seen it in lots of movies, but it's better live.
We walked back to the Imperial Palace. The hotel was kind of a shit hole. Let's be honest. Especially since we walked through Caesar's Palace and the Bellagio. The best part about the Imperial Palace was that all of the dealers were dressed up like a character. There was Michael Jackson and Dolly Parton and some others. That was fun.
We got refills on our drinks for Mom and Troy (I got voted the DD. Of. Course.) and snuck them into the show. We were LITERALLY in the front row. Which was awesome, because Mom and Troy were just drunk enough to let everyone around us hear that they were excited about being so close so they could check out "how well the guys hide their junk." Face-palm.
The show started and Joan Rivers was the host. She looked awesome. The real Joan Rivers already looks like a drag queen so it was pretty much perfect.
Each person played 2 personas. I didn't get pictures of all the people, but here are a few examples:
Whitney Houston and Diana Ross where played by the same guy. Girl? I don't know what's politically correct here...
This is Celine Dion and Cher. How awesome is Cher?? The answer is: THE MOST AWESOME!
And then there's Lady Gaga and Britney. He/she was wearing jeweled PANTIES for each persona. And let's talk about this. We were sitting in the front row. And my mom is SLAMMED. And Troy is SLAMMED. And I was sitting between them. So to talk to each other, they are "whispering." Which has to be done over my lap. So they are doing like the stage whisper.
Troy: Ok, where's the penis?
Mom: That is an excellent tuck job.
Troy: I see no evidence of man there.
Mom: He's hot.
Natalie: Seriously, they can hear us.
But for real. The guy/girl who played Lady Gaga and Britney was AMAZING! Like better than real Britney. Had a better body than 95% of the girls I know. As a dude. For shame Natalie, for shame. GO TO THE GYM!
I got a picture with Britney after the show. I googled him just now and found out he is super famous. He was on "The X-Factor" as a Britney impersonator. His name is Derrick Barry. Google him.
Troy was relieved after he saw them all up close. He was like, "um, they're hot from far away." And then after seeing them up close with all their makeup and wig glory, he was like, "um, not so much hot from close up."
But for real. The thing I was most upset about was that there was NO live singing. I know that they are dudes and probably can't hit those notes. Their job is to IMITATE those divas in looks, swag and dancing, but I was still disappointed they they ALL were lip-syncing.
The other ladies that were there were Beyonce/Tina Turner, Mariah Carey/Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton/Bette Midler.
It was pretty amazing overall. Go see it.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
No More Emphysema! Yay Me!
Despite my complaining and need for an inhaler, we have continued hiking. AND BONUS: I am actually enjoying it.
Our typical weekend routine is to wake up saturday and Natalie is REQUIRED to eat. Like a carb and a protein. Or she may actually die. Like sugar crash and turn into a raging crazy bitch.
So that's first. And while I feed myself, Troy is on Avery duty. He feeds her, gets her dressed, and packs the diaper bag and camelback for the next 4 hours. He also gets Optimus ready. He gets his collar and leash, a nalgene of water, and a ziplock bag (we use it as his water bowl) packed. By the time Troy does all this, I am usually fed and dressed with a mug of coffee for the 20 minute drive up to Mt. Charleston.
Right now, we have only been up to Mt. Charleston because it's 20 degrees cooler than Vegas. We are looking forward to going out to Red Rocks when it's cooler. Like maybe in December. I kid. I hope. Whenever the average temperature is around 80 we'll plan a few trips out there. Which may be right before Thanksgiving. But we are running out of trails at Mt. Charleston that are less than 5 miles. I'm not ready to wrap my brain around more than that. So either Troy is going to make me start hiking longer trails, or we need to hit up another site with shorter trails. Sooner rather than later.
This is Troy and Avery and Optimus on a hike that included "rock scrambling." It is exactly what you are picturing in your head. We pretty much hiked up (what looked like) a dried up river/creek bed right in the middle of a canyon. It has water in it in the spring when the snow on the mountain is melting, but in the fall, it is dry. Optimus did great, hopping from rock to rock and Troy did great using hands and feet to climb up. That trail was my FAVORITE hike that we have done so far. We probably went further than we should have with a baby on board, but it was GORGEOUS. We had a snack and some water at the end of the Big falls trail:
This is the next weekend and we hiked a trail called Cathedral Rock. Talk about steep. It was uphill the whole way. There was a trail crew doing some trail restoration and they were all super nice. They had to carry all the tools and things they needed up to where they were doing the work. There was like, 10-12 of them and they had jackhammers, igloo coolers, wheel barrels and other unidentifiable things to me for trail maintenance. Troy was all "ooo that would be so fun!" And I was like, "I can barely hike this trail holding a dog least. How did they hike 2 miles uphill with a giant igloo cooler??" That does NOT sound like fun.
Anyway. The scenery was GORGEOUS!! Look at that. I love this picture. It's frame worthy:
When we got to the top, I snuck in a picture with Avery. We were looking into the sun and Avery was more concerned about eating her snack than posing for the camera. Love her.
Our typical weekend routine is to wake up saturday and Natalie is REQUIRED to eat. Like a carb and a protein. Or she may actually die. Like sugar crash and turn into a raging crazy bitch.
So that's first. And while I feed myself, Troy is on Avery duty. He feeds her, gets her dressed, and packs the diaper bag and camelback for the next 4 hours. He also gets Optimus ready. He gets his collar and leash, a nalgene of water, and a ziplock bag (we use it as his water bowl) packed. By the time Troy does all this, I am usually fed and dressed with a mug of coffee for the 20 minute drive up to Mt. Charleston.
Right now, we have only been up to Mt. Charleston because it's 20 degrees cooler than Vegas. We are looking forward to going out to Red Rocks when it's cooler. Like maybe in December. I kid. I hope. Whenever the average temperature is around 80 we'll plan a few trips out there. Which may be right before Thanksgiving. But we are running out of trails at Mt. Charleston that are less than 5 miles. I'm not ready to wrap my brain around more than that. So either Troy is going to make me start hiking longer trails, or we need to hit up another site with shorter trails. Sooner rather than later.
This is Troy and Avery and Optimus on a hike that included "rock scrambling." It is exactly what you are picturing in your head. We pretty much hiked up (what looked like) a dried up river/creek bed right in the middle of a canyon. It has water in it in the spring when the snow on the mountain is melting, but in the fall, it is dry. Optimus did great, hopping from rock to rock and Troy did great using hands and feet to climb up. That trail was my FAVORITE hike that we have done so far. We probably went further than we should have with a baby on board, but it was GORGEOUS. We had a snack and some water at the end of the Big falls trail:
This is the next weekend and we hiked a trail called Cathedral Rock. Talk about steep. It was uphill the whole way. There was a trail crew doing some trail restoration and they were all super nice. They had to carry all the tools and things they needed up to where they were doing the work. There was like, 10-12 of them and they had jackhammers, igloo coolers, wheel barrels and other unidentifiable things to me for trail maintenance. Troy was all "ooo that would be so fun!" And I was like, "I can barely hike this trail holding a dog least. How did they hike 2 miles uphill with a giant igloo cooler??" That does NOT sound like fun.
Anyway. The scenery was GORGEOUS!! Look at that. I love this picture. It's frame worthy:
When we got to the top, I snuck in a picture with Avery. We were looking into the sun and Avery was more concerned about eating her snack than posing for the camera. Love her.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Question, Answer
Q: So how are you liking Vegas? How is your house?
A: So far so good. We are struggling a little bit to find family friend activities at the moment. Since starting work last week, I have been asking around for different things to do around town that DON'T include one of the following: a bar, a show, a casino, or shopping. The other problem is that there definitely are family activities, but a lot of them are for kids that are a little more independent and abstract thinking than Avery is at the moment. So far I've gotten a recommendations for an outdoor theater, an aquarium (Avery is obsessed with fish right now), a children's museum, and hiking. We have definitely been hiking. We've up to Mt. Charleston to hike almost every weekend since we've been here. Mostly because it's still too hot to do anything outside in town. It's 20 degrees cooler up there. SO nice. And Avery loves being outside. And I'm enjoying it MUCH more than our first time up there.
The house is great. We are still struggling with some of the "last minute" things. We still have stacks of pictures leaned up against the wall. Troy is struggling to go through some of his stuff from high school and college, so there are a few boxes sitting around. We haven't unpacked and organized the office, which is located in the room on our master bedroom. So I have to look at that mess every morning when I open my eyes. The upstairs guest room is pretty much a hot mess. The curtain isn't hung, or the curtain rod. No pictures are hung. There are power tools on the beds. We know we are going to use them soon. Well soon-ish. Whenever we get around to it. So we just haven't put them away yet.
But we are loving it. It is so much better than TLF. We have a TON of space. The backyard should be done in the next week, so we will be able to hang out in the yard. Which will be great because (from what people tell us) it should start to cool down soon and feel like fall. We are looking forward to it. APPARENTLY October and November are absolutely gorgeous. We will see and I'll let you know. I'm skeptical.
Q: How is Troy liking his job?
A: WELL he just got assigned to a team, which designates what team he is on. Troy is currently on day shift for the next 6 weeks. He is going to be working from 8-4 which about a 40 minute commute on each end. Swing shift is from 4-12 midnight and mids is from 12 midnight to 8 in the morning. Troy will go to swing shift right before Thanksgiving. I think swing shift is going to suck the most. The days that I work, I won't see Troy AT ALL. Because he will be at work when I am getting home from work. Mids won't be too bad because on days that I work, he will be sleeping while I am at work OR he'll be awake for a bit and then asleep from like 10 to 6 so that he can have dinner with us and hang out with me before I go to bed and he goes to work.
So far, he is really liking it. While we were in Alamogordo, we were having SERIOUS doubts about Troy's decision to cross-train from Logistics. We were just not sure if it was a good idea. Troy can't really tell me the details, but some of the people he's met since we have been here have really helped to validate his decision and make him feel better about it. So really, if he's happy, I'm happy.
Q: How are you liking your job?
A: So far, so good. When we moved here, I was pretty set on not working until January. YEAH RIGHT! Troy called it 6 months ago. Our house got mostly set up and then I was like, "ugh, I am not stay at home mom material." Troy and I are both happier when I am working. I think of all these fake problems and obsess about things to fight with Troy about so that I can get some adult interaction. It's really not good. I feel like Troy gets to "escape" when he goes to work and I'm "stuck" at home with Avery. Which is terrible. I know.
But I know that while I am working, when I am home, I am engaged with her and happy to read the same book 10 times because I haven't seen her all day rather than feel like I've been stuck at home with her. But anyway...the JOB is great. From the time I decided I needed to work until the day I started, it was a little more than 3 weeks. I am working on a rehab unit (and am going to start floating to acute inpatient) right now. It's a 42 bed unit (which is huge) and it's awesome. I am working 3 full 8 hour days a week, and sometimes 10 hour days depending on Troy's schedule and nanny availability. They hired me knowing that I wanted to do my own schedule so that I could be off on days that Troy was off. They were agreeable. YAY!
I had 3 interviews and 3 offers. 2 of the jobs were close. 1 was far. Like down on the strip. The one on the strip got GOOD cases. Like the shootings, like the people who played slots for 48 hours straight and stroked out or fell on their way out of a casino. Or people who were visiting from Japan. Or New York. So far, about 30% of the patients are visiting Las Vegas and end up in the ER. So discharge planning is interesting. Another 50% are from the states around Nevada. A TON of people from Arizona and California. The other 2 jobs sent all of their exciting cases down to the other hospital. Those 2 jobs would be mostly joint replacements and debility. No thanks. Needless to say, I took the job with the further commute on the strip with the more exciting and interesting cases.
Not gonna lie, so far, the commute sucks. But I had also worked everyday last week. So I had to do the commute everyday. In reality, I'll only do it 3 times a week. I've been using the commute to drink coffee, listen to music, make phone calls to family, and relax. It's really not comparable to DC traffic. DC traffic is WAY worse. So I just try to use the time away from Avery to do things that I wouldn't be able to do at home because Avery would be screaming for breakfast or to read a book. It's been good.
Q: How did you find your nanny? How is Avery doing with her?
A: We used care.com to find a nanny. I placed an ad on monday and had 13 responses by tuesday night. I responded to all of them and based on their responses, set up 5 interviews for saturday. Troy did not want to know ANYTHING about who I "had a feeling about" or what their profiles were like online. He wanted to go into the interviews completely blind and knew that I wouldn't ask someone for an interview if I didn't think they might be a fit.
We interviewed a couple different kinds of people. There was a lady who was in her late 60's, a couple of stay at home moms looking for some extra cash, and a girl in her early 20's who was in college. We ended up going with a stay at home mom who has a 20 month old little girl. We were debating on going with an in home day care because we wanted Avery to have some interaction with other kids to learn about sharing and being patient, etc.
When it came down to it, I leave for work about 7 and didn't want to drag Avery out of bed and spend an extra 30 minutes (so I'd leave at 630) in the car/getting her settled in child care, and I really wanted to have someone come to the house. So when Carolyn said that she had a 20 month old AND she would come to us, I was like, WIN! I had a feeling she was "the one" based on our emails back and forth before the interview on saturday. We had a whole list of interview questions and ended up not using it with her because the conversation flowed so naturally and she was able to answer our questions without a structured interview. And she was bringing her daughter so that Avery could get that interaction Troy and I wanted her to have.
When she left, Troy was like, "Ok, call the other people, she's the one. You can tell them not to come!" I didn't do that and we interviewed everyone, but we did end up extending an offer to her, which she took. And in the process of all the interviews, we found 2 people additional people to put on our babysitter list for date nights. Which was perfect because Carolyn wasn't available to start on my first day of work. Avery went to one of the their houses for monday and tuesday of my first week and it worked out great. Overall, we had a GREAT experience with care.com and would recommend it to anyone. Even if you are just looking for an occasional sitter.
So far, so good. Avery just loves her. She loves having another kid to play with. And she loves how happy her mommy is to see her when she comes home from work. Win all around.
Q: When are you coming back to the east coast?
A: Troy's schedule is crazy. The next time we will be on the east coast as a family will be in April for my sister Lindsey's wedding. We are going to Ft. Walton Beach. The next time I am coming back will be in January for Lindsey's bachelorette weekend in Savannah, GA. I'm pretty excited because Avery isn't coming, so that will be an adult weekend trip for me :) We will be using Carolyn to supplement child care while I am gone because there is no way that Troy will be approved for 4 days off in a row. Especially since the squadron is already scheduling leave for March. Ouch.
Anything else??
A: So far so good. We are struggling a little bit to find family friend activities at the moment. Since starting work last week, I have been asking around for different things to do around town that DON'T include one of the following: a bar, a show, a casino, or shopping. The other problem is that there definitely are family activities, but a lot of them are for kids that are a little more independent and abstract thinking than Avery is at the moment. So far I've gotten a recommendations for an outdoor theater, an aquarium (Avery is obsessed with fish right now), a children's museum, and hiking. We have definitely been hiking. We've up to Mt. Charleston to hike almost every weekend since we've been here. Mostly because it's still too hot to do anything outside in town. It's 20 degrees cooler up there. SO nice. And Avery loves being outside. And I'm enjoying it MUCH more than our first time up there.
The house is great. We are still struggling with some of the "last minute" things. We still have stacks of pictures leaned up against the wall. Troy is struggling to go through some of his stuff from high school and college, so there are a few boxes sitting around. We haven't unpacked and organized the office, which is located in the room on our master bedroom. So I have to look at that mess every morning when I open my eyes. The upstairs guest room is pretty much a hot mess. The curtain isn't hung, or the curtain rod. No pictures are hung. There are power tools on the beds. We know we are going to use them soon. Well soon-ish. Whenever we get around to it. So we just haven't put them away yet.
But we are loving it. It is so much better than TLF. We have a TON of space. The backyard should be done in the next week, so we will be able to hang out in the yard. Which will be great because (from what people tell us) it should start to cool down soon and feel like fall. We are looking forward to it. APPARENTLY October and November are absolutely gorgeous. We will see and I'll let you know. I'm skeptical.
Q: How is Troy liking his job?
A: WELL he just got assigned to a team, which designates what team he is on. Troy is currently on day shift for the next 6 weeks. He is going to be working from 8-4 which about a 40 minute commute on each end. Swing shift is from 4-12 midnight and mids is from 12 midnight to 8 in the morning. Troy will go to swing shift right before Thanksgiving. I think swing shift is going to suck the most. The days that I work, I won't see Troy AT ALL. Because he will be at work when I am getting home from work. Mids won't be too bad because on days that I work, he will be sleeping while I am at work OR he'll be awake for a bit and then asleep from like 10 to 6 so that he can have dinner with us and hang out with me before I go to bed and he goes to work.
So far, he is really liking it. While we were in Alamogordo, we were having SERIOUS doubts about Troy's decision to cross-train from Logistics. We were just not sure if it was a good idea. Troy can't really tell me the details, but some of the people he's met since we have been here have really helped to validate his decision and make him feel better about it. So really, if he's happy, I'm happy.
Q: How are you liking your job?
A: So far, so good. When we moved here, I was pretty set on not working until January. YEAH RIGHT! Troy called it 6 months ago. Our house got mostly set up and then I was like, "ugh, I am not stay at home mom material." Troy and I are both happier when I am working. I think of all these fake problems and obsess about things to fight with Troy about so that I can get some adult interaction. It's really not good. I feel like Troy gets to "escape" when he goes to work and I'm "stuck" at home with Avery. Which is terrible. I know.
But I know that while I am working, when I am home, I am engaged with her and happy to read the same book 10 times because I haven't seen her all day rather than feel like I've been stuck at home with her. But anyway...the JOB is great. From the time I decided I needed to work until the day I started, it was a little more than 3 weeks. I am working on a rehab unit (and am going to start floating to acute inpatient) right now. It's a 42 bed unit (which is huge) and it's awesome. I am working 3 full 8 hour days a week, and sometimes 10 hour days depending on Troy's schedule and nanny availability. They hired me knowing that I wanted to do my own schedule so that I could be off on days that Troy was off. They were agreeable. YAY!
I had 3 interviews and 3 offers. 2 of the jobs were close. 1 was far. Like down on the strip. The one on the strip got GOOD cases. Like the shootings, like the people who played slots for 48 hours straight and stroked out or fell on their way out of a casino. Or people who were visiting from Japan. Or New York. So far, about 30% of the patients are visiting Las Vegas and end up in the ER. So discharge planning is interesting. Another 50% are from the states around Nevada. A TON of people from Arizona and California. The other 2 jobs sent all of their exciting cases down to the other hospital. Those 2 jobs would be mostly joint replacements and debility. No thanks. Needless to say, I took the job with the further commute on the strip with the more exciting and interesting cases.
Not gonna lie, so far, the commute sucks. But I had also worked everyday last week. So I had to do the commute everyday. In reality, I'll only do it 3 times a week. I've been using the commute to drink coffee, listen to music, make phone calls to family, and relax. It's really not comparable to DC traffic. DC traffic is WAY worse. So I just try to use the time away from Avery to do things that I wouldn't be able to do at home because Avery would be screaming for breakfast or to read a book. It's been good.
Q: How did you find your nanny? How is Avery doing with her?
A: We used care.com to find a nanny. I placed an ad on monday and had 13 responses by tuesday night. I responded to all of them and based on their responses, set up 5 interviews for saturday. Troy did not want to know ANYTHING about who I "had a feeling about" or what their profiles were like online. He wanted to go into the interviews completely blind and knew that I wouldn't ask someone for an interview if I didn't think they might be a fit.
We interviewed a couple different kinds of people. There was a lady who was in her late 60's, a couple of stay at home moms looking for some extra cash, and a girl in her early 20's who was in college. We ended up going with a stay at home mom who has a 20 month old little girl. We were debating on going with an in home day care because we wanted Avery to have some interaction with other kids to learn about sharing and being patient, etc.
When it came down to it, I leave for work about 7 and didn't want to drag Avery out of bed and spend an extra 30 minutes (so I'd leave at 630) in the car/getting her settled in child care, and I really wanted to have someone come to the house. So when Carolyn said that she had a 20 month old AND she would come to us, I was like, WIN! I had a feeling she was "the one" based on our emails back and forth before the interview on saturday. We had a whole list of interview questions and ended up not using it with her because the conversation flowed so naturally and she was able to answer our questions without a structured interview. And she was bringing her daughter so that Avery could get that interaction Troy and I wanted her to have.
When she left, Troy was like, "Ok, call the other people, she's the one. You can tell them not to come!" I didn't do that and we interviewed everyone, but we did end up extending an offer to her, which she took. And in the process of all the interviews, we found 2 people additional people to put on our babysitter list for date nights. Which was perfect because Carolyn wasn't available to start on my first day of work. Avery went to one of the their houses for monday and tuesday of my first week and it worked out great. Overall, we had a GREAT experience with care.com and would recommend it to anyone. Even if you are just looking for an occasional sitter.
So far, so good. Avery just loves her. She loves having another kid to play with. And she loves how happy her mommy is to see her when she comes home from work. Win all around.
Q: When are you coming back to the east coast?
A: Troy's schedule is crazy. The next time we will be on the east coast as a family will be in April for my sister Lindsey's wedding. We are going to Ft. Walton Beach. The next time I am coming back will be in January for Lindsey's bachelorette weekend in Savannah, GA. I'm pretty excited because Avery isn't coming, so that will be an adult weekend trip for me :) We will be using Carolyn to supplement child care while I am gone because there is no way that Troy will be approved for 4 days off in a row. Especially since the squadron is already scheduling leave for March. Ouch.
Anything else??
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
The Hike that Made Me Feel Like I had Emphysema
Troy and I have decided that we need to spend more time outside. It is important that Avery see Troy and I making smart and healthy life choices. That means watching 4 seasons of Dexter in 1 week is no longer allowed. I wish I were joking, but we totally did that. Our couch had permanent imprints of our bums in it the week after Christmas. AH Dexter. You are awesome.
Anyway, this post is about our hike. THE GREAT OUTDOORS! BUGS! SWAMP ASS! SWEAT! DIRT! Those are things that I associate with hiking. Not my favorites. I'm not an "outdoorsy girl." I like air conditioning, running water, and a comfy place to rest my head.
So when Troy and I decided to make this a goal for our lifestyle and with our kids, like true intellectuals, we bought a book. It has about 50 hikes in it around the Las Vegas area. It's like "Hiking for Dummies" but better. Troy ended up picking the 1st hike in the book for us to do. It was rated moderate for the quick incline in elevation. It was 3.6 miles and rated well for kids and pets. Sweet. Yes.
NO! My body is NOT USED to the elevation. I wasn't tired or sweaty, I just could not catch my breath. I felt like my intake was soooo short. I had to keep stopping to get some air.
This was my view from looking up from my head between my knees. Sometimes he would wait.
But most of the time he was like, "Are you serious?? You need to work out more. This hike was rated well for KIDS! You gotta pull it together."
And I was all, "Troy if you want to make this an every weekend thing, you better make it enjoyable for me, or I won't go anymore. Hobby over."
And then pregnant woman about to give birth would pass us carrying a 3 year old on her back. I wish I were kidding.
This is where we were going. It's called Fletcher Canyon. It was pretty.
That's Troy pointing and saying, "We made it to the end."
And me thinking, "Oh thank God, I need a sandwich."
I wore Avery on the way down. We made EXCELLENT time on the way down. The way up, not so much. But we FLEW down. Don't judge. This picture is awful. I look fat and exhausted. But I did it. 3.6 miles. I was pretty proud.
Overall, pretty good experience. If Troy hadn't been such a negative Nancy, I think I wouldn't have tried to chuck the dog leash at his head. We're planning another trip. I am thinking it will go better that time.
Anyway, this post is about our hike. THE GREAT OUTDOORS! BUGS! SWAMP ASS! SWEAT! DIRT! Those are things that I associate with hiking. Not my favorites. I'm not an "outdoorsy girl." I like air conditioning, running water, and a comfy place to rest my head.
So when Troy and I decided to make this a goal for our lifestyle and with our kids, like true intellectuals, we bought a book. It has about 50 hikes in it around the Las Vegas area. It's like "Hiking for Dummies" but better. Troy ended up picking the 1st hike in the book for us to do. It was rated moderate for the quick incline in elevation. It was 3.6 miles and rated well for kids and pets. Sweet. Yes.
NO! My body is NOT USED to the elevation. I wasn't tired or sweaty, I just could not catch my breath. I felt like my intake was soooo short. I had to keep stopping to get some air.
This was my view from looking up from my head between my knees. Sometimes he would wait.
But most of the time he was like, "Are you serious?? You need to work out more. This hike was rated well for KIDS! You gotta pull it together."
And I was all, "Troy if you want to make this an every weekend thing, you better make it enjoyable for me, or I won't go anymore. Hobby over."
And then pregnant woman about to give birth would pass us carrying a 3 year old on her back. I wish I were kidding.
This is where we were going. It's called Fletcher Canyon. It was pretty.
That's Troy pointing and saying, "We made it to the end."
And me thinking, "Oh thank God, I need a sandwich."
I wore Avery on the way down. We made EXCELLENT time on the way down. The way up, not so much. But we FLEW down. Don't judge. This picture is awful. I look fat and exhausted. But I did it. 3.6 miles. I was pretty proud.
Overall, pretty good experience. If Troy hadn't been such a negative Nancy, I think I wouldn't have tried to chuck the dog leash at his head. We're planning another trip. I am thinking it will go better that time.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Vegas Adventures Visitor #2 - Kyle!
Who was visitor #1? My dad! He came to visit while we were moving in and we basically put him to work. He drove from California and will be with us about once a month, which is amazing! LOVE YOU!
We have known Kyle a long time. I met him in 6th grade and Troy met him in church around the same time. Kyle was our "one degree." Kyle was there when Troy and I finally met at church youth group right before the start of junior year of high school in the back of a church van. That sounds bad, but it was all very innocent. Mini golf. Kyle was also the best man in our wedding. I hadn't seen Kyle since WAY before Avery was born. Troy saw Kyle last summer when he was in Colorado for part of his training. They did man stuff. Hiking. Camping. You know. General man merriment. Kyle and Troy still talk about the summer of their junior year in college when Troy when to California they somehow managed squeeze rock climbing, surfing and skiing (or in Troy's case snowboarding) in one week. Apparently they spent a lot of time in the car jamming to Rascal Flatts. Harmonizing. I'm serious. I love them :) Kyle had never met Avery until last weekend. Anyway, so now you know the background.
Kyle flew in on friday morning on Allegiant Air from Colorado. 113$ ROUND TRIP! That is straight up crazy. He is (successfully) convincing us to fly out and visit him before next summer. Especially at those prices. Hello cheap weekend trip!
Anyway...he flew out early friday morning and arrived at the house by about 1230. Apparently he and Troy took a few wrong turns on the way home from the airport. He better figure that out before other people fly in. It was his first time driving to and from the airport so I guess it's excusable. That's a lie. He picked me up...in the dark, it was almost 11pm. So it was his first time in the daylight. So that's excusable?? We'll say it is.
Unfortunately for Kyle, we arranged to have our security system put in that day. For whatever reason, I am really uncomfortable having work done on the house when Troy isn't home and I am alone with Avery. The guy was here installing the system for about 4 hours. Which means the guys were stuck home with me and Avery. So we hung out, caught up, and Avery and Kyle played on his ipad together.
We had some friends over for dinner (we grilled and made teriyaki steak kabobs) and had game night. If you haven't played "Who, What, Where" you are missing out. It is like Pictionary but WAY better. Take my word for it. Get it. It's hilarious.
We also played a game called "Awkward Family Photos." You have seen the website...
Here is a sampling of what you might draw on the "subject card" (from Awkwardfamilyphoto.com)
Everyone gawks and laughs at the picture and then a number is rolled. The number on the die from 1 to 20. A question along the edge of the game board aligns with a number. The questions are "what did someone say right before this picture" or "what could make this photo more ridiculous" or "what product is this photo an advertisement for." And everyone submits a response. The person whose turn it is, selects the best answer (it's more than likely the funniest answer) and you get points based on if your answer is picked or the selector can pick who wrote which answer. It's great.
On saturday morning, the guys went out with Optimus to Red Rocks, to check out a hiking trail and camp site. We went to an AWESOME restaurant called the HashHouse as well. No joke, Troy and I are taking EVERY SINGLE PERSON who visits us here. The food is awesome. Quality AND quantity. Each dish is enough for 3 people and is between 10-14$ per entree. It's awesome.
Saturday night, we went down to the Fremont Street Experience. They do ziplining down the middle of the street and have live music.
You can buy girly drinks and walk down the middle of the street.
You can buy random stuff. My favorites were this onesie:
And these GIANT balls. So to speak. On a necklace.
There are people dressed up like famous people. We saw Stevie Wonder, Spongebob, Michael Jackson and Elvis. And a man who had a puppet/ventriloquist. So creepy. The puppet talked to Avery. Troy stopped because she was entranced and I was all "dude keep walking" like a ventriloquist without my mouth moving because I was afraid of offending his career. Ugh.
When we got there, Kyle was like, "I always feel like when I come to Vegas, I'm going to see someone I know." And me and Troy were like, "oh okay, whatever, where's the beer?" Then what happens?? We are in a crosswalk with our drinks and "KYLE!!" Are. You. Kidding. ME? Someone from where Kyle went to college stopped him in the middle of the street to chat. It was crazy.
THIS PLACE is also there. If you weigh 350+ lbs, you eat for free. There is a scale in front of the door to go inside. We peeked in the window and it's HILARIOUS. You go in and put on a hospital gown. Rather than a bib napkin or something. All of the servers are wearing nurse uniforms. I can't take it. SO FUNNY! Does anyone remember seeing the news report a few months ago? About the person who actually had a heart attack while eating there? No lie, I actually want to eat there to take pictures and say that I did it.
On sunday we went for a short hike with Avery at Mt. Charleston. It was pretty. I forgot to take pictures :( And about 20 degrees cooler than Vegas. Optimus loved it and so did Avery. We wore her in the Ergo carrier on our backs.
Then we ran out to REI. Troy and I are going to be taking advantage of some of the outdoor activities and escape the heat with the hiking and need to invest in a nicer outdoor carrier. We put on some carriers and carted Avery around the store for a while and picked out a book of trail maps.
THEN WE WENT TO TRADER JOES!!! And bought about 5 bottles of 2 Buck Chucks. A 7$ HUGE bottle of olive oil, some super awesome organic fruits and veggies, and frozen sweet potato fries. I have tried other brands of sweet potato fries and want to like them. But I can't. Trader Joe's Frozen Sweet Potato fries are the best on the market. I'm going on record. It's on the internet now so that means it's official.
Then we hung out sunday night and chatted after Avery went to bed. Until 430. IN THE MORNING! Why don't those "good talks" ever happen on a friday or saturday when no one has to be at the airport at 6 in the morning? Or at work? WHY??
So monday was bad. Troy went to work. When Avery woke up at 730, I got up and immediately went to a friends house for the morning until Avery's nap. Because I would have had an unsupervised child while I slept on the couch if I had not had some accountability. So thank you Chelsea for that.
Overall, we had a great visit with Kyle and can't wait to see him in Vegas again in November.
Who is our next visitor??? I DON'T KNOW! Is it you? Give us a call! We even do transportation to/from the airport. You might get lost, but it will be a free tour of the strip! Win win!
We have known Kyle a long time. I met him in 6th grade and Troy met him in church around the same time. Kyle was our "one degree." Kyle was there when Troy and I finally met at church youth group right before the start of junior year of high school in the back of a church van. That sounds bad, but it was all very innocent. Mini golf. Kyle was also the best man in our wedding. I hadn't seen Kyle since WAY before Avery was born. Troy saw Kyle last summer when he was in Colorado for part of his training. They did man stuff. Hiking. Camping. You know. General man merriment. Kyle and Troy still talk about the summer of their junior year in college when Troy when to California they somehow managed squeeze rock climbing, surfing and skiing (or in Troy's case snowboarding) in one week. Apparently they spent a lot of time in the car jamming to Rascal Flatts. Harmonizing. I'm serious. I love them :) Kyle had never met Avery until last weekend. Anyway, so now you know the background.
Kyle flew in on friday morning on Allegiant Air from Colorado. 113$ ROUND TRIP! That is straight up crazy. He is (successfully) convincing us to fly out and visit him before next summer. Especially at those prices. Hello cheap weekend trip!
Anyway...he flew out early friday morning and arrived at the house by about 1230. Apparently he and Troy took a few wrong turns on the way home from the airport. He better figure that out before other people fly in. It was his first time driving to and from the airport so I guess it's excusable. That's a lie. He picked me up...in the dark, it was almost 11pm. So it was his first time in the daylight. So that's excusable?? We'll say it is.
Unfortunately for Kyle, we arranged to have our security system put in that day. For whatever reason, I am really uncomfortable having work done on the house when Troy isn't home and I am alone with Avery. The guy was here installing the system for about 4 hours. Which means the guys were stuck home with me and Avery. So we hung out, caught up, and Avery and Kyle played on his ipad together.
We had some friends over for dinner (we grilled and made teriyaki steak kabobs) and had game night. If you haven't played "Who, What, Where" you are missing out. It is like Pictionary but WAY better. Take my word for it. Get it. It's hilarious.
We also played a game called "Awkward Family Photos." You have seen the website...
Here is a sampling of what you might draw on the "subject card" (from Awkwardfamilyphoto.com)
Everyone gawks and laughs at the picture and then a number is rolled. The number on the die from 1 to 20. A question along the edge of the game board aligns with a number. The questions are "what did someone say right before this picture" or "what could make this photo more ridiculous" or "what product is this photo an advertisement for." And everyone submits a response. The person whose turn it is, selects the best answer (it's more than likely the funniest answer) and you get points based on if your answer is picked or the selector can pick who wrote which answer. It's great.
On saturday morning, the guys went out with Optimus to Red Rocks, to check out a hiking trail and camp site. We went to an AWESOME restaurant called the HashHouse as well. No joke, Troy and I are taking EVERY SINGLE PERSON who visits us here. The food is awesome. Quality AND quantity. Each dish is enough for 3 people and is between 10-14$ per entree. It's awesome.
Saturday night, we went down to the Fremont Street Experience. They do ziplining down the middle of the street and have live music.
You can buy girly drinks and walk down the middle of the street.
You can buy random stuff. My favorites were this onesie:
And these GIANT balls. So to speak. On a necklace.
There are people dressed up like famous people. We saw Stevie Wonder, Spongebob, Michael Jackson and Elvis. And a man who had a puppet/ventriloquist. So creepy. The puppet talked to Avery. Troy stopped because she was entranced and I was all "dude keep walking" like a ventriloquist without my mouth moving because I was afraid of offending his career. Ugh.
When we got there, Kyle was like, "I always feel like when I come to Vegas, I'm going to see someone I know." And me and Troy were like, "oh okay, whatever, where's the beer?" Then what happens?? We are in a crosswalk with our drinks and "KYLE!!" Are. You. Kidding. ME? Someone from where Kyle went to college stopped him in the middle of the street to chat. It was crazy.
THIS PLACE is also there. If you weigh 350+ lbs, you eat for free. There is a scale in front of the door to go inside. We peeked in the window and it's HILARIOUS. You go in and put on a hospital gown. Rather than a bib napkin or something. All of the servers are wearing nurse uniforms. I can't take it. SO FUNNY! Does anyone remember seeing the news report a few months ago? About the person who actually had a heart attack while eating there? No lie, I actually want to eat there to take pictures and say that I did it.
On sunday we went for a short hike with Avery at Mt. Charleston. It was pretty. I forgot to take pictures :( And about 20 degrees cooler than Vegas. Optimus loved it and so did Avery. We wore her in the Ergo carrier on our backs.
Then we ran out to REI. Troy and I are going to be taking advantage of some of the outdoor activities and escape the heat with the hiking and need to invest in a nicer outdoor carrier. We put on some carriers and carted Avery around the store for a while and picked out a book of trail maps.
THEN WE WENT TO TRADER JOES!!! And bought about 5 bottles of 2 Buck Chucks. A 7$ HUGE bottle of olive oil, some super awesome organic fruits and veggies, and frozen sweet potato fries. I have tried other brands of sweet potato fries and want to like them. But I can't. Trader Joe's Frozen Sweet Potato fries are the best on the market. I'm going on record. It's on the internet now so that means it's official.
Then we hung out sunday night and chatted after Avery went to bed. Until 430. IN THE MORNING! Why don't those "good talks" ever happen on a friday or saturday when no one has to be at the airport at 6 in the morning? Or at work? WHY??
So monday was bad. Troy went to work. When Avery woke up at 730, I got up and immediately went to a friends house for the morning until Avery's nap. Because I would have had an unsupervised child while I slept on the couch if I had not had some accountability. So thank you Chelsea for that.
Overall, we had a great visit with Kyle and can't wait to see him in Vegas again in November.
Who is our next visitor??? I DON'T KNOW! Is it you? Give us a call! We even do transportation to/from the airport. You might get lost, but it will be a free tour of the strip! Win win!
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