Vegas, Baby!

It's Wednesday evening and I've just woken up from a nap.

Mark and I got home from our Vegas trip around 3 and let me just say that I am officially too old to survive for long on so few hours of sleep!

We spent a lot of time buying this...

Mama needs her coffee!

This is a shot of our new found freedom:

Because everyone needs to see us on the plane, right? LOL

It's funny that I didn't actually take a ton of photos. I'm usually whipping my phone out on the regular, but there are SO MANY PEOPLE on the streets and such. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a fan of too many people being around me.

So, what did we do while we were there? Well, I gambled...a lot. Mark doesn't love it quite as much as I do, but he played along. We also walked...and walked...and walked.

Check out these stats from our first full day:

We did see a show our last night. I cannot recommend this enough!

So impressive! We kept thinking how much the girls would love it! But, I'm sure they were having a ton more fun without us. Ha!

This show was at our hotel. Which was why we chose to see this version of Cirque de Soleil. Because, lazy. And our hotel was amazing. I'd show you, but no pictures. 

Speaking of the girls, they went to Disneyland with the Bishop Kelly choir. Which was the catalyst for us going to Vegas. Win/win for sure! My friend Jennifer sent this of the girls:

Clearly they miss us.

And clearly, I was eating responsibly on our way home...

Airport Cinnabon? Yes, please!  (Poor Mark had to be my photo assistant)

I will say that our journey home was delightful with all this leg room. So nice for those of us who normally are squished up on airplanes!

And now, it's back to work. I can say that I'm actually happy to be home. And I'm also actually looking forward to the normalcy of life. Exactly what you would hope to achieve with vacation!

Now I just need my chicks to get home...

Happy birthday Nanna and Boppy!

For her birthday, Mark's mom requested we take her to see "The Young Messiah." So,Saturday morning, we loaded up and headed to Buhl for the day. Chris, Julie and Tilson were not far behind us, but apparently Starbucks was much slower than Dutch Bros?

We met in Twin at Sizzler for lunch. His mom LOVES Sizzler and their bread pudding. Here are a couple pics of our motley crew...

Ladies table

As always, my selfie skills are amazing, aren't they?

Mens table

The girls had their own table which suited them just fine.

After lunch, it was off to the movie:

Aunt Bill and Syd checking things out while waiting for the group to show up!

Nanna!

Mark even bought me candy to go with my popcorn. He said I earned it being on restroom duty.

The plan was to go birthday shopping with his dad after the movie. He wanted a new recliner so the boys decided we would all chip in. I'm sure the employees at the furniture store could hardly wait until we left. Hooligans!

Cousins! Big feet or small heads? Probably both...

We did end up finding a chair. We also almost lost the chair out the back of the pick-up because we are idiots. :-) After Church and dinner all us Boise peeps headed home. I'm sure Nanna and Boppy both slept well that night! I know WE were exhausted for sure!

A shout out to home towns and family and ridiculousness...

As per our usual, we took off Christmas day and started our annual drive to Washington. We had already decided that since we had people staying with us, we would only drive as far as Pendleton. A wise choice as we didn't end up leaving until almost 4 PM. Here is our obligatory start-of-the-trip photo:

You can't see the Dutch Bros. for some reason. Weird, since we ALWAYS make Mark stop.

Most of our drive the first day looked like this!

Which was a welcome sight since we had been getting a bit of snow before we left. I thought the drive was easy, but probably because I was in the passenger seat reading magazines.

We got on the road "early" the next morning...around 10. Which is fairly early when you have two teens.

When we got to Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Brians, the girls immediately headed outside for some rock skipping. Love this view!

They were also mesmerized by the record player we got G'ma and G'pa. 

No trip to Washington would be complete without a trip here...

Along with the accompanying shenanigans...

And our selfie game is on point...or on fleek. Whatever these young whipper snappers say these days.

We spent some time here:

And even though I went to Fort, NOT Evergreen, I seemed to have spent quite a bit of time here my senior year for some reason. Weird.

We got to watch this chick (who goes to Fort, and never hangs out a a rival school) mix it up on the court.

We also got to hang out with these hooligans who are so, so much cooler than we are. 

They fed us drinks that were on fire for goodness sake!

And took us to a classy pizza place...

And to a place that only serves pie. Well, mostly they only serve pie...

 It's like they know my love language!

Obviously, the girls miss the days when I used to dress them alike...

Awkward.

There is no doubt I grew up in a gorgeous place:

We will sure miss it until the next trip.

Happy 2016! 

And in the interest of full disclosure, this was written while sitting on my couch in my jammies, snuggled under my new heated blanket, sipping a homemade flat white. I {heart} vacation!!

Labor Day weekend

With the three day weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to head to Filer, Idaho for the Twin Falls County Fair.

We loaded up Saturday morning, dog an all.

 My people are quiet travelers. Unless they spontaneously burst into song.

And it seems only fitting that we would do some actual labor for the "Labor Day" Weekend. So, we did.

Mark's brother Scott is in charge of the church food booth. We have helped for the last few years, and it is actually pretty fun. This year, both girls helped.  They were pretty awesome!  Even with a 4:30-11:30 PM shift. Ugh.

Here are some "action" shots...

We also ran into this character...

Sunday, we took the girls back to do rides. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

Mark, not so much..."Dad, hold my stuff, please!"

Played some of this...

Ate some of this...and many other things. Oh my.

Last year, I wasn't able to eat much of the fair food since GLUTEN. But, one day of fair food is what I live for the rest of the year. ;-)

Did some of this...

And some of this?

We spent most of the day Sunday there, then loaded up and headed home.

The second picture of Syd pretty much sums up how much fun we had. We were exhausted!