This Sign is Too Funny for Andy

Vegas Trip 2010 - Day 5

So, our mini vacation has come to an end. We headed for the airport just after 5am to catch our early morning flight. We were very tired after so many long and busy days, plus so much walking and we were ready to get home. Everything went well with our flights and we got back to Saskatoon at 3pm. Of course, we were searched by customs but I was prepared with all of our receipts and an organized suitcase.

We stopped for gas and the drive-thru at A&W on our way home. Cory had bet me on the flight home that I wouldn't be able to finish reading the book that I was reading before we got home. So, I had to prove him wrong of course so I read the whole way home. I even had to use the light from the visor to read the last 15 pages but I was finished with almost an hour to spare! The book was The Help and I definitely recommend reading it.

We arrived home around 7:30pm to two very excited kiddies...they were both bouncing when they saw us. We had a wonderful time on our vacation and we can't wait to do it again next year...I wonder where we should go?!?!

Vegas Trip 2010 - Day 4

Well, today is going to be an exciting day! Our big plans for today included the Stratosphere, with the main reason for going there being the rides on top of the Stratosphere and the Sky Jump. It turned to be a pretty windy day though and we only got to ride the X-Scream. However, we were sure to go to the Sky Jump first because that was what we really wanted to do the most. Here's a little info from the website to describe what we did...

"The wind’ll go whoosh. You’ll go $#!@%. Or yippee. Or yeah. Or yikes. Chances are your blood curdling screams will be heard in the sky high above the Las Vegas Strip. Stratosphere’s new SkyJump Las Vegas thrill ride will be the jump of your life — no matter what you might be yelling. For your inner adrenaline junkie wanting the ultimate Las Vegas free fall, sky dive or base jump, SkyJump is the attraction to choose. It provides the highest controlled free fall in the world, all from the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower.

Before the jump, riders are prepped and suited up in Stratosphere’s custom jump suits and given a safety lesson. After a short elevator trip to the top of the Stratosphere Tower, the jumper is connected to a high-speed “descender” and led to the edge of the platform. Just take that last step and plummet through the sky 855 feet, or the equivalent of 108 floors."

Don't worry, we have our jumps on DVD! Actually, Cory got to jump twice because they forgot to record his jump the first time so he got to go again for free...he was pretty pumped about that, of course.

So, after we survived our Stratosphere and Sky Jump adventures we went to explore a few more of the hotels that we hadn't checked out yet, such as the Wynn and the Palazzo. We then went to Harrah's to check out KGB for supper where we had some very yummy burgers. It was still pretty early when we finished supper but we went back to the hotel so that we could pack for our early morning flight. Packing always seems to be a bit of challenge because we like to shop a little too much every time we go somewhere. After almost 2 hours of careful folding and moving a few items to our carry-on, we were under the 50lb mark for our luggage. We only took one bag with us because you have to pay per bag. The bag will hold a lot of stuff but it can be tricky to keep it under 50lbs. Jerome and Shirley gave us a luggage scale that we had taken with us and it came in very handy!

Once we were all packed and ready for the morning we went down to the casino in our hotel where we each put $20 in a machine...I know, we're big gamblers! We lost our money and decided we better call it a night because we had to get up at 4am.

Vegas Trip 2012 - Day 3

Today, which just so happens to be Valentine's Day, we decided to check out the Las Vegas Premium Outlets - South, even though we were pretty much shopped out from the day before. I suppose we just wanted to make sure we didn't miss out on any good deals. We only got a couple more things on this shopping trip and then made our way back to the Strip for lunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe. We had heard that they had really good BBQ and we were not disappointed...the food was super yummy! After lunch we made our way back to the hotel but not before making a couple of stops along the way. We went in to check out the Coca-Cola Store where they had lots of cool stuff but we didn't buy anything. Then we went to M&M's World where we explored four floors full of neat M&M's stuff...we did buy some things here though. After we finally finished shopping for things we didn't need, we went back to the hotel. We dropped off our purchases, changed our clothes and headed out for the evening.

We went to the Luxor to check out the Bodies Exhibit, which we both thought was pretty neat. We then made our way to Treasure Island where we were going to see the Cirque du Soliel show Mystere. We picked up our tickets but we still had time to kill so we went for a walk to check out the Venetian. We were going to go on the gondola ride but we didn't have enough time so we made our way back to Treasure Island and found ourselves sitting at the bar at Kahunaville. We had only planned to have one drink but that quickly turned into two and then we met a nice couple from BC who we had a great chat with and then it was time for some flair bartending so we had to stay and watch that. Our bartender put on quite a show and gave me the yummy drink that he made plus everyone at the bar got a free shot. So, needless to say Cory and I were feeling no pain when we made our way over to see Mystere! We had seen the Cirque du Soliel show La Nouba in Orlando and we really enjoyed that and we enjoyed Mystere just as much I would say.

After the show, we made our way to The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace to go to The Cheesecake Factory for our Valentine's Day supper. We did have to wait 40 minutes for a table but we didn't mind. We spent the time people watching and there was definitely no shortage of sights to see! Our meal was amazing, just as we had expected. We had eaten at The Cheesecake Factory in Orlando and we loved it there too. After dinner, it was pretty late so we went back to the hotel and called it a night. We had VIP passes to go to the nightclub in our hotel called RPM but we opted out, even though Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from Jersey Shore was going to be there. LOL!

Vegas Trip 2012 - Day 2

Day 2 was another long day of course. We decided to go shopping and check out the outlet mall. We talked to the concierge at our hotel to find out how to use the bus system, which was very easy to figure out and we made our way to the Las Vegas Premium Outlets - North. As per usual, we were able to spend a little more than planned while shopping but we did get some good deals. A few of our big purchases were at Hurley, Coach and Sunglass Hut...no Cory did not get another pair of sunglasses, I did! We were pretty tuckered out after shopping and decided to go back to the hotel to drop off our purchases before heading out again. However, on the bus ride back to the hotel we decided to stop and do a little more shopping at the Fashion Show Mall because I wanted to go to Lululemon. We finally made it back to our hotel where we unloaded our purchases and rested our feet for a just a few minutes. We hadn't eaten all day and we were started to feel the effects of the empty bellies so we made our way to the Sugar Factory for supper. Wow! It was awesome! It's located at the Paris Las Vegas for those of you who may be going to Vegas and want to check it out.

After supper, we weren't sure what to do. We walked around checking things out and decided we'd go up in the Eiffel Tower to get a view of the Strip at night but it was actually closed because it was too windy. So, we went for another walk, which is when Cory found a spot to buy a guitar full of strawberry daiquiri at Rockhouse. I must say, it was quite tasty but also pretty strong...drinks seem to be stronger in the USA compared to Canada. We then decided that we'd go to Fremont St. to check it out! On the bus ride there, we were talking with a couple from Kansas who told us that they were going to zipline down Fremont St. and this peaked our interest. So, after Cory ditched his guitar full of booze in a bathroom because he couldn't drink anymore, we headed for the zipline called Flightlinez. We had never ziplined before and it was pretty fun. We stayed long enough to see the sights and the light show and then we headed back to the Strip. We did a little more exploring and then decided we should call it a night.

Vegas Trip 2012 - Day 1

Well, our Vegas trip has come and gone already. We've been pretty busy over the last little while just with life in general. We also had the pleasure of dealing with a nasty cold and flu in our household for a couple of weeks near the end of January. Cameron even had to miss school for a week and Cory had to take a day off of work because I was so sick...it was not fun at all! Then we were busy getting ready for our first houseguests since last June. Cory's parents, Jerome and Shirley, arrived on February 8th for a two week visit. I'm pretty sure I mentioned in a previous post that they were coming to visit and that Cory and I were going on a long overdue getaway to Vegas.

This was our first trip with just the two of us in almost 7 years and it was our first time going to Las Vegas so needless to say we were a little excited. We were gone from February 12-16 so it was a pretty quick trip but we managed to accomplish a lot in a few short days. We left home on Sunday morning to drive to Saskatoon to catch our flight. We decided to take an afternoon flight so that we wouldn't have to either stay overnight in Saskatoon or drive in the middle of the night to get to an early morning flight. We arrived in Saskatoon with lots of time to spare but we went right to the airport and had lunch at Tim Hortons before our journey to Vegas. I'm sure most people understand the importance of eating before you fly because they rarely offer you anything to eat on a flight anymore, not even for purchase.

Our flight left Saskatoon on time and we arrived in Denver, CO where we would make our connection to continue on the Las Vegas. We had lots of time to clear customs and get to our gate plus we stopped for a snack because we were getting a little hungry and we knew it would still be a while before we would have the chance to eat again. We decided on sharing a pizza at Wolfgang Puck's Express and it was quite yummy. We arrived in Vegas at about 8:30pm PST and we waited for what seemed like forever to get our luggage. When we made our way outside to grab a taxi, we were pleased to see that they have a very effective system for the travellers and taxis...the taxis just keep lining up and people just keep jumping in them. We arrived at our hotel, the Tropicana, and got checked in rather quickly. We were pleasantly surprised by the recently updated hotel and guest room. Although we were getting tired, we ditched our bags and changed our clothes before heading out to explore.

Because it we were a little tired from our long day, we didn't venture too far on our first night. We were definitely ready to eat again though so that was first on our agenda. One of the downsides to our hotel was that it doesn't have many places to eat or shops in it, like so many of the other hotels. We made our way to the New York New York Hotel, which was located on the opposite corner to our hotel. We walked around and checked everything out and decided to eat at America restaurant and it was very good. One thing about dining in the USA though...the portions are always HUGE. I ordered the fish and chips and I couldn't even eat half of it! After we finished eating, we went for a walk down the Strip to check things out and get a feel for where some things were. We finally got back to our room a little after midnight and crashed...it was a very long day.

Funny stuff on Ellen

So, I must confess that I love watching Ellen so much that I have it set to record on the PVR every day. I don't always have the time to sit down and watch every day so I often get caught up when I have a little "me" time in the evenings. Here is something from the show that made me laugh.out.loud.

Winter Weather

We have become accustomed to the frigid prairie weather since we moved to SK almost 4 years ago but this year it has been different. We did have our first snowfall, which never left, during the first week of November but that seems to be pretty normal around these parts. The extremely cold temperatures usually arrives in early December and lasts for a few months but that was not the case this year. We did have about 5 cold days in late November or early December where the windchill dropped to minus thirty-something but then we had mild winter weather after that. It was actually a pleasant surprise. Of course, I wasn't fooled into thinking that our entire winter would be that way. Old man winter has come out in full force this past week. I guess we should be thankful that we had decent winter weather up until this point but I will admit that I'm still cranky about the extreme cold and frigid windchill.

I'm not sure that I've ever been a big fan of winter and snow and all that junk. Well, maybe when I was much younger I did enjoy playing in the snow and I loved a good snowstorm in PEI. I think I might still enjoy winter somewhat if it didn't get any colder than lets say -5 degrees Celsius. I just checked the weather network and as of now we're sitting at -21 but it feels like -33 with the windchill. It is about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday but it's still horribly cold outside. I dread getting Cadence bundled up and having to go out into the cold to pick Cameron up from school in a little bit. I'm also not a fan of the cold because once it gets colder than about -15, I tend to break out in hives when I go out in the cold. The colder it is outside, the quicker the hives appear and the more abundant they are. It's definitely not a fashion statement to have you face covered in giant welts. Cory suggested that maybe I should just wear a balaclava all winter long...because that would be so much more attractive!

Anyway, it is winter in the prairies so it is cold but I don't have to like it. I just try to stay inside as much as possible. The long range forecast does look somewhat promising where it should warm up a little by this coming weekend...so I'm crossing my fingers and toes. For many years, I have been saying that I was meant to live in a warmer climate and I will continue to say this...maybe someday :)

Cadence loves to explore.

So, now that Cadence is on the move, we have to extra diligent to keep an eye on what she is up to. She can crawl and pull herself up to stand at things...she's actually been doing these things for about a month. She started with the army crawl where she would drag herself all over on her belly but she now has the strength to crawl on her hands and knees. It's also easy to see where she's been standing in the living room because she leaves drool marks all along the edge of the couch! She can be right beside you one minute and then gone the next. Usually, she's pretty quiet so you have to go room to room to find her but sometimes we here the little squeals or laughter coming from another room. She loves to go into Cameron's room and play with his stuffed animals but she usually then moves onto the toys...she seems to favor the Star Wars light sabre! The bathroom is also a favorite place for her to go...I should add, she is generally in the dark when she goes on her little explorations. The bathroom scale and garbage can are common attractions in the bathroom but she has taken an interest in the toilet, just as most babies do at some point. We've been trying to remember to close the lid on the toilet but sometimes we forget. Over the past few days, I have found Cadence in the bathroom standing at the toilet just about to dip her little fingers in the toilet water. GROSS! On the upside, she does enjoy getting her hands washed in the sink after her little toilet adventure. I guess it's a water thing...she also just loves the bathtub. As soon as I turn the water on her bath she gets so excited and kicks her feet like crazy. She loves splashing in the water with her little hands. We're so lucky to have children who love the water, I'm not sure what we'd do if we had kids who screamed when it was bath time. Oh, I almost forgot about the dog's bowls. It is quite entertaining to watch Cadence make a beeline for the dog's bowls. Luckily, the food bowl never has food left in it but she quite enjoys dumping th dog's water dish all over the floor!

Doggie Dentures - PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX® Commercial

I'm obviously a dog lover because I love the Pedigree commercials :)

I almost forgot!

I posted before Christmas about how I was trying to decide which pair of Uggs that I liked the most. Well, I finally made my decision so here are the ones that I decided on...I love them!

VEGAS BABY!!

This would be the continuation of my previous post, Company's Coming.

As I mentioned in my last post, we have been fortunate enough to be able to make quite a few trips to PEI since our big move to SK. However, lets face it, a trip to PEI isn't really a vacation for us. I mean we love where we come from and visiting family and friends but we always spend the majority of our time there going from place to place to see people. It also seems hard to divide our time evenly with each of our families and we always worry that one side may have gotten a little more time than the other...so in a nutshell, a trip to PEI can be a little stressful. So, we made the decision in 2010 to go to Orlando, FL and we had an amazing "real" vacation. You can read all about our Florida vacation is previous blogs from 2010.

Now, with all that being said, it has been almost 7 years since Cory and I had a vacation with just the two of us. I mean, we've had the chance to get away for a night or two by ourselves when we are visiting in PEI but again, that's just not the same as a vacation. So, after some discussions we decided that with Jerome and Shirley coming to visit for 2 weeks, that it would be a great opportunity for us to go on a little vacation and they can stay with Cameron and Cadence. They were more than happy to do this for us so we began our search on what to do and where to go.

Obviously, the title of this blog post tells you that we decided on Las Vegas. We have never been there (well, I was there when I was 3 but that doesn't count) and it's somewhere we wouldn't go with our children. We are super excited about this trip. We'll be going for 4 nights and we have a long list of things we want to do while we're there but I'm sure we won't have time for everything (so, we'll just have to go back again when we get the chance). Many of our friends have been to Las Vegas and everyone says that we'll love it. There's just so much to see and do there! We're staying at Tropicana which is an older hotel but it has recently be renovated. The hotel has been getting great reviews from travelers so I'm sure we won't be disappointed. We got a great deal on hotel and flights too! It's pretty much all I've been able to think about since we booked the trip last week. I think it's definitely a much needed, long overdue vacation for Cory and I. Don't worry, I'll take lots of pictures and tell you all about when we get back.

Company's Coming :)

Sometimes it gets a lonely here in little ole Sturgis, SK. I mean we have some really great friends and keep pretty busy but we do miss our family and friends from back home. We were pretty lucky during our first year in SK because my mom was able to come to visit us a few times so that helped during the transition period. We've been fortunate enough to have a number of visitors in the almost 4 years since we moved here and we've had the opportunity to go to PEI at least once each year.

So, in just 4 weeks from now Cory's parents, Jerome and Shirley, are coming to visit us for a couple of weeks. This will be there second visit to Sturgis and it will be so nice to have them here. We haven't told Cameron that they are coming yet though. He kind of gets the I-can-hardly-waits to put it mildly when he finds out that someone is coming to visit or if we happen to be going somewhere ourselves. For example, we told him in April of 2010 that we were taking him to Disney World in October of 2010 and then we had to talk about it almost every.single.day. The question of, "How much longer until we go see Mickey?" was asked almost daily in our house! Another example is from last year when my mom told Cameron that she was coming to visit for his birthday...she told him in January and his birthday is in June. So, of course he asked almost every.single.day. when Nannie would be here. Needless to say, we've learned our lesson and we prefer to surprise him now :) I think he'll be super surprised and very happy to see his Nannie and Grampie because he often tells us how much he misses his family from PEI.

To be continued...

Wow! We've been busy!

Despite many attempts to blog over the past few weeks, I just didn't seem to have the time. Well, that's not completely true...there were times when I did have the opportunity to sit down at the computer and type away but when those times finally arrived, I chose to relax on the beloved couch.

People keep asking us how our Christmas was and I keep saying that it was quiet but it was actually pretty busy for us. Cory was fortunate enough to have a week off over the Christmas holidays again this year so we took the opportunity to get out and do some things as a family. I'll try to summarize the happenings over the holidays for you as best as I can. We had a few trips into Yorkton to do various things such as grocery shopping for our Christmas dinner and snacks, we went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked at the movie theatre (Cadence's first time to the theatre), we went out for Chinese food with some great friends, we drove to Bredenbury to see the Christmas lights, Cory curled in a bonspiel, we went skating, and we visited with friends. I'm sure there might be more but that's what I can recall.

Cory was back to work before the New Year but was working day shifts so we got to ring in the New Year together. We're not much for partying on New Year's Eve though so we had a pretty quiet night at home with just a few friends. We actually crawled into bed just before midnight. Do you think this could be a sign that we getting older? No, I'm sure we were just tired from our busy lives :)

All in all, it was a great holiday. Cameron and Cadence did well with the gifts they received from Santa and others. Cory and I decided not to exchange gifts but our parents did give us a few things so we had some gifts to open too. It was just great to be able to spend the holidays together as a family and it was extra special having our newest addition with us this year.

I think that pretty much sums up everything. It may not sound too exciting but we definitely enjoyed ourselves.