Does he want something???

Jordan was in bed and wanted me to heat up a neck warmer for him. After I told him I would he said, "Mom, I think you get more beautiful every day." (I'd already agreed to do it for him :) What else do you think he wants?). When I brought up the heated neck warmer he said, "Mom, you are like a blossom rose. Is that really sweet mom?" Gotta love that kid...he sure knows how to be sweet when he wants too!

Except for....

Sydney and I were praying before bed. I was praying, "Please be with all our friends and family that are sick.."...Sydney interrupted me. "Please, Jesus, be with EVERYONE that is sick, not just our friends and family. Even the people we don't know. Touch their bodies....except for the bad guys." :)

After we got down praying I told her, I love that she has such a big heart. She looked confused and said, "You think my heart is big?" I told her that I meant that I loved that she was so kind and thought of others. She smiled (she loves compliments). She then went on to say that she is sad because she can only pray for those who are sick when she has small groups. I, of course, jumped at that and told her she could pray any day, anytime and went on to explain how when I'm thinking of someone, I'll just stop and pray for them. She wraps her arms around me and said, "I love that you have just a big heart mom."

Gotta love little girls!

Rollarskating

We got invited to a party at a Rollerskating rink. I had forgotten how much fun rollerskating rinks are. The kids did great. Jordan was a little speedster. Sydney started off slow and falling quite a bit, but started to get the hang of it and did great toward the end of the party. I think it may be something we have to do more of. It's not that expensive and a great activity for the whole family!

Spring...maybe?

One of the best things about the snow melting is getting to grill again (yes, I realize we can grill when there is snow on the ground...but we tend not to). We had our first grilling of the year. Man...it sure was tasty and the cook was pretty stinkin cute too!

Walks in Vegas....

Walks in Vegas were awesome with all interesting things, people, lights and just fun stuff to look at. It was a fabulous place to take pictures. Woo Hoo for fun places to visit ;)

My surprise....

About a week before we left for Vegas, I found out that Arlie was also going to get to down to AZ the same weekend and see his dad (thanks again mom for watching the kids and on such short notice...we can't tell how much we appreciate and adore you!) and would be flying in and out of Vegas. This meant a surprise visit (well sorta a surprise...I knew about it a week ahead of time ;)) from Arlie who would now get to visit me on Monday before he flew back home. It was a wonderful treat. We only got a couple of hours together, but we (along with Arlen) got to eat lunch at a Chinese place and visit a delicious Chocolate Shop (that I later convinced Dad to go and visit and interestingly enough...got chocolate treats both times...hmmmm) which houses the largest chocolate fountain and see a couple minutes of the Bellagio fountain show before he had to leave. It was too short for me, I wish he could've been there all week with me but I'll take every minute I can get with him. I loved that he got to experience at least a little Vegas with me!

Vegas

There was a WPPI convention (wedding and portrait photographers international) in Vegas that my dad and I decided we could maybe benefit from. We found a time share that we could stay in that would save us some money and airline tickets that weren't too bad. We flew in on a Friday, went to a show on Saturday and the conference started on Sunday - Thursday and then we flew home.

We had a great time. We (well at least I, I can't speak for my dad) learned a lot and have a lot of new ideas to try. Dad and I spent a lot of time walking around Vegas (between and after the meetings). He was such an awesome sport. I love the lights and the people watching. I could sit on the strip for hours and just watch. He probably could take it or leave it. But despite that, he would go for walks with me for hours, looking at all the cool "tourist" things to do...like the water fountain light show at the Bellagio, or the fire show at the Mirage. We went to Cirque Du Soleil's show called "KA". It was incredible! We also went to a variety show called "V". It was a completely different caliber of show, but made me laugh so hard. We went out to several fun restaurants; a Brazilian resturant where they walked around with meat and gave you different kinds until you were full, a Mexican resturant, a delicious American resturant where I had an amazing pork chop (I know...it's sounds silly but I really wanted down home hardy food).


Our resort ended up being probably the closet possible place we could stay to our convention which was at the MGM Grand (even the rooms at the MGM were further away from the convention center than our resort was). The weather was very cold which worked fine with me since I would've wanted to be laying by the pool if it was warm out :)

Laying by the pool (in jeans and long sleeved shirt, but flip flops) on the our one day off and the one warm day!

We met several people that had just really fun stories to share...I love people's stories. Even our maintenance guy had a strike it rich story for us. He was from Guam and on the eve of flying back to Guam because he was broke, went out drinking and gambling one last time. He was drunk and not paying attention to what he was doing and his elbow accidentally his MAX bet and then he pushed the spin button and ended up winning $50000.00. He said the bells started to go off and the security came over to him and he thought, "oh great what did am I going to get in trouble for". He hadn't realized he won anything until they brought him out the W2 for him to fill out. He claims he sobered up real fast after learning of his winnings :).

One of my favorite stories was from the Keynote speaker the first night. He shot a lot of pictures for "Time" magazine covers and other magazines. He was shooting a cover for Time that had President George W Bush on it. He was at the White House and was trying to pose President Bush, but he said for some reason he just couldn't get him to pose how he wanted him too. President Bush was getting flustered so he looked at him and said, "You know, I've got a lot on my mind." (We all hope so!) :) For some reason it struck me as very funny :)


Another thing I really appreciated was a sign I saw from someone begging for money along the sidewalk. It said, "Ninja's killed my father, need money for karate lessons." I thought it was so original that maybe I should just give him money!


I have to say the trip was very fun. I loved the time with my dad. He's always been such an important part of my life and I LOVE that I get to work with him and spent so much time with him. I feel very blessed that I've get to do something that I'm so passionate about and get to share it with my dad! He teaches me a lot and I'm sure I will only continue to learn from him (although He does a great job of letting me think I'm bossing him around ;) ). I was so proud of my dad for being game to do the things I would enjoy. He's the best!

A completely unposed picture of us just being us. Reading and relaxing at the airport.