Keep it Cecret...

We haven't been doing much lately so I had to post something. Actually, since I've been working (temporarily at least) I haven't been able to spend as much time with Chloe as I was before. So I took the chance on a Saturday and drove us up Little Cottonwood Canyon to hike up to Cecret Lake.

Las Vegas '11

For our anniversary this year we thought about taking Chloe with us up through Yellowstone. When we checked the weather reports for the days we wanted to go - rain, every day, ten days straight. So we checked weather for other nearby areas and wouldn't you know it, Vegas was the only place that was to have decent weather. But what do you do in Vegas with a 2-year-old?





This is from the drive through Utah. We're glad we didn't end up in NW Wyoming. Probably would've had at least 2 feet of snow.





More lovely Utah weather



During some parts of the drive down we could hardly see out the windshield because the rain/snow was coming down so hard.

She's lucky she could sleep through the freeway blizzard conditions.

This is from one of our stops along the way.

We got to Vegas before we could check in to our hotel so we stopped here for a few minutes.

Chloe was happy to be done with the majority of the driving and extra happy we found a temple.

First thing after checking in was catching up with some family who's in the area for school.

With all the buffets and fancy resaurants in Vegas our new favorite eating place is China Town just west of the strip. The service is not what we're used to and we're always the only all-white family in the area but the food is excellent! We had to take some friends with us.

"Aah, cucaracha!"... no more.

Getting around.

This is Chloe's new favorite store.

M&M overload

Last time we came here the movie was out of commission. Thankfully they had it up and running again when we brought Chloe.

Watching Chloe's reaction to the fountain show at Bellagio was well worth bringing her on the strip after dark.

More getting around

The Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. I think Chloe will still be talking about this show for years.

Huzzah!

Leaving Las Vegas.

I turn my head for one second and she tries to eat my sister...



Funny thing is my sister doesn't seem to mind!

HaHa! I crack myself up!
Anyway, I was actually just looking for something to post, and since it looks like we'll be running again a few more times this summer this picture looked good.

Scottish Sprint

Congratulations, Mary!

On July 10 Mary and I traveled to Payson with my sister Emily and her family for 2 reasons: 1) race in the first annual Scottish Sprint 5K, and 2) eat some haggis at Payson's Scottish Festival. Mary has run a couple of 5K's previously but not while pushing Chloe in a stroller. Well, despite the extra weight this time she beat her last time by a few minutes! Well done!

And if you're wondering about the haggis... I updated a post about our trip to Vegas where my sister, Mary and I all ate an oyster. This time the dare was for haggis.

I can't tell you how thoroughly disappointed we all were when we found out there wasn't any haggis at this year's festival.

Ryan's Scout camp

As the Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 800 in the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America I was able to spend a few days at camp with our scouts. It was a lot of fun for me and the boys especially. The camp was well run - we went to the East Fork of the Bear River in the high Uintas - they had merit badge classes in three hour blocks between breakfast and lunch and again between lunch and dinner. Our scouts were excited to get as many merit badges as they could which left the Scoutmaster and I free to do whatever.

I'll probably need to update this post also because I didn't get many pictures, but one morning the Scoutmaster and I took a little hike near the camp. We only went up a mile and back, but in that short trip we saw six moose! It was incredible! After seeing the first moose we felt pretty lucky. But less than a minute later we saw two more and figured they were one little family. We absolutely were not expecting to see any more which is why we nearly ran into the next one head on! We got about thrity yards away before the Scoutmaster stopped dead in his tracks from the moose staring straight at us. Luckily this one ran off instead of charging us but we hadn't moved a few feet before we saw two more just a little farther away. By that time we had completely forgotten about our sore and tired legs from hiking because of the thrill of seeing all those moose on one little walk!

Of the pictures I did take, there was one little deer that kept walking right past our camp every day. It probably wasn't used to seeing anybody in it's territory.

Surprise! (updated w/pics July 18, 2010)

So, down below you may have read we went to a buffet in downtown Las Vegas (cheap, but not great tasting). Well, here are a couple of pictures from that little adventure. One member of our group dared us to try something we haven't eaten before. In come the oysters...




And almost right back out again!



Happy Birthday, Emily!

Last Thursday night Mary and I packed up for the weekend and met up with my little sister and her husband to take them to Vegas! It was awesome because Randall had been planning the trip for months but Emily had no idea until that night.

Since we didn't get started until late Thursday we just drove to Mesquite for the night ($30/night rooms!) the drove the rest of the way Friday morning. So first things first - we went cheap. We went straight to a Tix4Tonight booth to see what show we'd want to see that night and we decided on the Tournament of Kings at the Excaliber. Since we slept in a little bit we thought we'd go to the later show and get some lunch right after getting the tickets. Unfortunately we didn't realize until later they actually gave us tickets for the earlier show instead, so we had to settle for a quick snack before the show. Apparently China Town isn't the best place to get a quick snack. The food in China Town is great, but the service was lacking (perhaps it's a cultural difference?)

The Tournament of Kings was fun, as always. If you've ever been, you know what we're talking about - an entire meal with no utinsels, lots of cheering and chanting (I could have done without the half-naked men in the show and the pre-pube cheerleaders screaming in the section next to us.)

The next morning we wanted to make it to a breakfast buffet (since we had gone an entire day in Vegas already with NO buffets at all!) But, we slept in a little. So when we got up around noon on Saturday we thought let's just get to the lunch buffet before we miss out on that, then do some go-karts. After that we'd hit the dinner buffet. For some reason we've always gone to the Paradise buffet at Sam Boyd's Casino in downtown Las Vegas every time we're in town. It's not the greatest buffet, but it is cheap, and they have some seafood, although we're not big seafood eaters, we do like some sushi, even though buffet sushi isn't great...

Anyway, after dinner we headed to a comedy show at Planet Hollywood, where we saw the biggest statue of a ...

Good times.

weekend in St. George

It was really just a quick overnight stay, but it was fun!
Mary had Friday off from work so we could take our time driving down with Chloe (who did really well in the car, by the way!) When we got there the weather was nice (78 degrees and sunny) so we unloaded the car and changed into our swimsuits and splashed each other in the pool for about an hour. At first, Chloe did not want to get in the water, even though she has her own little raft-type floatie. But as soon as she realized she could dunk her dad under water, she was hooked and we had a hard time the rest of the night keeping her away from the pool.
Anyway, we later played a few games with a bunch of family (Mary's side, of course) and crashed a little early because of the long drive. Here's where we were the next morning:

Me, Chloe and Mary in front of the St. George temple.

Another pic of the temple from the street.

... and the newlywed couple. This is Mary's nephew Brad and his new wife Mary (great name, huh?!)

It was very nice being in the sealing room with these two and hearing not just the promised blessings for every faithful sealed couple but also the little tidbits of advice the sealer gave to Brad and Mary.