Vegas Recap

Yes, I survived the trip to Vegas! It was fun, exhausting, some parts disappointing, but overall a great getaway with my favorite girls. I won't bore you with a day-to-day account of what we did - rather, I'll just list the highlights:
- shopping at the outlet malls and FINALLY finding a pair of COMFORTABLE casual shoes (I've been searching for over two years - thank you wide feet for being the biggest obstacle in that hunt!)
- seeing "Le Reve" at the Wynn
- Old Vegas (Fremont Street)
- Caesar's Palace - so pretty in there!
- inside the Bellagio, particularly the chocolate fountain
- Madame Tussaud's wax museum
- going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower (half the height of the original, but still very cool) and watching the fountain/light show at the Bellagio from up there
- watching the fountain show at the Bellagio from the ground

Other things we saw that I wasn't overly impressed with:
- Rainforest Cafe. Cool atmosphere, but the food was only okay and it was pricey
- Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Cool to see the sharks, but a lot smaller than they make it sound. Definitely not worth the $18 it cost to get in.
- M and M store and the Coke store. Neat to wander around through, but nothing spectacularly amazing in either place.
- Volcano in front of the Mirage. Glad it was free. They should devise a way to shoot the lava three times as high and then it would be more impressive.
- The Cheesecake Factory. I'm a bit of a cheesecake snob and was disappointed in the lemon raspberry slice I ordered. It had a cake-type bottom instead of the graham cracker crust and that ruined it for me. I still like mine better.
- All the flyers/posters/billboards for hot girls. They definitely call it "Sin City" for a reason!

Drinks there are also INCREDIBLY expensive. Most places will charge $4 for a bottle of water. Outrageous! We learned early on to let our ice buckets melt overnight and use that to refill our bottles in the morning. We also did a PILE of walking! I actually lost 4 pounds (which isn't necessarily bad, but since I'm 4 months pregnant, not necessarily good either!). Overall, it was neat to see and I'm glad I got to spend the time with my mom and my sisters. But I'm definitely not gonna be one of those people that will go there over and over and over again!

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My mom has been talking about booking a trip for my sisters and I for quite a while and about a month and a half ago, she finally did it! Vegas has never really been on any of our to-see lists, but you can get crazy cheap holidays there, so we figured, why not? Now that we've been looking into all there is to see and do, I'm super pumped to be going! Tons of free entertainment, great food, and crazy amounts of shopping. Plus a 15 acre pool complex at our hotel - did I mention it's a girls-only trip!?!? In just three short days we'll land in the infamous 'Sin City', and while we don't plan on partaking in any of the 'sinful' things to do there (no drinking or gambling for us!), there are so many other cool things to experience that I know it's going to be a blast!

My Little Monkey

I must preface this post by asking you to please ignore the giant pile of dishes on my counter in the following pictures. Jared and I had really bad colds and didn't have energy to do them for a few days!

Alright - now to the point of this post! My little monkey - aka - Cohen. We had a Curious George cake for him on his first birthday for a reason. He is one busy, curious, adventurous, and resourceful little baby! A few days ago the kids and I were all playing in the basement. One of them went upstairs for something and left the door open. Cohen, of course, took this as the perfect opportunity to escape being in the basement. Who needs toys when there's an entire main floor of things he's not supposed to get into?!?!? I wasn't overly concerned until I heard dishes being moved around. I wondered what on earth he was doing and when I came upstairs, this is what I had found:

 

He had pushed the kitchen chair over to the sink, climbed up - and IN - and was splashing in the pot that I had used to cook macaroni in the night before. All I could do was shake my head. He was soaked from the waist down so he got a quick rinse in the tub and a change of clothes. And then I had to flip the chair back on top of the other one so that he couldn't move it back over to the sink.

Of course, since this incident a couple weeks ago, he has since gained enough strength in his arms to push the chairs while stacked one of top the other - meaning nothing in my kitchen is safe anymore. If he can climb high enough to reach something, it's fair game for him to play with. At least, that's what he thinks! I remember my mom telling me stories of myself doing similar things as a small child. And I laughed! Now that I have my own child doing ridiculously crazy things like this every day - not so funny anymore! It's fun to watch him explore and try new things - but I can't tell you how happy I will be when he is finally big enough to help clean up the messes he makes!

The End of Life as We Know It

This past Wednesday, Sept. 14th was both a joyful and sad occasion in our house. It was Xavier's very first day of Kindergarten and while I am so excited for him and the things he will learn, the friends he will meet, and the experiences he'll have, it also marks the end of life as we've known it for the past five years. There is no more picking up and going wherever we want mid-week. Trekking off to stay at hotels in Dauphin or Winnipeg when Jared needs to be out of town for work. No longer are Jared and I in control of our schedule. Rather, it will now be determined by the all-important school calendar. Which days does Xavier have school, which days are holidays? When is Spring Break?

It's not that we are not excited for this time in our lives. It will add a new level of structure to our days - and since he's only every Day 2,4,6 this year, we do still have a little bit of flexibility. But, case in point - Thursday night we went to the Keith Urban concert. Originally, we planned on just spending the night in the city, hanging out at my in-laws' on Friday and on Saturday going to the Rock the River concert at the Forks.....Until we realized Xavier had school on Friday and so Jared and I made a lone trip into the city on Winnipeg for Keith Urban and drove home that night when it was done. It just hit us that - oh yeah! - we're no longer free to roam about the countryside on a whim anymore. It will bring many good changes to our family, I'm sure. But it will definitely take a few weeks to adjust to this new schedule in our lives.

 {all ready for his first day!}

August Adventures

Well, the beginning of our month was busy with Janis and Mike's wedding and the last half of our month has been busy with backyard soccer games, "What Time is it Mr. Wolf?", getting ready for school, and once again cutting Shaela's hair. She informed her brother the other night that she really wanted short hair - so he obliged and cut a bunch of big chunks off the back of her head! Of course, I had to fix it - and as I was cutting it she started crying and saying she didn't want to look like a boy! Poor girl. Maybe next time she won't say anything to her brother and will instead come tell Mom and Dad that she'd like a haircut. And in the meantime, I think we'll be hiding the scissors!

 {The new do (after I fixed it!)}

Then there's Cohen - our little monkey of a baby. He's loves to climb anything and everything, but his latest trick is in Shaela's room. The kids like to stand on her bed and look out the window to watch the cats playing outside. He's not tall enough to see out on his own, so he grips the windowsill as HARD as he can and walks up the wall with his feet! He is one strong little munchkin!!

And Xavier - our imaginative, mischievous oldest. Here he is pretending to be an eagle. He is very much looking forward to starting school, although we have yet to inform him that this will mean he actually has to put a shirt on everyday! (He's pretty much only worn one this summer when we have to go out in public). And speaking of haircuts - he will be getting one before school starts. He's been adamant all summer that he didn't want a haircut, but he's starting to look a little too much like Shaggy for my liking! He'll be getting a trim whether he wants one or not. :)

Congratulations Janis and Mr. Mike!

Last weekend marked a very special occasion for our family - my beautiful sister in law, Janis got married to Mr. Mike Severloh - aka Mr. Mike. They have had a whirlwind romance the last year and a half, but they are perfect for each other in so many ways. It was very exciting to welcome a new brother in law into the family, and it was incredibly adorable to watch my beautiful children walk down the aisle at the ceremony. Janis and Mike outdid themselves with the decor at the reception site, and it was a great chance to visit with so many of our relatives that we don't see nearly often enough.

As I write this, the happy couple are now in Hawaii for two weeks, enjoying their honeymoon - which I am only slightly jealous of! I hope they have a blast!! Congrats again you two!! We love you!

The Rest of the Story

Well, by now you have all read about our adventures with Mr. Bear while camping (if not, see the previous post). After his second venture into our campsite, we decided to pack up and go elsewhere for the rest of the trip. We meandered down from the park across various gravel roads - we had a small map, but not a very detailed one. We had a general idea of where we were going, but the kids were sleeping and we were in no rush, so we knew we'd find our way eventually. After about an hour of driving, we figured out where we were and another half an hour later we were in the river valley near Russel, MB. We checked into the campground at Assessippi Provincial Park for two more nights of adventure. We got set up and ate supper and then went for a drive to the beach/playground area. It was too cool to swim that night, but we had high hopes of having a beach day on Friday.

The rest of the night proved uneventful and after a good night's sleep, we awoke to cloudy skies and 15 degrees. It was a bit rainy, so instead of cooking breakfast in the rain, we decided to venture into Russell for food. After we ate, we stopped and took pictures with Arthur the Bull and then took a drive to the Inglis Elevators - a row of 5 grain elevators that are in the process of being restored. It was really cool to see inside of them and learn about how they were built and how they operated. It's one of those local touristy things that you never really take the time to do - but since it was too cold to swim, it was a really fun way to kill the early afternoon. After a short nap back at the campsite, we took the kids back to the playground. We walked along the beach and played in the sand, but a quick dip of our feet in the water was the only swimming we got in. By that evening (this was now Friday - we had left on Wednesday), the kids were all beat. Cohen, especially, was sick of being outside and was ready to go home. After a family discussion, we decided to pack up our stuff after supper, then eat smores and hot dogs around the fire and head home later that night.

The older two kids really enjoyed the fire, as did Jared and I. Cohen was not a happy camper at this point, so it was a bit of a challenge to keep him occupied. We managed and by 9 pm, we were ready to take off. We put the kids in their jammies and they slept the whole way home. It definitely wasn't the sunny, beach-filled, relaxing camping trip we were envisioning when we left, but it was still a great experience and one we will definitely not forget anytime soon!

And, as always - some pictures of our adventures!

 {Fresh raspberries from along the path to the washrooms}

 

 {visiting Arthur the Bull}

 {Inside the restored grain elevator shaft - six stories high}

 {all five Inglis Elevators}

 {at the beach}

 {at the playground}