Christmas 2010

For Christmas this year we stayed in Las Vegas and it was just the two of us.  We weren't going to have a tree, but then I randomly saw this little $5 tree at a grocery store and decided to get it.  We didn't really have any gifts to exchange, so we just slept in Christmas morning and then had german pancakes for breakfast.  My sister Jennifer called from her mission in Hawaii, and we were able to have everyone in the family on the same phone conversation, which was nice.  We went to see the lights at the cactus garden, which has turned into a tradition.  I didn't feel like cooking and we didn't want to wait in a huge buffet line, so we ended up getting chinese take-out for dinner and then we watched Christmas Vacation.

Chomps and our little $5 tree

Chomps' Christmas bandanna

cactus garden lights

Mount Charleston

We drove up to Mount Charleston in October when Dadoo and Mandy were visiting us.  We brought Chomps too and she loved it.  I was missing fall leaves, so it was nice to see some.  We also saw a deer when we were doing a little hiking-Chomps didn't even notice it though!  We were trying to find a trail that leads to a small waterfall, but didn't have a map or the best directions, so we didn't find it.  We still saw some pretty areas though.  Here are some of the pictures I took:

                                       

David Steve's Europe

Welcome to my first blog post. Melody might follow this up (soon?) with a muti-part post. Until then, here is my recap covering the number of days we spent in each place and what impressed me the most and/or least.

London: 4 days, Tower Hill was “brilliant“, filled with fun history and stories, Melody had to tear me away from that place, hiking the 530 steps to the top of the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral on the other hand was a test of will that I think almost crippled our ability to walk with 13 more days to go. Wish we had had another couple of days in London.

Paris: 4 days, the locals were much more helpful than advertised, Versailles was lessened with an unfortunate debut of modern Japanese art that was scattered in different rooms in the palace, amazing views of the city from atop the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph) and Eiffel tower highlighted our visit, the city could work on improving its smell (seriously).

Venice: 2 days, this place was easily the most fun of all the cities we stayed at, I already miss the gelato and simply wandering around there was better than most of the paid attractions I’ve been to.

Florence: 2 days, we were totally “museumed out” by this point, I must admit that seeing Michelango’s David made the stop worth it though and I am by no means normally impressed by statues, but it really is that good and in a sense overwhelming.

Rome: 3 days, I’ve always wanted to see the Colosseum and the ancient Roman ruins so this was a fulfilled dream, the sights in Rome were my favorite by far and a nice change of pace after seeing so much art in London, Paris and Florence.

Names

I saw this link on a friend's blog and thought it was hilarious...thought I'd share:

http://jessica-jensen.blogspot.com/2010/04/names-2009.html

Chompers turns 1

Our puppy turned 1 on Thursday.  We got her some peanut butter doggie ice cream that she absolutely loved and a new toy that she's already ripped some holes in.  Happy birthday Chomps!

Parents visit

My parents came to visit us in January.  We've been to visit them in Oregon a few times lately, but this was their first time seeing our house and meeting our dog.  They happened to be flying in during a week of almost constant rain, which is unusual for Las Vegas (but not for Oregon).  These "monsoon rains" as they were called, caused their flight to be delayed 4 1/2 hours, which I thought was somewhat ridiculous.  Anyway, we didn't do much that night because it ended up being quite late by the time they got here, but the next day we went to the temple, the chocolate factory and cactus gardens, and out to eat.  On Saturday, my parents and I went to the outlet mall and ate at an Indian restaurant for their lunch buffet.  Later, my mom and I saw The Lion King at Mandalay Bay, which was quite good.  After the show, we all met up and went to check out the new City Center.  They had some cool stuff in the mall and I liked the fountain (the water looks like fireworks) and water wall outside.  After that, I showed my parents the spa that I work in.  It was a short trip, but we got to do a fair amount of stuff and it was good to see them.  Here are a few pictures:

New Furniture

So my birthday presents this year mainly consisted of getting new furniture for the house.  We got a bed frame and nightstand for the guest room and a new dining room table.  The table also has a leaf and a bench that aren't shown, so it can seat six.  We also got some ceiling fans to go in the office and guest room and one for the living room that isn't quite installed yet.  We are getting one for the master bedroom too, but haven't decided on one yet.

Christmas in St. George

We spent Christmas day and the day after in St. George with David's Grandparents and family.  We had a delicious turkey dinner and much more food the next day.  David and I stayed at our friends Bill and Heidi's house since we brought the Chomps with us and the rest of the family had gotten a vacation rental that didn't allow pets.  Chomps enjoyed being able to play with another dog while we were there.  We also went and saw Avatar in 3D with the family, which was good.  We enjoyed our visit and had a good Christmas!