On New Year's Eve, we all went to the Las Vegas Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are still under construction, the rest was all recently built. They did a beautiful job! There is even a little spring that runs throughout the gardens.

Here is a big lizard laying out on the hot rock.

There was also an exhibit about the natives in the area.

The cactus are still blooming in the middle of winter!

Happy New Year!

My parents, Linda and Roger, decided to come visit us in Las Vegas for the new year celebration. Their first day here, Dec. 30th, we all went to Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I showed them where I work, and we also saw a lot of nature. Above are the loons at the Overton Beach area (where my office trailer is located)

Next, we went to Roger's Spring, a natural spring in the middle of the desert. This sign was in front of the spring warning you not to get the water in your nose or you will get a deadly infection.

Here is my mom at Roger's Spring, enjoying herself.

Along with hundreds of spotted and striped fish (and even a few goldfish), we saw two turtles in the spring! I was absolutely amazed there were turtles in the water!

Here is Blue Point spring, a spring that is very close to Roger's spring. At first, we couldn't find the spring, but eventually we did and we even walked to where the spring bubbled out of the earth. Here are my dad and Cody walking back from the spring.

On the drive back, we saw a herd of bighorn sheep. These sheep were 5 feet from the car!!! We were so close! This is only a couple of them, we saw 7 total.

Here is a popular area of the park: Redstone. The holes in the rock are caused from wind erosion, it looks really neat. We hiked around here for a bit, before driving home to watch WALL-E. All in all, a fun day!

On the way to Las Cruces for Christmas, we stayed in Florence, AZ at my grandparents winter home. When we got there, my grandma had made some delicious stew, and Christmas eve morning she made biscuits and gravy. yummy! We had a nice stay, and decided to come back in March so we can spend some more time with them.

In the picture above, they are standing next to the saguaro cactus they planted 2 years ago. Below is the rest of their cactus garden.

Christmas 2008 was great! We started the day by going to a 12:30 pm movie: the Four Christmases, which was pretty good. We then had a turkey enchilada dinner (nice and cheesy), and opened presents. Here is a look at the tree!


Me handing the presents out.


Cody opening the first present (a set of dishes...which were free after spending a certain amount of money at the grocery store lol).


Kyle with his annual pair of funny Christmas boxers.


Alan opening a box of chocolates. yummy


Kelli opening a pair of earrings.



Aunt Judy opening a very soft blanket.

All in all, it was a Merry Christmas! It was great to be with the family and relax.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Historic Mesilla Plaza in Las Cruces, NM was beautifully lit with Christmas lights and luminarias. Santa Claus is coming to town....

Al's Garage

Last night, Cody and I decided to try a new restaurant, so we looked for the best place to get a hamburger in Henderson. Cody gave me two choices, one choice in a bad part of town, the other choice was Al's Garage in The District. For those of you who don't know, The District is the newly built upscale part of town. I chose the restaurant in The District, thinking we were going to eat at some fancy restaurant..... hah! This is where we went, a biker bar where the menu is on the wall (kinda like Dick's Last Resort).

They had some awesome food, plus if you go there on Saturday night and show your tattoos, you get free beer (if you are a woman of course)!

Naughty Cody lol!

Go figure, you really can drink out of a bucket in the Las Vegas area! They call it the Grease Monkey, and they bring you vodka and assorted other alcohols in a bucket, lol. I am sure Kyle would have been all over this. :)

Snow.....in Vegas?

Yesterday, there was a blizzard in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas. The blizzard started when I was at work, and I was not prepared at all to spend 9 hours outside in snow. Brrrrrrrr... Cody was at the Flamingo when I got off work, our plan was to go out to eat with the family but that was quickly nixed because Las Vegas does not have any snow plows. Kelli and Alan drove Cody back to our apartment through the nasty traffic and 4 inches of snow. The normally 10 minute drive took them 1 and a half hours! The drive back to the hotel took them 45 minutes.

My drive home from work was scary, there was 3 inches on the road, and the road is not designed for snow. Lots of hills and sharp curves, I was sliding everywhere when I was in 4 wheel drive going 25 mph in my SUV. It took me 2 hours to get home, when it normally takes a little less than an hour.

The snow total at our apartment this morning was 7 inches! It broke the record amount of snowfall. But of course, the warmth is back today, and a good portion of the snow is already gone. There was still enough snow for my boss to cancel driving to work today, so I am working from home. Kelli and Alan are driving home today, drive safe guys! We had fun, and can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Las Vegas

While I was working this week, Cody and his parents explored the strip. From what I gather, there was a lot of walking and shopping involved. Kyle stayed out late every night, he didn't get back to the hotel until 6 am one day, and 10 am the next!

While they were enjoying themselves at Ceasar's palace, I was watching the equipment operators stack boulders (lol):

After work Tuesday, we went out to eat at the MGM Grand, where we ate these humongous two pound hamburgers. Alan got the Chile Burger, which was a chile relleno on top of a burger. The burger was almost a foot tall! It was quite entertaining to watch him attempt to eat it. After dinner, we went to see Ka. As always, the special effects were amazing!

Wasted away again in Margaritaville...

Kyle, Alan and Kelli drove to Las Vegas to celebrate Kyle's 21st birthday! We all went to Margaritaville for his birthday dinner on Monday (even though his birthday is the 12th). Happy 21st birthday Kyle!

Breckenridge 12-12-08

I flew to Denver this weekend to visit Cody, and of course, he wanted to o snowboarding :) I have been missing the mountains and the snow, but had been getting over a cold that had plagued me since Thanksgiving, so I went but decided to just hang around at the base of the mountains....

So, I watched all the skiers and drank a bloody mary. *grin* Not that the alcohol helped me get rid of my cold :) The day started out nice, but a storm came in and it snowed from noon on.

How sweet, Cody kept his hopes up that I would want to board when we got up to Breckenridge, so he brought all of my gear. How cute! But I still didn't feel like beating myself up once we were there.

Can you believe Cody has already been snowboarding six times this season?!!! He is really good now. I, however, am stuck back how he used to be..... falling and falling, and falling some more. I occassionally get a good run in (about half a mountain without falling), and I know I will get better when I go the next time. This was our first trip to Breckenridge, and Cody and our friends Casper and John who tagged along, said the mountain is a good one. I know we will be visiting Breckenridge again soon. Can't wait!