Week 42 and the sun is shining. Craig was right on top of getting the picture done while I was away and now that it has reverted to my responsibility I am back to posting it super late in the week. The kids have had a good week, hanging out, scootering, biking, soccer, new shoes (much needed) and football. Tomorrow we have a tee time for 9:10am to use one of our Christmas gift certificates for a round of golf (thanks mom and dad). We are all looking forward to that. I'm going to charge my camera battery tonight so I can get some good shots.

The Bellagio

One afternoon we headed to the Bellagio, which is in my opinion the most beautiful hotel on the Strip. These pictures (except the last one) are all from the garden in the middle of the hotel. It is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen. Even the animals - the bees, frogs - are done with dried flowers. I can't imagine how long it takes to makes this beautiful site come alive - magical. The last photo is hundreds of glass flowers that hang from the ceiling over the lobby. LOVE THEM.

I would love to stay at that hotel, but first I need to win the lottery - ha!

Valley of Fire

WOW! Vegas - what can I say? A great way to spend your 40th birthday. The best part of going to Vegas with my parents is that you don't spend a week in a casino (although with endless supplies of money I would not be opposed to that). My mom and dad know what there is to see and where to go to see it. Amidst watching my beautiful niece dance and playing with my other beautiful niece, I had the opportunity to go to the Valley of Fire and the Hoover Dam. These pictures are from our day at the Valley of Fire. Imagine it being 45 degrees out and no shade. The poor air conditioning in the van.

This old guy had apparently been hanging around the picnic area for the last two years, we were told by the ranger. Recently someone fed him and he has gotten aggressive and now they are talking about relocating him to another area where he will not come into contact with people.

It was a great day and the terrain is so magical. I cannot explain how beautiful it was. These pictures do not do it justice at all.

Last Day of Holidays

Well as much as its been a pretty laid back holidays with the boys I did make plans for today to go downtown and enjoy the free Friday Indy Toronto day.  Before the weekend of racing people are invited to come down and enjoy the day watching practice runs, looking at cool cars, playing games and getting tons of free samples.  What's really cool is that the track is not a traditional oval but curves through some of the streets around the Exhibition giving some interesting vantage points.  On the way out we had a good view of one of the tight corners and saw a couple of cars miss the turn and one hit the tires.  The kids and I had a great time and spend about 4 hours taking in everything we could.  It was about 30 degrees and absolutely gorgeous so it made for an even better time.

They had a Ferrari challenge throughout the day with cars like these racing through the track.  Kids got tons of pictures like this one.

Even with my camera set on continuous shooting, this is one of the only pictures I got of the Indy cars going by.

Not sure if the video does the speed or sound justice but listening to the cars go by was awesome.

Kids got a chance to race each other on these motorized Dr. Pepper cooler scooters, they loved it.

It was sponsored by Honda so lots of motorbikes and cars to check out.

Car from the Avengers movie, hence the Avengers backdrop.

Week 41

Has been a pretty quiet week so far and stinking hot.  Not that I'm complaining, I love the hot weather, just makes moving around alot slower.  Maybe that's why we took the picture a little later in the day.  At any rate, I managed to get it posted on Wednesday, yay me.

Every Last Cent

Well Kaedo certainly knew what he wanted when he asked for money for his birthday and that combined with his life savings allowed him to buy the scooter he wanted.  When we originally went to the store Kaedo had in his mind that he wanted to buy all separate parts and put together his own scooter.  He even went to the store's website and picked out the parts and added them up.  That changed quickly when the guy told him that to custom build a scooter it would start at about $550 and that wasn't even with the parts he wanted.  So the guy showed him another one and told him it was the best bang for his buck, didn't try and upsell so I trust he was telling him straight.  Still not cheap.  Wonder what a $500 scooter looks like, wonder no more.

And if you are want to know what a person can do on a $500 scooter, here is Kaedo in action.

Happy Canada Day!

In the past Canada Day has been a quiet affair mostly spent wishing more things were open so we could find something to do, and in some cases if we have company checking out the fireworks.  This Canada Day will be much different, though I will need to find something to do to occupy myself, the kids will be spending the day volunteering for the Rotary club at the Canada Day festivities in Bowmanville.  I will be dropping them off at around 1 and will pick them up at 11 (yikes, long day).  They will be manning one of the inflatables at the event making sure kids get through the obstacle course okay.  I am very happy they are giving back to the community, don't they look sharp in their Canada Day volunteer shirts.