Dinner at the Aria

Once in awhile it really hits home that your kids are all grown up. Ashley & Benjy took US out to dinner! It was pretty special. Not because our kids don't do cool things like that for us (because they do) but because it's like maybe we could hang out together as adults and just enjoy each others company like they are our peers. It's such a great thing to have adult children. No reminding them to use their manners at the restaurant. No telling them what their spending limit is. No cleaning up after spills. Just 4 adults having dinner...and of course the bestest part was they picked up the tab. And a huge tab it was.

Benjy's family has a tradition that when you get a new job you take the family out to dinner with your first paycheck. I think I like this tradition. They really, really splurged and took us to the Aria. Ashley had always wanted to try lobster so this was her big chance. 

Finally the Lobster!

 I know lots of people think Las Vegas buffets aren't that big of a deal maybe kinda lower class food with just tons of mediocre food but let me be the first to say things have changed folks. There may still be lots of food choices but it can get pretty gourmet. This one is probably the priciest in town but it included wine which was wasted on us of course.

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and blew the diets right out of the water again.

Because I can't have any seafood without a trip to the hospital included in the evening entertainment I always enjoy the desserts the best. These didn't disappoint.

Yes it was a little silly taking pictures but to make it worse Ashley was thrilled to take a picture of me embarrassing myself taking pictures. Dang it.

After dinner we wandered around the Aria and came across this enormous sculpture made entirely of chocolate. I wish I had a person standing there so you could see that its about 8 feet tall. Way cool. 

It was a pleasant night hanging out with our kids. We got stuck in the Electric Daisy Traffic going home but we were still basking in the dessert glow and didn't care!!

Reeses 1st Sleepover at Grammy's

 Now that Ashley & Benjy live close by it was time to venture into the world of sleepovers with Grandpa & Grammy! I had a couple of days off in a row so we got started on our adventure! Friday June 8th I went into Vegas to do some shopping and met up with the Comeau Fam at the Galleria Mall. After a couple hours in Kohl's the kids started to loose interest so we headed over to the food court to let them run in the kids play area for awhile. We had some lunch and then it was time for Rees to say goodbye to mom & dad. I was planning on hitting WinCo before coming home but since I spent every cent I had in Kohl's we just called it a day and headed right home. Rees had a fun time chatting all the way home. He was pretty excited. I gave him the tour of downtown and told him what every building was even though I am pretty sure he already knew. We started our adventure at Lin's where really every Overton adventure must begin. He got to ride in the huge car cart which is a huge pain can I just mention. We got all the necessary treats and stuff for dinner. I had a delivery to make next door so Rees helped me carry it to Lee & Anthony for their graduation

(I thought this turned out so cute so had to share. It's a smart water bottle filled with smarties and money!!)

Back to the story:

 We made homemade pizza for dinner. I use the term homemade loosely here because I didn't even make my own crust or sauce. I figured he didn't care and just wanted to help make it. He was quite the little chef. After dinner it was super windy outside so I did my best to distract him from going outside. He colored. He chatted up Grandpa who was nuts enough to think he was going to get homework done. I think his favorite thing was when I got out Hayden's treasured fisher price pirate ship. I quite like it myself because he was entertained for at least an hour! Hayden will be sad he didn't get to introduce him to it but sacrifices have to be made for the goodness of the whole team here. He did head outside for a bit with Grandpa to swing and slide and visit. I took him for a jump on the trampoline. Then I gave him a bubble bath with light sticks in it but would you believe I forgot to turn out the lights for him.....wow....Grammy is a dud! After we got rid of the days grime we finally got to the main event and pulled out tangled. We popped popcorn and got out blankets to watch our movie. Even Grandpa joined us. Rees made it until about 9:30 then conked out in the middle of it. It's been along time since Grandpa carried a kid to bed. He looked pretty tiny in a double bed all to himself. He didn't get to see his light sticks he slept with so maybe we will have to repeat that.

Saturday morning started at 6:30. I was thinking maybe he would sleep in after being up so late but nope. Grandpa was ready to make him anything he wanted for breakfast and he choose leftover pizza. After breakfast I took him out back to play with the sand toys I got the day before. There was even a cute wheelbarrow that he was dying to play with (wouldn't you know he saw it Friday afternoon). So I set him all up and went over to pull weeks in the rock garden. So that was it for the sand toys. He wasn't interested in that by himself. Just like my kids! So I decided it was time he learned to climb trees.

He was pretty scared at first but he got the hang of it. The Gamboa's were having a huge BBQ next door and insisted we come over for lunch so off we went. I loaded up our plates and then Rees and I took it home and ate. While Grandpa was mowing the lawn we watched him work ( one of my favorite things). Rees decided Grandpa sure was a good worker! After lunch he played in the sprinklers then we blew lots and lots of bubbles.

Then I put on a bulldozer movie and told him he needed to lay there and watch it but he didn't need to take a nap.

IT WORKED!!

 After the nap we microwaved Ivory soap in the microwave. I was amazed how cool it was. Frankly I was more entertained and enthralled with the whole thing way more than Rees!

By the time we loaded Rees up and headed back to Henderson I was pretty wiped out. Benjy said I was a rock star so hey it was successful. I am not sure who had more fun Rees or the rest of his family at home. It might be a tie and I know Rees had a great time because he told me so lots and lots....

UPGRADE!

Wow are we excited now. We are going on an Alaskian cruise next month for our 30th anniversary. It's a cruise tour that includes the train for 4 more days at Denali Park. We purposely got a cheaper inside stateroom so we could afford the extra train trip.....Well Princess just upgraded us to a Balcony!! FREE!!! Oh yeah I am counting the days. I love Princess already.

Christina's Visit / Stake Conference

The first of June was pretty exciting around here. It always is when it's Stake Conference time. Mendis received his speaking assignment and he got lucky this time. He just had to speak Saturday night for the adult session and conduct Sunday morning for leadership. He was only given 8 minutes to speak which sounds great but it's really hard to do a decent job of any topic in just 8 minutes so he spent all Saturday chopping it down and getting it ready. Then Surprise!! Elder Keele was the only other speaker so he had to try to put it all back together again. Just like humpty dumpty. I thought he did a great job. The air conditioner wasn't doing the job though and it was sweltering in there. He spent lots of time mopping his brow the poor guy.

The night before we got to attend the Temple with Ashley & Benjy. Sure is nice to have them so close by. This was followed by the traditional In & Out Burger time. While this was going on Christina was heading down from Orem to spend the weekend with us. We thought we would spend Saturday hanging out a bit but that didn't work out exactly as planned. The stake presidency never heard back from Elder Keele about the schedule until Saturday so everything was in an uproar. Corine was going to put him up but asked if I could do the dinner with Holly for Saturday night. So Christina and I spent the day planning, buying and preparing said dinner. It was really simple but took alot of time. Their meeting went way over so after all that we had less than 15 minutes to eat it...seriously probably not even that long. So we left the stuff out and ran to the meeting. Then ran in to clean up so they could have a high council meeting in there right after. Kind of a busy day.

Sunday there were no seats to be had in soft comfy chairs and Christina and I ended up half down the cultural hall even a half hour early. Thank goodness Mendis had already spoken or we wouldn't have been able to see or hear very well. After the meeting Christina and I headed over to Henderson so she could see Ashley and fam. We took the back road which is always so pretty but was not too thrilled with the $10 charge they have going on now!!

Ashley made us a fabulous dinner with Rachel Ray chicken and even homemade ice cream. Wow it was good. It was nice that Benjy got to be with us for dinner before he had to head off to work. I had brought over some toys for the boys from the OPD picnic and I have to say they were quite the hit:

Rees with the paddle ball

Cooper looks hilarious but he loved those silly glasses!

 

Hey Dad give em back

 

Coop is quite a little cowboy

 So we stayed as long as we could then   rushed home so we could watch a movie with Mendis. He was bummed he had Seminary graduation and baccalaureate so he couldn't come with us. The next morning we headed out on the four wheelers for a ride before Christina had to head back. I took the day off so I could hang with them before she had to leave.

The weekend sure flew by just like it always does when any of our kids get to come home. At least I had our FHE bbq at the Keel's to look forward to that night!!

Memorial Weekend

 For the first time in years we finally got away for Memorial Day Weekend. Jeff and Rachel couldn't get away to come home so we decided to head up to Rexburg and visit them. We got out of here pretty late Friday so we spent the night in Provo. We were thinking we could get breakfast with Christina or maybe even drag her up to Rexburg with us. But she had just finished up her school year Friday and was comatose for the weekend. Can't say I blame her. So we passed right on through ...

We got up to Rexburg Saturday but we realized early on we were in trouble. When we left home it was about 100 degrees and climbing on up. When we hit Rexburg it was rainy and about 44 degrees. I was thinking if it was 100 here it would be about 76 there. Wrong! So at least I had a jacket and some long sleeved shirts. Mendis didn't but he didn't really mind.

We decided we wanted to go to Big Judd's for dinner. It was just down the road a bit but Rachel and I saw the weirdest thing as we were driving by. We both said what the heck was that and we drove back to get another look:

The weirdest house ever. It's like a basement with a roof on it. WOW

Pretty redneck!

 So this is the famous Big Judd's. Jeff said Bruce & Nancy live right there somewhere but we weren't sure where.

 

 It was pretty famous from being on Man vs Food for huge hamburgers. They did have burgers for about $19 that were the size of dinner plates if you wanted them but we weren't up for that. They had huge double burgers and up to 5# burgers. They had a wall of pictures but somehow it didn't seem that fun to me. Burgers that huge are kinda gross with all that cheese slathered on etc. We were excited to check it out but apparently the whole area had the same idea because the place was packed. Seriously crowded. We barely fit in the door to wait well actually Mendis spent the first 15 minutes waiting outside to even get in.

Once we finally got in and seated I got to take a look around. I know they had a super busy day but man this place was filthy. I didn't even want to put my purse down on the floor with the napkin and straw paper trash all around. I just went with it and ordered but I am thinking this may have been my one visit there. The milkshakes were fab but maybe if I got the order to go I could enjoy it more. hahaha

 On the way we passed this Elk Ranch too. Kinda odd to just run into that out in the middle of no where but it was fun to see. We were beat that night so we just drove around and checked the place out most of the time. We love to see houses especially big gorgeous ones so we did lots of that until we ran out of light. So we just visited and had a mellow evening. We even fit in a trip to local grocery store so we could stock up on snacks and treats for our Sunday night game fest.

Sunday we headed to church and enjoyed having Mendis sit down in the crowd with us for once. After church Rachel made us some Tai food. We were so excited for that because we have never had it before and wouldn't have known where to start. She made us some curry and chicken satee. Love it!! It was not hot and spicy at all but just had a sweet yummy flavor. Nice and mild and lots of flavor.

 Jeff seems to be enjoying it. He and Mendis grilled the chicken on their bbq right outside the door but shhh don't tell cause that's against the rules!!

That night we had Rachel's brother Cameron over and his girlfriend. I didn't catch how to spell her name so I won't massacre it but she was really fun. We also picked up Tori and Dreah, my nieces. We all played games all night and ate snacks like crazy. We had a huge sequence game and had alot of fun teasing each other and stuff ourselves with junk food. Tori was especially fun because she had just had oral surgery the day before and was on pain killers!! She got her new braces on that day too..killer. The girls were a blast and I was so glad we got to spend some time with them.

Tori, Dreah, Rachel & Jeff

The next day we went out to breakfast and then all too soon it was time to hit the road again. It was sure fun to visit Jeff & Rachel. We look forward to seeing them again in July when we go to Jackson Hole for a few days. On the way home we stopped in Orem and took Christina to the Brick Oven for dinner. Love that place and it's one of our traditions to hit the buffet. Can't figure out why we can't loose weight hahahahah. It was a great weekend and we loved our little get away. Sure fun to visit with our kids even for a short time.

Playing in the Sun

We have had a few extra days of work off lately so I thought I would donate one to a good cause. I went into Vegas to take the boys off Ashley's hands to give her a chance to unpack. Since they are finally so close by it was time to help out. It was a really hot day so we decided to go to the splash pad at the park. Yea all the parks have an awesome FREE splash pad! They had been there the week before with their Comeau grandparents so they were primed and ready. The bummer was the sunscreen was in their car with Benjy at work so we only had an hour of sun time. Luckily there was a screen over the regular playground equipment so we spent lots of time there. That worked out well because Cooper wasn't interested in getting wet on the splashpad. It was a fun time with grammy running around behind two little boys. I did get a fabulous comment though...one mom there asked if they were my boys...haha I was delighted to say they were my grandsons. Made my day.

Rees' sense of direction is amazing because he told me how to get there by car no less. The funniest part was when he told me to go under the "tunnel" which was the underpass on College. He asked me on the way home if I could have a sleepover at his house. When I told him I had to go home and have FHE with Grandpa and our friends he wondered why and was a little put out! But he decided to help get his FHE ready instead. So yup I was beat after that short little outing in the heat.