Nature! And temps below 100...

Camping at Duck Creek Utah 2010

Bret forgot which way the tent went...haha

Oh now he got it. Whew!

The ultimate tent decorator...Lizzy Lou Hoo

We stopped by the Ice Caves...George, Emily, and Bret loved it!

At the top...these weenies didn't wanna go down. Except for this guy Hooray! Bret is the only non-weenie in the bunch.

Until George stepped up his game and joined him.

The next day we went to the Mammoth Caves. Significantly scarier than the ice cave...very dark and lots of spots where you have to army crawl. No thank you! Emily tried and tried to convince Bella to go with her. Lizzy refused. I refused. Bret and George went with her into a dark, bat infested cave but she wanted to explore ALL the caves. :)

Back at camp: July 6th was Bret's birthday and I made him an AWESOME

dutch oven birthday cake....

It tasted WAY better than it looked...

We ate it community style.

Georgie chillin in his chair by the fire.

Bella in a s'mores coma. HAHA!

Another successful family camping trip!

The Lees Love You.

You Say It's Your Birthday....

This was me when I found out how old I was turning:

Luckily I was at my favorite lunch spot on the strip: Mon Ami Gabi.

And I was with friends...

Aren't we a darling group??

They are my first Vegas family...plus one.

It's Teresa, Viv, Melinda, Me, Julie B, and Manda.

No, not Amanda.

Yes I am 35. I'm not really sure how it's supposed to feel...only that I feel 25.

I still play with my kids on the playground at Town Square.

My BFF that I have BFF'ed since the eighties came to hang out all week! Vivian has celebrated 23 birthdays with me. We were friends for every single one.

Even the years we were roomies in college and I wasn't her favorite person.

Love you VIV!!

We always check out the atrium at the Bellagio. They totally reused that stuff from last year, just rearranged it.

It's a recession Folks. And she took me to see O at the Bellagio

SO AMAZING!!

Although the contortionists below were slightly disturbing...

They could SIT on their HEADS!

Viv's favorite part were these guys who were suspended high above the stage on a tic-tac-toe-lookin board that flipped and rotated. Oh yeah, and it was raining on them.

My favorite part was the russian swings...they were flinging themselves off these swing things. Looked like so much fun! Luckily I had enough self control not to jump up from the 3rd row and fling myself off...

This girl was pretty amazing, I GUESS. Being that she hung from one foot 100 feet in the air and did crazy twisties with her body.

It was eerily similar to this picture taken when I got my first strike for the night at Sunset Station:

I almost look like I'm missing a leg...

Viv and I did soooooo much fun stuff on my birthday week that it has taken 3 days for me to recover. Even though I feel 25, I don't quite bounce back like I am.

She must really love me. I want to give her a public shout out. She is my sistah. You know who else loves her? George and Bella. Come back soon Viv! And thanks to everyone who made my birthday week awesome!!

Sunday with the Brothas

On Sunday my youngest bro blessed his first child...

so the brothers came down from Utah. Brian, Blake, mom, Ben, me

Bret and George were twins!! Loves being daddy's twin.

Don't you love the hands in the pockets?!? It was such a lovely day, even though Ben and Blake were here less than 24 hours.

Will get a picture of baby Lily on here ASAP.

:)

What Recession?

If there is a decline of folks vacationing to Vegas,

thank goodness!

Last Monday we adventured down to the Strip for a fabulous staycation to the Luxor.

It was a MONDAY evening, people, and there was a Disneyland ride-type line just to check in. With every twist and turn of the line I thought, "What day is it?" and "Are they sure there is a recession?" and "I'm hungry."

Our fabulous view from the 27th floor.

Unfortunately that was just about the only fab thing about our room in the Luxor hotel and casino! I hate to say it, but hieroglyphics decals on veneer would be acceptable at the Hotel 6 Luxor. Not at the one on the famed Las Vegas Strip!

Georgie on an overused armchair...thank goodness for the portable DVD playah!

And the beds were sucky. Five inch mattresses and flimsy sea foam green spongy blankets. (do you know which ones I mean?)

My bed and room at the Best Western in Whistler blows this one out of the water!

But the hotel itself is pretty fantastic...during the late 90's many a weekend night was spent shakin' it at RA with the girls.

And there are big Egyptian statues everywhere.

Our trip was super fun, despite the sleepless nights. And we had so much fun doing Vegas-y things like squeezing through M&Ms world.

With ba-jillions of other travelers.

*You can't tell from her award-winning smile, but Lizzy has a raging case of swimmers ear. She was a trouper!

Emily appears to be posing for paparazzi while flying above Vegas...

And one last shot...Bella was tired of all the peeps by this time. And Bret had let George out of the stroller so he was running down the front of the MGM trying to catch him. We did lots of other fun things...with the millions of other vacationers in Vegas.

And we enjoyed each other.

Here I could insert a witty twist on the "What Happens in Vegas..." slogan but I won't.

I will just wrap-up our vacay with a picture of Bret and the kids squished into a photo booth. Thank goodness I took this picture because the one we paid $5 for was Lizzy's chin surrounded by little m&ms. Hilarious.