Vegas, Baby!

So we spent the weekend in the City of SIN. And I haven't had so much fun on a vacation in a long time!
So last Monday Chris and I realized we had the weekend off together and it was a 3 day weekend, and whadya think we did, shouted "Vegas Baby!" Well, actually not quite like that but then we called up Carl and Nancy and asked what they were doing... "Well, we have a three day weekend too, Vegas?"
And so we all gathered early Saturday morning and drove to Vegas to be at the swap meet by 9 AM. We actually got there almost right on time, which is a big deal, and we got straight to work finding a place to park in this overly crowded swap meet. Nancy jumped out and stood in a spot right by the entrance (which we had every place place went went) and as we pulled around to get in a Hispanic guy tried to run her over. She held her ground and he said "I know what you're doing Lady" in his Hispanic accent. We used that phrase hundreds of times the entire trip. Amazing how many ways you can use it... well, we bought cool stuff, Wii games and a SawzzzzzzzAll ;). I'm already addicted to one of the games...
After that we went to our hotel Sahara (and we got to stay in our very own room for only $38 a night!).
That night we went out on the town... and oh boy did we have fun! We took the Monorail all over... to Paris, and then Treasure Island.
Which the show is not pretty much a strip tease...
and then over to the Mirage to see the Volcano...
And then we walked over to the Bellagio and saw the 24 ft Chocolate Fountain....
And the Awesome Garden Conservatory....
And then we saw the Bellagio Fountains, and check out the view! Is there anything more magical than this?
We slept in the next day as Chris' parents visited a timeshare for us all and got us great tickets! Way Cool you guys! That night we saw the Variety Show that they got tickets for and a free buffet. The show was so great! It had everything from comedians, to magicians, to contortionists, to Hispanics! What a deal! We all loved it. And then afterwards we went to Fremont Street.
It was soo cool! Chris and I got to be interviewed on the "big screen" that spans the street! Who else has got to do that?!
Then we saw a tummbler show...
And then three guys jumped on thier motocross bikes and cruized inside a globe cage together. I don't think Chris has every been more scared for someones life before...
The best part of all was when they turned the lights off and put the nightly show up on the cieling. It was a tribute to Queen and Carl sang along with all his heart, "We Will, We Will, Rock You!"
The next day, Monday, we wandered around the MGM theaters and found this cool dealio moving projected picture on the ground that reacts when you step on it. With bubbles and sparkles flying everywhere around my feet, I could have played on it for hours! Then we saw the lion exhibit and you can actually walk under the lions as they sleep inches from your head.
Then we drove on home, finding that we missed Salt Lake and Delta. We stopped in Mesquite to buffet again, but Mesquite is not so cool, so onward to St. George. And to be honest, Utah buffets beat anything Vegas had to offer. It was Lucky Buffet and the Ribs were sooo great!
We're home now and I love it, but Chris and I are already planning another three vacations this year. I mean, hey, life is short, We're gonna spend the money so why not spend it on something that we'll remember for the rest of our lives?

Merry Christmas Time!

I love Christmas Time! It's a Holiday with Christ's Name and Chris' Name all in one, What a Day!
So we have Had a great Christmas Time. It might run a whole in our pockets, but it is always worth it ;). First off, we've been wanting to do Sub-for-Santa for someone we know, but the family we were planning on, seems to have moved away without telling anyone. So we had to figure something else out. Then it hit us! Not literally, please calm down, we're all okay, even though the snow is higher than the car tires... but I digress... so there is a young single mom who is interested in the Church, and has been listening to the misisonaries. Her boyfriend took off, leaving her alone with a little toddler with awesome Einstein hair and another baby due in January. She didn't have a job, so Christmas was going to be tough. Well, Chris, with her heart of gold, headed out and did the thing she does best. She made the day of someone downtrodden! She bought all these great gifts for all of them, and she probably spent more on them than all our gifts together. And Chris was so contagious in her serving others, that I don't even care. It's so exciting to think about what thier surprise was like and thier faces on Christmas Day. We were probably as excited as they were.
Now on to our Christmas in Delta, my first. It was fun! I have never had a bad day in Delta. It's like it's a different, calmer world.
So Christmas was great! Everyone, Carl, Nancy, Chris, Deb and Chris all sat around and humored me as I read them a silly Christmas stroy about a Lump of Coal, and then I sang a stupid song that I wish I could take back, about a guy who Loves Santa a bit too Much. But I had fun, and I think they did too. Then we slept and woke up to Christmas!
So Paiton was hilarious the whole time. She's a fun little girl. I loved how she would get into her commanding posture and say something like, "Get in here bubba!" And then opening all the presents was fun. Chris and I spoiled each other this year. We got tons of stuff for each other. I now have some new Crocs, (my others actually have holes all the way through them. It makes for a very personal walk with nature. It's like I'm barefoot, but wearing shoes) and my DVD collection has now doubled, and I was super surprised to open up Batman Legos for the Wii! I love that game and she had said it was sold out. So what a surprise to open it up. That was all I really wanted. And then I gave her some jewelry, a tea set and cake stand, a black Santa (which was very unique and cool) and the first two seasons of John and Kate plus eight. We both had quite the Christmas! It's hard to go back to work now. Having time off together is way better than having to work apart. (Wow, that's a new revelation if ever I heard one)

This Graduation Thing Is Great. Everyone Should Really Get on This Train

If I had known that I was going to be treated like a king when I finally got my Associates, I'd have done it a long time ago ;). Yes, I feel like royalty after the way Chris treated me last night.
So first of all, you must understand that I have been pretty worried about how my last class, StatiscticS. I am terrible at math, and this class really showed me how terrible. So when Chris and I looked up our fianl grades, I was a wreck with worry. Chris did wonderfully, which goes without saying, she's wonderful. Then my turn, and I thought I was in for some bad news. When I saw that I passed, it took a sec to sink in and then I jumped up and hugged Chris so hard! I am finally done with my Associates! Woo Hoo!
I was really grateful to see that Chris made this "event" such a big deal. She went and told everyone I graduated (even before it was offical, but she believed in me, which is so huge) and Chris' parents sent me a great card (the only one actually) and then we are going to celebrate with my parents, and Chris' if they can at Porters Place.
And to treat me like a king, Chris took me out to dinner, wherever I wanted. I picked Sizzlers, which was great, and I'm having left over left overs. Dinner was great, and then she had a gift all wrapped up for me! I didn't expect a gift, but there it was. I opened it up,all giddy, and found Mario Cart for the Wii! I love that game! And we went home and played it for a while before we had to go to bed. It was so cool of Chris to do all that for me. I really appreciated how much she "pampered" and supported me. Thanks babes. (pictures to come)

Davie Claus

So I got to play Santa Claus for the Hispanic kids in one of our Library Out Reach Programs. It was great. I make a mean and albiet young Santa!
My favorite part was the huge smiles all the kids had. One girl gave me at least 12 hugs. One older boy came and asked me, are you real? I didn't want to break it to him, so I just said, "What do you think?" He walked away with that question rolling around in his head.
Being Santa was great. I've played a few characters now for the library, The Cat in the Hat being one of them, but the cool part about Santa is you get to talk, not just walk around. It was great.

Merry "Chris" Mas

So if you were wondering, I love Chris.
I'm really glad they made a Holiday About having more of her. (Mas in Spanish means more). Whenever I hear "Merry Christmas" it reminds me of our first Christmas together, when we were dating and my friends were always pushing me to "marry the girl already." And my friend Brad actually said something that always sticks with me everyt Christmas. Say Merry Christmas a few times... go ahead. Try it........................... Done? Yeah, when you say it over and over again it becomes Must Marry Chris Must Marry Chris. Jesus changed his birthday party just for me to get the hint. Needless to say, I'm glad I listened.
So we've been having some fun Christmas happenings.
For Thanksgiving we gave my sister Kristen and her kids an early Christmas. We got Chris' parents to help us make some blocks for them. It was tons of work, but they loved them.

And Nancy had her Birthday here.



But mainly, we loved putting up our Christmas tree. Thanks Nancy and Carl. That was really nice of you Carl to drive all the way up here just to drop it off. We put on Christmas music and decorated it and the house. It's pretty.




And Deb and Paiton stayed with us. Chris and I (especially Chris) loved having a little person to spoil and play with in the house. Yeah, I think we are set on foster parenting now. So thanks for staying with us, and please come again.

I Only Believe in Eating Turkey in Bulk

So this year was awesome! We got to eat Thanksgiving dinner Three Times! I love being married and having in-laws!
Our first Thanksgiving Dinner was set up by us the week before. We rented out our club house and had a great Ham Thanksgiving Pot Luck with all our neighbors. It was soooo good and playing games with everyone was great.
Then we had a great time down in Delta. Thanksgiving dinner was sooo good again, and since it was just a few of us, there was "limitless amounts of food". My favorite phrase. My favorite thing though was the 4x4ing. I have to admit, I didn't realize I'd have that much fun. But it was way Fun!





Then we ate Turkey dinner and ham at my parents house. All the family came and so there was a million little mouths all wanting to be fed. Chris, the saint that she is, was honestly going around the table like a mother bird and feeding all the little mouths. She's the best. Thanksgiving was so much fun.
And now I feel like its okay to listen to Christmas music. I have a theory I'm going to try next Halloween. I wonder if I have a huge Turkey binge on Halloween I'll feel like it's okay to listen to Christmas music... maybe even in July....
I

The Mystery of the Silver Bullet

So Halloween has been great the past few years with Chris. The first year we were just barely dating and she, my brother, and I set up a spook alley in front of my parents house.
I was dressed like a stuffed dummy and sat down next to an exact replica of my dummy, and you couldn't see the difference. A bowl of candy was between us and the kids had to come and get it. When they went to pick up some candy, I'd suddenly move and grab it from them. It scared those kids all the way across the yard!
And last year we had an awesome fun party with tons of our friends over at our house and we had pumpkin carving and cookies and made up stories and stuff.
Well, this year, we had the coolest party of them all!

We had our good friends Kyli and Dan, Ben and his fiance Anne, Quynn and Chelsea, and ourselves over and had a Mystery Theme Dinner. Each of us dressed as a character in this Sherlock Holmes Mystery. I was Jose Pinto, Latin Lover, and Chris was Chastity Darling, seductive witch/vamp. (She was gorgeous as the pictures show ;))

So Chris prepared this awesome dinner with each our own Cornish hen, a beef stew, salad, rolls, and for dessert - baked cinnamon apples! It was a 20 on a 10 scale! Sooooo good!. Everyone loved it. And then the mystery began.
Everyone played thier part throughout the dinner, and all were dressed perfectly for the parts. We began our quest to discover the murderer of my sweet sister Maria. There was all sorts of twists and side stories that we had a hard time deciding if there was anyone who didn't do it. They all had motives! Then at the end we sat around deciding "who done it". And we thought up these grand scemes and surprisingly we each were sure that we were the ones who'd done it... my sceme involved four people and a scene from Zorro..... Anyways, it turns out Chelsea did it. Who knew? Anyways, the party was the best party of the century. Chris is a wonderful hostess and things are always sooo fun with her. We're hoping to trade our mystery party game for a new one on KSL and do this again it was sooo awesome!