Senior (HS) Weekend 2013

Here is my other missed March post.  I blamed work... as usual.

I had my two cute nieces to Vegas for a Senior Weekend.  I was so happy they wanted to come!  They definitely benefited from my learnings from poor Megan's Senior Weekend experience 2 yrs ago.  Plus, they had each other to giggle with over One Direction and other things I know nothing of.

Anyway, of course I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to... trying to work on that.  We went up the Stratosphere but I have no pictures to prove it because I left my phone in the car.

It had been that kind of week... but there will be no dwelling on that.

Then Carly wanted to see Caesars palace so we wandered around there.

We tried to go to Serendipity for lunch but it was too crowded... shoulda known.  Instead we took Bailey to her first experience with the Cheesecake Factory and its book of a menu.

After going home to take a nap, Emily came!  I was so happy she could join us.  Now Emily and I could carry on our own fuddy duddy conversation without damping the Seniors conversations.

Here we are at the Venetian.

Riding in the gondola.

So cute girls.

It appears pink was the color of the day... Bailey hadn't gotten the memo.

This is what Carly does while on a boat in Venice....

The customary picture in front of the water.  Hands on hips...

I made them stay and watch the little show where they sing and dance at the Venetian... so we could wave our colorful napkins when told to.

Of course, the best part of Vegas is the Belagio... I could spend all evening there.

Sat morning we introduced Bailey to tea. Carly taught her the trick to good tea... sugar, honey and/or cream :)

Then we climbed around in Red Rock.

Poor Carly hadn't brought the right shoes, but she was a good sport and climbed around with us.

Eating Jimmy Johns on the rocks.

Trying to catch a lizard!

Bailey wanted to see the New York New York so we wandered around the casinos in that area.  Apparently the lions have been removed from the MGM grand :(  But we introduced Bailey to Orange Julius...

Then we had to go pick up our tickets to O. I hadn't planned well with time for dinner but we ate a couple of granola bars, lots of pretzels and fruit snacks so we wouldn't starve.

We were even higher than the nosebleed section... (the locals discount)

As many of you know, O is a water circus show (apparently the word for water in french sounds like O... Emily provided that info for us) with the arena changing from water to solid depending on what was going on.  There was also a story line involving a couple guys and girls and roses but I didn't get it. Also, being so high up some of the mystery was lost as you could see the ground moving around and sometimes even the scuba divers.  Still, I think the girls enjoyed it.

Unfortunately I had failed to use the restroom beforehand like the rest of the group. Watching spraying water did not help but I didn't want to leave and miss anything.  Finally, on the way out at the end as I cut in front of other show goers I noticed restrooms available on our floor and pushed my way over to them... They were out of order.  I headed back to the line where Emily and nieces had calmly emerged and waited to make the long trek down and out of the theater.

So, I probably would have enjoyed the show much more if not for...

But after I recovered, we got some ice cream and watched more spraying water in front of the Belagio... for free.  We also got to see a group of young adults with microphones preaching on the corner.  After introducing Bailey and Emily to In and Out (The line was still 30-40 minutes long at 11:30pm!), we headed home.  The Vegas Strip experience was complete.

We had a nice relaxing Sunday where the girls went to Young Woman's instead of staying in Relief Society with us.  Carly and Bailey thought they would have a higher percentage possibility of obtaining food/candy there.  They were right.  They made up 2 of the 3 Laurels in class and so each got their share of a bag of chocolates. 

It was a good call.

Here we are painting toe nails Sunday evening. I'm so glad Emily arranged it so she didn't have to leave until Monday morning!

Both of them gratified their aunt by making up their own temple flip books with 13 temples chosen from the 141 I had copied.  Such good nieces. And Emily sent them home with homemade soap so we did good in the clean and pure department even though they were in Vegas.

It was so fun.  They are good kids and I can't wait to see them up at college.  Hopefully they went home telling their younger brothers and sisters how fun it was.  I need to make sure the tradition is ingrained in the younger generation... :)

There... this post is done. Everyone needs to see my cute nieces... and what awesome aunts Emily and I are.

Spring General Conference 2013

I have a post started with pictures and even some words about senior weekend in March with my cute neices, but i thought I would post about conference first.  Really failing in the whole post a week goal... or even post a month!  Ah well, the novelty of blogging has worn off.  But, I do want to share pictures of my cute relations so here goes.

I got to go up to Utah to go through the temple with Megan before she left on her mission.  It is always fun to be with the family in such a special place.  Unfortunately... I'm a little more reverent without my family than with.  They are bad examples.  But I think Megan had a good experience even though we couldn't sit with her (that SLC temple, packed session the day before General Conference... although it's probably always packed Friday afternoon). Although now that I think about it, probably good we didn't sit with her :).

Then we took pictures... some serious, most not.

Jenny (Mom), Megan, Tom (Dad)

Megan, Dad (Granddad), Mom (Grandma)

I love my cute parents.  Poor Granddad. Jenny accused him of being a grump.

Then we had ice cream.

 You might notice I'm trying to do more self shots... still working on getting the face right... :)

The next day we watched General conference while Megan's parents frantically attempted to get her packed and ready for a mission all in one day...

 Emily planted seeds during the morning session.

This picture was to show off how well Emily did the snack thing... to make others in our family jealous...

On Sunday we gathered to go to the conference center! Jenny had gotten tickets.

 My Mom is such a good sport.

 This was me trying to get something other than bum shots :)

Emily is also a good sport.

Notice the jacket Megan is wearing... she wanted to take it with her on her mission but Jenny suggested she to wear it and ask Emily and I's opinion as we are seasoned veterans.  We nixed it.  Poor Megan.

 Hmm... for some reason I didn't get any pictures of Jenny and Tom.  But they were there with us, just on the other side.

Funny story... I didn't realize the flash was on so when I first held my phone up it started to flash and I had to quickly hide it on my skirt.  Oops!  Yup, that was me...

I just remembered another funny story. I brought my knitting in with me cuz I figured if they let it on the airplane they would let it in the conference center... The lady looking through my bag held it up for a supervisor to come and see if it was OK.  Tighter security!

That afternoon we watched conference in the parents trailer..

 This is to show how the candy always ended up at Jenny's feet.

(Last conference Emily had everyone sending pictures to each other of their setup for each session and I wanted to continue the tradition but totally failed.  Jared sent a picture of a beautiful waterfall Saturday, Bethanie sent one of her kids fighting and Angela of her roommates sleeping on Sunday... Hmm, I guess I didn't fail as much as I thought.  Just didn't do as well as Emily.  Guess she really has moved ahead of me in sibling affections... I didn't want to believe Mom when she told me but as they say, the proof is in the pudding)

All in all, it was a whirlwind trip with lots going on but we made some really fun memories.  I love my family!  And getting to share conference together was so much fun... especially since Emily fed us so well.

There. This post is done.  More words than I thought I had in me... ah well, typical.

PS. Emily sent me (and others) this picture last Wednesday (April 10th) with the caption "there she goes!".

Doesn't she look so cute in her missionary outfit?  Megan is going to be an awesome missionary.  She is way more prepared than I was.  Each generation just gets better...

Megan's Mission Call and Other Stuff

As you all know, Megan recieved her mission call to Anaheim, California.  I took a few pictures of the crowd...

Megan was kind enough to wait until December when we were all gathered for Christmas (and Grandma's funeral) to open it.

We were all excited!

OK, so I've seen more exciting reactions, but it was fun to all be together!  Funny story, she put her availability date the week before finals so she could turn her application in early enough to get it back before Christmas, thinking that since the missionary department would be inundated by applications it would be weeks into the summer before she went.  Guess when her arrival date is... you got it! A week before finals.

When I went up to Utah in December to visit and take Emily her christmas presents, Megan said all but one of her professors were accommodating.  She just dropped that class and got another.  It's crazy to me that a BYU professor wouldn't help her out.... there must have been extenuating circumstances.

Emily wanted to get out of the smoggy valley so we picked up Megan and headed up to Heber and checked out the ice on the lake.

 It was cold!

 There were quite a few ice holes and people out fishing so emily checked the depth of the ice... it was way over 1ft..

Megan made a snow angel.

I thought it turned out very nice... even though the little one next to her was a little cuter :)

Emily and Megan headed out farther onto the ice

to touch the Buoy!

I was too nervous :)

It was way fun!  Check that off the bucket list.

Then Megan took us to a BYU Men's Volleyball game.

Megan sure is way fun and we'll miss her.  But I know she will do a lot of good in California.  The Mickey Mouse Mission! :)