Stone Sisters Loose in Vegas

This past weekend, I met my sisters (and a few of their husbands) in Las Vegas to go see Celine Dion perform at the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace.  Our husbands all collaborated on this for Christmas this year and I love how thoughtful they were to think of something fun we sisters could do together.

All of us except Jade and Melanie flew into Vegas on Saturday morning, so we waited at the airport until we were all there, and when we went out to find a shuttle to our hotel, it turned out to be only $3 more per person to ride in a limo for an hour.  This being a first for many of us, of course we had to take pictures.  :) 

I had to take a picture of "the Statue of Liberty! . . . the small one from Las Vegas" to show my kids which one was stolen by Gru and his minions. 

 
It was SOOO windy the day we were there.  So windy, that the Bellagio didn't have it's fountains on, which was sad since that's something I'd have liked to see.  I think we stopped by this random statue because it was sheltered from the wind.  And then we found an even better place for a picture--the conservatory inside Mandalay Bay. (below)

Just  a cute picture in the conservatory in Mandalay Bay

The secret Garden and Dolphin
Habitat that we did NOT go into
despite our walking around for
30 minutes to find it, because it cost
like $25 per person.  We just turned
around and decided to do this
instead.
<----------------

 

How many people can we fit in a phone booth?

One of the cool fountains in the Forum Shops

  

We kept seeing these giant fountains that reminded us of the scene in Music Man where Mrs. Shinn is leading the busy bodies of the community in some lyrical dancing. 

This is "One Grecian Urn . . . (trickle, trickle, trickle)"

 
DRAGON FACE pose, in honor of Chinese New Year, (the year of the Dragon).  My kids rated us in order of scary-ness.  1-Natalie, 2, Sharee, 3 Jenny, 4 Julianne, and 5 Melanie.  Sorry Mel.  You are not scary at all according to my kids.  And Julianne, you are just "playfully scary."

 

A word about Vegas Strip.  Or maybe a few.  I thought it was one of the most wretched places I've ever been. It's like Chucky Cheese on steroids.  (And I don't even like Chucky Cheese to begin with.)  Everywhere we went we got cigarette and cigar smoke blown in our faces, our eyes were assaulted with billboards and ads showing people with not enough clothes on.  The flashing neon lights and the noise from a million different slot machines pounding in our ears gave me such a headache.  It was a relief to get outside into the light and breathe some fresh air.  But once you were outside, you had to dodge all the "porn-slappers" as we called them.  (The people out on the strip handing out Satan's version of the "pass-along card."  They slap the cards on their hands waiting for someone to make eye contact with them.)  It just made me sad to see so many people sitting in a dazed stupor in front of the slot machines, drinking and puffing their smoke on everyone.  What a waste of humanity.  Melanie basically summed up how we all felt about Vegas in her blog--you should check it out.  She is a very witty commentator.

Wow.  This is what I felt like by the end of the night.
TOO MUCH NEON!!!

After a long day of walking, we pulled ourselves up the only free seating in Vegas--the edge of a fountain.  (Natalie's feet were NOT happy!) I'm sure it's on purpose that the only places to sit in Vegas you have to pay for--either a restaurant, or in front of a slot machine.  

Finally it was time to go find our seats (the most expensive ones of the day) for the absolute BEST part of the trip---Celine Dion!  I've always thought Celine Dion was good, but wouldn't have necessarily called myself a fan.  Well, I am now.  I was sitting there thinking that I really wish she were my friend.  She was classy, gracious, genuine, beautiful, and I think I can honestly say she is the most talented  and versatile vocalist I've ever heard.  There were so many breathtaking, goosebump-raising, and just completely thrilling moments through-out the show. She did a lot of her own classics, but she also sang an Ella Fitzgerald song and nailed it, she sang as a tribute to Michael, "Man in the Mirror" and nailed it, and she also sang this incredible piece in French that I couldn't understand a word of, that left everyone in the audience speechless because she sang it with such raw, heartbreaking emotion.   It was such a great concert--easily the best thing to see in Vegas.  

Thanks for the fabulous Christmas present, Arthur!  You are the best gift-giver I know.

Here is Celine's opening number of her show in Vegas.
(I think she did even better when we saw her.)

Homeschool Exchange Student

The week after we got home from all our holiday travels, we hosted a delightful exchange student who was just 6 years old.  My sister Jenny had the fun idea to have each of our homeschoolers spend a week at the others' home since when you homeschool, you can do stuff like that in the middle of the school year!  Jenny did a lot of fun crafts with the girls, and I did lots of fieldtrips (to the Aquarium, Zoo & Explora).  Daphne and Jemma had lots of fun together, and Jemma was very brave to be away from her family for that long!  She even flew home by herself!

Field Trip #1:  Botanical Gardens/Aquarium

We talked about birds and how the girls are plain and the boys are fancy.  We saw lots of different ducks that illustrated that point.  But for some reason when we got home and the girls were drawing pictures about what they saw and what they learned, Daphne drew a picture of her gazing at a horse and wrote a little description about how she knows that you can talk to horses in your mind if you just gaze into their eyes.  A little off-topic, but at least she remembers the movie, "Secretariat." 

The next day we read "Paper Bag Princess" and then made our own paper bag dresses.  Little cousin Lilly joined us for this one.

Jemma told me, "I don't really wanna wear this--it's not very comfy."  

That girl is the queen of COMFORTABLE!

Our three paper bag princesses

Field Trip to the Zoo:

I don't often think about going to the zoo in the winter, but it's the best, because you have the place to yourself, and the animals are out sunning, so you can see them a lot better.

It was cool to see the Cheetas out.  They are the hardest animal to spot at the zoo, and they were BOTH (I didn't even know we had 2) out sunning that day.

a baby giraffe with her mom

Thanks for coming Jemma!  We loved having you come for a visit.  

some randomness

1. I am in process of catching up on all the exciting adventures of our lives.  For any of you who are interested in reading about them, or seeing the funny pictures, or want to know what Arthur got me for Christmas, scroll down, because I'm dating them by when they happened.

2.  In church on Sunday, Sydney stood on my lap during Sacrament Meeting with her rubber soled shoes, and tore my dress.  It was a thin sheer fabric with lining underneath, so thank goodness I wasn't exposing anything unseemly.  But it just so happened that yesterday, I was asked to give not one, but 2 opening prayers, (Sunday School and Relief Society.)  What are the chances? So I got to stand up in front of everyone and pray, and all I could think about was the hole in the front of my dress.  Fortunately, I was called out to play the piano for the Young Women in the 3rd hour, and thus escaped the 2nd opening prayer.  So which is worse?  A holey dress in front of all the Young Women?  Or a holey dress in front of all the Relief Society?  It was probably the holey dress in Sunday School, the prayer I did end up giving.

3. I was recently introduced to Pinterest.  ah.  what to say about Pinterest?  It is cool because it gives me such fun ideas.  But not cool because I don't have time to spend looking at all the ideas, and yet, I look anyway.  Here is a fun little craft that Daphne and I made recently that I found on Pinterest.  It took all of 10 minutes to put together.  :)  Mason jars, paper doilies, ribbon and felt hearts.  Plop a candle inside, and they are irresistible.

December & January Quotes

December was so crazy, that I just didn't write down much of what my kids said. As a result, the December quote page was looking pretty slim.  But, so far this month, we've already had a good supply of blog-a-ble quotes.  So I'm hoping my kids will keep up the good work and supply us with plenty more so I have some to post at the end of this month.  In the meantime, enjoy a few from December and the first week of January.

On a VERY windy night as I was preparing to leave for our Stake's "A Child is Born" concert, Daphne said,   "I feel sorry for you that you have to go out in the wind.  

I hope it doesn't blow away your good looks."

Driving home from getting our Christmas Tree, Sean said, 
"It looks like our car has green hair."

Sean:  (to Hayden) When you're too old, you die.

Dallin (getting annoyed with Sean):  There's something wrong with your brain.

Sean: Wait, which brain?  The one in your head or the one in your--

Dallin:  There's only ONE BRAIN!  I've studied it in class. There's only one brain.

Daphne:  I think God created Santa Claus so Christmas wouldn't be so boring.

Sean: (regarding Santa's present) "Well, I didn't ask for this.  But I like it."

Hayden:  I don't want to be in this family anymore.
Me:  Oh yeah?  Why not?
Hayden:  Because nobody loves me.
Me:  Well that's certainly not true.  I love you so much.  Everyone in our family loves you.
Hayden:  Well, nobody's nice to me, so I'm running away.
Me:  I hope you don't because I will miss you so much.
Hayden:  Well, too bad.
Me:  Well, how will you get food if you run away?
Hayden:  I will bring my dollars.
Me: Where will you sleep?
Hayden:  I will bring my blankets and sleep by the fish at the Equarium.
Me:  Well, the Aquarium is really far away.  How will you get there?
Hayden:  I'm taking the GPS.
So apparently, he's thought it all out.  I'm glad to report that he hasn't actually left yet.  Because we would sure miss him!!!

During a family prayer that Daphne had been asked to say, Hayden decided to say his own on top of hers.  Sean leaned over and whispered loudly, "Hayden!  Stop doing that.  It's too crazy for God!"

A rather morbid conversation as we loading the car after a field trip to the Aquarium:
Me:  Please shut that door Daphne.
Jemma:  Why do we need the door shut?
Me:  Because if we were driving with the door open, someone might fall out and die.
Jemma:  Oh.  Then we would be on the news.
Hayden:  What's the news?
Jemma:  The news is where they tell you all the bad stuff that happens.
Daphne: And sometimes they have good stuff too.
Jemma: Well, if I fell out of the car, they would put me on the news and say, "A little girl fell out of the car while it was driving and got runned over because the door was open."  And my parents would see it on the news and be so sad.

Hayden:  I'm not thcared of anything.  Exthept for chickenth.

Hayden:  The only food I like is rootbeer and cheetos and bacon.

Sean:  I'm sorry, Hayden.

Hayden:  Oh.  I already told on you.

(because obviously the only reason to say sorry is to avoid getting told on.)

A conversation at church:
Hayden: So the bread is for Jesus' body?
Dad: Yes
Hayden: And the water ith for Hith blood?
Dad: Yes, that's right.
Hayden:  Ith there blood in the water?
Mom:  No, the water just helps us remember His blood.
Hayden: (pauses to think...) Well, what about Hith bones?