what happened in vegas

for matt's spring break we went to las vegas! luckily, katie spring break was the same week so she got to come too! and then one of our sai sisters is a teacher in matt's district (katie) and she came along also. in case you didn't know, my parents lived in vegas from the beginning of january until today. today they are moving back to the east coast- yay!! anyway, we are super glad we got to out west for a week. it was matt's first time out there and he loved it. but i will just talk about what we did the few days we were actually in las vegas. i do not have as many pictures as i would have liked because my camera died and i didn't find the battery charger until i was packing to leave but here are plenty to tell my story fairly thoroughly.

1. we hung out at my parents apartment. my mom took evan on lots of walks with annye, which evan loved. she would say, lets walk annye, and while she was putting him in the stroller he would say "ah" "ah". we swear he was saying annye. they had bought him everything he needed (which was amazing because we only had to pack clothes and bottles), including toys, so he played with all of those, and he loved to hang out with the katies and play on their ipads. that's pretty much when we did when we were there, which wasn't a lot cause we were out and about!

 matt and evan playing with some of his toys

the katies letting evan play with their ipads

2. we visited the strip. we went into the venetian, palazzo, bellagio, mirage, caesars palace, and saw the AWFUL show at treasure island (if you've seen it in the past, it's changed and it's absolutely horrible- not worth the time). we saw the fountains at the bellagio, which was worth the time. it was awesome! we went to the mall, where matt bought some new shoes and we ate at johnny rockets. we didn't gamble on the strip, we just enjoyed the sights and the beautiful hotels.

 my dad and evan waiting on the treasure island show

 my family inside the palazzo

new york, new york- the place my parents moved from!

3. we went to the las vegas natural history museum. it is next to the mormon fort, which is where we really wanted to go, but (and we should have expected this) it's closed on mondays! but the museum was great. evan LOVED it! he loved seeing all the animals (all stuffed but he didn't care, he got to get really close to them that way), he loved seeing the fish (those were alive), he loved the egyptian exhibit and the dinosaur exhibit, he loved it all.

 evan and matt checking out an exhibit in the fish room

the only animal you were allowed to touch. evan liked that!

4. we went to the ethel m's chocolate factory and cactus gardens. we walked around the garden for a while, because the weather was just perfect, and got to see all sorts of neat species of cacti. we all just wanted to see a cactus like you see in cartoons, but that didn't happen until we were leaving and driving into the las vegas airport. unfortunately, we missed the chocolate being made, but we still got a free sample and of course, free smells.

our family at the cactus garden

5. we went and saw redrock. we didn't get to drive through the whole thing, because they only took cash and we had none, so we just took pictures from the distance. it was amazing though. and it was our first real sights of the mountains (it was the 1st day we were there). we couldn't stop talking about how truly enormous the mountains are in the west. it's a real testament of a creator if you ask me.

6. we went to the las vegas temple. that was a great way to spend part of our vacation! the katies kept evan so matt, my parents, and i could all go. it was probably the biggest temple i've ever been in (atl and orlando are big too), and it was beautiful, of course, and another testament to me that the gospel is true everywhere! i love being a member of a worldwide church.

7. we did the touristy stuff. we ate at a buffet (although i have no photographic evidence), we put $3 into slot machines, and we took our picture at the las vegas sign. we had an awesome time in vegas. we wish we could have spent more time there, but all our additional travels were worth it (to california and arizona, more on those later).

the help

i have been keeping up with my new years resolution to read a book every month, i just haven't written about them since january because i have been reading books in the chronicles of narnia and i wanted to wait until i finished the entire series to write about them. but, while i was in vegas, i decided to pick up my mom's copy of "the help". i started it on a tuesday and finished it the next tuesday, i just couldn't put it down! if you haven't read it (and most of you probably have already) DO IT! i wouldn't let myself see the movie until i finished the book so last night, matt and i watched it. although not nearly as good as the book, it was a good movie and if you haven't seen it or read the book, the least you can do is go to redbox and rent the movie.

now for some thoughts on the book. the first thing that really hit me about it is how recent this history really is. my dad didn't go to an integrated school until 8th grade, and he said it wasn't pretty and he lived in south florida! my grandparents never went to integrated schools. my grandmother always had a maid, and they were very poor, but everyone had a maid then. my grandmother loved her maids, the ones she grew up with and the ones she had in her own home, and she has told me a story of loosing a friend because her friend came in and saw my grandmother and her maid eating lunch together at the same table, because my grandmother didn't care. this was in alabama, which must have been such a crazy place to live during all of the civil rights movement. but thinking of how recent this is helps you to understand why there are still such strong racial tensions among so many people and communities. i figure it this way; if it takes 4 years of a new band director for there to be a real real change in the program, it will probably take at least the same for there to be a real change in race relations, except that's generations. so that would make my parents gen1, us gen2, evan gen3, and his children gen4. hopefully my grandchildren will be the true color blind generation and it won't take any longer than that.

the second thing that i saw in this book was the theme of love. that i saw even more clearly through the movie, probably because you felt the emotions so fast, since the movie is so much shorter than the book. the whole book deals with inconvenient and painful love. first there is the love that the maids have for the children they care for. they love them like their own children and yet, sadly for them, someday, they must say goodbye to them, probably forever. i wonder how many children, then and now, are raised by someone other than their parents who love them so much and who they never thank or tell them they love them in return. it's not their fault, their children, but it doesn't make it any easier on the person caring for them. then their is the love for a family member who doesn't treat you right and the love for a family member who has passed. both of those are loved i am not familiar with and hope never to be. but i can only imagine the pain because i know how much i love to be with my family and friends and cannot imagine my life without them. also the conflict of the white women who want to love their help, but it simply is not acceptable. i think of skeeter's mom, and how sad that story is when she fires constantine. what a confused woman she was.

these are my "brief" thoughts. i could go on and on and would love to with anyone who wants to talk about the book. go read it. you will feel accomplished because it is long and happy because it is good.

8 months

better late than never right? i would have had this up much earlier, if i had been home and able to take the pictures. i brought his 8month onesie with us to las vegas but matt said to wait until i could take the pez pictures too, so i listened to him and now, finally, i can share my 8 month old baby with you all!

so evan is so big now! i don't know exactly how big, since he doesn't have another drs apt until next month, but he's big. he's still awesome! and adorable. he still is not crawling but he gets closer and closer every day. he now goes from sitting to the crawling position on his own. he rocks and rocks but, still no motion. he is eating even more food- yogurt and cereal for breakfast, veggies with meat and a fruit for lunch, veggies and a fruit for dinner, and 3-4 6oz bottles a day. he also now uses a sippy cup. sometimes we just put water in it, sometimes dilluted juice, but he loves it. next month, there will be more specific updates. just know that he is still the best thing ever.

yard sale

today and yesterday i had a yard sale. it was at my parents house and it was mine and matt's stuff, my parents' stuff, and my grandparents' stuff. in other words, it was a lot of stuff! it was all stuff we we planning to give to goodwill but it just kept accumulating until we decided, let's just have a yard sale.

so we spent all week gathering and sorting and pricing and finally, yesterday at 6am, we started setting up. my parents, who are seasoned yard salers themselves, were interested to see how good the yard sale community was here in seneca. would anyone show up? were there any "early birds"? did they come knowing what a good price was? well, we quickly found out because by 6:45 we had our first customers and by 7am we had made our first sale! we spent until about 3pm yesterday selling and from 6:30-1 today. we made some great deals with some people and despite the occasional bits of rain today, we still had a good time with lots of customers.

so what did all of this earn us? just shy of $650!! so would i say it was worth the effort, absolutely!

the price is right!

i'm still in vegas on vacation, which is awesome. but i decided to go ahead and share one experience we had on the trip- our trip to the price is right!

we made the trip to california on tuesday and did other things, i will write about that later. for now, i will focus solely on our awesome experience at cbs studios on wednesday, april 4.

we got to the studio at 10am to stand in line. yes, we had a ticket, but that is only a ticket to stand in line, it does not guarantee you will make into the studio so you have the be there early. finally at noon, as stated on our ticket, they began letting people in. we were plenty safe, we were numbers 148-151 our of 326, but if we had been there even half an hour later, i'm not sure if we would have made it in.

so we get into the gates, still no where near to getting into the building. we had to fill out some paper work and sit on benches, for a long time. so long that we went and got hot dogs and chips and drinks to eat from the concession stand. then they took our picture! (excuse the poor quality, it's a picture of a picture with my friend's phone)

then we went around the corner to sit on another set of long benches. by this point it's probably around 1:15. we sat on these benches until about 2:30 when we were interviewed by the casting director. they interview everyone in attendance in groups of about 15. they asked each of us to tell them our name and what we did for a living. the guy interviewing was so nice and friendly and excited- i don't know how he does that for over 600 people a day! katie (my sister) had the best interview for sure, he kept coming back to her, so we thought she surely had the best chance of getting on.

after our interview, which the whole thing lasted probably 5 minutes or so, we went and sat on another set of long benches! here they at least had tv's with an episode of the price is right playing. at this point, we felt like we had been there for a very long time, and we had! but it was fun to people watch if nothing else. there were plenty of weirdos there. a lady in a poodle skirt with sequin sketchers on, lots of obnoxious groups in matching t-shirts, hippies, oldies, preps- you name it, everyone was there! finally, at about 3:45, we were let into the studio.

it was amazing! everything is SO much smaller than you think it is, especially the audience. we were in the second to last row, directly in front of the dj and we were only 9 or 10 rows back. once everyone was seated, george, the mc, came out and gave us the rules/tips. it was awesome! he was so funny and everyone was so excited. they told us that you won't hear your name called because it's so loud so they have these big notecards with the next contestants name on it up on the stage that this crazy guy who tells you how to react shows you. then the models came out- seriously they are 10x more gorgeous in person, it's ridiculous how beautiful they are. finally, when everything was set, drew came out! they had the first 4 contestants down there and we were off. that began at about 4.

the show was a blast to watch. none of us were chosen, but the first guy up there, kevin, locked onto us for some reason and we were the ones who helped him with "pay the rent", which EVERYONE thought he had won, and then he didn't! drew wouldn't leave him alone about it during the break, which was funny. actually, no one won a single game during our show, which was such a bummer! but kevin did win the showcase in the end, which made us super happy.

the in between entertainment made all the waiting well worth it. drew, george, and kevin lip-synced/ danced to a song (which i don't know the name of), they told funny stories, talked to people in the audience- it was truly great entertainment.

we finished with the taping around 5:30 and were eating dinner by 6, which means we were there for nearly 8 hours! but it was honestly worth every minute. i would do it again in a heartbeat! if you are ever in la and have a day to dedicate to the price ir right, i highly reccomend doing so. it  is a once in a lifetime opportunity you will not regret!