Ben's 9th Birthday

This is Ben on the morning of his birthday, a day he has been anticipating and talking about for months.

Zack and Ben had plans for a video game themed birthday cake. I was given a sketch and some instructions about how to make a PlayStation 2 controller and other really "easy" components for the cake.  Preferring something truly easy, I offered up a yellow circle with a triangle cut out Pac Man cake and was shot down.  Instead, they suggested the 3-D version of Pac-Man in cake form. Clearly they have no knowledge of my cake skills.  Then this idea hit me, I found an example online, shaped a few Starbursts and viola:

We alternate friend and family parties for the kids. Before we moved, and I was trying to sweeten the deal, I reminded Ben that this year was a family party year, which is typically just the five of us. His eyes brightened and he excitedly said, "so Max can come!"  I like to think that maybe Max was here, with the cousins, while they were busy making pizzas and being silly. 

Papa & Nana were also in town for his birthday. Nana painted this picture of Ben playing basketball. She got all the details like his jersey number and the colors of his favorite shorts.

A few of things about Ben:

• He has a great memory for trivia, especially tv characters and actor's names. We like to test him and can rarely stump him. The kid knew the name of the producer of Big Time Rush. 
• He likes to talk in accents and does a decent British one.
• His new favorite movie is Prince of Persia & cartoon is Avatar: the Last Airbender. He loves the Percy Jackson and Magic Thief books.
• He still doesn't eat any fruits or veggies, but has developed a love for hot sauce.
• He likes his hair long and Bieberish.
• He listens the best to scriptures and books I read at night. He remembers the most too.

Labor Day

It was kinda weird to go back to Utah for Labor Day. We had some work to do on our house and figured it would be fun to see our friends. A major change for the boys in Vegas is not having kids their ages in the neighborhood to play with. While Matt & I worked on the house , they lived it up with their friends.  I don't know if Noah partied to hearty or what, but he got sick. It hit him while we were swimming at the hotel pool. Thank goodness for metal garbage cans by elevators because he wasn't going to make it to a toilet. Gross, but better there than on the floor or worse, in the elevator!

I was worried that we were going to spend the next few days in a everyone is throwing up sick cycle.  But all Noah needed was a good night sleep. We went to our old ward on Sunday and had planned to go to AF Canyon for a picnic that afternoon. Instead of fighting the Labor Day crowds we went to the park. I miss my neighbors & friends, but not the wind.

 

 

This is Lance leading the kids in a Haka. He was the only one who knew what he was doing. 

I asked Matt to take a picture of the WWW ladies and this is what I ended up with. I am the least photogenic person I know, so I needed him to bring his A (or even B+) game. Get our attention, for crying out loud! We would have said cheese. Seriously.

 

The only thing Matt wanted to do in Utah (besides hang a shelf, fix toilets and hang plastic on a ceiling) was get pizza at the Pie. I should have punished him for his horrible photography attempt, but I like the Pie too. We met up with Ken & Ian and took the kids' for their first time at the downtown basement location.

It wasn't that late, but Zack was so wasted he fell asleep. The lighting is dim, but the music was so loud I don't know how he did it.

It hasn't been that long since we moved so I was surprised by how much I felt like a visitor in Utah and how much Vegas feels like home.

School

 

It was definitely a different start to school this year.  The kids get to ride buses. I thought it would be fantasic, but it turns out that figuring out how to ride a school bus in Las Vegas is almost rocket science.

Noah refused my offer to wait with him at the bus stop. I am guessing that waiting with your Mom who is wearing no make up and sweaty tennis clothes isn't considered cool in middle school. We compromised on me watching from a distance. Which was a good thing because the bus never came. In fact, Noah's bus didn't come for pick up for the first two days.  So he didn't know which bus to take home or where even to go to get on the bus. There are lots of buses going to the middle school and instead of using the actual bus numbers for identification, the buses have a seven digit number taped to the window.  Seven numbers on a window? Thanks for making things easy Clark County School District.

Zack and Ben caught it fine going to school but missed the bus going home. There is only one bus that goes to their school, so I'm not sure how that happened.  The best part was that while I was playing the role of the responsible mom who was waiting for her children at the bus stop, the boys were waiting for me at the school office. That's why I didn't answer the phone when the secretary called the house to inform me of the whereabouts of my kids. I also don't play the role of responsible mom very well because I didn't take my cell phone. So I missed the call to that number too. By the time the bus came (way later than expected) and I discovered that my boys weren't on it, the secretary had already spoken to Matt who was VERY UNHAPPILY on his way to pick them up. I am a slow learner because so far this year it's happened two more times. And for various reasons-all of them lame-I have missed the call from the office. I think I'm getting a reputation.  Brother. It was much nicer when they walked!

But otherwise, the boys are doing fine at school. Zacky has a pretty teacher with long, blond, curly hair. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he first met her. He'll be just fine this year. We are getting used to all the boys having lots of homework, but overall it's good. Especially now that we may have finally figured out the buses.

Shark Reef

We celebrated Shark Reef's 10th anniversary by going for 1/2 price. We also got free cookies and a visit by "Sharky." Nice.

 Did I mention party hats?

 Shark Reef is not limited to Sharks. There are stingrays

 and jelly fish

 and whatever this is.

 At the end is a ship wreck with a cool tunnel which gives awesome fish viewing. 

Sea creatures are funky but fun.

Saturday Mornings

One way we like to torture our kids is to wake them up early (8:00) on a Saturday morning and make them hike. Oh how they complain! The car ride is generally a nightmare filled with whining and fighting but fortunately it's short. I love that we live so close to Red Rock Canyon. It's a great place.

See the profile in the rocks?

Zack and I took it slow on the downhill. He thought this hike was incorrectly ranked as easy.

Hikes with cousins don't register as many complains. This was called the Children's Discovery hike.

Once they get over the initial injustice of it all, the boys actually enjoy themselves. And that is why Matt & I torture ourselves by getting them up early on Saturday mornings. 

Keeping Cool

I am so far behind it's making me anxious, so I am going to be quick. Vegas is hot in the summer. That's a fact. Lucky for us, we found some good ways to cool down. How about a rooftop pool?  I don't know if you can see it, but we are near Gold and Silver Pawn (aka Pawn Stars!!).  Noah is obsessed with the show--it is over taking our DVR. But don't try to go check it out on a Saturday, the lines are huge.

The "splishy splashy water park" is just a short walk up the hill from our house. But to avoid heat stroke, we drive. 

This is a total boy thing to do.

But our favorite way to beat the heat is to hit the pool with the cousins. Being close to our family is definitely the best thing about being in Vegas.