Ben 10

Since September 16, 2010 Ben has been coming to me with various suggestions for presents for his next birthday.  He definitely looks forward to his birthday more than his brothers. We talk about it a lot! Here he is on his birthday morning wearing the amazing balloon hat Matt made. (Add ballooning to Matt's ever growing list of skills).

Because Ben spends the entire year after his birthday deciding what he wants for the next birthday the gift requests change a lot. He wanted a bike, a 3DS, an iPad knock off, a camera and a million other things. One week before his big day, I made him commit to a final decision.  So when he unwrapped all of his presents and that item wasn't there he was a little confused. I have to give the kid credit, he was very diplomatic and he didn't cry. Instead he asked this question, "Which present was from you and Dad?" The answer: the Dove chocolates. He does like chocolate.

Being the tricky person I am, I hid the item in the bag of chocolates. He didn't discover it until Matt asked him for a piece.

At his request we ate at Graziano's pizza for dinner. It's a step up from Chuckie Cheese, I guess. It's less crowded anyway. We thought it was pretty awesome that Ben won this many tickets.

Then Matt hit an amazing shot on some game of skill (the guy has skills) and won over 500 tickets! A family record. 

The absolute worst part about places like this is picking the prizes. 

The second worst part about places like that is finding somewhere to put the lame prizes they pick. 

While Logan was here, Ben discovered the Hershey's chocolate cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. He had his heart set (his words) on having that cheesecake for his birthday.  The Cheesecake Factory wants $52 for an entire Hershey's cheesecake--for that price I was prepared to break his heart. He is my kid though and thought that was crazy expensive and settled for a Cold Stone cake instead. Rough life... anyway we are happy we've had Ben for a decade. He's a great kid. Oh and he's thinking about asking for a Razor scooter next year.

7, 4, 2

This summer seemed extra short but it is time to get back to learning. 

Back for More

We tried to have some fun when Logan came to visit. Unfortunately for him, and especially unfortunate for Matt, his visit coincided with Matt's battle with a big kidney stone.  He also got to join us for an exciting Cub Scout pack meeting where Ben earned his Bear badge.

 Life in Vegas is pretty normal and, if you ask my kids, often boring. But we did take Logan downtown to check out a few more sights we missed when he came last year.

We have had several unsuccessful attempts at seeing Gold and Silver Pawn. This time proved lucky. This is Zack in front of Old Man's car. Zack had his camera and took 50 pictures of items for sale at the pawn shop.

This is as close to the stars of the show as we got. No need to go the shop though, I saw Big Hoss at the gym once. (Had to throw that in.)

We also took the kids to the Fremont Experience . It's the street Bono is walking down in the I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For video.  They have a cool ceiling light show. Last time it was Queen, this time it wasn't.  As with all things Vegas, it's neat and also sketchy. We learned that last year with Scott and Lacey. We went early enough in the evening to avoid most of the dancers and questionable characters. Zack photographed a few things like this Delorean.

And R2D2. He also accidentally took a picture of someone wearing pants with strategically placed holes where the pockets should be. We deleted that one.

There are plenty of entertainment options in Vegas and we have seen several shows but no magic shows. We decided to check out the Mac King show.  Except for the odd seating, the show was really great.

We loved hanging out with Logan again. Next time, we look forward to hanging out with Logan & Whitney.  

Springs Preserve

While Noah was away, I took the other two boys plus a friend each to the Springs Preserve. It was the last day we could go and see the "Venom" show and I thought Zack would like seeing the snakes. The show was probably the least fun part of the day because the snakes were not nearly as big or dangerous as he expected.

I thought the tree exhibit was adorable. There was a tree house, nest, and a giant acorn to play in. The kids didn't really take the time to learn about trees because they found another group of boys to play tag with and some girls to tease. Boys! 

This is also fun to do.

The favorite attraction of all was the flash flood exhibit. There is a movie about the dangers of flash floods in the desert. See how scared it has the kids. Please, please don't let it start to rain. The comes the thunder and flashes of lightning.

All of a sudden the water comes rushing down. It is very exciting. We watched it three times. 

Zack and Leo liked taunting these guys

and romancing this little lady. Boys!

The kids wanted to play tag at the playground but it was too hot. It's a cool playground though.

The Reluctant Scout

We spent most of the night before Noah left for scout camp convincing him to go. He really, really, really didn't want to leave. It was definitely flattering but he was all packed and there was no way we were letting him get out of it. So at 6:00 in the morning we left him, in full Class A uniform, at the church and he embarked on a 9 hour drive to Camp Chawanakee near Fresno. Doesn't that sound like fun? Who wouldn't want to go.

I am told it took him a day or so to get into the groove of it, but then he started to have fun. I am guessing anyway because he has yet to give me very many details. This much I know:

• The food was disgusting! They served watered down red Kool-aid from giant garbage cans. 
• Although there were no video games, some kid had an actual Ocarina (as in Zelda and the Ocarina of Time). It was "sick nasty" and he got free soda if he played it at the scout store.
• Noah wouldn't get up for the polar bear swim, because why would you get up in the cold just to get colder? 
• Our ward scout leaders are awesome and included spiritual lessons each day. And they brought in the best pizza ever one night.
• Stopping at In and Out on the way there was yummy. Stopping at Panda Express on the way back is not. 
• It was fun to sleep out under the stars. It was not fun to be wake up at 3am to see the Big Dipper.

I have a new appreciation for parents sending kids off to camp. It was way harder than I thought. I was worried about the little guy. Especially after one of the mom's mentioned (at the drop off) how many boys die at scout camps. She did clarify that it was usually in Utah, but still...  Here are some pictures the leaders sent. 

The boys upon arrival to camp: 

 Canoeing across Shaver Lake en route to an overnight destination.

Fun around a campfire. Seeing a smile on Noah's face was a real relief for me!

Noah back home, safe & sound & stinky!

Good things come to those who wait

When Matt & I first started dating 15 years ago, I bought him Weezer tickets for his birthday. I planned to go with him but for some reason I couldn't. Then they canceled the show.

Matt did get to see them in January but I couldn't go. The stars finally aligned and we saw them poolside at the Red Rock Casino just down the road from our house. It was about time!

David saved us this great spot.

Any rock star who wears a fake tattoo sleeve is OK by me. They put on a great show including singing a cover of "Pumped Up Kicks."  He said he was hoping to see people "frolicking in the pool" but the pool was closed. So at the end of the show he jumped in.

I wasn't sure what to expect as this was my first concert at a pool and thankfully there weren't a lot (I didn't see any) people in swimwear, except for the drink ladies/lifeguards in tiny bikinis. How awkward! I am pretty sure that a concert is the absolute last place you'd want to be in a bikini or be standing next to someone rocking it out wearing a bikini. Then again, I've never been to a warm place for spring break where I think that is actually pretty common. At any rate, people were fully clothed, Weezer sounded fantastic and they played most of my favorite songs. But most importantly,  I got to make good on a 15 year old gift to my personal rock star.

Jump Around, Jump Around, Jump Up, Jump Up...

My dear Noah is twelve and he is starting to get cool. Too cool for things that used to awesome. Mostly too cool for things his brothers want to do. So I was a little surprised that he was obsessing about finding a place like Jumping Jacks in Vegas.  He found this place (BounceU) all the way over in Henderson. Why not drive clear across the town?  It was impressive. The kids were so excited they didn't know where to start. I didn't have a camera with me except for my phone so these are the best of the bad pictures. Most of them turned out really fuzzy. 

This is a good idea. Zack loved it. The air keeps the ball up and then you try to hit it into the targets. Design flaw for the super competitive though, the foul zone was way too big. Zack had to walk away a few times because he was getting so frustrated by only hitting foul balls.

Giant boxing gloves. Nothing more to say.

Fun times! I have to give it up to Bounce U for having lots of quality bouncy things that are cool enough for the twelve year old.