Dad and Tan's Road Trip To Vegas

My brother, Tyler, and I try to do a boys' road trip to a BYU game every year. We were going to try to make it down to San Diego, but decided to go to Las Vegas instead for the BYU-UNLV game. I brought Tanner and Tyler brought his two boys Noah and Xander. I'm hoping that Zach will be ready to go next year.

We went down early Friday morning and arrived at about 1 pm local time and made a visit to In and Out burger. I guess I don't understand the obsession. There are lots of places with better tasting burgers. Must be a taste you have to grow up with.

Next, we went to the Shark Reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It's a great collection of different kinds of sea and water life including a golden crocodile from Thailand, some piranhas from the Amazon and, of course, lots and lots of sharks. The really neat thing is that you can view the sharks from below in a simulated sunken ship. Tanner really enjoyed it and we spent 2 hours there.

After, we journeyed to the Texas Station hotel in North LV. We chose it because of the various kids activities there: arcade, bowling and a theater. Of course, there was a swimming pool which the kids hit on Friday and Saturday.

Tanner got a little sick on Saturday morning so we spent most of the day at the hotel bowling and swimming. He wouldn't let a little sickness keep him out of the action.

Finally, we went to the game. We met up with my sister Heidi and her husband Tyson and my brother-in-law Ryan (at the game with his Dad and Brother.) (Check out the pic.) We ended up being in the nose-bleed section 313. I wouldn't choose those seats again, but the kids had a decent time. The Cougs won, so all was good. It would be really nice if they could avoid having so many turnovers. Drives me crazy! I guess that's what you get with a sophomore QB.

After the game, Tanner and his two cousins got to slap hands with the players as they came off the field. We then jumped down onto the field and Tanner took off like a shot towards Cosmo. You can see the picture we snapped with him here.Anyway, Tanner cried when he got home because he wanted to go back to Vegas, so I guess he enjoyed the trip. He really cherishes those trips with the boys. They really build some great memories.

Babies Don't Keep!...for all mothers

Mother, of Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep!

One of Zach's bus driver's is Miss Diane. She is a sweet lady who has always said positive things when she picks up Zach and had a smile on her face. She always brightens my day. She and her daughter Lizzie, think Zach is the cutest boy and are very nice to him and Lizzie has bought him a couple of little gifts. They also say nice things about my other kids while we get Zach on the bus. The other day she said, "Enjoy this time. You will look back on this time, and it will be the best time of your life(while my children are babies)." She said she would go back and do it again in a heartbeat. Just when I thought the day was hard, I decided to stop and smell the roses! Life is short. :)

Mini trip to Idaho

Tanner, Gavin and Mom took a little trip to Idaho with Munga (our Grandma). The most eventful part for Tanner was his experience at the hotel swimming pool. There were some 8th and 9th graders that came on buses on their way home from their trip to Yellowstone and unloaded to stay at the hotel. The first thing they did was get in the pool was packed. When Tanner got in, one of their teachers had whistled to the students to watch out for him and make room for him. Before too long, some of the students asked if he wanted to play volleyball with them and he did. So they served him the ball, and he hit it quite well which I think surprised them. They played for a long time until the students had to go to their hotel rooms. They took pictures of him and the next morning one of the teacher's saw us in the hall and said they were leaving but the kids had been looking for Tanner wanting to play again! It was so cute. We visited Aunt Janet and Uncle Karl and had lunch at their place. It was snowing and really cold! Their had a fire on their property that almost burned their whole place down. The Idaho Falls temple was really beautiful despite all the cold weather and rain. We also visited Aberdeen where my Mom grew up(until she was 17). The best part was seeing her little feet and initials in the cement again. Her Daddy did that when she was a baby when he made the step. She lived at the telephone office(where she is standing) until she was about 12, then moved to the farm until she was about 16, then back into town for a year until they moved to Salt Lake, which broke her little teenage heart. She had a wonderful, memorable childhood and the stories are so fun to hear.