So You Think ELLEN Can Dance

This was a great way to kick off the new Ellen season. I think she is great and I think she did an awesome job... Love SYTYCD, love Tabitha and Napoleon who choreographed the dance and love Ellen!

Labor Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Mike and Holly arrived late Friday night but that didn't stop us from waking up early Saturday morning and heading to the lake. We were at water's edge by 7:30am. It was a great day and the water and weather were very cooperative (much better than last time we took them out!).

We did have one strange experience though... We found a dog swimming out in the middle of the lake. We rescued him and took him back to the pier. It was crazy to see this dog just swimming, and swimming. We called it in but he did have tags so that was a good sign! Crazy thing to find in the middle of the lake though.

Relaxing the day away was niiiice!

Mike and Holly getting a few trips out on the skiis.

After cleaning up from time at the lake we went for a little bit of shopping and then some dinner at PF Changs. Then it was out to the big show. We were able to get tickets to take the parents to see Barry Manilow and they were very excited.

Us with our Manilow glow sticks... helps make the show more exciting I guess!

They enjoyed the show and that was the point.

Sunday we were able to relax a little bit. Went to church where I received a new calling. I am not officially in YW and am the Secretary. I am excited to work with the girls again. I enjoyed them so much at Camp and can't wait to see their smiling faces every week. After church we hung out at home and then had a BBQ with both sets of parents. What a great way to end a fun weekend. It was sad to see them have to leave on Monday but all good things have to come to an end I guess and we all had to return to real life... no fun!

B-Ball

We decided to celebrate the last days of summer and the last game of the Las Vegas 51s season with a night out at the ballpark. It was a fun night and we had a good time... even better that the 51s actually won!

It was Brian, Cindy, Dan and Aranne.... Go 51s!

Weekend Wrap-Up... Calling all Race Fans

We had another kind of relaxing weekend... Sort of strange for us, but we are not complaining.

Friday night Dan and his fellow Elder's Quorum buddies were in charge of a Ward Party... They choose to have a pinewood derby throw-down! It turned out to be a lot of fun and brought out tons of people. There was a lot of fun and there were races going all evening long. Good times!

Saturday we actually just relaxed in the morning and then hung out with some friends in the evening. Dan did some boxing and I did some scrapbooking. A pretty perfect afternoon, and then we all went out for dinner.

Sunday was Stake Conference and we headed over to mom and dad's for some BBQ to top it off!

Picture Perfect Weekend

We had a great weekend... We started off with a concert poolside at the Hard Rock on Friday night. We headed out and were able to join some friends and just relaxed and listened to some music. I will have to admit the best part was people watching. Concerts, pools, music, and alcohol sometimes bring out some crazy people... and it makes the best kind of people watching. Too FUN!

Saturday morning we headed to Lake Las Vegas for a fun photo shoot. Now... we have not had pictures taken for a LONG time. You just don't take pictures that often when it is just the two of you. A friend and fellow FSA member is building her business (Marissa d photography) and offered to take some pictures for us. It was really fun and we were able to get some cute pictures.


She is still working on the rest of the editing and such (she has her work cut out to help us look fabulous) but I am excited to have some updated pictures finally!

BUTTON?!

So... while we were at the adoption convention and the week to follow I have made a new friend... an amazingly talented new friend who out of the kindness of her heart decided that she wanted to help us on our journey of adoption. She created this new "button" for us to use on our blog and for any of our friends to use as well.

I know I have already called in a huge favor before and asked anyone out there to please post about us or to put a little "snippet" about us on their sidebar but I am here again.... If you would be so kind and just "grab our button" and stick it on your blog that would be awesome! We really are trying to do all that we can to get our name out there and try to reach as many people as possible in hopes of finding our birthmom.

So... go on.... get grabbing!

Thanks for all of your support and thanks to Meka for this great button!

National Adoption Conference

Once again this year we packed up the car and headed out to Utah to learn all we could from those who know at the Families Supporting Adoption National Conference... and let me just say... we were not disappointed. It was a great conference. There is always something that we take away from it, something that we learn, something that hits us, something that we take back to our local chapter.... something!

This year was great because we were able to be there with a few other couples from the Las Vegas chapter and we didn't have to feel like we didn't know anyone. It was awesome.

The only scary part of the whole weekend is that while we were there Brad, our caseworker, asked us to join him for lunch and a little weekend with the other co-chairs from the SW region and the next thing you know we are on the Regional Board and signed up as the outreach chairs! What? I don't know how these things happen but I just hope we do a good job and don't let people down. We thought it would get us out of our current situation as chairs in Las Vegas, but no such luck! We are doing double duty now!!!

One of the highlights of the conference every year is the keynote speaker on Saturday morning and this year was no different. This year we were able to hear from Troy Dunn who is a member of the church, a current bishop, father of a son currently serving in Moscow, Russia on a mission, and well-known from his television show "The Locator" where he reunites many families (some of them adoptees). He talked to us about many situations he has seen but his best story was the one of his own families. He has a younger brother who is adopted and the thing he remembers about it is his mother telling him that they had to pray and someone else would be praying as well. Heavenly Father would then find the right person and they would be able to "trade prayers" and the adoption would be able to take place. I thought that was a great way to explain adoption to little ones, but it also made it seem so simple as well.

I hope that one day we will be able to find the right person to "trade our prayer" with!

Girls Camp Wrap-up

Palo Verde / Alta Vista Girls Camp 2009!!!

From packing and preparing... to setting up camp....

To learning our devotionals and cooking our meals....

To enjoying ourselves with a little partying in the night....

and a little singing in the day.... along with some hiking, shooting, ice cream making, fabric braiding, archery, zip lining....

and a day of fun in the sun and canoeing....

It was a great week with the girls and the leaders! We had a blast and made a lot of great memories that will last forever. Hope the girls had as much fun as I did.... It was a lot of work don't get me wrong but it was totally worth it and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Holiday Weekend Wrap-up

So we were off for another adventure for the 4th of July weekend... We were headed to California to enjoy Disneyland, the Queen Mary and Hollywood, and who else would be going except the 5 of us... Brian, Cindy, Dan, Daniel and myself!

Our first stop was Disneyland on Friday. We opened the park and had a great day. We expected a ton of people but didn't fair too bad with the crowds. We were able to go to both Disneyland and California Adventure. We did all of the rides and stayed until about 11:00 so it was a full day for sure.





Our next destination was down in Long Beach to hang out for the day and do some shopping, have some dinner, enjoy the great weather and hold down the fort and people watch while we waited for the fireworks show.

The show was good... not the best I've ever seen, especially since we had just been at Disneyland the day before and they have amazing fireworks, but they were good and the atmosphere was fun too.


Our final stopping point was a quite look through Hollywood. We had to take a short walk down the walk of stars, check out the Kodak Theatre, put our hands in the hands of the stars and just look at the crazies on Hollywood Blvd. We were lucky enough to find John Travolta and anyone that knows me knows that I was in heaven!




It was another great weekend and great time away! Now we are back to reality and back to work..... Can't wait for our next adventure... Wonder where it will be, and most importantly WHEN?!

Take a hike

This is a post that really should be written by Dan but that is not going to happen... so, I will do my best and just give you a re-cap on the main event.

Dan and Brian have been talking about and planning this trip to hike the Grand Canyon for months and the day had finally arrived. They were both like little kids. They both had gotten new backpacks for the trip. Dan got a new Ipod (father's day). They were set.

They left Vegas at midnight on Wednesday night and drove all the way to the Grand Canyon and then started down the trail as the sun was rising. They spent the next few days exploring the village and doing a few smaller day hikes up to the falls and the nearby area. Overall they said they accomplished about 30+ miles in the four days they were gone....

They had a great time and besides Brian coming home with terrible blisters (Dan didn't fair too bad).. they loved the adventure and are planning their next trip!

Weekend Wrap-up: Family, FSA and Fireworks

We had another great visit from Dan's sister Amy, her husband Steve and their little boy Preston. It was a busy weekend but filled with laughs and great memories as always.... We took a trip out to the lake, enjoyed some down time at home playing games, went swimming and had a BBQ at my parents house, took in a baseball game with our FSA group, watched an awesome firework show, went to church and just had a great time with each other.

The girls on the jet ski... It was a "little" windy but that just made for fun waves!

Uncle Dan having fun with Preston and him loving every minute of it. Notice the glasses had to be removed first!!!
Great family photo at the baseball game. Preston actually liked the fireworks once he could see what was going on.

Great firework show to top off the night and a wonderful weekend.

Make it a FROSTY weekend

I am going to be having a busy weekend with family in town and an event for FSA (families supporting adoption) but we are going to find time for a FROSTY that is for sure! Hope you can too.

Grab your family and friends and head out to Wendy's for a Frosty this weekend... In honor of adoption Wendy's is donating 50 cents for every Frosty they sell this weekend. Celebrate the start of summer, Father's Day and this HOT weather we are having by enjoying a FROSTY!