Vegas Drive By

As we came out of the Valley of Fire (previous post) we were only about thirty minutes away from Las Vegas.  I'm really not a fan of Vegas and don't really care if I ever go there again, but there are neat things to see. Plus Steven had never been to or seen it so we decided to do a drive by, seeing as the freeway goes right past the strip. 

 I would like to see the Blue man group's show :)

I don't think it satisfied much of Steven's curiosity, it might have increased it, but now he can say he's seen it.  We drove by, turned around and drove by again! On a previous trip with some friends I had tried to find the Vegas Temple with no luck. This time we called my mom who gave us directions and we miraculously found it.  So something nice came out of this part of the excursion.  The Temple is so beautiful.  You pass by all the craziness of the city part of Vegas to this oasis of calm and peace.

A young women group let go as bunch a balloons for a photo shoot.

We left as the sun was setting so we didn't quite get to see the bright lights of Vegas at night, but there was a gorgeous sunset

 

Valley of Fire

A couple weeks ago Steven and I decided to go on an adventure and seek out the Valley of Fire.  The VoF is a little state park just across the Nevada border at the north end of Lake Mead.  You kind of travel through barren nothingness until you hit this little explosion of color.  It is mostly a scenic road with hiking and view point turn outs, but there are some pretty neat rock formations. 

These cabins were built in the 1930's for visitors when the park was first opened (that's right, I read and remembered this little piece of trivia)

There were a lot of neat places to climb and explore.  For lunch we stopped at one area called the Seven Sisters, which was seven big rock formations.  That's where we found the divas of the park.

I guess it's more like the scavengers.  First there were just two or three, but as soon as we brought out our lunch, like 15 of them popped up out of nowhere.  They sat on some rocks close to the picnic table or would run around the area.  Many would run almost up to our legs.

 It was kind of funny to be eating and look up and see these things darting behind Steven. It was also slightly creepy, like any moment they would attack!

 Born rock climber right there...

After checking out the visitors center we stopped at a small hike called Mouse's tank.  Mouse was some renegade Indian who would give early pioneers and local tribes a lot of grief.  At the end of this hike are bowls where water gets trapped, about nine feet of water, where he supposedly hid.  All along the way there are petroglyphs, so at the beginning of the trail they have a poster of what some of them mean.

 I really wanted to find this one! Sadly we did not. 

 the tank

 Two nifty rocks and one weirdo..

As we were coming back Steven spotted three big horned sheep up on the mountain

They went down behind the mountain a few minutes later, so we were the only ones to see them! It was really cool.

From the hike, we took the road that led to Rainbow vista.  The landscape looked like it was suddenly dumped on with paint! It looked like strawberry banana taffy.

the sleeping moon.  

 On our way out we saw this guy by the side of the road, like three feet from our car.

Definitely a place we'll come back to!

Christmas!

Steven and I had an amazing Christmas! There were a lot of awesome surprises.  Steven had to work Christmas Eve, but got off a little early and we made it up to Salt Lake in time for his family's Christmas Dinner.  The food was amazing! I didn't have a camera to take pictures, but I know the rest of the family got some great ones.  We had dinner and then Steven's mom told the grandkids all about the gifts that Jesus has given us, they paid pretty good attention.  Then they got to open presents from the grandparents.  The girls got American girl dolls and their reactions were priceless! There was a lot of screaming and jumping for joy.  They also got pj's for themselves, and matching ones for their dolls.  Steven's sister Sarah was quite pregnant and hoping to postpone having the baby until after Christmas, but Christmas Eve seemed a bit difficult for that, and sure enough Korver John Donaldson came early Christmas morning! We got to visit them the next day.

He was sleeping the whole time we were holding him, then mommy woke him up to eat and he didn't seem too happy! He is so cute! We're happy he came while we were in town and got to meet him.

We spent Christmas Eve night at my parents and slept in the basement while watching a Charlie Brown Christmas with Wesley. Christmas Morning! 

Parker, Beth, and Debbie in her footie pajamas :) We enjoyed opening presents with my family! Steven and I were both surprised by our gifts.  I went in with my mom to get Steven a new Ipod, and he went in with my mom to get me a new Camera! So now I will have real pictures to post instead of just ones from my phone :) I also got a sewing machine which I am excited to start using!

This is the Ireland hat I made for Steven, which he really seemed to like :) not too bad for the first hat I've ever made.

Steven put together some pictures of Christ with a new-found scripture that I love in a nice frame.  I love it and it's now hanging in our front room.

Debbie and Cloie playing with her new dollhouse

We had a great breakfast, my mom made my favorite quiche, and after getting spoiled at my parents, we went to Steven's parents for more surprises! Annie had made some very yummy cinnamon and orange rolls so we enjoyed more food and waited until it was time for Danny to call from Finland!  He sounded really great and seems like he is really loving his mission.

 Adorable Miles

 Caroline making the call

Excited family crowded around talking to Danny :)
After the call to Danny everyone opened their gifts from each other and from Steven's parents.  

 Ryan, Laura, and Hadley

The fam

Hadley and Piper with their dolls

Annie and Miles (Annie really liked the perfect strangers t-shirt:)

Hadley and Poppa

DeAnne framed a bunch of Steven's photos in really nice frames and gave them as gifts, I love that picture in the green frame.  

Steven got a remote control helicopter from Chip and Haegen could not wait for the "Hopcopper" to fly. He was mesmerized, it was so cute.  Then the biggest surprise of all came.  We've slowly been trying to save up for Steven to get a decent camera, but we knew it would take a while. So he opens up a nice camera bag from his parents who say it's for the future, well we didn't realize they meant the very near future...

You can't quite tell, but that is pure overwhelmed joy.  He seriously couldn't process it for a while, I think he is still in shock.  It's a very nice compact SLR.  The circumstances of his parents getting it were complete luck and generosity and we both can't express how grateful we are for it.  I'm so glad he finally has his own camera to be as creative as possible with.  
 For Christmas dinner we went over to my Aunt Dee's house; my mom's family always gets together so the house was packed.

 Poppa and Larry in the kitchen

A quarter of the gang

 My mom and dad

Wes and Bree

Auntie ReNae and Dad

Cousin Dallen and Anna

Cloie showing us her dress

  Poppa as usual
We had a blast seeing everyone.  Aunty ReNae surprised us with a video she made of a few of Steven's photos, plus she made wedding videos and printed out pictures of all the cousin's wedding in the last two years, plus a family calendar and family book; she was very busy and they all turned out awesome! The rest of the night was pretty relaxing.  We really had a great Christmas and loved getting to see everyone.  We got some amazing things from the people we love and hope we are able to give back even half of all they give and do for us.  
The rest of the break was spent visiting people, shopping the after Christmas clearance sales, :) getting curry, and enjoying family and friends.  Oh and we finally saw Inception, great movie.

 Nanny and Poppa

I got to meet my Cousin's new baby Riley for the first time! (he was born in October)   

Friends...

And of course you have to unwind from the vacation :)