What happens in Vegas

My spring break is finally here! We started it out right by getting on the road for Las Vegas. (After Michael dropped the dog off at our neighbors house- of course.) I was in a car with Michael and Gray who found three stations playing the BYU game vs New Mexico. So no worries, we heard Jimmer's 52. That got the boys in chipper moods. After we got checked into our hotel, Gray went to pick up Jenni from the airport. She's still living in Utah until school gets out. Talk about a long distance relationship! But, we are sure glad we got to party with them for the weekend.

We started our Saturday by going to the temple. It was so pretty! It's the perfect way to start our trip.

Isn't Jenni one of the cutest pregnant ladies ever?

After the temple, we got ready for the show I have been pining to see again for quite some time now...

That's right, we went to the 'Lion King!!' I saw it in New York when I was little and I have been telling Michael about all the awesomeness. I probably talked it up too much because the Vegas version was a lot smaller than the New York. However, it was still incredible. I love the costumes, the beautiful songs and how they make the cartoon come alive. If you haven't heard the song, "Endless Night," you need to google it because it is simply powerful.

After the show, we went to dinner at an amazing Mexican restaurant that was very randomly found. Score. We played games and relaxed.

Sunday morning was funny because both Gray's parents and my family were in Vegas. Gray's parents were down for a tennis tournament and Mel had a soccer tournament so in the morning we split to see our families.

Although it wasn't the "average" Vegas weekend, it was delightful. After that, I started my hitch-hiking adventure to Utah...

What's in a name?

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Michael was coming home from some meetings. He saw a dog wandering around a neighbors yard and stopped to get the dog so it wouldn't go out in the streets. The neighbors weren't home so he brought the dog to our house. Then when he took the dog to the neighbors, it ended up not being their dog. So, what's he supposed to do? Just let it go back to wandering the streets?

We took her around our block looking for her owners. (We have met more neighbors these past couple of weeks than we have since we moved in.) She brings people together! We posted on craigslist and put up signs. However, no one has claimed her yet. We are definitely dog people, but I didn't wanted to get one while I was working because of potty training, loneliness etc. When I came home and saw this dog, I was VERY worried. 1st because she is a pit bull. I've never wanted a bigger dog because of how big their turds are. 2nd she is a SHE. I've only ever had boy dogs so girl dogs are unfamiliar and kind of gross me out. Is that weird/ironic? 3rd I value my sleep and a dog barking all night is not ok with me.

I have to say, this dog is one of the sweetest dogs ever. She never jumps up on people. She is potty trained. And when she does have turds they are on our grass around the edges so she's not dropping land mines everywhere. The only time I have ever heard her bark is when my family came. She was in the bedroom with Michael and it was really really late. When she heard other voices in the house, she barked. And it was a bark that would make any burglar need to change their pants. I have to admit, I was impressed. I guess there was another time she barked when it was, again, really late at night. Every one was asleep including Will out on the couch. He was talking in his sleep and when she heard a voice, she barked. She's a guard dog!

We had neighbors over for dinner one night and they brought their little boys. It was so funny to see her reaction to kids. Because she is eye level with most of them she immediately started licking their faces and the boys would just push her away and say, "Stop dog!" The 2 yr old would say, "Come get me puppy!" and run down the hall with her chasing him. He was giggling like crazy and that kept him entertained for about 5 mins. Then later, he (the 2 yr old) was crawling around on all fours barking and the puppy would follow him and kind of push him over with her paw. It was hilarious- until he bonked his head on the tile. Then he wasn't too happy with the game. But, the puppy's good with kids!

So, for now, we have a puppy. We've been trying to find a name for her. I liked Ugly Betty. My family liked Sweetie. My neighbor girls thought Brown Eyes works. We used Delilah and Back-Up. Michael likes Shenolk, Oksana, Devushka, and Sabaka. Yeah, those are Russian names. We'll see what fits. Any suggestions? Votes?

PS Her floppy ears are definitely my favorite part about her.

*retraction

Ok. Davies?! Really!?
I hereby retract my words that "these boys don't disappoint." I am disappointed. But, my bracket stays the same.

Counting chickens...

Michael and a person in our ward were talking about how exciting March is because of March Madness and brackets and all that. I was positive that brackets are overrated because I always put BYU going all the way and usually that puts me out in one or two rounds.

I'm trying not to jinx anything or count my chickens before they hatch, but I'm feeling like my faith is going to pay off a little more this March. At least this year when people down here see my bracket they won't say BYU who? And if you are reading this and not knowing why I have such faith in my cougars, turn on the news!

BYU is doing awesome! They are #3 right now and there's more where that came from. Jimmer and the boys are not disappointing. If you do not know who Jimmer is, shame on you. He has been scoring an amazing average of 27.3 points per game which includes so many three pointers. If you have seen any games, you know that he is pretty fly for a white guy.

These boys are not disappointing! So I say... bring on those brackets!

We got carried away...

...by a hot air balloon!

My family got into town Thursday night at 11 PM, 12 PM and 1 AM. We were so excited to see them we didn't let them rest long. At 5:45 AM we left our house to take a sunrise hot air balloon ride. Super early. But I am so glad everything worked out that we all could go.

Hot air balloons are so cool! They are so huge! I was so fascinated watching them get all set up then inflated. Take off was nothing like I thought it would be. You cannot even feel it. All of a sudden you just see the ground getting farther away as you get carried away.

We kept saying that our ride felt like Soarin Over California only it was real and really awesome. I will admit that even the desert landscape has some beauty to it- especially from the air. It was a very relaxing ride and I love how picturesque everything is when a hot air balloon is involved.

The landing is a little bit more rough We landed upright after a few bumps. But then the winds started picking up and our gandola tipped over which made getting out a little more spicy.

It was still quite the adventure and I loved being there with my whole family. (Annie was there in spirit) It was a great way to start a weekend.

Saturday is a special day...

...it's the day we get ready for Sunday.

I love productive Saturdays. It feels so good to see how much can be accomplished. Yesterday was one of those days. We have been working hard on a few projects around our house and it's so fun to see some of those efforts paying off.

We were so excited a few months ago when we got four trees for our backyard because it added some green to our dirt. Well, Michael has been working his little tail off to take our backyard from this:

To this:

I'm positive it is not easy to dig those trenches.

And finally...

Michael paved that patio himself, installed the sprinkler system, planted the grass-stinky job, planted the plants, hauled the rocks, etc. etc. etc... I love the way it turned out!

Granted, most of these projects took more than just one Saturday. But, now that it's Sunday, I can just rest on my own patio and as our nursery lesson today says, "I can be grateful for all the beautiful things Heavenly Father and Jesus created for me."

An affair to remember

This weekend we went to the Glendale Chocolate Affair Festival. Great title. Great concept. Not as exciting as I thought, but we had these folks with us to make it and the rest of our weekend special.

We felt so bad because we have been talking up our beautiful, warm weather and we finally got the Walkers to visit and lo and behold it ends up being the coldest weekend Arizona has seen since the 1800s. Highs in the 40s?! Really?! Luckily, it warmed up each day so it wasn't as bad.

We had some great movie nights including "Moulin Rouge"- classic and "Step Up 3D"- not as great as the first or second- major bummer. We also enjoyed SO much good food. Bryson enjoyed bath time.

Saturday morning we recruited our guests to help us get this tree:

End up like this:

It meant that Michael and Bryce ended up looking like this all morning:

Brycen was such an adorable helper. It was like an Easter egg hunt for him. After awhile, he couldn't take the temptation and had mommy peel at least 4 to snack on right then and there.

Even after all that Brycen ate, we still ended up with 42 grocery bags full- from just ONE tree!

After a little over an hour we were pretty chilled, tired and a bit scratched up so we were ready to pack up and go. But Christi couldn't leave without getting herself some grapefruit too- no matter what. Mama's gotta have her grapefruit.

The rest of the weekend was spent playing games, exploring Arizona, eating, eating, and eating. Brycen spent a lot of time watering our plants.

We had so much fun with the Walkers. It was definitely a weekend to remember!