Las Vegas Day 3

Day 3 - Tuesday, December 9
(See days 1&2 below)
This day was a bit more relaxed & slow-going...which was nice after all the excitement of Monday. The day started out after breakfast at our hotel's buffet. It was good...but not worth the hefty price they charged for it! We then took the monorail to Harrah's, and then walked from there to the Venetian, and then on to the Sands Convention Center, where another Country Christmas shopping area was held. (Can you believe that Steve CHOSE to go shopping for 2 days in Vegas?? I can't!) It was a good thing we did though, because there was a Twisted X booth, and they had the boots in stock that Steve has been wanting to try out. We didn't get them while we were there because they were likely marked up, but guess what Steve's getting for Christmas??? (once we get them ordered from our favorite western store!)
As we walked along, we found some fun picture opportunities...

Kim & the Blue Man Group

We found a friend!

Steve & the Travelocity Gnome...If I would have backed up, you'd see that Steve has his hands in his pockets just like the gnome. If only he had a pointy hat!

As we made our way back to our hotel, we strolled through the Flamingo and looked at the...Flamingos! :-)

We also ate at Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise, aka Margaritaville, which was SO good! I had a strawberry-banana drink that was out of this world! As we ate we listened to Jimmy Buffet tunes, and viewed some Parrothead videos project onto ship sails throughout the restaurant. When the song Margaritaville was played, the room went dark, and a volcano above us started to erupt. It was really fun!

After resting up in our room, we made our way to the Imperial Palace to catch the shuttle to the rodeo. It was another exciting night of action! Lots of fun! We also picked up our rodeo souveniers on the way out. Can't wait to go again soon!

Grand Entry of the rodeo participants.

Cody Ohl praying that his tied-down calf stays tied!

Las Vegas Day 2

Monday, December 8, was our second day in Vegas. (see day 1 below)
We started out the day by viewing a beautiful sunrise from our hotel room.

After getting ready & grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to the Monorail and rode to the Las Vegas Convention Center on North end of the strip for the Cowboy Christmas! Basically it was a convention center full of cowboy clothing, supplies, furniture, and even stock trailers! For Steve, it was probably comprable to the Arkansas craft shows I've attended in the past! :-)

While we were there Steve met Stran Smith, a tie-down roper who ended up being the National Finals Champion! We got his autograph and he let me take a picture of him & Steve.

After spending hours at the Cowboy Christmas, we headed back to our hotel room to get ready for the RODEO!

We took a cab & got there pretty early, which was great because we were able to walk around and check stuff out, as well as get in early & grab a great seat for the Academy of Country Music Pre-Rodeo concert featuring Crystal Shawanda. She is really a great country artist - I'm guessing we'll hear more from her soon!

After listening to a couple of her songs and grabbing some hot dogs & Steve's beer, we made our way to the rodeo arena and found our seats. Even though we were fairly high up, we still were able to see really well. The opening ceremony was awesome! It included fireworks, a recognition of rodeo legends, and a grand entry of all the riders. The National Anthem was very moving, and was sung by Reba McEntire's sister, Susie Luchsinger - she sounds just like Reba!
[Legends L to R: Dean Oliver, Roy "The Super Looper" Cooper, Joe Beaver, Fred Whitfield (raise the roof!), and Cody Ohl] Roy & Fred are 2 of Steve's favorite ropers!

Here are some pictures from the rodeo, including some good pix of Stran Smith!

Above: Tuf Cooper (Roy Cooper's 18-year-old son) is an awesome up & coming tie-down roper.



Stran Smith - pix of him after tying calf & of the jumbo-tron as he prepares to compete.

Day 3 is on the way...

Las Vegas - Day 1

Our trip to Las Vegas was FABULOUS! I can't believe it's already over! Here's a rundown of our first day of trip, along with some pictures...

Day 1 - Sunday, December 7

We arrived Las Vegas around 2:00 Vegas time. We hopped on a shuttle that took us directly to the lobby of our hotel, the Planet Hollywood. As soon as we saw our HUGE room (on the 31st floor), we were out the door to find our way to THE STRIP! After taking a few pix in front of the hotel...

...we stopped at the first restaurant we saw, The Harley Davidson Cafe - which served up some of the best BBQ I've had (or maybe I was just REALLY hungry!) The inside and outside of the cafe was really neat - they had a giant American flag made of painted chains. There were also actual Harley's hanging from the ceiling on a track that are supposed to move above us as we eat. Unfortunately the track wasn't running...but it was still cool to see Harley's hanging above us!

After dinner we continued to the south end of the strip. We stopped in a few shops, like the Coca Cola store & M&M's world. I've never seen so many M&M products!

I think my favorite part of the store was the wall of M&M's! They had the little chocolate candies in about every color you could think of! YUM! After a little browsing through the shops, we decided to cross the street and head back to our hotel. We arrived at the Bellagio hotel just in time to see the fountain display! It was choreographed to Frank Sinatra's "Luck Be a Lady". It was incredibly beautiful, and oddly serene in the middle of the craziness of the Vegas Strip!

After taking some more pictures of our hotel from the Bellagio walkway, we headed back to our room & lounged for the evening...

...preparing ourselves for a full day of activities on Day 2!

To Be Continued...

It's been a fly-by November!

Can you believe that November is already almost over? Did you check the ticker above...we have only 16 days (from the date of this posting) until our LAS VEGAS trip! We are both SO excited! We just got tickets for the second night we'll be at the National Finals Rodeo yesterday...I've done most of my shopping for "Vegas-wear"...I've stocked up on rechargeable batteries so that I have plenty of charge time for pictures...so I think I'm about ready to go! Of course, all Steve has to do is throw his Wranglers into a suitcase & he's pretty much ready to roll! Ha!

It's just starting to get frigid up here in the North to the point where I cannot go outside in the evening without gloves and a hat (according to my computer, the current temp is 13! BRRR!) I am not looking forward to snowy weather, but I'm afraid it's coming soon.

Since I haven't posted in a little while, I thought I'd include some fun pictures of Steve, me and the dogs that were taken earlier in the month. I just received prints of these pix from Snapfish, so I'm looking forward to doing something creative with them!
OH! Speaking of being creative...this weekend my plan is to spend some time figuring out my new Adobe Creative Suite software - particularly Photoshop! I am excited to put it to work and start doing some digital scrapbooking. I'm sure I'll share my creations as I learn how to use it!

JASON ALDEAN!

Back in September, Steve, our friend Erica and I traveled up to the Clay County Fair, in Spencer, Iowa, to see my FAVORITE country artist: JASON ALDEAN!!!! (Eric Church also performed...and was really fun, but I was there for Jason!) Ha! Here are some pictures I took of him...as close as I could get!

Aren't we cute?? A pic of Steve and me as we wandered around the fair before the concert started. I tell him this would make a good Christmas card...he doesn't agree. :-)

Erica and me before the concert started. Check out my new Justin ball cap! I picked it up before the concert. It's got blingy pink & white rhinestones on the bill! PERFECT for a bad hair day in Vegas!!

Can't wait to see Jason when he's in the area again...hopefully soon!

Yearly Craft Trip with the Gals!

As many of you know, for the past several years I have made a yearly trip down to Arkansas in October to meet up with a group of females - both relatives and friends - for a weekend full of crafting and eating! Well, since Steve's Aunt Ginger, who always plays host to us crazy ladies, has moved from NW Arkansas to the Kansas City area, we changed things up a bit. Instead of traveling to Arkansas, the group met at Ginger's beautiful new home around the end of September. We still got to eat Ginger's wonderful soups & goodies and enjoyed a beautiful day in the park at an Overland Park craft show.

Following are 2 attempts at a group picture. I have a new(er) digital camera, and apparently I'm still trying to figure out the zoom feature. The first pic I took I cut out half the group...

...and in the second picture I was far off, and didn't account for the sun. Unfortunately, this was the best shot I came up with...but I have a bunch of funny trial shots that I'll share with those involved another time!

Here's a picture of me and my mom...

...and here is my mom and her friend Kathy. (They always take such good pics together!)

Mom, Kathy and I broke off from the group and made our way to a small town SE of KC called Greenwood. This little town had a couple of fabulous antique stores...and best of all, both stores had lots of WOOL!!! Here's a pic of our smaller group while waiting for our Sonic drinks in the car! Not too flattering...but fun!

And here is a shot of the beautiful wool I picked up at one of the stores in Greenwood. Can't wait to show you all my finished rug!!!

Kansas 4th of July

Hello all! It's been some time since my last posting...but we've been super busy lately! Our most recent adventure was a trip to Kansas for Independence Day and the wedding of Jim & Jodi Jackson (Steve's brother). We had fun spending the 4th with Steve's mom and his brother Darren's family. We even assisted in milking Darren's family cow! That was interesting! As always, I had my camera in hand and took way too many pics (is that really possible?). Here are some of my favorites...

Steve & Me at a rest stop on the way to Lawrence, Kansas for Jim's wedding.

Here's a picture of the immediate Jackson family. I think everyone is actually here...except Kevin kind of got chopped off on the right (oops! sorry Kevin!) This was after Jim & Jodi's wedding. There were so many cameras going off it was hard to get all eyes in one direction...but this one didn't turn out too bad!

Here Steve and our nephew D.J. are playing around in Grandma's yard on the 4th.

Steve, Me and Annabel the cow! (at Darren's on the 4th)

Steve is filling in for Darren by holding the milking machine...so I got to hold the tail! Deanna is crouched on the other side of Annabel holding on to the machine. I've never milked a cow before! (However, I've been informed that we are cheating by using a machine & not milking by hand. Ha!)

Here are a couple of pics of the cute barnyard animals at Darren's.

Overall it was an excellent weekend!

I do have some fun cards that I've made recently...I'll have to add them to my next post.

Until then...