I'm no longer dreaming of a White Christmas

I'm a little late with this post, but I was just thinking today about how long it's been since we had a no risk white Christmas. I mean, a lot of times it snows just in time for Christmas or a little bit on Christmas, but this is the first year I remember having snow up to and including Christmas. I really am grateful for the moisture, but it made Christmas a little disappointing since I wasn't done playing with the family at the moment when I had to pack up and leave or chance getting stuck at Mom and Dads. Anyway the worst part was shoveling walks at work for an hour and fifteen minutes the next morning. Oh well. At least we'll have a bit of moisture for the summer. (I should note that this is not my picture and also probably not Utah. It just fit.)

4 sleeping nights till Christmas

I walked into Sacrament Meeting today and overheard one of my favorite Moms tell her kids that there were only 4 more sleeping times until Christmas. I laughed to myself as I thought about the struggle parents have trying to convince their kids that they have to wait longer. Today I went to my Sacrament meeting and then to Mom and Dad's ward. Christmas programs are my favorite. I could go to Sacrament meeting all day if it was Christmas programs. My ward had a string quartet, a flute duet, a clarinet solo, and several choir numbers I've never heard before. It was quite lovely. Mom and Dad's ward had a lot of songs that I remember singing 10+ years ago and I love those types of programs too. All in all it's a great way to start celebrating the week of Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the Bountiful Elves

So one night Kayla got bored (since we share in the "boring life") and she found this website where you can turn yourself into an elf. Of course being an elf alone isn't any fun so she included all of us. Perhaps you think we look better as elves than humans, but however you feel about it enjoy our little piece of Christmas Cheer!
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Treats Anyone???

So in the continuation of my blog, I had yesterday off work and I spent the day making more goodies. Grandmas turtles, rice krispie treats (with red and green sugar), and chocolate dipped pretzels. I went tonight to Todd and Nicole's to drop off Christmas presents and Nicole who has gestational diabetes was mad at me for mentioning turtles and then not bringing her any. Hopefully she'll get her fill when they go to her mom's house this Christmas. Anyway there are a lot of treats at my house right now so if anyone has a craving come on over!!!!

Christmas Treats

Jesika (my roommate) and I decided that this month is going to be traditional in that we are going to go crazy making all of our favorite Christmas treats so we spent $100 at Walmart to get all the stuff necessary to binge like crazy for Christmas. The diet starts January 2, where I go back to eating nothing but Arctic Circle food. . . but in the meantime we are going to celebrate this season with all things chocolate. Tonight's entry into the fat things contest is Chex Mix Muddy Buddies. Believe it or not I've never actually made these. Katie usually brings them to our house and we eat hers but I thought since Katie and Spencer are now in Logan I had to do it all by myself. Let me tell you. . . it was tough. Remember those Rice Krispie treat commercials where the mom would come out of the kitchen with flour everywhere and sigh "They're finally done" and then they'd go out to dinner. Yup... I deserve to be taken out for dinner.

Thanksgiving Fun

I can't believe it's already almost December. This year has flown by. We had a really great Thanksgiving this year. The highlight of course being the food and I just wanted to share one really hilarious story. I drove down to my moms house on Wednesday to help her get ready. She decided that this was the year that we kids needed to learn how to make the famous Heritage Garden rolls. She made the dough at work and brought it home, then did the "hard part" rolling it out and making the correct shapes for us to roll. Now the secret to Heritage Garden rolls consists of first putting plenty of butter on the dough and second rolling them just right. You start with a piece shaped a little like a fat triangle, then you hold the top and run your fingers down the rest of the dough so it stretches out. Then you put your thumbs on the top and hold the dough between your thumbs and then flip it in the air about 6 times. So I grab my piece and stretch it out just right and begin the flipping process about the same time that Mom decides to grab the camera and make a video of Carolee, Spencer, and me working the magic. Just as she starts the video I have the dough in the air making my crescent shaped roll and the butter from the roll flipped into my eye. So I'm shouting "ahhh I just got butter in my eye," and Mom is like "Hey let me see your roll." So I hold the roll up to the camera closing one eye cuz the butter is sitting in my eye, and the whole video is me complaining about butter in my eye. Of course Mom has no sympathy because apparently getting butter in your eye is part of making Heritage Garden rolls. Anyway, the rolls were slightly misshapen but because Mom made the dough they tasted amazing. I think maybe we need to have rolls for Christmas so we can have more practice. I'll make sure Mom gets the video up on her blog so you can all appreciate the "butter in my eye" part of my boring life.

I am a Utah (wo)Man

Today the Utes beat BYU 48 - 24! I'm proud to be a Ute!! This season they are 12 and 0! Go Utes!

Spending time with the Family

Today was my cousin Lane's wedding reception in Heber and so Todd and Nicole decided to head to the outlet stores in Park City (Kimball Jct. actually) and invited the family to join them. Everyone came up except Spencer and Katie. I got off work late so I missed out on donating to the economy like the others, but joined them at the end of the shopping trip and then for dinner at Don Pedros in Heber where our group of 14 took up most of the restaurant. I can't remember the last time we all got together and went out to dinner, so it was quite a fun time. On to the reception where we were reacquainted with cousins Sarah and Lane who I haven't seen in 2-3 years. They looked all grown up and it was really weird to me. Sometimes I still picture them as small children. Sarah has been married to her husband Sage for 3 1/2 years and they live in Idaho so we rarely see her. It was fun to get to see her again. Lane's new wife Jesika is a darling girl and I'm very happy for them. It was a good family day and I'm glad everyone lives fairly close so we can do it occasionally.

Gratitude

Being that it's November and I have been jealous of my friend Chantal's ability to express gratitude on her blog, I thought I'd give it a shot; however, for those of you that frequent both pages, remember she has a law degree and so by default can write way more eloquently than I can. I was asked last week to speak in Sacrament Meeting the Sunday before Thanksgiving on Gratitude for the Atonement. It has left me for the past ten days thinking on the subject and making me realize how really blessed we are that we have a Heavenly Father who gave us His Son and how blessed we are that the Son was willing to come here and take upon Him our infirmities. I wish sometimes that I was infirmity-free, but since I can't be, I stand in awe of the One who has already been there. By the same token, I am grateful that Heavenly Father in His infinite wisdom decided to place us here on earth in family units so we wouldn't have to figure out this earth life alone, and then just in case the support system of familes wasn't enough he gave us other people: friends, acquaintances, and sometimes smiling strangers to help us in our quest for His kingdom. I really am so happy that I have so many wonderful supports out there. In the interest of time, space, and fear that I'll miss someone, I'll just say that if you think you are one of my support system you are right. Most of you may not even know what you mean to me, but I really do have such love for all of you that it's hard to express even what all of you mean to me. I am also, on a slightly less sappy note, so grateful for the beauties that surround me. I still stand in awe everytime I look outside or at pictures of what's going on outside somewhere else (Chantal's pics of a New England fall). I'm grateful for a living prophet, who leads and guides the church and for so many local leaders that pick me up when I fall and help me understand my true worth as a child of God. To quote one of my favorite hymns "my heart is full, mine eyes are wet, oh help me Lord lest I forget." I really just hope that all of us can take a moment this month and not forget.

Blogging

So I've been on my computer for 15 minutes looking at blogs and nobody is updating!!! Okay not nobody. Bre, Nicole and Todd, Kayla: you all do a great job. Mom, Kris, HELLO!!! Get on the ball. Then I thought, hmmm, I haven't blogged in a week and that was stuff about a month ago. So I thought I should get on the ball too. Today is my mama's birthday. She's something like 39. I can't remember exactly... okay so mostly I just didn't want to get in trouble. We usually have a giant party that starts on October 6 and goes through November 8 and that covers about 60% of the birthdays in our family. We didn't do that this year. I guess we all got too busy for tradition. I don't know. Sometimes I really feel like my life is passing me by. I mean all my life I've thrived on tradition (you know the song from Fiddler on the Roof) and I find as I get older the traditions I used to hold so near and dear are nothing but wispy memories. Sometimes I wonder if they really happened or if I 'm remembering my life wrong. I got home from my mission and all of the holiday traditions had slipped through my fingers. Last night I went with Tierny to see Mamma Mia for the second time. There's a song that the mom sings called Slipping through my Fingers. It talks about how quickly her daughter grew up and how she feels like she missed some of the best moments because she wasn't on the ball. I don't want my life to be like that. I need to start my personal history so the memories I have aren't completely lost to faulty memory. Well enough melancholy for one night. Bedtime!!

Wrapping it Up

Tuesday was our last day on vacation, so we slept late. We checked out of the hotel and were off to the Excalibur and Luxor for some sight seeing. At the Excalibur they had a Krispy Kreme donut shop so we stopped for breakfast. After stuffing ourselves full we went over to the Luxor to fulfill all of Greg's wildest dreams and some of his kodak moments. We took a "ride" on the Search for the Obelisk ride. It's one of those motion rides where you sit in a chair and watch the screen and they take you on a journey through the depths of ancient Egypt and wasn't really worth the $10 it took for us to get in. Oh well. After that we took the Tram back to the Excalibur and walked across the sky walk to New York New York for a ride on the famous roller coaster. We ended up being first in line for the ride and Greg and Kayla ended up in the front seat. It was a minute before they got over their fear and thanked me for making them go on it. It was great!! After the roller coaster we got pretzels at New York Pretzel and I got a picture of the Coyote Ugly Bar. We then went to Caesars Palace to eat lunch at Planet Hollywood, where our power passes got us $40 off our meal. We then walked around admiring all the stuff they have on the walls in the restaurant. I got a picture on my phone of Marlon Brando's suit from Guys and Dolls. No one else really understood why I thought that was cool, but I had just watched the movie. At that point we decided we'd better start heading home. Our only regret was that we didn't make it to Sky Mania, an indoor trampoline arena. We finally got home at 2:30 in the morning and the Vegas Vacation was over. I just wanna send out a thanks to my friends Jessica, Kayla, and Greg for coming and helping me celebrate my "21st" birthday in style!!

After the Wax Museum

After we left the wax museum we decided to walk to the M & M store. Someone should have reminded me how far that really is. We started out walking south on Las Vegas Blvd. averting our eyes from the guys handing out the stripper cards and decided to stop and do the Eiffel Tower experience. We went into the Paris Hotel and bought our tickets (with the power pass of course.) Here's a few shots from the top. We stayed on top long enough to see one fountain show at the Bellagio across the street and then continued our journey down the street. Oh one shot from the bottom. We finally made it to the M & M store where we browsed quickly and I bought a few things. When we left Yellow was outside taking pictures with people. We decided then that we didn't want to walk back to the car so we decided to catch the monorail at MGM Grand. We went into the lobby and stopped to check out the lion exhibit. There were two guys inside with the lions throwing meat at the windows, so we got up close and personal with a lion and his wife. (Remember it's through glass so the flash was a little crazy on these pictures.)We rode the monorail back to the car and then went back to the Stratosphere. After a quick McDonalds dinner we decided to head up to the top of the Stratosphere tower. Here's a couple shots from there.
I forgot to tell you that on our way to the wax museum we found a shop that had hoodies for $10. They only took cash and travelers cheques so I'm sure they were stolen, but we didn't care. I thought it was kind of funny that we unknowingly all wore them for the trip up to the tower. We're just advertising for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Monday ended at that point and we slipped into a restful slumber that belongs to those who walk miles and miles down the strip.

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

Anyone who knows me well knows that if I say Madame Tussauds wax museum was my favorite thing in Vegas, after saying that the Bellagio fountains and the dolphin habitat were my favorite, it's just par for the course. I mean you're talking to the girl who listens to the radio and shouts, "this is my favorite song" about every single song. Therefore it goes that I can have at least three favorites in Vegas. So for those of you who thought I should post pictures on my blog the entire time, this should make up for the drought in my first few posts. So here goes, a picture says a thousand words so I'll just say a few. This is the crew at MADAME TUSSAUDS WAX MUSEUM.

I thought it only appropriate that we start with Greg's incredibly awkward experience with Britney Spears. (He didn't even know who it was until after we made him touch her boob.)
Here's Jessica, Greg, and Kayla hanging out on the set with the lovely Cameron Diaz.
Next is the three of us with Hollywood's Hottest. It's a little hard to see that beautiful face in the shadows but it's none other than Matthew McConaughey.
Now, my favorite of all times actress is Julia Roberts (especially after she played me in My Best Friends Wedding) so I had to get a picture with her. Nobody else even recognized her. :(

Practically the whole reason we were even interested in the wax museum was because Greg had heard that his gay boyfriend Johnny Depp was preserved in wax there. Greg was almost afraid to go up to him. What would happen if he saw the real deal?

One of the great things about Madame Tussauds is that every girls (and some guys) dream can come true. What is better than the dream wedding? Well, with George Clooney as the groom, I think all of our wildest dreams were realized.


Jessica Marie Clooney

Gregory Elmer Clooney

Kayla Mindy ClooneyJulianne Clooney



This one's for Crystal!



What would a trip to Vegas be without a cameo with the King?

Ol' Brown Eyes

( I watched Guys and Dolls right before we left. I was pretty excited to see Frank Sinatra "in person")

So I know it's not in your history book, but Kayla really was the first woman on the moon.

28 years ago she was my idol. I was Princess Di for Halloween for at least 2 years, maybe 3.

I think that Madame Tussauds should have been the National Treasure Nicholas Cage was looking for the whole time.
(Okay that was cheesy.)

Hope you enjoyed my photo tour of Madame Tussauds. Now get to Vegas and see it yourself!!

Birthday in Vegas

Monday was my birthday and we decided to spend it doing as much as we could. We went to IHOP for breakfast where the group attempted to get the waiter to sing to me and he said he didn't sing. I thanked him, and he asked how I was enjoying my 21st birthday in Vegas. I thanked him again. What a good guy. We left a big tip. We went then to Planet Hollywood to pick up our Power Passes. Now for anyone looking to visit Las Vegas I highly recommend going to expedia.com and purchasing a power pass. It is a card that you pay for once and then it gets you into some of the attractions around Vegas. Now for those of you who are still a little leery, let me just say that it takes about 5 attractions to make it worth the money and you'll love every one of them. After we picked up our power passes, we sat down and mapped out the plan for the day. We decided to start at Circus Circus at the amusement park and off we went. Aside from the fact that certain rides make me sick, literally, it was pretty fun. We went on the roller coaster about 3 times, the bumper cars, and several other rides. After a quick hotel break, we went on to Seigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage. This was one of my favorite things that we did. You start in the dolphin habitat and they had a brand new dolphin that was only one month old. At random times throughout the day trainers come out to play with and feed the dolphins. Jessica didn't seem to enjoy it like Kayla and I did.
After getting our fill of the dolphins, (well actually I could have stayed a lot longer) we went into The Secret Garden. This is where the white lions and tigers and some other animals are kept.

The white tigers were about 5 months old and two of them were wrestling the whole time I was watching. When you very first enter they have this statue of a lion and we thought it would be funny to act like it was biting me while Jessica looked on in scared amusement.

Next it was on to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in The Venetian and I am going to blog that separately so you can read about it later.

My favorite part of Vegas

Alright, it's time to be honest. There is one place in the world that is my favorite place. 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. The Bellagio Hotel. I've never stayed in the Bellagio but between the conservatory inside and the fountains outside, I could literally spend days just at the Bellagio. Now based upon the fact that I had several people with me, and the fact that there is a lot to squeeze into two days in Las Vegas, I only spent a little more than an hour here at my favorite place. Sunday night after the temple, we decided we needed something else to do so we

drove to my favorite place. We walked around the conservatory which was whimsically decorated for fall with trees with faces, wood nymphs, and a tunnel of beautiful fall colors with water going over our heads in little arcs. then proceeded outside to get our fill of the fountains. We watched four shows (they happen every 15 minutes after 8) and I would have stayed on for four more but I had sapped the patience out of everyone else. Although they enjoyed the fountains they don't share my passion and we were all hungry, so we left to find food. I feel homesick. I want to go back. I think someone should put some Bellagio fountains a little closer to my house. I stand in awe everytime and just wish that everyone could see this amazing sight.

Arriving In Vegas

After the excitement of discovering 3 states in an hour, we continued on down I-15 until we reached a point in the road where you can see Vegas off in the distance. Kayla and Greg had the best reaction.

We continued on down the road and Kayla and Jessica tried to take pictures but it was pretty smoggy over the strip so we didn't get any good ones. We hit Vegas traffic coming into town. They are doing construction on I-15 and I'm pretty sure they will never be done. It seems like they were doing the same construction when I was there 6 years ago. I decided to drive to the South end of Las Vegas Blvd. and then get off the freeway so they could see it all. We got off by New York New York and it was so fun to see the reactions of people who had never seen it before. One of the first things we saw was a billboard with a half naked woman. Greg was sure to point this out to us and I warned him that it wouldn't be the last one he saw, but he should keep his eyes elsewhere. We continued north on Las Vegas Blvd. amidst the awe of my friends until we reached our destination: The Stratosphere.

We checked in and found our room on the fifteenth floor and then decided that since it was Sunday we should go see the temple.

We spent about a half hour on the temple grounds taking pictures and enjoying each others company.