Trick-or-Treat

We had a super fun Halloween. Last night's party at the Marsik's was great. We were all in costume. Jace was the cutest little dragon ever. I was a princess and Joel was my knight in shining poly-blend. During the party Jace took his first swing at a pinata. He was the littlest kiddo in the group. The next youngest participant was 4.

Today we enjoyed the warm weather by carving pumpkins on our front step and having a snowball fight. Then we took Jace out for some quick trick-or-treating. Jace loves his costume! (That's Emma in her Tigger costume greeting Jace when we stopped at Aunt Jessica and Uncle Don's house.)

Grandma and Papa Palmer joined us at our house for dinner and to answer the door this evening. Jace was nervous whenever anyone knocked on the door but he always wanted to see who was there. Once, just after I closed the door, he decided that he really wanted to give fist bumps to the kids. I told him they were gone already. He walked over and gave a fist bump to the closed door.

We could not have asked for a better day.

We might continue our Halloween celebration tomorrow with a trip to Boo at the Zoo.

We missed our annual pumpkin carving with the Sullivan family. We only got three pumpkins hastily carved and only two of them were done in time to decorate our porch on Halloween. Jace calls them bumbums (it sounds vaguely like pumpkin - at least it has 2 syllables)

Vegas Saturday 10-17-09

Our last full day of vacation was just that - a full day. We started it late because of the late night on Friday. First stop of the day: 7-11 for coffee and donuts.
We toured the Ethel M chocolate factory and cactus garden. The factory was not running on Saturday but we had fun exploring the grounds and sampling the chocolates in their store. Sarah, Aaron, Joel and I spent the afternoon at the top of the Stratosphere, a space needle type hotel/casino with amusement park rides at the top. I was content just photographing the experience. The others braved the Big Shot ride that took them up to the top of the 1,149ft structure and then dropped them 45 feet. Yikes. Sarah and I watched as the boys also tried the Insanity, a spinning ride that hangs out over the edge of the tower.
We all made it, just in time, to Bill and Kelly's wedding at the Little Chapel of the West. It was nice, mostly. There was some drama when we realized the bride's ring had been left at the rental house. To bad the couple didn't go for the $100 "bill" ring that Grant cleverly crafted. LaRae made a dash back to the house to fetch the ring right after the ceremony. Sarah was a huge help shuttling people around after the wedding. Sarah's taxi service should have been charging (I definitely owe her for saving my poor sore feet in ridiculous shoes). Joel and I got in a confrontation with a guy randomly enforcing the chapel's rule against SLR cameras. He could not explain to us why every other camera was allowed in but not ours. At first I thought the rule may have been because of the noise that the SLR makes but now I'm fairly certain they just didn't want anyone to be able to take GOOD photos during the ceremony. There were lots of photos taken but I don't have any.
Afterward we got take out, and watched Viva Las Vegas (Elvis and Ann Margaret) at the rental house. It was relaxing and fun. The birthday celebration for LaRae and Bill that was the original reason for the trip took place late Saturday evening. Joel, as a special gift for LaRae, did his Marlyn Monroe Birthday song. It was memorable. LaRae has the photos.
Early Sunday morning we woke up to say goodbye to Sarah who had to go to work.
The best part of Sunday was picking Jace up at Gary and Elaine's house. His eyes got big and he threw his hands up when he saw us. It was great to get home.

Friday already!

Where did the week go?

I can't believe it has been a week ago already that we had that crazy, fun day in Vegas. The photos tell a lot of the story. We were in costume much of the day because our afternoon was spent at the Let's Make a Deal taping. Sarah is in Vegas working for the art department on this remake of the old game show. It was a great game show to sit in the audience of because the bulk of the show is filmed in the audience. Our show will probably be on in the first week of November. Our group took up the entire top center row. I'm not really sure if we will be visible. Most of the time it seemed like this weird guy in a tiki costume was standing up in front of me. Grant definitely got on camera because he was on the isle when Wayne Brady entered and even gave him a high-five. We yelled ourselves horse during the taping which lasted over two hours. "Keep the Money!" "Curtain #2!" "Open the box!" Everyone was screaming at the same time. We had a terrific time. Sarah said later that she never noticed an audience that sang along as much as ours did during the commercial breaks. I think that was definitely our influence. We were really in to singing (and Grant knew all the lyrics to every song they played).

A big thank you to Sarah for getting us in! It was awesome and I hope we didn't embarrass you.

After the taping we were starving. It was 3 o'clock. We walked across the street and into the MGM Casino for lunch. After lunch there was a shuffle of shuttling people back to their various hotels. We all met back up at the Graceland Chapel before 6 for Grant and LaRae's vow renewal. We thought we were late but they have ceremonies booked every 15 min. (wow) and there were still 2 groups waiting ahead of us. We had plenty of time to goof around and take lots of photos. They didn't allow cameras (besides their own) inside the chapel. The service was fun and hilarious and surprisingly touching. My smile muscles were sore when we were finished.

The rest of the evening was mostly uneventful. We had a fun dinner at the Mandalay Bay Casino. We laughed a lot. Joel was told he was "Peacocking" by some random guy in the men's room. That made us laugh. We did stand out a bit at the Palms Casino where everyone was trying too hard to be "cool" and we were still in our goofy outfits. We headed back to the rental house where we played pool and watched movies for the rest of the night.

I'm bummed that we didn't get a photo of the group later in the evening when Sarah was with us. Her dress was beautiful.

Photos: Above - Chris and Deanna, Grant, Joel, Aaron, Me, and LaRae at the Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas (in costume and enjoying the fun).

Left - Self portrait of Joel and I in our costumes taken in front of a mirrored wall at the casino. (I like the crazy effect the seam had on Joel's forehead. It looks "Elvis".)

Vegas Friday

Back from Vegas

Wow, what a weekend. Joel and I had an incredible trip to Las Vegas with our crazy friends. I have almost 200 photos to sort through so I'll post a few at a time. The photos below are ones I took Thursday night when we arrived. We spent some time exploring the strip. Joel, Aaron, and I walked between the Bellagio and the Tropicana a couple of times. When Sarah finished working she joined us for dinner. Joel, Sarah, and I finished the evening at O, the incredible Cirque du Soleil show at the Bellagio. It was indescribable. More about the Vegas trip later.

Jace did great at Gary and Elaine's house over the weekend. He was very glad to see us when we got home. We were even more glad to see him. Today we enjoyed a quiet day at home.

This evening, as we were getting ready to give Jace his bath, Joel and I realized that Jace was unrolling the toilet paper. Jace was standing outside the bathroom door holding on the the end of the roll. He must have realized from the looks we were giving that he was in trouble because he dropped the paper and ran down the hall. It was funny so I chased after him (not really mad, just playing). I couldn't see him in his room. I found him hiding behind the door with a huge grin on his face. He giggled, screamed and ran away again. Mischievous.

Vegas Thursday