January 31

It was extremely cold here yesterday and it's cold here today (Darn you, Polar Vortex!). Public schools took a snow day because they didn't want the kids waiting at the bus stop in such cold temps. Our kids tried to get out of doing schoolwork too. No luck! I would much rather have a day off school to be outside in nicer weather. This will be my last year to be able to do that. Next year if Julia's in public school, we will have to take a snow day when she does or I will have a revolt on my hands!

January 30

 

 

 

 

 

 A local woman organizes food and supplies for homeless people on our end of town. I found out about her on Facebook. Once a week she provides a warm meal for them. For people who can't make it for the meal, she takes them sack lunches (PB&J, applesauce, pudding cups, bananas, chips, granola bars, etc). She needs approximately 50 sack meals per week. I asked our homeschool friends if they'd be interested in helping with this project and we had so many interested, we took on two weeks worth of meals... and they would like to do this regularly. If you want to help, they have an Amazon wishlist where you can send them supplies for their outreach.

January 29

My astronomy class did an experiment with ultra violet beads to see if certain things (eyeglasses, sunglasses, cloth, sunscreen, windows, etc) protected them from ultra violet light. 

January 28

January 27

We picked Clay up from the airport last night. It is nice to have everyone together again. 

Clay went to a jiu jitsu class after church. A guy from our church went with him to the class. Clay said it helped him with his jetlag. The time change doesn't appear to be effecting him. Me? I have been home 5 days and I am just starting to feel like I am not hung over!

January 26

Elliott is playing on our church's basketball league. He is in the 3rd-5th grade division. When you are a short 3rd grader, you are definitely the little guy on the team- ha! He can hold his own though. I am pretty sure I don't need to point him out.

January 25

 Julia did burpees to the ACDC song Thunderstruck last night at CrossFit. Every time they say "thunder" she did a burpee. 

 

Elliott got another stripe on his yellow belt. Next month he should be testing for a yellow belt with a black stripe.

January 24

 

 

  The kids had fun and got spoiled while we were gone this week. They had minimal school work, no chores, Julia and Kat each got to have a sleepover with friends, Abbie and Bob came over for lunch one day, they saw Old Mamaw three times (this is Lucy's report), went bowling, the movies, gymnastics, Crossfit/Jiu Jitsu, piano lessons, church, AWANA/youth group, and Bapaw and Elliott went to the Harlem Globetrotters game. I can't imagine why Mamaw and Bapaw are worn out. :P

January 22

We spent most of the day at the World of Concrete. It's about as much fun as you are imagining. Clay attends this most every year (thus the reason for this work trip). I only went to one day, but Clay goes to four days of a concrete expo. Shoot me now!

 

My final Vegas bucket list item was to ride a mechanical bull. Two of Clay's co-workers joined us after dinner and we all rode the bull. I am pretty sure we were the only sober ones to ride it. It was fun (and embarrassing).

Vegas is about what I thought it would be. I am glad I went so I can now picture things that Clay talks about. Would I go back? Not likely. If you don't drink, gamble, or shop there's not much to do that doesn't cost a lot of money. I used Clay's airline points to fly for next-to-nothing, plus we had a free hotel, free car rental, free breakfast, and stayed within Clay's food allowance almost every day, so this trip was nearly free for me to join him. I didn't love Vegas, but I did enjoy getting 5 days away with Clay. I got to see/experience some new things, and I didn't have to cook, clean, or be on mom-duty. 

Thank you Mamaw and Bapaw for taking care of the kiddos while we were gone!  

January 21

 

 We walked the strip a little more today and then rested at the hotel for awhile.

 We met up with 4 of Clay's co-workers and went to Freemont Street ("downtown"). Clay proceeded to tell me on the drive TO Freemont Street that it's usually a little wilder than the strip. However, it was 43 degrees outside, and this area is like a wind tunnel since it has the movie screen covering the entire 3 blocks. Most of the freaks and wild people stayed home - thankfully. We ate dinner, watched a band, and froze our butts off.

January 20

 This is a suburb of Vegas. Every area of Vegas we drove through looked similar. Beige, cream, or brown houses with the same colored tile roof. Not much of a yard, houses were close together, and they all had walls around them. UGLY.

 On our way to the Western Rim of the Grand Canyon we stopped at the Hoover Dam. 

 

 It's about 2 hours to the Western Rim from Vegas. We drove through the Joshua Tree National Recreation Area. There's a whole bunch of these trees and that is about it.

 As we got closer to the Grand Canyon (you can see it there in the distance), it didn't look like I expected it to. I just figured you would drive up to it and there would be a huge canyon down below. The rocks you see in the background are the other side of the canyon. If you kept driving, you'd fall off the side into the canyon (does that make sense?). 

The Western Rim is on the Hualapai Reservation, so we had to pay to get on the reservation and then pay for the shuttle service to get to the canyon. The Southern Rim is what most people think of when they think of the Grand Canyon. It is deeper and has even better views. Plus there is hiking at the Southern Rim. The Southern Rim is still on my bucket list, but this was three hours closer to Vegas. 

 

At Eagle Point, you get off the shuttle and you can literally walk right up to the edge of the canyon. I was a nervous wreck! Even Clay, who is a daredevil, wasn't willing to get too close. Both of us were surprised how many people let their kids run around and play near the edge. It was nuts! One little girl tripped on loose gravel literally within 10 feet of a 4,000 foot drop! I walked away after that.

If you look closely in the pictures you see the Skywalk (a horseshoe-shaped bridge jetting out over the canyon). It has a glass-bottomed floor. I actually went on it. I held onto the railing the entire time (like that would do me any good if it fell) and looked down only once or twice. I didn't linger. Clay stayed out on it for awhile. They don't let you take cameras or personal items on it (but are willing to take pictures that you can purchase)... so I have no pictures to prove it.

 

 These two are from Guano Point, which I think is the prettier of the two points.

January 19

We woke up with plans to go hiking at Red Rock Canyon. But first we sat through a timeshare presentation to get free tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show. We knew we wanted to do a Vegas show, but when we saw that even the discounted tickets were about $100 per person, we decided we would sit through a timeshare schpeel. It sucked. But we scored free tickets.

 This was the car we drove in all week. Clay had a rental that he and his co-workers drove out into the Nevada desert. They had alot of rain the first couple of days and this mud was caked onto the Suburban. It made it easy to find in the parking garages (we did eventually get it washed).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We enjoyed a hike in Red Rock Canyon. This is 15 minutes outside of Vegas. This is the one place we visited that I would have taken the kids to. They would have had fun climbing the rocks and seeing the crazy plants/cacti. When the sun sets in Vegas, it seems to set quickly and the temperature drops even quicker.

 

 We saw The Beatles LOVE show. I don't think it had as many dare-devilish stunts Cirque du Soleil is known for, so Clay didn't like it as much as I did. The music was great, the dancing and stunts were great. It was very entertaining.