Day 6 - Hailey visits the Strip

Friday, March 26

I'm not sure what Hailey visiting the Las Vegas Strip at 8 months of age says about our parenting but, we are having fun and she loved everything about Casear's Palace and the Belliago ..... mainly all the people to look at, she gave eyes to Elvis and the water fountains had her giggling.

Family picture at one of the fountains in Caesar's Palace.  Thanks to a nice couple with really really southern accents ....

The Altantis show in Caesars ..... it a hot one.

We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory next to a couple that live in southern BC now but lived in Grande Prairie for 20 years.  I think this Cheesecake Factory is so much better than other ones out there not sure why but just seems it is.  Ian and I ate here in 2007 as well.

Watching the fountain show at the Belliago.

We then went back to the hotel for awhile.  Played Hailey out with some crawling and a bath.  Got here all ready for bed and then headed down to do a Strip Cruise with the other MINIs for 9pm.  Hailey sleep through it all and I tried to get some pictures of the lights of Vegas.  Unfortunately, the new format they tried to use for the strip cruise didn't end up with many MINI clutters but it was cool to see the strip for a vechile and not pay a cabbie!

Here are a few pictures of the lights:

Day 5 - The Valley of Fire

Thursday, March 25

After a great sleep, we got up at 7:30 - thank you, Hailey! - We knew we wanted to get going a little earlier to look around at the Boot N' Bonnet show a the MINI show before taking off at noon to drive out to the Valley of Fire.

Here is our MINI, Sharpie.  All cleaned up and ready to rally!

Hailey is looking very excited to be going on her first MINI rally.

I like cats and all but this is a bit overboard.  Ian passed it on our first opportunity on the way to the Valley of Fire.

Heading out of I-15 North of Vegas.

Motoring to the Valley of Fire ... getting into the red sandstone.

Arrive at the Valley of Fire State Park.

Muster point at the Vistors Centre.  We then took off into the park after a snack.

We got some great pictures of the different rock formations.

Sharpie was here!

Much happier after a nap ...... the MINI windows are great for her to see out so when she isn't sleeping she can be heard just chatting away or totally quiet looking out the window. 

Last picture from the D3000 for the day as the camera battery died and I haven't uploaded the point and shoot yet.

The weather in North Vegas was crazy windy all day but once we were out at the Valley of Fire.  The sun was shining with clear skies and about 22 deg C.

We got back to the hotel about 4 pm and spent the rest of the afternoon getting a new card tuning and looking at the vendor booths.  Hailey picked up a new onsie that reads 'Future MINI driver' and I got my first MINI t-shirt.  There was an awesome seatbelt purse that was checkered white and black but I thought on it too long and the one I liked was gone on Friday ... though I got the website for future gift ideas.

Hailey was out really early and Ian fell asleep behind here.  I ventured down to the Casino to give a donation (Haha!) and got back in time to watch Grey's and Private Practice.   I was asleep by 11 pm - don't think I've every gone to bed so early in Vegas.  But, I usually don't get up at 7:30 either in Vegas.

Day 4 - Arrive in Vegas

Wednesday, March 24

We arrived in the North Vegas area this afternoon.  However, all the pictures are on the point and shoot from the drive down here and I forgot that in the MINI which is parked in the parking garage on the other side of the hotel.  Anyone that has been to Vegas knows that a quick run down to the car is nothing quick at all..... a mile or so later you have made it to point A and you have to come back up yet.

We left SLC about 8:30 this morning and motored in about  3 pm.  The views along the way was amazing, so much to see.   The landscape changed over and over.  We stopped at a Carls Jr along the way and I think Ian found his new fast food favorite.  Then we stopped again in St George, UT - I was trying to go to the Robert's Arts and Crafts but where the GPS said it was it wasn't, I knew I should have put the website address in the GPS favorites last night.  So, I found a Target that was close by, Ian dropped us off and headed to car wash so, that Sharpie could be all sparkly when we rolled into Vegas.  There are about 75 cars here right now and loads to arrive tomorrow and Friday.

We had a great meal at TGI Fridays .... Hailey is fast asleep ..... Ian went down to gamble away $20 ... I laughed and said you know it will be $50! Tomorrow, we are doing a run to the Valley of Fire park and sleeping in ...... well according to Hailey that will be about 8:30-9 am ... but sounds better than 7 am.  How am I ever going to be ready to go back to work and get up around 6 am to get ready to get Hailey to the dayhome .... I hope July takes a long time to get here.

Night!  Pictures tomorrow .......

Day 3 - Salt Lake City

Tuesday, March 23

We spent today in Salt Lake City.  We were up bright and early so that we could meet a tour group for 8:40 am this morning.  The drive into the downtown hotel area was only about 10 minutes.  We took a 4 hour bus tour around the downtown SLC area getting a history lesson on all things Utah, Salt Lake City and learning about the Church of Latter Day Saints or simply all things Mormom.  Ian and I both learnt alot, we were so happy we did the tour.  The tour included driving around to all the sites including the old manison street, University of Utah, 2002 Olympic sites, Olympic athletes village, Temple Square, Trolley Square, Hertiage Park area and the State Capitol building.  I've included some pictures from the day.

This 1st picture is actually from the morning we left Butte, Montana. It had snowed overnight and Ian's hard work on cleaning up the MINI were already dirty.

The Olympic Athletes Village. We didn't get out so this is the best I could get from the bus. The village was turned over to the University of Utah to use for dorms. Interesting fact: During the Olympics in 2002, (just 4 months after 9/11), the University was closed down for 3 weeks. Gates were erected around the entire campus, which is huge, and the perimeter was patrolled by the National Guard. The Athletes Village which is on the campus was also surrounded by an electric fence and only the athletes could come and go.

I really needed my sunglasses.  A picture of us in front of an old wagon in the Heritage Park.  Like all heritage parks in SK and AB this one depicks life as a Mormom settler.

This picture is from lunch and it is important as it shows Hailey and her forward crawl which she has now perfected in Salt Lake City.  She got it down pat on Monday night and though she isn't very speedy yet she is going forward. I am sure by the weekend we will be having to lasso her.

Not sure exactly which this building is right now but it is one of the building at Temple Square which is the headquarter area for the Mormom church. 

This is a really great picture that Ian got of the Cathedral at Temple Square.

Another great one by Ian.  This is the church organ at Temple Square.  We saw about half of the noon rectial before Hailey got to rowdy.  The acoustics in this building are amazing.  We got here a pin drop in a tin cup from the front stage.  The lights behind the organ changed color.  I'm not a very religious girl but this was definitely cool.

State Capitol Bldg

Hailey and I in the State Capitol Bldg.  Bldg had marble columns and marble slabs everywhere.  Doesn't Hailey look thrilled!

And last, another picture of Hailey on the bus at the end of the tour.  Ian thinks this looks like something Virginia would do for us.  I think he can use the Nikon D3000 better than me and I've done all the reading.

We went for supper tonight to a Brazilian restuarant.  It was an unique experience, you served yourself at the salad bar then by the salad bar were the sides as well.  You had a little marker on your table that you turned to green when you wanted the meat service, turned it to red to wait and laid it on its side when you were done.  The best thing I think we tasted were the sweet and hot chicken and the garlic steak.  However, we left both the point and shoot and D3000 in the hotel room.  I thought Ian had it, Ian thought I had .... at least we always remember Hailey.

We are off to North Vegas tomorrow am. 

MINI Vacation - Day 1 and Day 2

Sunday, March 21 and Monday, March 22

Not a lot of pictures to upload yet as the last two days have been alot of driving.  Actually about 1400 km in 2 days.

We left about 9:30 am on Sunday morning and made it into Butte, Montana by 6 pm.  It was a long day of driving as Hailey wouldn't really settle down so, I sat in the back with her for quite awhile and I ended up being the one that sleep. 

After, a long night in the hotel where the little one didn't really really want to sleep for long periods, we were up at 6 am and back on the road after a great breakfast at 7:30 am. 

We drove through the rest of Montana, breezed through Idaho, only stopping once for lunch at Denny's around noon and arrived in Salt Lake City at 3 pm.  Hailey was amazing today, she slept and just looked out the window most of the day.  About 4 pm, we took off to explore and went to the Gateway Shopping Centre.  Turns out that this was close to where the NBA Utah Jazz play and the centre was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics.  We had a great dinner at a Southwestern Grill.

It is now 9 pm, Hailey is asleep.  Both, Ian and I are also tired.  We have a bus trip tour of Salt Lake City tomorrow that will take us through the Mormom temple area and the State Capitol building.  So, I will have some pictures to post tomorrow.

We plan on staying in SLC until Wednesday morning then we will be off to the MINI rally in North Vegas.

I should really post a picture of our great little ride but, I am too lazy to pull out the camera cord. 

Good night from Utah!

Monday Night Class Sketch Challenge #6

It is Sketch Challenge #6 at the MondayNightClass BLOG again.  This is my second time as one of the designer who took on the sketch.  However, this is the first time that I had done the kit that the sketch was based off of.  All Girl & Proud of it was one of the first kits I did one time at the Bloomin' Inn.  I have included it here today as I've never posted it on my blog before.  The pages were made in September 2008 when I was at the Inn with my Mom.  The pictures are all of my niece, Katelynn and myself when Katie was just a few months old.  She is now 4 1/2 and I have my very own daughter ........

I love how multiple pieces of patterned paper are used.  I used to suck at doing this until one day, Christy told me the secret to using mulitple pieces of patterned paper is to make sure to bridge at least one of the pieces onto both pages.  It was a total revoluation to me that day now, I am not sure how I could be so silly.  The only thing I knew before was to try to use the same line of paper as they tend to go together.  However, now I can cross manufacturer lines with this little secret.  (though I didn't do this here as well I love Basic Grey)

My 'Take Flight' layout was a calbration between my husband and myself on the weekend. I was scrapping in the cold basement and he was playing guitar.  I was asking him for some ideas as I didn't want to just do the basic title 'new' or 'precious' - I wanted more!  So, he started talking about how alert she was for only 12 days and then of course, I had this butterflies that I wanted to use as I seem to use butterflies on layouts alot with Hailey (i.e. see last post and page 107 in the current issue of Cdn Scrapper where my layout was published - I should really blog about that!)

So, I wrote my journalling out in pencil of course and I came up with  .......
"At 12 days old you were so alert beyond most newborns.  It is not hard to tell that you are going to be a beautiful, adventurous little girl that will have so much to offer the world.  Take flight my little butterfly, there is no cacoon that will hold you back.  July 21, 2009"

Well after that journalling, it was easy to pick the title of 'take flight' - I should use my cricut more for titles but I have a huge infatutation with American Craft Thickers and I need to use them in order to justify buying more ... .makes total sense ... RIGHT!!

Supplies
Patterned paper: all pp Basic Grey, Bittersweet
Embellishments: all BG except butterflies, Heidi Swapp and Rhinestones are Dollarama brown color (loves these - makes not even bat an eye when I put the whole package of 100 on the layout!)

Crop 4 Kids on Saturday, MINI roadtrip on Sunday ... so much to do between now and then ..... laundry, packing (for both crop and trip) plus I have 4 kits for MNC that all need a few finishing touches on them ... I have to do that and hand them off to Christy before I leave!  I hope to post once before I leave .... if not then it might just be our trip for the next 3 weeks.

My Girl

This is a layout a created for the Canadian Scrapbooker  - summer issue which was a call for your view from ...... I choose to do one a bit unusually and I did the view from above Hailey's crib.  It didn't get picked but I still like the idea of the layout and the new My Mind's Eye product.

We are one week away from leaving on our 2 1/2-3 week MINI vacation.  The MINI part is that we are taking Ian's car on a roadtrip to a MINI rally in vacation and then driving back through San Diego, San Franciso, Seattle .... we are looking forward to it.  I have decided to use my blog as my journal of pictures and where we are as I'm not one to write it down on paper and I really want to document this so I don't forget anything when I go to scrapbook it.  But, before I leave I am attending Crop 4 Kids on Saturday.  I am looking forward to a day of scrapping with some friends and cropping to help the AB Childrens' Hospital.

I did a great 2 page layout for the MondayNightClass blog sketch challenge that Kim will be posting in the next few days.  Once, it is up I will show you my 'Take Flight' layout of my little angel.  Today, we went and had pictures done again by our photographer, Virginia Booth.  We always have so much fun at her photo shoots.  I can't wait to see the pictures.  More scrapping!

Layout Supplies:

Paper: MME, Bo Bunny

Embellishments: clear Dew Drops, MME

Her Smile

I thought I'd taken a better picture of this layout and cropped it but, I see that it is just so so. Look past my photography skills and I hope you enjoy the layout.

I had some pictures taken with Hailey in November. The one in which she is holding my finger and smiling is one of my favorites. I also, love her hat.

I made this layout when I was in Arizona. It started out as a one page then I decided to use the second picture and add another page as I had lots of elements and embellishments I wanted to use. The rose were made from the scallop circle punch, crumpled and layered up. There has been a lot of tutorials on this rose in blog land.

Supplies: My Mind's Eye, Bazzill, Prima crystals, dimensional fluid