Magical Forest

We went with our friends to the Magical Forest here in Vegas a few days ago. It's a really cool place, with lots of Christmas lights, a train, giant slide, and yummy elephant ears (or funnel cakes for West Coast people). Don't do what we did and go on a Friday night! It was BUSY with LOTS of people everywhere. Except for the lines, we had a great time. The kids, Claire and Aedan, did great, even with the lines. It's always fun to hang out with friends!

More Magical Forest Pictures

Apparently, it was only go to let me upload 4 pictures a post, so here are a few more...

Kathy, Claire and Aedan on the slide


Claire and Aedan competing in a Big-Wheel Race


Claire with the cute snowman


Daddy and Claire!

Hot Air Balloon Experiment

Claire decided she wanted to make a hot air balloon. Well, Yaya (my mom, Ellen) was staying for the weekend at the time. When Yaya's here, projects are a major business. Claire and Yaya got to work, made sketches, and started to make a working prototype. Here is the final project. It turned out really good! You could put a blow dryer in the hole on the top piece and it would actually blow up the "balloon" part! I have a movie of it I will attach. Claire couldn't just make the hot air balloon, she also made crash helmets, safety-first, of course. Claire and Yaya modeled the helmets for me so you could see how neat they are. If you can't tell, they are lined for comfort too. In the one picture, she's holding her travel box. It has emergency supplies, snacks, water, note paper and pencil, map, along with many other essential items while flying in a hot air balloon. (It's still packed in her room, if you need it the next time you're flying in a hot air balloon.)


Claire amazes me with the things she thinks of..... Right now we are making a catalog of all the Nevada license plates we see as we drive around time, just because it should be done. (It doesn't matter the DMV has these records already, Claire thought they needed to be written out, just in case.)

Wild Animal Park

For Claire's birthday, we went on a world-wind trip to Disneyland and Wild Animal Park. Here are a couple of pictures from our day at San Diego's Wild Animal Park. I think it was her favorite part of the trip. She got to be outside, look at cool animals, and take LOTS of pictures. What could be better? Not much, according to Claire. (Plus, it was PERFECT weather!)

I can see!

For those of you that don't know, 2 1/2 years ago I had LASEK surgery back in Michigan. It turned out great and I had 20/20 vision!! But, a few weeks ago, I started noticing my vision changing slightly....I couldn't quite see the billboards and road signs like I thought I should. Headed to the eye doctor, and yup, my eye-sight had changed FOR THE WORSE! Ugh! So glasses it is, at least for night driving and playing tennis. (It is helpful to see the little green ball coming at you!) While we were at the eye doctors, I had Claire sit in my lap to read the eye chart while we waited. And, yup, she couldn't read the chart either! So, another appointment was made and us two girls got glasses the same day! Everyone calls us twins all the time, and now we both added glasses....on the same day......and we have the SAME prescription! So funny. Luckily, Claire LOVES her glasses and wears them all the time (I guess it is helpful to be able to see!)