It's Vegas, Baby!

For Labor Day this year we went to go and visit Brandon and Erika in Las Vegas. We were able to see the town and even find some great restaurants.

Here are some pictures of Andreas before we left -- 10 months old.



The first place we went was the Bellagio to look at the fountains and the beautiful flower displays inside. We were hoping for a fall theme, but the summer one was still there. Lots of amazing flowers.



Waiting for the fountain show and looking at the Paris casino
We also went to Freemont Street to look at old Vegas. The best souvenir shopping was there -- so good tip from Erika! The giant screen overhead was cool too.
Andreas watching the show on the screen -- he was so tired he was almost in a coma at this point.

While walking through the casinos we got accosted by the timeshare people to go to their seminar. We agreed so that we could get free tickets to Cher. It was a bit harrowing with a little baby through a 2 hour presentation, but we survived. Here we are waiting for the Cher concert to start (it was at Ceaser's Palace).

They had displays all over the place with her costumes.




We thought Andreas needed some fuzzy dice to make this a complete experience
Here are the lions at MGM Grand. We missed a mauling by one day (after we left), but there were only females when we were there.
You can see them from underneath too
One of the jokes was that Andreas is always trying to trip someone. For some reason, he likes to stick his foot straight out as shown below when strolling around.
Erika had to elbow about 40 people to get this picture, so I had to include it here.
In front of the dumb M&M (his brain was replaced by a peanut)
I think his influence was affecting Saul



This was a sign made all in M&Ms
Then we went to the Coca Cola store that had all of the different Coke products from around the world. We had to hurry and drink them so Andreas could play with the cups.
Notice the evil grin, seeming to say, "Taste the Beverly. It's delicious."
And our reactions to drinking the Beverly...

This bear really creeped us out, but it was our only opportunity to get a picture all together. It was able to blink it's eyes and do all kinds of weird stuff.
We also went to Red Rock park to walk around. By the time we got there we only had a little while before it got dark, but it was still very nice, and not too hot! We even saw a fox (or some other critter) running around.

Saul loves an audience, so any chance he gets he strikes a pose.


In this picture Erika was determined to do a stand alone baby picture. It was a bit death-defying, but it came out cute. Notice Erika's hand...the only barrier between a 20 foot drop and Andreas throwing himself into it.
Overall it was a great trip. The worst part was that we missed our flight leaving, and since I had important meetings at work the next day, we had to take the 1am flight back to Houston. Taking a red eye with a 10 month old is worse than you can imagine, but we survived to tell the tale. But we had a great time with Brandon and Erika and can't wait to see them again soon!

Tree Frog Sunday

So I have reached the conclusion that our house is a really amazing place. It is so universally regarded as awesome that it must be the destination vacation for every critter in the state. After our possum in the garage (which is gone now), today we were heading out to church and getting in the car when Saul said "Hey, there is a weird kind of frog trying to get into our garage." I went over and looked and saw the picture below. It was pretty cool looking so I looked it up and found out it was an American Green Tree Frog.
This was after last night Saul was attacked by a frog standing by Sam's front door. Saul felt so threatened he let the frog into Sam's house, but Sam was able to overcome and took the little guy back outside.




Here is a better picture of what it looked like (from Wikipedia):

Andreas in August

Here are just a few random pictures of Andreas. In these ones we were testing out a new hair style.




And here he is rejoicing in his food. He is just a few months away from no more baby food and getting off of formula.


Here he is reading the paper. I think Saul was trying to help him pick out which computer he wanted to buy.
And here was where Saul took apart one of his toys and tried to turn him into a robot. Or Megaman (a video game character).

Yellowstone July 2010 - Day 6-9 -- Grand Teton National Park

On Day 6 we hooked the trailer up and left Yellowstone to head down to Grand Teton National park. We were pretty tired by the time we were established at our new campsite (at Colter Bay campground), so we decided to take it easy and head into Jackson Hole to look around. We ate some BBQ for lunch and then shopped a bit, and I guess I forgot my camera because I don't have any pictures -- they must all be on Mom & Dad's camera, but I will post them if I can get my hands on them. Then we headed back to the campsite (which was about 45 minutes away). Unfortunately, somehow the keys to the trailer got lost somewhere along the way. So after about an hour of looking for them we had to spend most of the evening trying to find a way to unlock, break in, or find a locksmith to help us. Eventually we found a locksmith and we were able to get into the trailer to make food and enjoy the rest of the evening. Also of note was that this was the only night the whole trip we had a campfire. And even then it was more of a smoke than a fire since the wood we bought apparently was not dry enough. But we were able to have smores, so I was able to get what I wanted in the end. Mom and Dad even bought these special roasting sticks, which worked great. Saul and Mom were each able to cook about 10 at once (perfectly I might add), and then everyone didn't want any more after that. So there is such thing as being too efficient.

Day 7 we spent walking around in Colter Bay. We took a walk around the lake, and then went on a boat tour of the lake area. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride. Unfortunately it must have been right during Andreas' nap time, as he was going wild, but other than that it was a great way to see the sites! They also had a Native American history museum that we went through.













The boat tour guide showed us this eagle's nest, although we were not able to see the eagles.
Way up on the mountain there was a waterfall, but not sure if you are able to see it in this picture.
After we finished in Grand Teton National Park we drove down to Wind River Wyoming to stay at the Longhorn campground. Saul was excited to see longhorns outside of Texas, so he had to snap a picture. This was actually a very nice campground.
Here is a picture of our 28' trailer rental. In hindsight, we didn't realize the fridge was sucking our battery most of the time, so we probably should have just turned it off. Also, the seats that fold out into beds are not great for adults -- more for kid size folks. But overall we thought the rental was a great idea and allowed us to be closer to nature and to see the parks more easily. And it sure beats sleeping in tents , especially when it got down to the low 30s one night.
Day 8 we continued on driving to Casper and dropped off the trailer. Afterward, we went to Burger King (where Saul got the hat in the picture below) and then drove on to Longmont. We stayed at a hotel there and enjoyed taking showers in our own rooms for as long as we wanted and letting the baby get a long rest.
Saul insisted on wearing the hat this way so that Edward was facing forward and you couldn't see Jacob.

On Day 9 we drove around Greeley again and reminisced with Mom & Dad (well ok, I did. Saul fell asleep in the car). Then we just kind of walked around in Loveland until it was time to head back to the airport in Denver for Saul and I to fly back to Houston. Overall we had a great time and saw a lot of really beautiful things. We certainly hope to be back to Yellowstone and we loved spending the time with Mom & Dad.