Las Vegas Vision Expo West

Well, we just had to take advantage of the Vision Expo and had to force ourselves to take a trip to the playland of Las Vegas!!! What better excuse to visit Las Vegas than to have a Optometry Conference there? So off went the two Optometrists in the family with wives in tow and children left behind to play in the bright lights of Vegas! Me and Kev, Shawn and Stephanie. We had a great trip. Our little munchkins were left in the good hands of Stephanie's brother and sister and since it was all cousins together, they had a blast and we knew that they'd be happy. So with the kids taken care of, the parents could play. It was officially our first time ever away from Jadeyn, but we knew he was in good hands.
Kevin and Shawn did two days at the conference and built up their CE credits and really did enjoy it. Stephanie and I hit the town and the shops and then joined our men for the delicious buffets and evenings on the town!
Kevin has always wanted to stay at the Paris Hotel on the strip. It was the perfect place to stay: very elegant, conveniently located and the atmosphere was sweet!

We made sure that we had our evenings packed with food and shows. We ate at several buffets and then walked it all off on the strip. Kevin cracked us up at one buffet. Now he doesn't look like a guy who could take down eight desserts in one sitting, but try he did!



















Our favorite show was Le Reve. By far one of the most amazing shows we have ever seen. The entire show took place above, below, on and around a 10,000 gallon pool. Performers twirled above, dove into, submerged under and flew all over the stage. It was breath-taking. We would see it again several times in a heart-beat.



















While our husbands attending the Vision Conference, Stephanie and I hit madame Tusseau's Wax Museum and had fun taking pictures.





←You're going down Johnny Depp! → Me and Frankie!! Now this is one man that I would have loved to have met!

Me and Steph Uh, not too sure what to say about this next one...

Our last night in Vegas. Kevin and I couldn't imagine going to bed so we took one last evening to wander up and down the strip and take in the sights one last time. We people watched, watched the street performers and peddlers, the fountains and simply enjoyed the perfect 75 degree evening. What a perfect end for a great trip!

Red Cone in the Fall

Red Cone in the fall.

We determined that there is only about a six week window to do this area. Five weeks ago we went and were blocked on Webster Pass by a huge snow drift. This time the drift was gone, but 8 inches of fresh snow replaced it. Beautiful!

At the top of one of the peaks, two beautiful Mountain Goats visited and stayed with us for about 20 minutes. Pretty special experience to be this close to them and not spook them away. They just came walking up the path towards us and a few times Kevin had to hold his hand out and shout to keep them at a safe distance. They were beautiful creatures with a new white winter coat blowing in the breeze.
















Red Cone hill is a VERY steep hill which they have made one-way because of the steepness. The snow made it twice as scary! We passed a few trucks who chickened out and turned back. We took it nice and slow and slid a few times which pushed our hearts in our throats a bit.















As we reached the peak at 12,801 feet, a blizzard decided to come in too. We were grateful that it didn't arrive as we were creeping down the slope, but we decided that it wasn't going to let up and decided to go all the way down. We threw a blanket all the way over Jadeyn's head and went down as fast as we could!!














It was pretty much white-out conditions on the narrow ledge down the mountain. We were glad that we had decided to call it a day because the snow didn't let up and the rain continued all day back at camp.
















Some other hightlights of our short trip were the coming of the beautiful fall leaves. It seemed as if the leaves were changing right before our eyes since the temperature has dropped so rapidly at 10,000 feet where we were camped. We had been to this campground before and Jadeyn knew exactly what was waiting for him: "beads!" They are actually pellets from an airsoft gun, but he has such fun collecting them!

Fingerpainting Day!!!

We sure have a character on our hands!!

RZR Rally 2011

2nd Annual RZR Rally at Taylor Park, Colorado
65+ Polaris RZRs 108 People from 12 different states

Lining up for the morning ride was very organized chaos! Getting 65 RZRs in 4 lines ready to hit the trails with engines roaring was quite humorous! So many fanatics comparing equipment, accessories, paint colors, and everything else. We lined up behind our "fearless leader" Jim who organized most of the event. The 1st day ride we were joined by 10 other RZRs and 13 RZRs for the 2nd day.

Climbing to well over 10-12,000 feet multiple times a day, we got to take in the beautiful Colorado landscape of the Rocky Mountains. We had fantastic weather every morning (once the fog burned off) until around 3pm when the clouds rolled in, thunder rolled and the rain came down for about an hour or so. But hey, the rain kept down the dust!!















When you pass others on the trail you would hold up a number of fingers indicated the number of people still behind you in your group. Well, what do you do when there are 14 of you? We made quite a scene to our fellow trail riders who didn't know what was going on! :)















Most of the group camped in a huge open space where they could sprawl out in their Toyhaulers. We were one of three who tent-camped. We stayed in a campground about 4 miles from the group near Taylor Reservoir.















There were 5 kids (I think) at the Rally and Jadeyn quickly hooked up with the boys. He and Jacob (in the Mater T-shirt) enjoyed a whole day together on the trail! There was a "minor" breakdown on our ride when our leader broke a main bolt holding the arm bars together, so we had a nice 90 min lunch break in the forest. It was great to sit and chat with everyone and let the boys tear around in the trees!




















I love this picture of one of the trails winding up the mountain! Some in our party weren't from Colorado and really learned the meaning of the ROCKY Mountains! We bounced around and then would fly on the smooth straight-aways!
















Here are Frank and Jim, our leaders! Who would have thought that on top of organizing the whole extravaganza that they would feed the entire group both nights!!! Wow! And finally a group photo of almost everyone who was there. Funny thing is, all 65 RZRs are behind us all in three rows, but there were so many of us, you can't see them!