The Neon Boneyard

While I was researching child-friendly Las Vegas, I stumbled upon the Neon Boneyard. And for those of you who know us well, you know that this was right up our alley. Apparently an eccentric man purchased some land in the questionable part of town and started buying and storing old neon signage on his property. The average shelf-life of a neon sign is 30 years. And since Las Vegas likes to reinvent itself, there were lots of signs for him to buy. Eventually, the intent is to build a museum and refurbish these signs for the museum. The proceeds from the tour fee that his staff collected go towards the building of the museum. You can even write it off on your taxes!

Anyway, we reserved our spot for Friday since that day my Dad had to work. And boy was it worth it. Although we did get some strange looks as we roll up to the tour with Hannah in tow. Most of the group were artsy kids from UNLV. I kept thinking of that scene in "Sweet Home Alabama"... "You brought a baby... to a bar." Yes, yes I realize that this place is not exactly kid-friendly. But look at the pictures - it doesn't look soooo bad. And Hannah's feet hardly touched the ground. Actually I can't believe how good she was - I think she enjoyed the tour too. I took as many pictures as I could of the old, rusty signs and figures. We had perfect weather and our tour group wasn't too big. Although it did take some patience to wait for the group to get out of your shot. I started taking pictures of individual letters so I can spell out Hannah's name. I thought it turned out pretty cool... take that artsy kids.
:)

Springs Preserve

On our second day in Las Vegas, we went to the Springs Preserve. It is a beautiful facility located about 5-10 minutes off of the strip dedicated to educating the public on the history of Las Vegas from an environmental perspective. The site is on the original water resource that was used by the Native Americans that lived there. It is considered the birthplace of Las Vegas.

We spent the day walking around the beautiful dessert gardens, animals exhibits and the educational museum. I imagine that it is a popular spot for class trips. Luckily for us, Thursday was a quiet day and we had most of the facility to ourselves. It is a pretty big place - the Nevada State Museum will eventually be built on the site. Hannah LOVED it. She especially loved the playground with the awesome sand and water table. She also loved looking at the lizard exhibit - all of the lizards scrabbled over to check her out. If you are ever in Las Vegas, I highly recommend this attraction. Even the website is cool.

After the preserve, Hannah got it in her head that she wanted to go swimming. And once that girl gets something in her head - you just better do it or you will NEVER hear the end of it. So even though a crisp wind was blowing hard all day, we got her dressed and headed to the Bellagio pools. Thankfully the big pool was heated, but she only lasted about 15 minutes and never got in past her thighs... sigh. Well, at least she stopped asking to go swimming. Poor thing, because of the wind her little lips turned blue.
:)

Out of the Mouth of Hannah

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was a really cute idea. I asked Hannah these questions on the way home from daycare last week and now she wants to answer questions every time I pick her up. Her exact answers are in italics below.

1. What is something Mommy always says to you?
No.

2. What makes Mommy happy?
Jokes.

3. What makes Mommy sad?
When Hannah says "I'm not your friend."

4. How does your Mommy make you laugh?
Tickle.

5. What was your Mommy like as a child?
Toys.

6. How old is your Mommy?
One.

7. How tall is your Mommy?
Medium-sized.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Work. :(

9. What does your Mommy do when you're not around?
I look for you.

10. If your Mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?
Watching.

11. What is your Mommy really good at?
Games.

12. What is your Mommy not very good at?
Giraffe and Horsey. This one I need to explain, when Chris puts Hannah on his shoulders, she becomes a giraffe and talk about how tall she is. When Chris puts Hannah on his back, we are playing horsey. I really don't do much of either because of my back.

13. What does your Mommy do for her job?
I don't know. This one really stumped her.

14. What is your Mommy's favorite food?
Cheese.

15. What makes you proud of your Mommy?
When we play dress up.

16. If your Mommy were a cartoon character, who would she be?
A pirate.

17. What do you and your Mommy do together?
We play games.

18. How are you and your Mommy the same?
Both lucky.

19. How are you and your Mommy different?
Mommy is tall and I am medium sized.

20. How do you know your Mommy loves you?
Kisses and hugs.

21. What does your Mommy like most about your daddy?
I don't know.

22. Where is your Mommy's favorite place to go?
With me.

:)

THE strangest petting zoo I have ever seen

Finding child-friendly activities in Las Vegas can be a challenge. Luckily my Dad's occupation (tour bus driver) gives him some ideas when he takes local students on class-trips. Mind you, my Dad rarely goes INTO the attractions that he drives to... do you ever remember seeing the guy who drove the bus in the museum? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, so my Dad has truly an "outsider's" perspective of these places. Sometimes that is not a bad thing. Let's take Bonnie Springs, Old Nevada in Red Rock Canyon. We pulled up to this place and hopefully the picture accurately shows that this place is off the beaten path, WAY OFF. It looks a little run down, but hey its supposed to be a Western town, not downtown Tokyo. (Do any of you remember Wild West City?) So we buy our tickets and the lady cheerily says "There's gonna be a shootin' and a hangin' in about five minutes!" Well, sign me up. We head over to the area that the cheery lady directed us to and we proceed to watch one of the worst displays of "acting" I have ever seen. Even the kids didn't buy it. The best part was when the show was over, the sheriff's gun accidentally went off when he was putting it in his holster and he yelped like a school girl. THAT I wish I had on video.

After the show we headed over to the petting zoo. My Dad hangs back, 1) because he is wise and 2) to have a smoke away from Hannah (which I TOTALLY appreciate). Anyway, we get into this caged maze, is the best way I can describe it. There were rows upon uneven rows of small mismatched homemade cages everywhere. The path between the cages was fairly narrow and turned and twisted all around. Everything was on a gradual incline and there were large rocks/boulders everywhere. The best part, since so far all of the animals you have seen are in cages, you think "Oh I get it, it's not really a petting zoo". But then you'd be strolling past a sleeping Bobcat's cage when suddenly around the next corner there was a pig, a pretty big pig just hanging out... NOT in a cage. Then you would see a couple of goats in a cage and another one outside of the cage. In total there was a llama, pig, donkey, rooster, goat and a couple of peacocks outside of their cages. It just made me wonder what these animals did or did not do to get out. Do they take shifts? Which ones are hungry? How sharp are a llama's teeth? Will this donkey kick me? How far to the nearest hospital? Do they have slot machines at the hospital? Ahhh, all the questions that run through your mind when faced with an unusual situation.

Oh and let me not forget the awesome white deer that was all the way in the back of the maze (just beyond the "DO NOT ENTER" sign). He was really cool, but thankfully he was also INSIDE his cage. Luckily, we got through the maze and went off with Grandpa to feed the chubby ducks and swans and bother the sleeping turtles. Hannah absolutely loved it, the Bonnie Springs freaked her parents out just a little bit.
:)

We're back!

We are home and we are happy to report that we did not lose our shirts in Las Vegas! Hannah was very happy to see "Grandpa Vegas" again. I could not believe that it has been more than 2 and a half years since he has seen her. Just seeing the smile on his face made it worth the trip.
We had beautiful weather and were able to find kid-friendly attractions in the city of sin. We were also lucky enough to stay at the Bellagio and while the hotel is not the most kid-friendly, it was so pretty that we forgave it. The first day we headed to the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. It was a pretty nice aquarium, although parts of it were kind of scary so that freaked Hannah out a little bit. It was dark and there were a couple of tunnels set up so the sharks could swim around you. She totally cheered up once we go to the gift shop. Oh well.
Next I will post pictures of the petting zoo.
:)

We're leaving on a jet plane...

... we know when we'll be back again. Stay tuned for fun pictures from Las Vegas.
:)

Ain't we cute?

This picture was taken this evening at the Checkers game. Hannah grabbed both of our necks to bring us closer to her. She is such a sweet girl.
:)

Okay Louie, you've had enough time on the blog.

I really don't have any earth-shattering or interesting stories to share - I'm just tired of seeing the squirrel's picture.

Hannah has a love of jewelry - she likes to wear as much as she can in one sitting. These pictures were taken on St. Patrick's Day. Top of the mornin' to ya!
:)

We now interrrupt the cuteness for an important announcement.

Notice anything strange in these pictures? Besides all the dog hair - look closely. Oh, I don't know, could it be the BABY SQUIRREL HANGING OUT IN JACK JACK'S CAGE?????????

Let me explain. When I got home from work this evening I went to the front room to let Jack Jack out of his cage. As I am approaching the cage I hear a ruckus - unusual for Jack Jack but the alarm bells in my head do not go off just yet. Then I get closer to the cage and I see what reminds me of the hedgehog toys we used to get Pooh Bear (our old dog who we lost three years ago). But wait a minute. Jack Jack doesn't have a hedgehog and wait... IT JUST MOVED. I get a little closer and see that it is a baby squirrel. I slowly approach the door to let Jack Jack out - who looks totally freaked out but not vicious towards the squirrel at all. This confirms my belief that this dog is a total push over. I let him outside and run back to the cage to take pictures. Oh come on, would you believe me if I didn't have proof? Then I call my knight in shining armour who thankfully was only five minutes away. Then I get Hannah to show her BUT DO NOT GET TOO CLOSE I tell her and I figured it was worthwhile because this just doesn't happen everyday. Chris comes home and brings the cage outside, opens the cage and eventually the baby squirrel wanders off.

Here is my theory. We found the point of entry - the upstairs bathroom light fixture. There is a gaping hole in the ceiling because we just found the cutest antique light for it and have not installed it yet. Chris found insulation on the floor which confirms the point of entry and the fact that we now have squirrels in our attic. Nice. Anyway, baby squirrel, I shall call him "Louie", makes it down a full flight of stairs and sneaks into Jack Jack's cage while he is asleep. I'm sure it was all snuggly and warm for Louie. That is until I woke Jack Jack up when we got home. And you know the rest.

So how was your evening?
:)

What a difference a week can make.

Last weekend we had absolutely gorgeous weather. We thought it was the perfect opportunity to bring out one of Hannah's Christmas presents - a sand and water table. To say that she enjoyed playing with it was an understatement. She did not want to stop playing with it. It felt good to know that we... ahem, I mean Santa got her the perfect gift.
:)

What four inches of snow in March will get you...

Snowballs...


a very muddy snowman...


and grassy snow angels.


Regardless, Hannah had a great time until snow got in her boot. Then she was done.
:)