It's Circus Time

For the past week, we have been in Las Vegas. I took the kids here to Vegas, while Jeremy is stuck working. Don't feel too sorry for him, he didn't want to come. We have done tons of stuff. The kids have done many fun activities with all of their cousins that they never get to see. They have gone to the Children's Museum, gone to the mountains, had a sleep over, gone swimming, and they even got to go to the circus. Their Aunt Margaret, who is quite thrifty and is always looking for a great deal, got us free tickets to the Circus at the Orleans. The kids were quite excited. Here they are waiting for the show to begin.

Hunter couldn't keep his eyes off them at the beginning. His eyes were opened so wide to the fireworks and motorcycles at the beginning. Towards the end though, he was tired. It was a very late night for them. If you asked him after if he liked it, he said NO! Though when I asked him the next day, his answer was very different.
We loved the elephants. I think that was one of my favorites. They were soooo cool. Megan said, she wanted to ride one.

And here is the finale. They had acrobats, shootings out of cannons, magic tricks, tigers, dog tricks, horse tricks, tight rope walkers, and so much more. What a night. Though don't ever try to buy anything at the circus. I couldn't believe how much they wanted for anything there. I had to tell the kids that it is better to just enjoy the show instead of trying to buy anything. For once, they didn't give me a hard time for saying no.

Here the kids are after the show. As you can see, Hunter is the only one not smiling. He was very tired. Went to sleep right away that night. Over all, the kids enjoyed it. What a fun night.

Fun in the Sun *

One thing about Las Vegas in the summer is pools are very very nice. The kids have had the opportunity to hang out with some cousins. This is great for them, since we live so far in Alabama. They have been able to do some fun stuff. This time, they got to swim at their Uncle Kerry and Aunt Marni's house. Megan loves her cousin Athena, so this was a treat. We are so grateful that they let us come over and hang with them for the afternoon. I thought I would just post a few pictures of the fun that they had. Up above is Emilee with her cousin Lexi, and down below is Megan, Emilee, Hunter, and their cousin Kristi.

Better Late then Never........

So, when it comes to teaching my children to know their letters and sounds, counting, reading, adding, subtracting, and all that other educational stuff, I am pretty good. When it comes to teaching my children how to ride a bike, not so good. Jeremy and I have definitely been slackers at teaching them this skill. Though, I will attribute some of it to the place where we live. Our neighborhoods have not always been the best place to teach them. For example, our neighborhood now is very hilly. Well, I took the kids to visit some family in Las Vegas and my dad has been working with them. They are almost experts now in the riding the bike skill. Their Aunt Margaret has even been taking them out in the mornings and helping them practice. What is that saying, "It takes a village to raise them" Well, I guess that is the case here. At least they know now, right? Look at them ride, just like they have been riding their bikes for years. We will just have to help them keep it up when we get home. Hopefully we will be better with Hunter, since now he is wanting to learn.

Megan's birthday present (Lexington, KY)

Jeremy makes trips up to Lexington, KY every so often for work. He was due for another trip the first week of June, so for Megan's birthday present, Megan and I tagged along. Some of you might not know this, but Megan loves horses. She is always asking for one ( though I tell her, what little girl doesn't want her very own horse) and enjoys anything that has a horse on it. Lexington, KY is known as the horse capital of the world, so what a perfect place to take a little girl who loves horses. She was very excited. The day after we got there, we took her to the Kentucky Horse Park. I don't think I have seen so many horses in one place, ever. We saw miniature horses, artisan Egyptian horses, carriage rides, ponies, racing horses, and even a horse cemetery. (Now did you know that when they bury a horse, they bury its head, heart, and hooves only. This is suppose to be the essence of the horse. The rest they cremate and throw its ashes around the park and track for good luck) This is just an example of some of the things that we learned. The highlight of the day was horseback riding. This is what Megan was looking forward the very most.
Here is Megan on her horse named Riddick. My horse's name was Kamikaze. Megan was a little nervous when she was on the horse at first. It kept moving around the area, which was OK. I kept telling Megan that when we were on the trail, the horse would do quite well. The trail leaders assured Megan that Riddick was their most gentle horse and knew the trail very well. When we got started, Megan relaxed and both her and Riddick did great. When we were done, Megan wanted another time slot. I said not today, let's just enjoy the rest of the horses. Doesn't she look great on that horse?

Here she is again on Riddick. Megan is a little nervous here as Riddick goes down to get a drink of water. It was more then just Megan and I going on the trail, so we had to wait in this area, until everybody was saddled up. I haven't been on a horse for about 18 years so I was a little nervous myself, but we all did great. They were really well trained horses.

This little miniature horse is named Soapy. They call him Soapy because it looks like he has soap suds all on his back. Megan just loved this miniature horse. She was determined to convince Jeremy that we needed to get one of our very own. She even tried to say that a miniature horse would make a great lawn mower, eating all the grass all of the time. As you can guess, Jeremy did not see the light in her logic. Go figure.

At the horse park, they had a section of these exotic champion show horses. This is some Egyptian horse that was there. Megan really liked this one, because they shared the same birthday. I have to tell you, I have never felt such a smooth and soft horse. Even her nose ( yes most these show horses were fillies), was very soft. They were very beautiful horses.

In Lexington, they also had a children's museum that was not to far from the hotel. Since we have a pass ( which can get us into most children's museums around the country), we decided to take Megan there. This is a moon exhibit. Almost looks like Megan is living on the moon. Megan says often that she is going to be the first woman to step on the moon. That is one thing about living in Huntsville, NASA is located here so Megan learns a lot about space and rockets.

As Megan and I drove back to Alabama, we stopped at some caves in Kentucky. This area is called "Cave City", because of the many different caves there are. The cave we chose to tour was called, Diamond Cave. It is called this because the guy that discovered it thought he hit jackpot by finding all these diamonds that were through out the cave. He was mistaken. They weren't diamonds at all, but they were colorful calcite that was all over the cave. We learned many things going through it and loved looking at all the stalactites and stalagmites.

We had a good time. It was a great trip. We were hoping to go to a couple of the horse farms around Lexington, but after our awesome day at the horse park, it rained the rest of the time we were there. It is a good thing we decided to do the park first.