Las Vegas - Play

Ben flew into Vegas on Friday to hang out with me for the night. First night away from Finn and I got 10 hours of sleep!

Our hotel

The beautiful Wynn




The Palazzo @ The Venetian



Coming Home

Flashback Friday - Babymoon

A few months before I got pregnant, Ben and I decided we needed to go on one last vacation alone before we started having kids. It was all last minute, but we decided to go on a cruise to the Western Caribbean.

Some of our stops: Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Belize, and one other place I can't remember. It wasn't my favorite cruise, I really prefer Eastern Caribbean, but it was still nice. I'm not a fan of Mexico at all, but I loved Play del Carmen, it was beautiful.

Anyways, I am DYING for a beach vacation, so I thought these pictures would cheer me up... but really they just make me more depressed.

Flashback Friday - China 1997

When I was growing up I was very spoiled with my dad being in the advertising business. Practically once a year, our family would get to go on a "media trip". I've gone to London, Rome, Alaska, The Caribbean, Belize and the best was China. I went there in 1997 with my sister Christina, brother Matt and mom.

China is just so different from everything we are used to. I would never think that China would be a great vacation spot, but it is still to this day one of my favorite trips ever.

The Forbidden City.




Tian'anmen Square. No, we did not ask to take pictures with these Chinese people. Everywhere we went they wanted pictures of us. Especially me because I had blond hair. It was like I was Britney Spears or something.



My favorite, the Great Wall of China. It was absolutely beautiful. The mountains were amazing. The bus ride to the Great Wall, was terrifying. They drive like maniacs.




The Summer Palace.




Not sure where this is, but here is a picture of some of the locals.



One of our exciting trips was to the Beijing Zoo. We got lost forever in the stupid zoo and it was raining. We just wanted to see some panda's. We got to see a bunch of other animals. A few grizzly bears that you could shout out Chinese commands to and they'd either dance or pray. And some really sad animals, I guess PETA is good for something in the US because our zoo's are much much nicer.



Mmmmm our favorite place to eat. I lost 10 pounds in a week in China because the food was so horrible. No, real Chinese food isn't the same as Panda Express or PF Changs.



We took Rickshaw rides to the Drum Tower. This is not our original Rickshaw driver. The first driver looked at me and my brother and just said "no". He then recruited this guy, obviously a much bigger stronger man. I was amazed at how well this guy pulled me and Matt up so many hills.




Here are some rice fields.



And here is my mom. I have no idea where this is, I should have blogged about this years ago.

Flashback Friday - Alice

Alice was a rich, plantation owner's daughter. She lived in Myrtle Beach hundreds of years ago. Classic love story, she fell in love with a poor man and her family forbade the relationship. The love of her life gave Alice a ring which she wore around her neck.

Alice became very sick and was on her death bed. Her father noticed the ring around her neck, and threw it out the window into the marshes of South Carolina. Alice died days later from a broken heart.... and a deadly illness.

To this day, people see Alice wandering the coast and marshes of Myrtle Beach searching for her ring. There have also been sightings of her at the graveyard where she was buried.

Alice is buried in the most beautiful graveyard I've ever seen. Huge old trees and beautiful old tombstones.

Legend says, if you walk around Alice's headstone backwards, 13 times, her ring will appear. It worked. You can't really tell because the picture is so small, but if you look really closely you can see the ring I'm pointing at. It looks a little like Precia's wedding ring, but I promise it's Alice's.



This graveyard is one of our favorite stops when we go to Myrtle Beach. Precia and I took my little cousins with us too. They look terrified. I love it.

Turkey and Sobe Bombs

We had one of the best Thanksgivings this year. We headed down to the Ranch in Escalante. We all stayed in the Bed and Breakfast.



Nothing beats riding dirt bikes,




shooting guns,




and eating way too much!





Friday we went hiking at Devil's Garden. I love Utah for all its different landscapes. It was perfect for all the kids and the kids at heart.










Ben tried to sleep in every morning, but Finn and I wouldn't let him.




Finn and Mr. Gids. Best friends already.



Getting Finn naked in the kitchen showing off his muscles...



It was such perfect weather for us, and just absolutely beautiful.





Highlights of the trip that I don't have pictures of include, Kareokee (not really a highlight), Wii, and late night fires, bombs and fireworks.