Viva Las Vegas!!

It was due time for us to take a break and go on vacation... Wayne took Michael to Logan to stay with his parents and from what I hear, he is loving it!

Wayne and I met my sister Cindi and her husband Eric in St. George yesterday then drove to Las Vegas. We are staying at one of our time shares here and had a great welcome party last night. There was live entertainment and they asked Wayne, who they thought was Danny Gokey from American Idol (I know it's kind of funny!!) to sing... Of course he didn't sing. A few people did come up and ask me or him if he was Danny Gokey, or that he looked a lot like him. We did stand up to introduce ourselves as owners and as a joke, Wayne introduced himself as Danny Gokey, then said he was kidding and gave his real name.

Today, I actually got to sleep through the night without a toddler coming into bed with us or waking me up because he has to pee.... It was fabulous!! Then I got to sleep in until 9 am which is un heard of at my house.

We drove up to Jean, NV to the Buffalo Bills Casino and Hotel to ride the biggest roller coaster which is the largest and fastest roller coaster in Nevada. It was awesome!! We rode it twice and had a blast! It was worth it!

Tonight we are going to see 'The Lion King' and are very excited about that! We got a free CD of the music last night at our welcome party so that was a nice surprise for us.

Vikingsholm

Today, our last day here at Lake Tahoe, we hiked down to Vikingsholm Castle on the shore of Emerald Bay. It was a mile hike down hill, then of course a mile hike uphill. We are so out of shape!! We are now so sore from the hike.

Once we hiked down we saw the beautiful castle.

This is the view from the front of the castle. I would love to have this kind of front yard!

Then, we took another small hike from the visitors center, just east of the castle up to Eagle Falls. This is a picture of the waterfall, which as you can see is non existent. It would be gorgeous in the spring time though with the winter rundown.

Heavenly Flyer

Today, we went up the the Heavenly ski resort up the Gondola and then we rode on the flyer which was AWESOME!!

We rode up the Heavenly Gondola 9,156 feet, which was also very steep. The view was spectacular!

We got to get off at the top of the mountain for an awesome view.

Then we got back on the Gondola to get to the ski resort. There was rock climbing, blow up slide for kids, a restaurant , trails and tons of lounge chairs. We hiked and lounged- we were prepared and had our books- while we waited for our turn to get on the flyer.

At 3:00, it was finally our turn for the Heavenly Flyer. We took another lift up another 3,100 feet where we prepared for a 525 foot drop. Sweet!! We had fun talking with the other people in our group, mostly women, who were going on about how nervous yet excited they were. I was more excited. During the 525 foot drop, and 3,100 foot length, you could go about 60 MPH.

Me and Wayne had the pleasure of going first. We got strapped in and were told to lift our feet up off the ground and lean against the gate. Then they opened the gate and we soared off. It was exhilirating!! You felt so free as you flew down the mountain over the trees. It was awesome! It lasted about a minute, but it was still worth it! Once we got to the bottom, there were coils to slow us down. Then, we were unhooked and just slid down out of the seat. What a thrill!!

MSDixie II Dinner Dance Cruise

Last night we went on our Dinner Dance Cruise across the Lake to Emerald Bay. The MS Dixie II is a paddle wheeler, which also has five diesel engines to help it along. It was a sunset cruise, which was really neat, but by the time we got to Emerald Bay, it was hard to see Fannette Island as well as the Vikingsholm Castle. So, some of our pictures didn't turn out because our camera sucks at night time. Oh well... We did see through the big spot light the paddle boat shown on the Island and Castle, but it would have been better with day light.

It took an hour to get to Emerald Bay. It was kind of sad that there were people there who were already drunk before getting on the boat. So, it was kind of interesting. Some people are funny drunks, but these people were the annoying kind. Most of them belonged to a big biker group and came together, so they probably were feeding off of each other in their drunkeness. Some of the guys would stand on the front of the boat with their arms wide open and looking up at the sky... they were impersonating Rose from The Titanic.

It was so cold on the top deck. We stayed on top for the whole hour to the Bay to watch the sunset. My poor ears were frozen. Cuddle time!! It was fun to watch the sun set. it was really pretty seeing the reflection of the sun along the shore of the lake. Despite not having the sunlight to see the Fannette Island, it was still cool to see that close.

We were then called down to dinner. We sat with a couple from Colorado, which we had met up on the top deck. They were really fun to talk to. For dinner, we had shrimp cocktail, caesar salad with garlic bread sticks, choice of steak, artichoke heart stuffed chicken, Mahi Mahi, or ravioli. Wayne chose the steak and I the Chicken. For dessert there was a chocolate trilogy cake. It was really tasty!

After dinner, there was a live band playing and dancing on the middle level indoors. A lot of people danced and got all crazy, it was fun to watch them. Me and Wayne went up top for a minute to see the stars for about 5 minutes, that was about all I could handle of the cold. :) We spent the rest of the evening watching the people make fools of themselves dancing and singing. We did sing along as we watched.

We had a good time on the boat. It would have been funner if we had some close friends with us, but that is ok. We still had a great time.

Emerald Bay

Wayne and I drove to Emerald Bay today. WOW is all I can say! It was beautiful! The water was so blue and clear! And the trees were everywhere and so tall!

The Island is called Fannette Island and is the only island on Lake Tahoe.

After Emerald Bay, we kept driving and finally turned around at Meeks Bay. It is a 71 mile drive all the way around the lake at 35 miles per hour... that's why we turned around. On our way back through, we stopped at the Taylor Creek Visitors Center, which was really cool. The actual center was nothing, but they had a Rainbow Trail that was really cool. It was beautiful and well worth the walk.

Halfway through the trail, there was a really cool underwater observatory where we could see the fish and crawdaddys.

Lake Tahoe

Wayne and I are at Lake Tahoe for a week without my cute little Michael. It is kind of wierd being without him. We are so greatful for Wayne's Mom, Elese, who is kind enough to spend the week at my house watching Michael. It helps to know that he is in good hands.

We are staying at our Worldmark Resort in Tahoe 3. This is the view from our building.

It is Beautiful here! I want to come again next year. The atmosphere is so nice and peaceful. If we could ever afford it, we would love to have a summer home up here, or somewhere like this.

We were hoping to actually sleep in since Michael won't be up at the crack of dawn to jump in bed with us, but the sun woke us up way too early! Our Resort is at the top of the mountain over looking the lake, so that doesn't help our cause with the sun.

We went on an awesome hike this afternoon which gave us a great view of the lake. It was amazing! The hike we chose was a short .25 miles called the Vista.

We got off the trail and hiked a big rock and were amazed at the view. We stayed on that rock until the wind picked up and started freezing my face. It was so beautiful! I couldn't help but think of how God created this spot and how enjoyable and peaceful it was to just sit and watch.

Minnetonka Cave

Today, we went to the Minnetonka Cave in Idaho. Click here to see a short video of the cave. It was awesome! Michael loved it and loved to order Daddy to walk (he was sitting in the baby backpack for part of it, until he insisted on walking himself) It definitely was an adventure for him, and us. The temperature inside the cave is an average 40 degrees and there are 444 steps into the cave, then you have to walk back another 444 steps for a total of 888 steps. The formations inside the cave were awesome! They have named a few of the formations the seven dwarfs, miss piggy, bacon, pile of gold (located in the treasure room) and more. We could also see into the devils office and they have a stairway called 'The Stairway to Heaven'. The last room in the cave is called the wedding room. Formations in that room include: the bride, groom (the bride is growing from the bottom, and the groom growing down from the top & when they finally reach eachother in 5,000 years they will be married, so they have a very long engagement) also, there is the organ, and the mother-in-law (also known as the witch) hehe. On the way back through the cave, we could touch one rock, which happened to be slimy and smooth. In early spring there is a small river going through part of the cave (but it wasn't there when we visited today) that runs down somewhere. A while ago, people put dye in the water to see where it went to, but never found it... interesting. On the walk back to the exit, Michael ran off and tripped and fell. He started screaming so loud and being in the cave, it echoed. We were in the back of the line, so everyone was looking back because they thought that maybe he fell down the stairs. I had to tell everyone he was ok and just tripped. Besides that little fall, he was ok and had a blast.

Four Wheeling at Bear Lake

We are up at Bear Lake this weekend and having a blast so far, although we do miss our friends Darrin and Traci who weren't able to come with us... :) We are staying at our timeshare with Worldmark. We went four wheeling and had a blast. Michael loved it. We stopped at a meadow and had a picnic. Michael had a bee land on his hand next to his sandwich, which he ended up dropping in the dirt because it scared him. Luckily, I had extra cheese and ham for him. It is so beautiful up here and the weather is perfect right now. After we went four wheeling we went into town for a Bear Lake Famous Raspberry shake. Tasty tasty!! We bought Michael an ice cream cone, for only $1.39 and it was well worth it! That sucker was half the size of Michael's head! It was HUGE!! He thought it was awesome though!