Saturday, December 29, 2012

Christmas Vacation 2012

12/21 - Friday night, right after work, we headed to the airport for Las Vegas. Looking forward to several days with Angela, Tim, Sam, Audrey, and JJ.
 After The Nutcracker with Angela and Audrey.

 Building a volcano with Sam. (He was impressed to learn that Grandma and Grandpa have actually climbed on top of a volcano!) (More on the volcano project later...)

 Play time at the park with Grandpa (Audrey & Sam).

 Painting the volcano...

 Ta-da! Stay tuned for the eruption...
 Christmas decorations at The Bellagio...pretty grand, pretty crowded...this was the only place we went to in downtown Las Vegas. It's family friendly and it has...
 ...the largest chocolate fountain in the world. Mmmm...all behind glass.
 Closeup of the triple-chocolate chocolate fountain.
 This is the ceiling in the lobby of The Bellagio. It's a huge glass installation of glass flowers by the glass artist Dale Chihuly.
 Christmas eve bowling event. Gotta admire Grandpa's style.
 JJ missed out on most of the bowling...
 Sam in action
 Audrey strikes again.
 And JJ finally woke up!

 Last event on Christmas eve - making "gingerbread" houses on milk cartons. Since Sam and Audrey can't be around gluten, this was a safe (and easy) option for a fun activity.







 Finally...the volcano erupts!
 A quick group shot with dear family, and then we headed to the airport for a short flight to Salt Lake City so we could enjoy time with Josh & Hillary and their son Ethan.

 Ethan is 3 1/2, and so much fun. We enjoyed a little shopping trip.
 Snowy weather in the Salt Lake area! We were enchanted with the snow + red berries outside the library.


 Making new friends at the library. Rex the Dinosaur above, and the Reading Boy below.

 A quick battle--Grandma with a banana, and Ethan with his pirate hook & sword. Who won?
 Uncle Michel and Aunt Julie came by one evening for dinner, and Uncle Michel got an impromptu ukulele lesson.
Bye, Ethan!

What a wonderful vacation we had! Mark strummed his ukulele, I worked on an embroidery project, we got to see Angela & Tim's new home (they're moving today), and we were on hand to help Josh & Hillary prepare their home for sale. It sold after only 2 viewings! They'll be moving to Arizona for Josh's job transfer next month. We're heading for the airport now - we had wonderful & relaxing family visits, and we are looking forward to another week of vacation in our own sweet home.

Happy New Year!

1 comment:

Dorothy said...

Sounds like a great trip! Hey, we've been to the chocolate fountain at Bellagios, too! That place is a different world entirely, isn't it? Have a Happy New Years!