Why I Make a Lousy Historian...

A while ago, I attended a ribbon cutting ceremony with my husband.

It was for Horses 4 Heroes, a local charity which his store sponsors.  They just opened a new venue at Tule Springs, a local park - they provide horses, and eventually will add a petting zoo and other features for the families of military and first responders to experience and enjoy.

Of course I took my camera and intended to capture photos to record this important historic event.

It took a while for the ceremony to get started, so I snapped a few pictures here and there - Wayland wanted one of his sign on the corral fence for his store - so I did that - and got  photo-bombed...

There were more speakers than I anticipated, and their speeches went on and on, so I snapped more photos...

North Las Vegas is in the flight path of Nellis Air Force Base, so the jets went by every few minutes and drowned out the speakers - but they said it was appropriate, because the whole deal was for them anyway...

Enthusiasm was building and it was almost time to perform the ceremonial ribbon cutting...

And at that historical moment....

 My camera was out of memory, so I missed the shot.

*Boo*  :-(

I kept searching the internet for a photo - surely it was in the paper, or on the news...

Eventually I found a shot on Horses4Heros Facebook page:

I do so hate leaving a task un-completed...

Horses4Heroes

Hence, you will probably never see any breaking news stories coming from me - they always turn out this way.

...Meanwhile, guess what else I found on the Horses4Heroes Facebook page?

Me!

Wayland, (on behalf of C-A-L Ranch)  co-manned a booth for them at the Chinese New Year celebration down by Fremont street last month (Since it's the year of the horse, who better to be a sponsor?) And I got to go with him one of those days.

 The booth was dead, so Sydney, the charity's founder, brought these ponies down to generate more interest. (and it worked!)

Anyway, this is me, reporting the news - a month late, and a photo short.

Good night, and good news.
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Sight-seeing

My son and his wife came to visit last week.  It's the first time they have been here since we moved down, so hubby took the time off, and we were looking forward to some fun.

After hubby picked them up from the airport, we went down to show them his store;

The baby chicks were fun to watch...

After touring the store, we went to Sam's Club so Libby could see how this store compared to hers - while we were there, we picked up some steaks for dinner.


Libby cooked us dinner and we barbecued those steaks - oh my goodness, it was delicious!

The next morning, we drove to Henderson to have breakfast at a place that Libby's brother recommended called the Cracked Egg.  They serve all kinds of gourmet breakfast foods.  I had the Tropical French Toast - it was so yummy, I felt like I was having desert...

After Breakfast, we went to Hoover Dam.  Brad had never been there, so they did the whole tour.  He kept saying that it was a shame that they built that bridge (in the background) because it kind of overshadows the dam - it's pretty HUGE and impressive.
 Brad does not like heights, but he was a very good sport...

Libby has been researching fun sights to see on the internet, and she found out about this statue that is on the Historic Old Main Street in Boulder City - it represents all the men who worked on the dam who had the less than glamorous jobs there...

Coming back, the freeway was packed, and we had a bit of a scare - missed being part of a pile up by the skin of our teeth!
That evening we took them to the buffet at our local casino - a favorite hang out when we go out...

The next morning, we went to find a couple of the museums that the kids had found in their searching - the first one was the Atomic Testing Museum.  Brad is a bit of a science geek, and uses what he learns in his art, so it was the perfect place to start.  There were a lot of interesting things in there, even though the Area 51 part was kind of lame...

Later, we went to the Springs Preserve to see the Leonardo da Vince Machines in Motion exhibit that I had read about.  It turns out the place was geared more to little kids to learn about the desert flora & fauna, but we managed to have fun there anyway...

Leonardo's conception of a printing press - Brad wanted this one!

Thursday, we went to the Neon Boneyard museum, where they are gathering and restoring all the old neon signs from back in Vegas' early days.  The only way they let you see it is to take the guided tour, but it was pretty interesting.

The "Ugly Duckling" was a favorite...

Friday, we went down to walk around the strip - Libby wanted me to see inside the Bellagio.

 

 

I had no idea all this fun stuff was in here!

Loved the butterfly house...

...And the chocolate fountain.

The Cosmopolitan had all kinds of bling everywhere, and appropriately enough, this is where we saw some Liberace memorabilia...

The time went by all too fast and we had such a good time - hope we get to see these kids again soon!
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Vacation

I spent a couple of weeks at home in Utah at the end of February.  My husband had a work event in Idaho, so I hitched a ride and had him drop me off.  I didn't see a lot of the girls that week, because they were busy at work, but we did spend the evenings curled up with our blankies and some movies...

I spent a lot of time (and money) getting my car fixed up for Jenny.  She has been waiting to get it licensed because it needed some work done.  I had to get a couple of new tires, and replace the driver's side mirror that she broke off (I'm still trying to figure out how she did that!)  But let me tell you - it has been so nice having wheels under me again!  And I made very good use of them...

I met up with a couple of my sisters on the weekend, and we went shopping at the new outlet mall near the point of the mountain.  It's a really nice mall (but a little over-priced for my budget.)  It was nice to spend time with my sisters.

I got my hair done, visited my favorite little scrapbook store (several times) and toured the town to see what was new.  Took puppy for a ride, and went out to lunch a few times...

The second week, the girls left for their cruise, so it was just puppy and me.  The first thing I did was move upstairs.  (I am not a subterranean dweller. - I like the light!)  My son and his family were so good to me while the girls were gone - they had me to dinner almost every night - entertained me with card games, and kept me from getting lonely.

One night I went up to watch Arilie and Millie at their karate lesson.  Arilie was testing for a new stripe.  It was really interesting - and a bit unnerving when this 6 foot bald guy would run at her and attack her so she could do her moves!  I would hope that if that sort of thing ever really happened, she would be brave & confident enough to really subdue him like she did...

We celebrated Arilie's 12th birthday while we were there.

The dog and I got along pretty well - there were times he was a god-send, and there were times I wanted to strangle him.  (He whines at night and needs a lot of attention.)  But for the most part, I was glad he was there.

The girls got home on Friday, and I got to see all the pictures, souvenirs, and hear their stories.  I'm so glad they had fun and that they are home safe!

I'm back in the desert now - it had rained the day before we came down, and there were actually green spots here and there in the desert.  I did miss the warm weather and the sunshine - but nothing beats time with family.

My Seattle son and his wife will be coming down next week - something else to look forward too...
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