14th Anniversary - Las Vegas

For Byron & I's 14th anniversary, we decided to head to Las Vegas to enjoy 3 days without children. We have driven through myriad of times, but never have spent any time there to see the sights. We decided that this would be a great time to finally see what Las Vegas had to offer. Jeff & Emily watched our children while we were away. Thankfully they were willing to switch with us so we can return them the favor in August.

On July 9th we headed out around 1:30 p.m. to the Salt Lake City airport. Johnathan wasn't very happy that we would be leaving on his birthday, but soon got over that when he realized he would be spending the weekend with his cousins. We loved being able to fly instead a drive. We found some great ticket prices and couldn't pass up the opportunity. Once we got to Las Vegas, we got into a taxi and headed to the Luxor. Having to rely on public transportation is quite a different experience. I realized how grateful I truly am for our van.

The Luxor was quite a hotel. We stayed on the 6th floor. Our room was very nice. The elevator was quite an interesting experience. It travels diagonally instead of straight up since it is shaped like a pyramid. Definitely a weird sensation! This is the view from outside our hotel room. The Luxor was absolutely massive! You can seriously get lost inside and I thought I had a few times.

We ate dinner at a fast food restaurant inside the Luxor. We both got some delicious philly cheese steak sandwiches. We could have seriously shared one meal - the meal was so good and hit the spot.
There were some really cool statues at the Luxor - I have always been intrigued with pyramids and Egyptians since 4th grade when my teacher had us study them. Pretty cool!
Here Byron is in with the Luxor in the distance.
I had the awesome opportunity to get a massage at "The Spa." I have never done anything like this and definitely hope it isn't my last. I loved everything about the experience - including the almost falling asleep part. I definitely felt very relaxed and loved every minute for the 50 minute massage. Byron was so nice to let me do this and actually got a nice nap in while I was gone. Las Vegas is quite a night city - nothing much is going on during the day, but everything wakes up at night. I can't say that it was my most enjoyable vacationing spot, but great to get away with Byron. There were many bad influences and things that we needed to be careful about seeing. Even through it all, though, there are some awesome free things to see and enjoy.
This is a cool aquarium of salt water fish in one of the casinos.
We enjoyed going into the "M&M Store" and seeing so many different types of M&M's - my kids would have loved this!
Inside the Coca-Cola Store - we were able to purchase samples of coke from around the world. There were 16 to sample and quite an experience. I tried about 6 without any problems, but there were some pretty nasty ones that made me loose my appetite very quickly. I can't believe some countries actually drink some of them!

Byron absolutely LOVES coke and was so excited to try one in a bottle.

We went to the Flamingo casino and enjoyed the beautiful wildlife habitat. We saw some cool turtles, flamingos, and fish.
Here Byron is in front of the cool fountain at the Flamingo.
The "Donny and Marie" show is currently playing there. We enjoyed looking through some of the gift shops where we saw some cool displays for Donny & Marie. Below I am next to a picture of Donny in this shop.
Heading over to Caesars Palace where some really cool fountains.

The casinos were absolutely massive. This particular strip of stores was inside one of them. There were very high ceilings with the sky painted like you were outdoors. Pretty cool overall scene.
We ended up watching the Nathan Burton comedy/magic show. We were actually impressed and love every minute of it. I was so glad that it was fun family entertainment. His acts were absolutely amazing and left us wondering how in the world he did that. We were very close to the stage, which added to the show.

Because we purchased tickets to this, we also received a free buffet - the food was delicious. Byron's favorite part was the huge pile of crab legs that seemed never ending. We enjoyed eating right next to a huge window that overlooked the outdoor wildlife habitat. There was a beautiful black swan asleep right outside of our window - pretty cool!
Almost all of the casinos have free things to see and do. We tried to make it to the ones that intrigued us. We went to the Winn to enjoy a light show that started after it got dark. The only seating was in an area where you had to order drinks. We decided upon some yummy pina colada and strawberry daquaries. After waiting for the show to start for about 45 minutes, we realized that they were having technical difficulties. We ended up waiting for almost 2 hours for this particular show - when it never came on we ended up finally leaving. We did enjoy a great long conversation and some yummy drinks though:).

This waterfall was outside of the Winn hotel - it was absolutely beautiful at night with the lights on it.
We headed over to the Venetian and went on a gondola ride. All of the tickets were already sold out for the outdoor ride, so we opted for the indoor instead. We were on the gondola with another couple. Our gondolier was amazing and sang us some pretty cool songs in Italian. We passed over quite a few bridges and was amazed each time that the guy didn't fall off since his head pretty much touched the top of it.
Above the gondolier with the couple we rode with. Below we are on the gondola.
We headed over to the Mirage to see the volcano erupt. What a cool experience with fire, water & awesome effects. We had a great spot to watch it and felt quite a bit of heat coming off of the volcano.
One of my favorite shows was the fountains at the Bellagio. They were awesome! I wish we could have just sat and watched them longer, but it was pretty late by the time we saw them. The fountains played to music and took in an area around the length of a football field. We heard it go off twice - once to the song, "Singing in the Rain" and to an opera song. My kids would have loved watching this.

Both mornings (Friday and Saturday) we slept in until around 10:30 a.m. Las Vegas is such a night town that we didn't get to bed until around 1:30 a.m. each morning, so sleeping in felt great!

Our last day there, on Saturday, we headed over to Mandalay Bay and enjoyed seeing the Shark Reef Aquarium. I am so glad we spent the time and money to do this since it ended up being one fo my favorite parts of our trip. One of the coolest parts of the aquarium were phones we carried around with us. When we came upon an exhibit, we could dial the number on the exhibit and listen to information about that particular thing. We were able to see a cool komodo dragon, sting rays, turtles, sharks, golden crocodile, saw fish, piranha and many more. I loved a huge 1.3 million gallon aquarium with almost a 360 degree view where huge turtles, fish, sharks and many other species were all swimming around us. There is also a cool tunnel where the fish swim right over our heads. Byron & I were intrigued with the huge sea turtles swim around. They were fun to watch!
There was a cool touch pool where you could touch sting rays and horse shoe crabs. Byron was more daring than me to touch them.

The jelly fish were fascinating to me. The colors are so beautiful and bright. I enjoyed watching them move in the water.
Here we are in the taxi heading back to the airport. We had such a great time together, but need to get back to real life.
My eyes were open to how sinful the world can be while there and was so grateful for where I live. We definitely have things all around us that can be bad influences, but not to the extent as I saw in Las Vegas. I realized how much I love living in Utah and all that it has to offer.

Thanks Jeff & Emily for watching our children.

Camille - 13 years old!

Camille turned 13 years on July 13th - I cannot believe that I have an official teenager! Where has all the time gone??? Camille is such a wonderful big sister. I seriously don't know what I would do without all of her help. She LOVES to cook and will frequently make breakfast, lunch or dinner. She doesn't like boring foods so we usually have a yummy casserole or delicious brownies that she has made. Camille is a wonderful sitter for her siblings - she rarely complains when I need her to watch them. She has an amazing voice and so talented in so many different areas.

She had a friend party on the morning of her birthday. She had seven girls come. They all had a great time reconnecting from over the summer and enjoying each other. They started out by playing "Apples to Apples." After we made pizzas. These were a huge hit. Everyone made their own. It was fun to see the different sizes and variety of pizzas made.

Breanna Lambert, Britlyn Hauver, Makenzee John, Becca Parr, Cara Sabin, Shufei Pan

While we were waiting for the pizzas to cook, they played Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The pizzas is finally done - YUM!!!

The next game was splitting up the girls into 3 different groups. Each group had a song that they had to perform with a bag of miscellaneous items (ex: spoons, rubber bands, maracas, bells). We all had a blast watching these performances. Below is a picture of Camille and her group performing to "In the Suun they Melted" from Inside Out.

Camille got some awesome presents and had such a great time. These girls all get a long so well that it really was a breeze putting on a party for this age.

Makenzee John, Shufei Pan, Cara Sabin, Becca Parr, Breanna Lambert, Chloe Sturgill, Britlyn Hauver & Camille

That evening we had a joint family party with Johnathan also. We had a great time and always have wonderful family support. Camille got some awesome presents and a special package from her Grandpa & Grandma Beck with 13 presents for being born on July 13th. Below are the sayings with each present:

#1 - You smile and make a difference in many lives. We love you! Happy Birthday - a magnetic mirror

#2 - No matter how you add it up - you always score high in our books, Camille - a calculator

#3 - You dress modestly and show your class and high ideals - a cute blouse

#4 - You are anything but "sour" and are so kind and sweet! - sour patch kids

#5 - You are so "smart" and always just a "click" away in helping others! - mechanical pencils

#6 - Camille right to the "point", Camille - you are the BEST! - scissors

#7 - You'd be great to have as a "caddy" - you have lots of good ideas. - pencil caddy

#8 - What an awesome cook you are - but we like esp how willing you are to help in the kitchen - snowball cookie mix

#9 - We're glad you have lots of good friends! - bff sign

#10 - Camille, you have a "magnetic" personality! You're fun to be with. - magnetic clips

#11 - You're always up for a game and spending time with family and friends! - peg game

#12 - You have an "eye" for beauty and just make beautiful things. - craft thing

#13 - Camille - you "hold" a special place in our heart! - box

Camille opening her "13" gifts.

Camille had a chocolate eclair cake. It turned out really yummy!

Johnathan turned the big "9"

Johnathan turned "9" on the 9th of July. He was so excited to have his friend party. We celebrated it on the 8th. He had Isaiah Anderson, Jayden Cowan, Tad Jacobs, Tyler Atwood, and Jared (JB) Berg. They started out by playing soccer. Then they played the balloon game to see if they could pop each others balloons that were tied to their feet. Then we played Johnathan's favorite game - the candy bar game. He absolutely LOVED it and rolled way more doubles than anybody else - thus having tons of the chocolate. He actually started feeling sick after this game. Then they played the Wii for a little bit while I prepared lunch. They ate hot dogs, pop and chips. After we opened presents and had an ice cream sandwich. The last game played was musical chairs. The party went without any problems and each boy was great.

Then we had the family party for Johnathan & Camille together on July 13th. I decided to make him a Wii remote cake since he absolutely LOVES playing the Wii. He was so excited when he found out what I was making. We played 7 Eleven with all of the cousins for the game. Johnathan got some awesome gifts from family. His Grandpa & Grandma Beck put together a cool group of 9 presents that he opened one after another. Below is what saying was with each of them.

#1 - Johnathan, you don't "bug" us at all! Have fun with this & don't scare too many people. - a fake cockroach scare toy
#2 - You deserve to have something that will spark your creativity - markers
#3 - You have lots to say? Well right it down and leave that chapter out :)! - notebook
#4 - We hope you have a "super" birthday! - a Super Baseball game
#5 - May you have a "burst" of energy helping others - starbursts
#6 - Fun is just a "click" away! We love you. - mechanical pencils
#7 - You are a "cut-up" and we love you. We love your one-liners - scissors
#8 - Fly-high grandson and choose the right! - twirlers
#9 - You, Johnathan, are "crazy" to the core, but we sure love you! Grandpa & Grandma - Skittles Crazy Cores

We love you so much Johnathan and feel so blessed to have you in our home. You are my fun loving, brown eyed boy.

Harold Beck Family Reunion

Our Beck Family Reunion was held in Salt Lake this year. We ended up doing everything around what Grandpa & Grandma Beck liked or used to do. We had a great time visiting with family and enjoying the different activities planned.

We were lucky enough to have Randy & Carrie (Byron's cousins) come from Denver and stay at our house for 3 days. The kids loved playing with Riley and Aiden. We don't have company come over very often, so it is always such a treat when somebody stays. We also have a great time getting to know Randy & Carrie better and enjoyed those late night conversations without any children.

JULY 2nd - OREM OWLS BASEBALL GAME We headed to the Brent Brown Field on UVU campus to enjoy the Owls Baseball game. The weather was pretty cloudy at first as some rain started to fall, but luckily it didn't last long. The kids always have such a great time and were even more excited to see so many cousins. We were sitting on the far south of the ball park. Anytime a ball went out of bounds over by us a worker would go and retrieve the ball and throw it to somebody over by us. Johnathan was lucky enough to get a ball thrown to him along with Cadan. He was such a happy boy and has since ordered a glass protector to go around the ball - pretty exciting stuff:). The Owls won by a huge margin to make the game even better.

July 3rd - OQUIRRH MOUNTAIN TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE (Byron, Tricia, Johnathan, Tanner, Bradley, Camille, Parker & Carter)We headed to the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple to enjoy the open house at 10:00 a.m. The worker that was helping us park our van as we entered was actually my cousins, Robert Adamson. It was so fun to see him. Byron & I also saw him just 2 weeks earlier in Park City with his wife - a small world:).

The open house was pretty crowded. We first went into a huge tent and enjoyed a wonderful movie. After the movie we filed into the temple. What a gorgeous place! My kids absolutely loved going - especially since there have been two different open houses we have been to in the past six months. After we exited the temple, there were great refreshments and bottled water.

TOUR OF RELIEF SOCIETY BUILDING We were lucky enough to get a personal tour of the Relief Society Building since Melissa works there. They were closed for the day, since it was the 4th of July weekend, so we had it all to ourselves. My favorite part was the resource floor - such awesome things to see and hands on. There was a cool CTR mat with all the different languages around the world printed on it, a huge Book of Mormon and Bible, amazing pictures and a YW values rug - to name a few.

GAMES, VISITING, FUN, BBQ

We then went back to Taylorsville to the Stake Bowery to enjoy playing and food. I was asked to help put together a few games. Luckily Camille was willing to make balloon creations for all of the children. They were a HUGE hit! She does such an amazing job and had the kids waiting so patiently in line for their turn. She was busy making swords, flowers, hats and poodles.

There were also some really fun games that Grandma Beck (Sharon) put together that involved water. Bradley and some of the younger children loved staying around the small pools. They were able to see how many marbles that were in the pool they could pick up with their toes. This game was a hit. The boys played soccer and football out in the field. We ate a delicious dinner including hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, baked beans, potato salad and other delicious things. We even roasted marshmallows in the BBQ pits and enjoyed smores late in the evening.

Bradley loves being around Timothy and kept asking Aunt Genevieve if he could hold him. I thought it was so cute that he would be wanting to do something like that at such a young age. He did very well for how young he is - not sure how Timothy felt about it, though:).
After dinner Bradley and Cadan were looking for bugs and having a fun time with each other. The adults enjoyed having a water balloon toss.

JULY 4th - EAST MILL CREEK PARADE

We got up bright and early to be to the East Mill Creek Parade. Grandpa & Grandma Beck (Beth and Harold) used to go to this parade and take their children. It was a very small, but fun parade. The kids came away with SO much candy. Bradley really got into getting candy at this parade. He would run up to the road as soon as it was thrown to grab some, but usually it was gone by the time he got there. We had to tell his siblings to leave some for him and then he was much happier. There were so many children in this particular parade who decorated their bikes and were throwing candy.

MIDWAY GAMES

After the parade we went down to Evergreen Park to enjoy the games. We were able to shoot cork guns, dart throw, fishing pond, bowling ball roll, and ping pong bounce. At this particular one Byron won a can of coke and Carter won a can of sprite on Grandma's dime. It only cost her $3.00 :).

GAMES AND DINNER

We headed back to John & Sharon's house to enjoy playing games and eating a delicious dinner. There were many fun games going on at the same time - scum, football, 500, rook, and playing in the small pool. We had some yummy taco salad and enjoyed the great company of everyone.

FIREWORKS We headed back to Lehi to watch the fireworks at Thanksgiving Point with just our family. We drove both vehicles to the frontage road across from Thanksgiving Point and parked the truck where we could see the fireworks from inside of it. We had such a great time together waiting for the fireworks show. The kids all thought it was so cool to be in the back of the truck. The show started around 1o:10 p.m. and lasted about 30 min. Bradley fell asleep during the show, but was so mesmerized with the fireworks before he fell asleep. We headed back after such a long and fun filled day!