It's also time to take advantage of pre-season sales including Gymboree where I picked up Sarah's purple fairy costume for this year. The plan is to spend Halloween in Phoenix with family pillaging the neighborhood for sugar treats. When the costume arrived, Sarah had to put in on and it stayed on through the afternoon. Too cute!
Sarah is going on her third week in Mom and Tot tumbling class at the local dance/gymnatics studio. Her favorites are the trampoline and bar. She also is getting the hang of the toe dips on the balance beam. It's a big part of the week.
Thanks to the majority of the American public for voting in favor of "Change". At the end of Obama's four year term (if he lasts that long), that's all working Americans will have left in their pockets...change. That's assuming the majority of working Americans are able to hold onto their jobs. God help us and the future of this nation.
We made it to Silverton last weekend for our first camping adventure with Sarah. We stayed at Molas Lake Campground right outside of Silverton and it was gorgeous. Our campsite was right on the lake. It was a bit chilly with the wind coming off the water but still a great spot. We enjoyed lunch in the camper once Kirk had it set up followed by a visit from the local duck family. A mama and her babies waddled up to the site with no problem to enjoy pieces of hoagie buns and bagels. We had to cut them off at some point so we still had food for breakfast and lunch the next day.
After lunch we piled into the truck, knowing Sarah would not take a nap in the camper, and headed off to drive around Silverton. The town is small and unique with a true old western flavor. Once out of town we started up a dirt road that eventually turned into a 4 wheeling adventure up to Animas Forks. We found out after the trip that Animas Forks was an old west ghost town. Spooooky. When we got up there, Sarah was out for the count. So I stayed back in the truck while Kirk toured around the old mining village. He took amazing pictures.
After the Animas Forks tour, Sarah was starting to wake up in time for us to go back to Silverton and walk around the town. First stop, Rocky Mountain Funnel Cakes for Sarah’s first taste of the yummiest funnel cake. We also made a stop at Silverton Brewery to pick up a growler of IPA for Kirk and I to enjoy during dinner and at home.
We had a yummy dinner of spaghetti followed by more duck visits, a campfire and smores. Again, it was Sarah’s first taste of the smore goodness. She was a fan of the marshmallow and chocolate separate. We let her spin out of control and then it was time to settle down for the evening. I ended up sleeping with her which was not that bad other than I did find out how much of a kicker my daughter is when sleeping. We had a great morning with duck and chipmunk visits before packing up to head back home. Sarah talks about camping a bunch and wants to see the “duckies”. She was a trooper and loved every minute of it which was great! 
We started Mom and Tot tumbling class this week. The local dance/gymnastics gym offers the class once a week for the little ones to fine tune their motor skills and burn calories. Sarah loved the trampoline, balance beam and bar. We are excited to return next week.
We are making plans for our maiden voyage in the pop up camper trailer this coming weekend. “Intended” destination: Silverton. Wish us luck!
Kirk and I enjoyed a long weekend in Vegas while Sarah stayed home with Kirk’s parents. We flew out early Thursday and returned Sunday morning. The forecast for Vegas during our mini-vaca called for 115 deg F highs with extreme heat warnings. So we stayed in air conditioned buildings for the most part.
We stayed at Treasure Island, now re-branded as “TI”. The entire hotel was recently remodeled so the rooms were nice. We had a great view of the strip overlooking the Mirage, Venetian, Caesars Palace and could see a bit of the Bellagio water fountain show in the afternoons/evenings.
When we arrived on Thursday, we called to get our names on the guest list for Tao, the hot nightclub at the Venetian. I guess being on the guest list meant your wait outside was shorter. We still had to pay to get in but we were convince that was because we weren’t dressed like the rest of the hip, Vegas crowd in the short dresses, platform stilettos and in True Religion from top to bottom. We enjoyed people watching as we nursed our beers and walked through the club. The main dance area was huge with several small tables on the perimeter roped off with velvet rope. We couldn’t tell who the people were in the roped off areas. But one table definitely appeared to be occupied by either NFL or NBA players. These guys were huge! The music was loud playing the typical “inst, inst, inst” techno stuff with the occasional tribute to MJ (can we give it a rest already?). There were girls in minimal lingerie dancing on elevated areas around the main dance floor along with other topless women in small tubs “dancing”. It was interesting to watch and neat to say we went but after being there for about an hour, Kirk and I were done. We realized that we felt old and the nightclub scene wasn’t our thing anymore since we were thirty something and married with a kid.
