Ginny turns five

Ginny turned 5 on March 7th.  She is a pretty amazing kid.  She is smart, funny, sensitive and independent.  She has a wicked sense of humor and one of the most infectious laughs you will ever hear.  She definitely marches to her own beat.  Her fashion sense is in a word - monochromatic.  Her top has to match the bottom.  She loves to play with Jorja, but is also starting to enjoy her little sister's company as well.  The three of them all play fairly well together most days.

 

Leading up to her birthday, there was a lot of discussion about what she wanted for a gift.  When we looked in stores, it pretty much boiled down to she wanted everything.  Obviously, this wasn't going to happen.  After doing some Internet research, she decided she would like some Lego.  That works for me - I love Lego.  We got her a couple of sets, and nine days later, she is still playing with it.  That's a good sign.  Today, she built something with no instructions.  Awesome!  That's what Lego is supposed to be about.  Sets are nice, but we got most of our enjoyment just building stuff ourselves.  Here she is with some of her stuff.

Her birthday fell on a Thursday, so we didn't do much that day.  We asked what she wanted for her birthday supper and she said Montana's.  That sounded good, so we headed there after work.  We asked her beforehand if she wanted the waiters and waitresses to sing to her and she said yes, but she didn't wan to wear 'the hat'.  For those of you not familiar with Montana's, they have a big Moose antler hat they make the 'lucky' person wear.  Personally, it grosses me out.  How do I know the sanitary state of the scalp that was in there before mine.  So I was glad she didn't want the hat.  We conveyed this wish to our hostess, but the message got lost along the way.  When the group of servers came out to sing, they had the hat with them.  Ginny went into ugly cry.  "I don't want to wear the hat!"  They apologized of course, but to say the moment wasn't the same after that would be a bit of an understatement.  She did manage to quiet her sobs while they chanted out their version of happy birthday, but the sparkler in her ice cream had long gone out.  The video is not exactly happy.

Fast forward to the Sunday after her actual birthday to her party.  She invited 7 friends from preschool to a gymnastics party.  They all had a blast and we had some tired, sweaty girls when we were done.

Parachutes, relay races, and trampolines filled the better part of two hours.  I took a lot of pictures, but realized that all I had were a lot of blurry kids.  I guess the iPhone doesn't capture the action trampoline shots that well.  The relay race was quite amusing.  When they finally got the hang of passing the baton, they waited till the competition was back before the next person would go.  Whatever lead one team had was gone as they waited politely for their competitor to come back.
Then came cake and presents.

It was a Barbie theme and Julie did an awesome job on the cake.

Everyone was really thirsty by the time we headed home.

Another great party in the books (and not in our house).  Later.

Parent of the year

I had one of those 'parent of the year' moments today.  We were outside in the backyard for a good portion of the afternoon.  It started with me on the roof shovelling some snow off, then doing some snowblowing and shovelling off the trampoline (which we didn't get taken down before the snow fell last fall.  When I was on the roof I realised how much snow was on it and figured that probably wasn't good).  Julie was doing some chipping and trying to find the driveway under layers of packed snow and ice.  Eventually we were all outside and the kids were playing. 

I'm not sure if anyone has seen the show 'Idiot Abroad', but Julie and I have been watching it lately.  The basic premise is that Ricky Gervais sends his friend (the idiot) around the world to see magnificent sights.  There are some bumps in the road along the way to make for some more entertaining TV.  One show, Carl (the idiot) was going to Alaska to watch whales.  Part of the experience meant visiting an Inuit village and going on a pleasure hike with a guide through waist-high snow all day.  He was not impressed.  Anyway, as Jorja was leading Ginny through the mountains of snow in our backyard today, I couldn't help but think of this show.  We have an area for RV parking (which loosely translates to weed-growth area) between the garage and the neighbour's yard.  They went exploring back there and they were both up to their waists in snow.  It was rather slow going.  I was supervising CeCe on the play center and watching them. 

It was fairly mild today, so I thought I would see if a snowman was in the cards.  I picked up and handful and it wasn't quite warm enough.  I'm not sure what the Inuit word for this type of snow is, but I think it would translate as 'not quite soft enough to make a snowman, but if you pack it hard enough, you can make a snowball.'  So I made a snowball, which was packed pretty hard.  I looked over at the two explorers by the garage and thought I would lob the snowball in their general direction.  I thought maybe they would look up and get a kick out of it or wonder where it came from.  That's how I had things played out in my head.  What actually happened was a little different.

I lobbed the snowball toward them, Jorja looked up and it hit her square in the face.  She went down like she had been shot and started howling.  I ran over to her through the really deep snow, filled my boots, but kept on.  I got to her and wiped the snow from her poor shocked and wounded face.  She was still crying pretty good and said it hurt to open her eye.  I got her into the house and calmed down and explained myself to Julie who wondered what all the commotion was about.  It was quite the ordeal.  But this evening, she had no lasting damage and had forgiven me for my error in judgement.  Sheesh.  Who is the idiot now?  Later.

Books, bare butts, bruises and bran

I just finished getting the girls all tucked into bed, and now I can just sit for a minute.  It seems like it's go go go everyday from the time I get home till they're in bed.  Supper, bath, story, bed.  There's not much time for catching one's breath.  CeCe didn't nap today, so she was the first out.  (She's last on days she naps)  Ginny followed and Jorja is still reading. 

She's reading the 'Cupcake Diaries' series right now.  We got her a set of four for Christmas and she's on the last one.  She reads so much and fast that sometimes I wonder how much she absorbs.  I shouldn't wonder.  I made the mistake of asking what her books were about.  She went into an eleven minute synopsis of the first three books.  'Katie was sad that no one would sit with her on the bus so she sat with a new girl, Mia and they became friends and started the cupcake club and then there was a dance and they made cupcakes for that and they won a prize and then everyone wanted some and then there is Emma, who is quite the fashion girl so when Alexis suggested that they all wear their 'Park Street Middle School' ('cause that's where they go to school) sweatshirts for a uniform, Emma was like I don't think so but then her Mom said remember when you were 5 and you made something unfashionable fashionable so she made her sweatshirt into a bag and then one of them (I forget the name now) didn't have much money but wanted a $220 dress so she got a job walking dogs and then the other girls helped her so she could have the perfect dress to be a junior bridesmaid and someones Mom was going to get remarried because she was like, you know, divorced to Eddie, who was nice, but strict.'  *breath* Why did I ask again?

Last night Julie took Jorja to piano lessons, so I was putting Ginny to bed when they were gone.  CeCe had napped, so she was staying up for a bit yet.  She came along to tuck Ginny in though and say our night time prayers.  We always make them say something that they are thankful for.  CeCe said, "I'm thankful to God that I got to go to Cindy's house."  That's good, I said, anything else?  With no hesitation at all, she said, "Tigers."  All right then.

On Sunday afternoon, the girls wanted to keep their dresses on from church, but took their tights off, so they were running around with bare legs.  CeCe wanted to get in on this too, so she took her tights off as well.  She was running around for I don't know how long when she wiped out and hurt her leg.  She was crying, so I went to pick her up.  Imagine my surprise to find out that when I did, I discovered that she had no diaper on.  Nothing.  She had been running around free and clear under her dress for quite some time.  We never did find a puddle anywhere, so I think we're okay.

Last Wednesday was -42 with the wind and the last thing I felt like doing was taking the girls to skating.  I even tried to bribe them to miss, but they wanted to go, so we did.  I'm glad we did, because they are really making improvements.  Jorja is finally starting to look like she's not just walking on the ice (she says her striding it awesome - I say it's slightly visible).  And Ginny went the entire lesson with no walker.  There were times when I wished they would have just given her one.  But they kept encouraging her and helping her and occasionally holding her hand.  Still, there were times I could barely watch.  She looked so helpless and sometimes defeated.  And my knees winced every time she fell.  She cried once for a bit, but kept at it and was smiling again by the end.  She has some pretty good bruises, but she didn't give up and she wants to go back.  The coaches they have really are amazing for this age level.  The one boy coach who is only a teenager came off the ice and chased Ginny down after the lesson to tell her how awesome she did and that she didn't need a walker and to bend her knees and keep having fun.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Last weekend, CeCe was pretty backed up (by that I mean constipated) so I decided to break out the secret weapon - my Mom's bran muffins.  I'm not sure what it is about these muffins, because I don't like bran and I don't like raisins, but I love these muffins.  It's a recipe where you make up the batter and then leave the pail in the fridge.  Most times when we go to my parents' (and always at Christmas), Mom has some muffin mix in the fridge and everyone loves it.  So I got the recipe from Mom and headed off to Superstore to get the ingredients.  I needed All-bran, natural bran and bran flakes.  I didn't know there were so many options when it came to bran.  My instructions from Mom said that all bran was like little worms and natural bran was like powder.  Bran flakes were wide open - could be plain, have dried berries or raisins in them.  Sure enough, all bran did look like little worm and natural bran was powdery.  But then there was oat bran and wheat bran.  So many choices.  Who knew?  I didn't know what to do, so I settled on oat bran and the All bran cereal that looked like worms.  I went with plain PC bran flakes and I was done.  It was kind of stressful though.  I had a lot riding on these muffins and I didn't want to screw them up.  As it is, they look a lot lighter in color than my Mom's but they taste good and they did the trick, if you know what I mean.  That was definitely the longest time I've spent in the bran aisle though.

Did I mention we got another kitten?  We thought Maggie should have a friend, so we adopted Layla as well.  It was a rough first few days, but they are getting along now and the girls adore them both.  The kittens are both very patient with the girls mauling, so that's good too. 

Jora had her mid-year piano recital a few weeks ago.  Her teacher decided to have it in January this year instead of December, so that was nice.  Jorja had her songs memorized, but we took her book along anyway.  When it was her turn, she wanted to take her book.  Julie held onto it and wouldn't let her.  There was a bit of a tug-o-war, but Julie won and Jorja went up empty handed.  She did great though - no need for the book.  At her lesson the next day, her teacher said she witnessed the book 'discussion' from the front of the church and had a good chuckle over it.  Back to the recital though.  CeCe was being herself and not exactly sitting still.  One piano being played by itself in a big church leaves a bit of room to hear other things.  Like CeCe farting.  After she let one go and started giggling, Julie asked her what she should say now.  There was no whispering involved when she blurted out, "I fawted!"  I'm pretty sure 'excuse me' was the answer Julie was looking for.  Oh well, no one turned around anyway.

Later.

Skating, geography and kittens

I guess I'm not doing very well with my resolution.  January is half over already.  The month is going well though.  The girls are settled into their new daycare and enjoying it.  Ginny made the transition to the morning preschool like a rock star.  She has some new friends and even had a duel play date (there is a family with two girls - one in Jorja's grade and one in Ginny's).  Every day when I pick the up, CeCe runs up to me and yells, "I go to Cindy's house!"  That's good, cause that's where I'm picking you up.

Skating started last week and I'll be honest - it was a little shaky.  For Ginny's age group, they take all the kids out on the ice and sit them down on the blue line.  Then they shake their legs, touch their toes, and a bunch of other stuff.  Lastly, they get the kids to get up.  Well, try as she might, my little Bambi couldn't do it.  She started to cry.  She was looking at me over by the boards and crying.  Poor thing.  But the instructor came over and gave her a walker and she got up.  I was a little worried, but she pulled herself together and had a fun lesson.  Jorja did alright too.  She seems to be one of the weaker ones in her class, but she's trying and having fun.

Ginny waiting to get out there

Jorja rounding the pylon

Ginny up and having fun

Tonight, Ginny was able to get up all by herself with no help from the instructor or her walker.  It was awesome!  I was so proud of her. 

The one thing about skating is that the rink is across town, so it takes about 20 minutes to get there.  Our first trip was so long that it led into a geography lesson led by Jorja.  Ginny was wondering if we were leaving the city or the country.  Jorja explained that we live in the country Canada and in the province of Saskatchewan and in SK, there are many cities.  Saskatoon is one.  Prince Albert is one.  Yorkton is one.  Regina is one.  "But Ginny, it's not like the regina we have.  That's different."  At this point I had to intervene.  "Whoa, whoa, whoa!  You do not have a regina.  Yours starts with a V."  By this point there was a lot of giggling going on in the back seat.  Sheesh.

We also have some other fairly big news.  On Saturday, we got a kitten.  Maggie has joined our household and is fitting in great and getting lots of love.

Ginny is the most taken with her, which is no surprise.  I think now on our third work/school/daycare day, Ginny finally didn't cry about having to leave Maggie at home alone.  It just broke her heart to leave her alone by herself all day.  It's no surprise Maggie made out quite well and probably enjoyed a little down time.  Last night before supper, CeCe was wearing some dress-up fairy wings.  She took them off for supper and left them on the floor by her chair.  Maggie came up to investigate as kittens do and started playing with the wings.  CeCe looked down and in a very stern voice said, "Maggie!  Not Cool!"  I wonder where she heard that from.  Later.

A new year

I guess if I said I was going to write more regularly again this year, I should at least do it once in the first week.  2013 is shaping up well so far.  We've had a few big changes this year and the girls handled them all great.  The biggest change was new daycare.  Jan. 2 saw us start with a new daycare provider.  We had met her before Christmas and the girls all loved her instantly.  As we were leaving the initial meeting, Ginny asked how many sleeps till January second.  That was a huge sign for us.  (We thought she would be the toughest sell)  As it turns out, as the day approached, Jorja was the most nervous, but they all went and had a great time.  Not a tear was shed at drop-off or throughout the day.  With the daycare switch, we also moved Ginny to the morning preschool session.  I took her for the first class on Friday and she did awesome there too.  The teacher figured that after she made a couple friends, she would like this class better anyway.  They are a little more her speed.  This weekend brought us back to piano/music lessons and Sunday school.  The girls all jumped right in like they never left off.  Next week starts skating lessons for the older two, so we'll see how that goes.  So it's been a busy start to the year, but all is well and God has answered our prayers.

In the meantime, the girls are getting some use out of their Christmas gifts, which is good.  Ginny got a Hello Kitty make-up desk with some toy hair tools (straightener, clip, brush, hair dryer complete with a battery and working fan).  So there has been lots of sitting in the chair and getting stylized.  Today I believe I overheard the Furby was even getting her hair straightened.

It turns out that the hair dryer also serves another purpose because part of back to school/daycare was new toenail polish.

Nothing like a little fan to help dry the pedi.

I'm not sure where the girls got the idea, but this weekend they have been 'exercising'.  Basically this involves getting out a blanket for a yoga mat and rolling around on it.  I did witness some pretty feeble attempts at push-ups, and here is the ringleader trying to show her sidekicks how to do sit-ups.

This afternoon they wanted to dance as well.  So I got them set up with the wii and they burned off some steam with Just Dance 2.  It was quite the sight.  I think Jorja may have some Elaine tendencies in her dance moves (Seinfeld reference).  Interesting to say the least.  Anyway, CeCe felt left out with no 'remote' to dance with so I had to find her one.  We still have the VCR one kicking around, so that was her controller.  It actually did the trick.

CeCe has been learning from her sisters and is starting to appreciate potty humor.  The other day as I was getting her out of the tub, she let a pretty good ripper go.  "What do you say?" I said.  She grinned and said, "Fawted."  I asked her what she says when she farts and before I was done the question, she let another one go.  "Fawted again!" she said.  It's tough to argue with that.

In another month, CeCe will turn three, and the girls have been reminding her of that already.  The other day Jorja asked her what she wanted for her birthday and without missing a beat, she said, "Presents!"  It's good to know what you want.  Later.

2012 wrap-up

This year has kind of ended on a slow note in the blogging department.  I have to admit, there was a time I thought about stopping all together.  But then looking back, it's pretty cool to see some of the memories that I've captured and that I would have forgotten about already.  So, as I write a final post for this year, I hope next year will be back to some more regular writing.

Where to begin?  I've got a few notes on my iPhone that I jotted down, thinking I would blog about them.  Truth be told, I don't know what some of them mean now.  How bad is that?  Oh well, I guess I'll just try to wrap up our month of December.

We have a Fisher Price Little People nativity set.  We get it out every year before Christmas and then pack it up again with the decorations.  This year when we got it out, Jorja and Ginny took to acting out the whole story from start to finish.  They had Gabriel coming to visit Mary and Joseph, the census, the trip to Bethlehem.  It was amazing all the details they remembered even before they got to the stable.  They did this for a few days, and then one day they were looking for something to do, so I told them to play with the nativity set.  Ginny said, "I want to, but I can't.  I can't find Gabriel."  I asked her if the other angel in the set would work, to which she replied no because that angel looked like a girl.  Without Gabriel, the story couldn't start, so she couldn't play with it at all.  It's funny how things change from year to year.  This year was strictly a literal translation of the story.  Last year baby Jesus took a trip to Strawberry Shortcake's house.

We hosted our bible study Christmas party here this year, so we had the tree up maybe a little earlier than normal.  I think it went up the last weekend in November.  It was nice though - the girls all had fun decorating and I don't even think anything was broken this year.  Since we had snow that stayed since Halloween, I kind of missed the boat on getting lights on the outside of the house in nice weather.  But I found a day that was only slightly below zero and got some done.  Not as many as I would have liked to, but it still looked pretty good.  Julie loves the inflatable lawn decorations too, so this year I bought a couple of those too.

The girls proudly showing off their handy work



The lights up, inflatables inflated

We also had a bunch of Christmas parties to go to.  My work Christmas party and Julie's Weight Loss Forever party were on the same night, but we managed to take in some of each.  Both were a good time and Julie ended up getting the 'most inspirational patient' award for the work she had done on her v-log chronicling her journey.  We found a new babysitter this fall too that the girls absolutely adore.  She's in grade eight and lives right on out crescent, so it's super convenient too.  It just makes going out that much more enjoyable when you know the kids are in good hands and enjoying themselves too.  The next party was the kids' Christmas party, put on by the brewery.  The girls look forward to this every year and this year was no different.  They wore themselves out playing at the Fun Factory and then got to see Santa.

Playing at the Fun Factory

The last party we had was Julie's office party.  It was a good time too, and again no issues with the babysitter and the kids. 

Aside from parties, the month was also filled with concerts and recitals.  Ginny and CeCe sang in church with the Sunday School singers.  That afternoon, they both had their piano/music recitals.  Jorja had her school Christmas concert the next day (Monday evening).  And Ginny had her preschool concert the following week.  Yes, it was a busy month, but by the eighteenth, it was all over and we could take time and breathe again. 

Ginny and CeCe with the Sunday School singers

CeCe's music recital

December was also a month that saw quite a bit of sickness in our house.  CeCe had the stomach flu once, Ginny had a cold forever that ended up with an ear infection, Jorja had a migraine one day and threw up from that.  Ginny also threw up one morning with her ear infection (we think just from motion sickness because she said she was dizzy.  Any sudden movement and she would throw up.  A couple dosed of antibiotics and that was all cleared up.)  So yes, all three kids threw up this month - not something that I hope is repeated any time soon.  Jorja has such a tender heart and is really affected when her sisters are sick.  It upsets her and she wishes she could make things better.  Here's the card she made for Ginny when she was sick.

Her faith is also something that is pretty amazing.  She came up with the part about God healing Ginny all on her own.  She also made Ginny a Christmas card and asked to see my the Bible on my phone so she could write down a verse in the card.  She new exactly what she wanted to say (Luke 2:13-14).  She told me it was the verse about a great multitude of angels praising God.  I thought that was pretty impressive for her to remember the verse and want to put it in a card.

What else happened this month?  I have a couple more notes in my phone that I do remember.  One night Ginny was getting out of the tub and I asked her if she was all dried off.  She said yes, except for her butt.  I asked her why she didn't dry off her butt and she said that she didn't want to, because there were germs in there.  I said that it should be clean having just gotten out of the tub.  "Nope," she said, "it may look clean, but there is more poop right there lined up and ready to come out."  Okay, it's tough to argue with that.  Air-dry it is.  Then there was the morning I had Ginny and CeCe by myself shopping at Superstore.  I was looking at the cough drops and Ginny wandered across the aisle.  She pointed to a box with a little picture of a devil on it and asked, "What are these?"  Not wanting to explain what condoms were yet, I just told her they were nothing and to put them back.  We're not quite ready to go there yet.  (The stock boy thought it was pretty funny though - someday he too may have kids and I hope they put him in the same awkward situation.)  That afternoon happened to be when I took Ginny in to get her ears checked out for her ear infection.  As we were waiting for that to get filled, CeCe picked up a box of tampons.  She didn't really ask what they were, but when I told her to put them down, she just yelled, "No!  I'm still looking!"  Oh the joys the next few years will bring.

By the time school and work were done for Christmas, Julie had not yet started her yearly project of sewing all of us pajama pants.  So to get the kids out of her hair, I packed them up and went to my parents for a couple of days.  They got to meet their new cousin Cooper, and play with their other cousins Sophie and Carson too.  They had fun helping Nanny bake cookies and helping Poppa jam the jam-jams together.  After that, we had a couple night at home (one being Christmas Eve) and then went to Julie's parents' place for a few days.  We went to our church's annual service on Christmas Eve and then came home and opened presents.  The girls played a bit Christmas morning before we headed out.  When we were at Julie's parents' place, we went tobogganing one day.  It was quite cold this year, so it was a little shorter that we wold have liked.  But Julie's Dad plowed a path out to the hill with his back hoe so we could drive out there.  He made a fire to keep warm and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  It's a yearly tradition that seems to be growing each year.  Definitely a lot of fun.  The girls also get a kick out of all Nanny's singing and dancing Christmas decorations that fill the house.  They went on a couple of tours and took turns pushing the buttons and enjoying the singing and dancing figures.

Julie all frosted up

Gordon roasting hot dogs

The lunch bench (bucket of the back hoe)

Julie and her Dad

'The Redneck Slopes' Julie coined them

Uncle Darcy getting loved

Movie time

CeCe telling Poppa a story

My girls

Christmas dresses

Holding Cooper

CeCe and Sophie

Jam-jamming with Poppa

Playing lego with Poppa

So this has been a full month.  But it's been good.  The whole year has been good.  Lots of things to be thankful for.  It's past December 21st and we're still here.  The girls are all pretty amazing kids (if I do say so myself).  There may be times when they make me want to pull what hair I have left out, but they are good kids and I'm proud of them.  I'm married to an amazing woman who has lost over 100 pounds this last year.  What's more impressive than that is the confidence and self-worth that she feels now.  Pretty amazing.  We've been married 11 years.  I turned 40.  We both still have good jobs.  I read the entire Bible twice this year (thanks to my iPhone) and that has really been a life-changing thing too.  Julie and I are leading our Bible study group this year which was a huge leap of faith for us.  I tattooed my favourite verse on my arm (the gist of it anyway).  'Rejoice, pray, give thanks, always.'  1 Thess. 5:16-18.  I'm really trying to live my life by these words.

So looking ahead to 2013, I just hope and pray for continued growth and health and more of God's grace. (and more regular blogging) Later. 

Vegas Vacation

I'm going back in time a bit to write this post.  This actually took place near the middle of November.  I uploaded the pics to blogger a while back, but still never got around to writing.  So here we are, Dec 20.  Let's hope I still remember the details.

 

Way back in August, I turned 40, and instead of putting 40 flamingos on the front yard, Julie thought she would take me to the Flamingo.  What a great present!  So our trip was booked for November and Julie's cousin has very generously volunteered to watch our angels while we were away.

 

November 7th, we took off on our first 'couple' holiday since we had children.  It was awesome.  Julie had booked us a limo to take us from the airport to the hotel.  We're going to Vegas, we might as well do it up right.  We landed at about 8:30 pm Vegas time and were greeted by our driver holding the sign for Julie.  How cool is that?!  We were treated to a bottle of champagne and he drove us to our hotel and around to see a bit more of the strip.  We were already having the time of our lives.

 

We walked around the strip a bit more that evening just taking in the sights.  The next three days were filled with exploring the strip and Freemont Street, shopping and lots of walking.  And shopping.  And we got tattoos.  We had another limo tour booked to tour the strip, the famous sign and Freemont Street.  The weather was unseasonably cool there, so some of the shows (like the pirates at Treasure Island) were cancelled.  These were part of the limo tour, so we had some extra time.  Our driver asked us if we watched 'Pawn Stars' and we said that we had seen it, so he took us to the pawn shop.  It was pretty neat to see, but nothing very big or showy.  It looks more impressive on TV.  At Freemont Street, we decided to do the zip line.  That was very cool.  Neither of us had ever done one before, so what better place than over top of hundreds of peoples' heads in Vegas.  What a rush.  Julie also got to compare tongues with Gene Simmons there (ok, not the real Gene Simmons, but she had him beat, no problem).

 

We rented a car for one day and spent most of the day doing some serious damage at the outlet malls.  Let's just say we went down with two half-full suitcases and came back with three zipper-bursting ones. 

 

One of our dining experiences was at this little restaurant right off the strip called 'The hole in the wall'.  Some of Julie's friends recommended it - said the food and atmosphere were great.  It started out good.  We were serenaded by a little old accordion player who knew where Saskatoon was.  The soup was great and the unlimited garlic bread and wine were nice too.  By the time our main course was there, some commotion occurred at a table close to us.  As it turns out, they had a cockroach come out of their salad!  Did I mention we had the soup?  Whew!  The two women at the table freaked out and were ready to leave.  One husband was supportive of this decision, but the other wasn't.  "What's the big deal?  The place is called the hole in the wall.  What do you expect?  You just got to roll with it."  He was not winning his battle, so he poured himself some more wine before they left.  I don't think we'll go there the next time we're in Vegas.

 

We celebrated our eleventh anniversary while we were down there and took things a notch more upscale and dined at the Wynn.  A little nicer than the hole in the wall. 

 

There is so much to see there, we didn't even come close.  We didn't get to any shows or the wax museum.  But our days were filled and we were tired by the end.  I guess that just means we have to go back.  Here are some of the highlights:

 



 

 

And the girls were kept so busy by Auntie that I'm not even sure they missed us.  They went to a movie, the Fun Factory, the museum and did all kinds of other fun stuff.  It sure was nice knowing they were in good hands.  It sure was nice to see them all at the airport when we got home too.  We missed the little stinkers after all.  Later.