KA

This is the last post from Vegas, I promise!

Our favorite thing was KA. We saw the Cirque du Sole show KA at the theater in the MGM grand. It was truly an amazing show that is almost beyond our description. There were so many times during the show that I was just staring in amazement at what I was watching afraid that my jaw had dropped and people were staring at me. I guarantee you none of them were though, because the sight was so amazing that everyone was watching.
I'll try to describe some of our favorite parts and the story as I go along, but just know that whatever I type isn't good enough to compare to the actual show. Truly. Amazing!

Here's Colin and I before the show started. You aren't' allowed to take pictures so I borrowed them from the website.

So the story goes that there are these twins, one boy and one girl. At the beginning of the story they're having a pageant and everything is really happy. Then there is an invasion of archers and a storm and they get separated. The rest of the show they learn that they can use the "Ka" to make good or evil. It's like an energy or something. Then they get reunited and the show ends as it begins. I'll just show some pictures from my favorite scenes and tell why I liked them.

This was our favorite scene. It starts out with the men seen in the picture "the archers" attacking the people and the stage is on a pretty large slant. Then the stage starts rotating, and when the archers shoot their arrows, these pegs come out and they all do these cool acrobatics with them like swinging around them with their legs and such. Every so often those involved in the battle fall off the stage into the great abyss. Then the pegs start coming out and some of the guys fall off. Then there is one guy left and he's hanging on one peg way at the top. You can guess what happens next but he does fall all the way down the stage (30 feet) and then off into the darkness. It was so cool!

This was my second-favorite scene. This is the wheel of death machine. The guys that you see standing on top of the two highest wheels are really amazing. They do all these crazy tricks while those wheels go around and around. They get inside of the wheels and crawl out. They jump around inside of them, they jump rope on top of them. It's crazy!

This is just a cool picture of the archers posing.

This was an awesome scene called the forest. There were all sorts of bugs and animals climbing up the pipes and there were lots of the forest people doing classic Cirque stuff like swinging and flying through the air doing acrobatics. This was a nice scene.

In this scene, the actors are at the top of the totally vertical stage. They are in a blizzard. It was cute.

This is a flying machine. It is made up of people. Each of the wings is a man using his body to go up and down and look like wings. It was really amazing to see them all flying around and working together to look like a giant bird. There were about 8 people on it total.

In this beach scene the stage is totally horizontal. There are these cute little crabs and other sand creatures that come out and play with the main characters. The sand is really cool and I looked it up later and found out that it is 350 cubic feet of cork!

Anyway, we loved you cirque and we can't wait to see another show some day!

So these are just pictures of us playing in Vegas. I used to think that there isn't much to do in Vegas when you're a Mormon. However, I've learned that there are a lot of fun things to do. We did to a little gambling but kept it to a nice budget. :) We really had a great time. The highlight of our trip was seeing the show KA. I'll be posting that soon!
Colin and I walking the strip during the daytime.

Colin trying his luck at the slot machines.

Me being silly at breakfast.

Colin being goofy at breakfast.

Me, our first night on the strip.

Colin, our first night on the strip.

Margarita ville parrots.

Colin looking toward the Bellagio hotel.

Me, posing in front of the fountain outside of the Paris.

There were some cool street performers too but my camera was in the hotel when we ventured out on the first day.

We did go to M&M world as well but honestly, I was quite disappointed. I thought it was more like a factory or museum but it was just a 4 level store. We bought a pound of coconut m&m's at an outrageous price.

Shopping in Las Vegas

I was of course looking forward to the shopping in Vegas. I love the forum shops even though I can afford like three of the stores! I found myself a new pair of AF1's that I love (teal!). I got a few bracelets and bought my mom a gift too. We got the boys some toys at FAO Schwartz although I was fairly unimpressed with the store this visit. I think maybe they were getting ready for Christmas. Either that or the "ECONOMY" has hit them hard too.

Colin decided he'd rather bet on a certain Football game than buy himself something new, so he didn't buy a new pair of shoes... or anything else for himself.
The center of the forum shops in Cesar's Palace.

The Trojan horse entrance to F.A.O. Schwartz.

Colin buying toys for the boys.

Nike town. Such a cool store. They had some super cute exercise clothes that I was in love with.

But I REALLY fell in love with these babies and had to buy them.

Las Vegas, food edition

Our first morning in Vegas we had breakfast at the Paris buffet. The food was really yummy.

We ate a lot of great food in Vegas. On the night we saw KA we ate at Mon Ami Gabi with Brandon and Tashina. The atmosphere was awesome, the view was amazing, and the food was delicious! Tashina and I ordered the lemon chicken and Colin and Brandon had the fillet. We added a few sides and enjoyed the view of the Bellagio fountains as we dined. It was a great time.

This is me trying to show the view of the fountains from our dining table.

The fillet.

The chicken.

The first night in Vegas we went out to eat later than planned and had a hard time finding a seat. We were hoping to go to Mon Ami Gabi but there was an hour and 45 minute wait for a table. We walked over to the Cesar's and tried to get a table at Mesa grill. No such luck. There was a three-hour wait. We headed over to the forum shops to try a restaurant there. We walked by Wolfgang Puck's Spago and thought, hey, let's eat there! So, we did. They walked us straight into the dining room, no wait!

The restaurant has a real modern feel to it and so did the menu. Colin had a blue-cheese topped fillet and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. We ordered some amazing deserts. The chocolate brownie came on the cutest little plate ever. It was more of a tart shell with a chocolate fudge thing inside- To. Die. For! We also got a banana crepe drizzled in chocolate.

My chicken, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes. Sorry the pics didn't turn out too well. I was using the little camera so as not to attract too much attention.

Colin's steak.

Paris Hotel, Las Vegas

This weekend Colin and I had the wonderful opportunity- took the wonderful opportunity- gave ourselves the wonderful opportunity, of escaping to Las Vegas for a few days. We had an amazing time and pretty much enjoyed every second of it! We stayed at the Paris Hotel.

The inside of the hotel. It has cobble-stone walkways, a ceiling painted like a cloudy-blue sky, and signage written in French. It's all very cute.

This is the valet entrance to the hotel.

This was the view from our room during the day.

This is the view from our room at night. My camera was totally out of batteries and I forgot to take a picture once it was charged-up, so this is the best I got.

Grandpa's Patch

This year we got to pick our pumpkins from Grandpa's patch. Unfortunately, it was totally raining when we all went out to get our pumpkins. I'd love to have taken a million pictures of the boys carefully choosing their pumpkins. However, it was more like everyone run out and grab a pumpkin before you get too wet. It was fun anyway and the pumpkins are great. Ryan was looking for the smallest one he could find and Evan was totally unsure of what was going on at all so I picked one up for him.

Wee Witches Weekend

Gardner Village was having their Wee Witches Weekend over the UEA break. The boys decided to skip their naps and I was stupid enough to take them there anyway. I invited Jess and Emry along with us and they were able to come. We had fun hauling the kids around the village.
Ryan got to take a pony ride. Evan was too afraid so we just took pictures of Ryan.

His horse was cute and he pretty much loved every second of his turn.

Evan was pretty good while he was in his stroller. He's pretty much a good sport when it comes to riding in his stroller. Ryan was never a fan of the stroller.

They were blasting Halloween music through the speakers and Ryan just took off dancing. It was so spontaneous. Jess took video of the crazy kid dancing all over the place.

Evan and Ryan posing for me on a bale of hay. They are too cute! Maybe that's why I put up with them being so naughty. This day was a display of naughty behavior. I was exhausted by the end and they obviously were too (having skipped nap time). They both conked out in the car on the way home but I was safe and drove without being paparazzi because UEA traffic was insane around the valley!

I let them get candy from the $.10 and $.20 bins. They loved it!

Emry is too cute posing with all of these pumpkins. She was pretty happy until that pumpkin under her right elbow poked her.

Ryan cheesing for the camera. I took him for a hair cut the very next day. Man, it was getting out of control.

Ryan did the bean bag toss. I think Evan might have had better luck! :)

Emry and Jess posing in front of a witch.

Do you see the naughtiness oozing from their cute little faces! They WOULD NOT pose decently for aunt Jess.

The boys and I checking out the ducks. I would not let go of Evan. Had I, he would not have hesitated to jump in that cute little pond.

A nice shot of us watching the cute ducks from afar.

Peeking over the edge to watch the fish swim under the bridge.

Jess and Emry posing for me.

Evan

Ryan

Evan

Ryan

They were pretty fascinated by the big water mill wheel.

I'm glad I took my kids over to the Gardner Village for our annual fall trip. It is such a cute place. They had all sorts of fun things for the kids to do. Remember to bring your cash though because everything cost money. Next time I'd take them a little earlier and try to relax a little more and just enjoy it. I was stressed about them running away and keeping them occupied. I would have enjoyed it more if I had just chilled out a little. They had fun.