Halloween (a little late)

Welcome to our haunted Halloween house

Good food and decorations were about all our Halloween Party had going for it. Sure the people were great too, but I didn't have many activities planned so we sat around staring at each other at times. We also played Apples to Apples and embarrassed ourselves with some karaoke.

My bathroom was supposed to look like a scene from the movie Psycho

Our red room was turned into a human butcher shop complete with "bleeding" candles and severed body parts. The hand on the table is sound activated and I put it on the porch Halloween night. When kids would ring the doorbell, it would start crawling towards them. Boy did I have some of them scared!

Our friends and co-hosts, Captain Jack Sparrow and Gypsy Lady (Brandon and Nycole). Believe it or not, their costumes were homemade and completely awesome!

KR was a bounty hunter and sported a mohawk, camo pants and multiple weapons. I dressed as an old man for the party but threw this on to greet trick-or-treaters on Halloween night. BOO!

Cross-dressing guests Jeff, Adrian and Kaden(left) and Richard the "Cereal Killer" with Jeni the cop (right)

Westball 2006

Las Vegas here we come

What's a trip to Vegas without a double double animal style?
(And what's a few more pounds after eating at two large buffets and lots of good cheap food in our hotel?)

Bus Ride -------------------------------Bellagio Water Show





Most of you have probably heard about the long night we had on the strip while we were there. We heard about this Halloween event going on, FrightDome, at Circus Circus that we decided to go to. It included 5 haunted houses, 20 rides, 3 "scare zones" and several freak shows. Sounds fun right? We went through the trouble of finding discount coupons-which didn't work out-and we ended up buying our tickets online the night before. We parked several blocks away from Circus Circus, and those several blocks took 45 minutes to walk. When we got there and finally found the entrance to the Fright Dome, there were basically all teenagers in line (much to Dad's excitement). We had to get wanded before entering but Greg and KR were carrying large pocketknives so they were not allowed in. (At least they would have been prepared if we had to defend ourselves against an angry gambler, or in the case that there was a flood they could widdle us a raft out of a palm tree...or...) So we finally decided to scratch the whole idea and hawk our tickets. We lost a little money but oh well. We were also planning to ride the Big Shot on top of the Stratosphere. So after our first activity falling through we were geared up towards this one. Once we got there to buy tickets however, we realized what a rip off it was, ($10 just to ride the elevator up) and decided not to do that either. It was getting later by now and we were even further from the car and our feet were hurting (and actually bleeding in my case.) So, for the first real activity of the evening, Dad treated us to a bus ride back down the strip. It may have taken us longer on the bus due to the traffic, but our legs appreciated it and some of us even snuck in a little nap. We made it in time to catch 1 1/2 Bellagio Water Shows and then called it a night!

The next day, before we had to be to the airport, we surprised ourselves by choosing to return to the strip again. We went and saw the Lions at the MGM Grand which were pretty cool. We toured the M&M Factory, which basically was a four story gift shop consisting of everything you can think of with the M&M logo on it. The many people paying $9/lb for M&M's there must have been brainwashed. Do they really think that little candy covered chocolates are that cool? We finished out by riding the New York New York roller coaster. It was a fun ride.

M&M facory --------------------------- New York New York

MGM Grand

softball

Unfortunately, we lost all four softball games (again). But it was a good try. KR, Dad and Greg all had some good hits and good plays. Notice my picture is not here. The only "at-bat" I had was when I struck out. (After Greg informed me, "Nobody strikes out in softball, Emily, nobody.") I must be special? This was officially the end of my softball career.

look at that form

KR
Greg

Dad

Emily

We had a fun time bowling in the city of sin, but didn't quite make the grade. As you can see by my score, I might as well have been bowling with my eyes shut. Everyone else did great. Greg made himself a new high score and Dad came within a point of his record.

Yum

one of the biggest most beautiful strawberries from our yard this summer

KR holding our nephew Kolton (Richard & Jeni's new baby)

maybe nobody
will notice me
up here


Simon found a friend

black kitty loves to sprall out by the pond and catch unsuspecting dragonflies (since the fish are too tricky for him)

ABBY...YOU ARE SOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!!!!

Our Trip to Great Falls

These pictures are from our trip to Great Falls in May. We went up for KR's friend's wedding. We visited all the old memorable spots (which didn't take very long) like McKenzie River Pizza, Dante's, Holiday Village Mall, etc. We wanted to go to the Sluce Boxes, but it rained most of the time we were there.
708 35th Ave. NE. Yard still looks great mom! Most of riverview still looked the same. There were a lot of nice big new houses up by the water tower thoguh. Oh, and the crazy house on the corner with all the lawn ornaments was still there...:)

4952 B. Locust! Not much has changed except they took a chunk out of the street a few houses away to put a road connecting to the road in the back. The back gate is now the main gate and is further down by River Road. (So if you jumped over our new back fence, you'd still be on base.) Across the street in the back is a whole bunch of nice looking duplexes and they've blocked off access to Giant Springs Road. Our old house is now one of the smaller and older houses on base.
Giant Springs!


Jingles' grave and grave overlook...