Temple Lights

This past weekend Kyle and I went to Salt Lake City to meet my family and go see the Temple Lights.  My brother Brian and Becca weren't able to make it, but everyone else did.  We all met up to eat at Chuck-a-rama which was crazy busy.  Then we headed off to where my sister was staying to be able to get on the Trax system and ride for free =)  When we were all together it was funny cuz us girls all had our coats on that my parents bought us from their Alaska cruise.  So we had to get a picture together of us in our awesome coats!

 We went up to the Joseph Smith Building to the top and looked down on the Temple and the lights.

Obviously this is Kyle and I in front of the lights.  It was so pretty there.  It was amazing all the trees with the lights on them.  My sister-in-law said she read in an article that they start putting the lights on the trees in October.  I'm not sure when they start taking them down but it takes them till March to finish it.  I can't imagine putting them up.  The colors were so pretty!  My favorite ones were the red ones.

Thank you family for being able to drive out to SLC just to see the lights with us.  We had so much fun hanging out with you all and it was even more special since it was Tracy's birthday!  Thanks again for going!!!!

Living Aquarium

After visiting the Temple Lights Kyle and I decided we would go to the Living Aquarium on Saturday.  It was pretty cool.  I liked it alot more than the one in Vegas.  We went over to the Pengiun area first.  They were so much fun to watch.  There were acouple pengiuns that were so interactive with the crowd.  The one would dive into the water and swim around like he had a ton of caffiene in his system.  He would swim fast in the water and then jump out of the water onto the land. He got to the point were he would almost run into the wall cuz he was going so fast in and out of the water.

 This is the one that was going crazy in the water.  He would stop infront of us and hang out for alittle bit and then go back to swimming like crazy.  If we ever go back I think we will do the pengiun experience and get to see the penguins upclose.

 This picture shows an eel and they had it hooked up to this christmas tree.  When it was stunning it's prey the electricity in the water would light up the christmas tree.  It was pretty cool to watch.

 This aligator was just sitting there staring at all the people going by.  It was kinda creepy.

 This tortoise was HUGE!  It also had a bag glued to its backside.  They said she had been attacked by a shark and then hit by a boat so they glued a bag that has weights in it to keep her from floating to the top.

 They had acouple areas of jellyfish.  One of them were these jellyfish that were upside down.  Their tenticles were floating to the top.  The other one looked like the ones we see on TV all the time.  Just floating around.  The picture of these jellyfish are clear and they had a light hooked up that changed them from blue to red to purple and back to blue.  They were neat to look at it.

 We got to watch them feed this octapus.  They put a plastic treasure chest in the water with food in it and the octapus grabbed it and tried to get the food out.

The seahorses were fun to watch too.  They had a bunch of tanks with these guys in them.  The first one had the biggest ones in it which is the first picture.  I didn't realized they have a fin on their back that moves them around and then they use their tail to hold onto the grass and hang out.  The last picture is of the tank that had the tiniest seahorses ever!  They were so cute!  They had to be the size of a dime or smaller. 

  It was really amazing all the animals, fish, and whatnots that were there.  They had a bunch of fish, frongs, and other things that are native to Utah too.  For the price it is a neat place! I recommend it!

ALIENS

 The day after thanksgiving most people go shopping.  Well since we didn't have anything we needed to go shopping for we decided to take a road trip.  We went out west to find the town of Rachel NV.  We had been out this way  before but hadn't gone all the way to Rachel.  So we packed up the dogs and took some hot chocolate and went to find us some aliens.  The town of Rachel is right on the northern border of Area 51.  Their claim to fame is they have spotted aliens in the sky.  Now we really did know we wouldn't find any aliens so when we got there and there weren't any we weren't that disappointed.  But when we looked the town up on google earth it showed an entire city block with the picure of the KFC guy on it, we were disappointed to find out it wasn't there still.  Oh well it got us out of the house seeing new sites. =)

This is the sign outside of the Little A'Le'Inn.  It is the only store in the town.  Kinda sad they had to attach the space ship to a tow truck in order for it to fly. =)  I was surprised by how many people lived there.

These 2 pictures are of the signs on the border of Area 51.  They have security camera's on the mountains and people with trucks waiting to catch you going over the line.  The first offensive is $600!!! Don't worry we didn't find out by experience.  We got a map back in Rachel that said that.  The whole place made me nervous and I really had to talk Kyle into not going over the line =)

After we visited the border of Area 51 we went on a search for old gold mines.  We found 2.  We only made it to one and it was HUGE!  You could probably drive your truck or car into them.  They went on for miles but I was cold and alittle scared so we didn't go too far in.  We did make it to a the elevator in one of them.  Kyle said he could see to the bottom cuz of the water in the bottom and it looked like it was about 50 stories to the bottom.  It also went way up high too.  We just might have to go back there and check it all out.  They had electricy set up for them but we didn't dare turn it on.

After we had played around those gold mines we took off for Delamare.  We have been to this place numerous times and walked in all of the gold mines there.  This is a picture of one of the buildings still up.  There are alot of buildings still there but this is the most complete one.  We only stayed here for a few minutes cuz we were running out of gas.  After we got gas in Caliente we took off for Delamue Ranch to see some deer.  We had been told they congregated here and really didn't expect to see very many but we were surprised!  There were tons!  We saw a good looking buck and tons of other people checking out the deer.  We got there pretty late so we couldn't take any pictures and couldn't see the deer very well.  We will have to take another trip out there. 

Over all we had a pretty good Thanksgiving. We got to spend it with Kyles family this year. We had dinner on thursday and on saturday we ate with Kyle's step dad's family. The food was good and the company was great. 

Vegas Attractions

This is outside our hotel window.  We were ready to go home by this point.  It had been a very long and exciting weekend.

I've always wanted to have my picture taken by the Las Vegas sign.  Kyle finally made this come true.  We got so many things done on my list to do's in Vegas.  I'll be sad when I have everything checked off. (Ok I will never let that list stop cuz there is so much to do there!!)

MGM lions.  They had 3 lion cubs out playing. I've never seen so many there before.

SHARK REEF at MANDALAY BAY CASINO

I've always wanted to go to the Shark Reef and we got to this weekend.  Which was cool cuz that is also how we found out we could buy tickets to the preconcert for Nickelback.  This place was really neat. I do have to say it is over priced but I am glad we went.  It is worth it to go atleast once.  They have a huge tank filled with sharks and in one place there is a see thru tube you walk through and the sharks are swimming over and under you and next to you.  It was fun to see all the wierd fish that are out there in the oceans.  I loved the octupus.  It was all about climbing all over the place.  The sting rays were cool to touch too.  Made my hand stink but they felt cool.  I loved the jelly fish.  They were hard to get a picture of but we finally got a few good ones.  They had tons of different kinds of fish.  They had one tank that had pirahna's and there was one that had these huge fish in there.  I couldn't believe they got that big!  The first thing you come across is an alligator.  It is crazy how big they are too!

On sunday before we came home we decided to go over to the New York New York casino and ride their rollercoaster.  We bought the all day scream pass.  We rode the coaster 5 times in a row!!!  We would have kept riding it but we both got bumped around pretty good on the last ride and figured it was time to stop.  We rode in the very front, the very back, the middle and everywhere in between.  We both love rollercoasters and recommend this one to everyone!  It is one of my favorite coasters. Even going 5 times in a row it still made me scared when it would go straight down.  Yes I'm just like my mother and scream my lungs out =)

Over all we had the best weekend ever in Vegas.  Had we made it to the pool that would have made it even better.  Hooters Casino has a pretty fun pool.  Plus it is so close to the strip and cheap.  Thank you Kyle for an AWESOME WEEKEND!!!!

NICKELBACK

WARNING LOTS OF NICKELBACK PICTURES!!!!!!!

Nickelback Preconert!

So Kyle and I went to Vegas over Halloween weekend to see Nickelback in concert.  I saw on facebook that they would be doing a preconcert at Mandalay Beach.  We went over and got tickets and got to see them up close!  The first picture is of the entire band.  The second is to show you what the place looked like.  Kyle and I were standing in the water just a few feet away from the band.  It was so cool!  Then third picture is of Chad the lead singer of Nickelback and the fourth is over the drummer. Now I know you are wondering why a picture of these guys cuz the lead singer really isn't good looking {but the drummer is =) }.  Kyle took the picture of the lead singer looking in our direction and the drummer is amazing! The 5th pic is the guitar player who is the half brother to the lead singer.  In the 6th pic it has the head cut off of the lead singer but the guy in the background is the guy who named the band.  He also sings along with the lead singer and so does the drummer.  They sang 3 songs.  They sang Rock Star, Friend in low places by Garth Brook, and This Afternoon.  It would have been cool had they sang more songs but honestly it was awesome to be so close hanging out at the pool.  One thing I do love about Nickelback is they do sing other bands songs and it makes it fun.  Plus the concert lasts longer which I wish it would last longer. I was so sad this was their last concert until they put out another album. =(

This shows what the stage looked like and where our seats were.  We were pretty close but I wish we were closer.  Next time I'm spending the money for better tickets.

This pic is of the Nickelback symbol that is on their new album Dark Horse.

This is Nickelback on stage.  The platform the drummer is on actually moves.  When the band takes a break the platform moves and he plays an awesome drum solo and the platform also rises.  It was so COOL!!!

Nickelback moved out onto the smaller stage and sang a bunch of songs.  This is when they really interacted with the crowd.  I love it!  It was cool when they went to this stage cuz as they were walking out to it the drummers drums came up from under the stage.

Another awesome part of the concert besides the awesome music was Nickelback always has tons of fireworks and fire throughout the concert.  As you can tell these last 2 pics are of the fire.  There was blue, green, red, and yellow fire used.  I don't know if you could feel the heat from every seat but you sure could feel it where we were.

Behind the band was a huge screen that they played the music video to their songs or showed them singing or playing their guitar or drums.  I hope these pictures are as awesome as the concert was.  It was hard to pick which picture to put on here.  We took SO MANY!!  Even if you aren't a Nickelback fan which is hard to imagine they put on an awesome concert.  There were so many things going on. 

This isn't the best picture but it is the lead singer of Hinder and Chad talking before they sang.  They had the lead singer of Hinder come out and sing the song by AC/DC Highway to Hell.  I don't know if he did that at every concert but I think he only showed up for this one in Vegas.  I do know he didn't show up for the concert in SLC.  

Also the comedian (who is very creepy looking I think) Carrot Top show up and come out.  The lead singer tried to talk him into shaving his hair into a mohawk but he declined. 
THANK YOU Kyle for being wiling to go to this concert with me.  I fell in love with Nickelback when I heard their song How you remind me. (Thanks to my brother Brian for burning me a cd with that song on it).  I can't wait for the next concert!!!!

Buckcherry & Three Days Grace

I know these pictures aren't the greatest but I wanted to show how good our seats were.  They weren't as good as the ones we had last year at the Nickelback concert but compaired to the other crappy seats in the arena these were pretty good.  The concert started with the band Buckcherry.  I was way excited for them since I loved their 15 album.  I was alittle disappointed since they sang more songs from their last 2 albums and I didn't know them very well.  They did put on a way good concert though.  I love it when the bands interact with the crowd instead of just singing their songs and leaving. Listening to them made me more excited for Nickelback!

I have to admit Three Days Grace was awesome!  I loved every song they sang.  I didin't realize I knew all their songs.  The lead singer wanted everyone in the arena to stand up and he saw some people not standing up so he went out into the crowd singing a song getting people to stand up. It was cool.  It just shows they care about their fans and want them to have a great time. So far this concert is AWESOME!!

Bellagio Conservatory

This first pic is of us in the elevator at Hooters Casino where we stayed.  As you can tell we were excited to be in Vegas!



These next pics are of the conservatory at the Bellagio.  I love going there.  Everything is made out of living plants or atleast use to be alive =)  I thought the scarecrow looked pretty cool and the picture doesn't do it any justice.  They had a purple light on it that made it look even better.  The pic below is awesome.  I don't know what or who it was suppose to be but at first it was kinda creepy but after you got looking at it closer it was pretty cool.  We went to this saturday morning after we had been to the shark reef at the Mandalay Bay.



This last pic is the top of a tree.  It is made out of vines that are twisted on itself.  I thought it was pretty neat.  Throughtout the conservatory they had huge pumpkins.  One of the pumpkins weighted over 1,000 pounds.  They also had red chili peppers planted.  This place is really neat.  My favorite time to visit is around Christmas time.  So hopefully we will get to see it this year =)