Short and Sweet Photography

I am back from a quick mini vacation with my husband to Sin City. For us it wasn’t so sinful. We spent our days walking the streets, shopping and enjoying each other’s company. Not much to gamble–I doubled my money($5)–we stayed out of the casinos except walking through them to our destinations. They did remind me a lot of Chuck e Cheese though…the last time I was there it was all old school–put money into the slots get money out. Now you get these tickets and you take it to the ticket eating machine which dispenses your prize. The only difference from Chuck e Cheese is the dispensing machine does not make a munching sound while eating your tickets. I vote that they add that for fun. 

We did see ‘O’ by Cirque du Soleil which was incredible. We also joined some other friends who were there for the best meal of our life at Micheal Mina’s in the Bellagio. ooohhhh and I shopped–new shoes(thank you Cole Haan for creating heels with Nike soles) and a new bag(thank you Kate Spade for just being you)….

Here are some of the sights:

On the last day, we rented a car and got out of Dodge–to the Hoover Dam(being married to Bob I see many marvels of engineering) and to the Valley of Fire. This is an image of Bob at the latter.  Places like that make me feel like an inferior photographer. Seriously. Capturing their natural beauty is incredibly difficult because what you see with your eyes is so brilliant.

I’m off to get some Christmas work done. We still have no tree. At least with the massive snow dump we had while I was in Vegas, it feels a lot more like Christmas.

I was wrapping presents today and Georgia came into my room. She asked me who the presents were for. So, I pointed out each one and listed off to whom it was destined. When it was all done, she earnestly asked me–’what is pretend friend getting for Christmas?’

You see…quite a while ago now, Pretend Friend arrived at our house. She is from Fairy World–which is not in this world…but is also the home to the tooth fairy and many other wonderful fairies. If you ask Georgia–what is pretend friend’s name? She will look at you like you are from outer space and say, ‘Pretend Friend’(if she was 13 you could add ‘duh’ afterwards). Over the months the kids on the street have adopted Pretend Friend. There have been many birthday parties for her(I guess in Fairy World, it is your birthday about every third day). The kids all know and accept this Pretend Friend as a playmate. Georgia even created a brother for Jack.

So, what to get Pretend Friend for Christmas? hmmm…I tried the whole ‘pretend gift’ thing(it worked once on timbits). That didn’t go over well…but, Georgia is resourceful. We now have some of Georgia’s used coloring books and random markers wrapped in colorful Christmas wrapping. The tag says: Pretend Friend.

I love my kids.

Just a note to say I am off on a mini vacation for a few days. All calls and emails will be returned on Wednesday next week. Thanks.