Horses4Heroes and Tule Springs National Monument

This is one of our favorite places in Vegas. Horses4Heroes is a nonprofit organization that provides affordable riding for all and uses the proceeds to help with programs for veterans, women's shelters and schools. Asher and Journey first started riding here when they were barely two years old, and by 3.5, were riding and steering the horses by themselves. While in Vegas this time, we volunteered weekly as a family to muck stalls, groom horses and help with Horseplay classes. Asher loved mucking stalls, Journey, not as much.

Even peacocks and bunnies come to visit the horses here.

The kids were able to attend about 8 days of camp here at the ranch. Whenever the local schools are off, the ranch offers all-day camp. They stay busy riding, walking the minis, cleaning, making friends, playing with the barnyard animals (burros, goats, alpacas, chickens and the mini cow) and learning skills at the ranch. They both love camp so much that they were sad when we came to pick them up, they wanted to stay longer. Daddy and I certainly appreciated the chance to have time to ourselves, though it was so strange being without the kids. We spent much time just trying to figure out what to do.

A couple years ago, Horses4Heroes moved to Floyd Lamb park. An oasis in the desert with trees, grass and stocked lakes. This is the view just behind the ranch! So beautiful!

The kids love walking the trails around the lakes. It's a great spot for birding too!

Just up the road is the newest National Monument, Tule Springs, an important 

archeological site where mammoths, lions and camels have been found. 

Celebrating 10 years with Elvis

While my dad and stepmom were visiting, my husband arranged for a big surprise! To celebrate ten years together, we renewed our vows...in a chapel on the Las Vegas strip...with Elvis officiating! He had arranged for my parents to bring my own wedding dress out for this! When we arrived, four of our closest friends were there, Lisa and Dan, and Richmond and Robyn. And it wasn't just for us, my parents were renewing their vows with us in a double ceremony!

I curled Journey's hair for the first time. 

Elvis sang as he escorted my stepmom and I down the aisle.

I vowed to not step on my "hunka hunka burnin' love's" blue suede shoes 

and he vowed to love me tender and be my teddy bear. 

Before and After (They both fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel.)

We both had suites at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street for the night. In the morning 

we enjoyed the buffet where Asher came up with his own creation- chili topped waffles.

Afterwards we went swimming with sharks! (There's a shark tank in the center of the pool.)

Grandparents in Vegas

It's always fun when the grandparents come to visit! This time we made the most of our two weeks together by doing a variety of things around Las Vegas. We went to Red Rock Canyon NRA.

While exploring the visitor center, I saw this Mojave Green Rattlesnake under a bench! 

We alerted a ranger and watched as he captured then released it at the end of a viewing area.

When I moved to Vegas in 2004, I climbed my first mountain, Turtlehead Peak, the dark triangular peak on the right. It was warm at the trailhead, but snowing at the peak. We were not fully prepared and returned after dark. Crazy, but I still had fun and was hooked on climbing mountains!

Another day we went to admire the refuge from the viewpoint of Mt Charleston.

The new visitor center at Mt Charleston features amazing art work by Austine Wood Comarow. The windows of the center look like regular etched glass, but when you look thru a polarizing viewer, you see the glass come alive with bright, brilliant colors featuring the plants and animals of the area. As you tilt it left to right, it seems to change thru the seasons. So cool!

Of course we spent lots of time hiking around the trails of the refuge. 

We took them into the backcountry to check out Fossil Ridge and the canyon opposite.

While they were visiting, a serious flash flood came thru and wiped out the refuge roads. We even saw Jeeps get swept off the road into the desert. The main road into the refuge was under 2ft of water for 3 days and eventually had to be pumped out!

The next morning we went to inspect the damage. In this photo, the kids are standing IN the road- it went from right to left, now it's a 3 ft drop where a river ran thru.

They helped Officer Rob lock the gate to the road so no one would get stuck back there before the roads could be repaired.

Another volunteer, Gene, worked tirelessly for two weeks to get the roads graded and opened. This is the largest refuge in the lower 48 states with 1.6 million acres. Our longest road goes thru to Pahranagat and takes 8 hours in a truck in good conditions, so you can only imagine the hours that Gene put into repairing the roads. He's a machine!