Hello Vegas

After two years away, it's nice to be back in Las Vegas, a city that was our home for ten years. We took the kids on a hike up Lone Mountain with Courtney and DeAnn for a new perspective of the city.

Visited our favorite horses and friend, Sydney, before taking a ride at Horses4Heroes at Floyd Lamb Park. The kids used to take weekly riding lessons here.

Floyd Lamb is one of my favorite places in Vegas. Aside from the animals at Horses4Heroes, there are tons of peacocks, rabbits and birds gathering around the lakes. It's a fun place to be.

A beautiful Ruddy Duck.

This gosling had something wrong with him. At this moment both geese were picking on him. We shoed them off, but explained to the kids what was likely to happen once we left. The circle of life is harsh sometimes.

Asher and Journey reunited with their friends Jett and Ava.

My friend Danyell blessed us with a night at Red Rock Hotel which we turned into a slumber party with the Durens. Danyell met us for a ladies night of Bingo which is actually quite fun! 

Our first night in Vegas we stayed at the refuge, so I could be out birding before sunrise. I met two birders on the trail and ended up birding with them for the next three weeks. Here are a few of the birds we spotted. Some from Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve.

Wilson's Phalarope spinning in circles

American Avocets

Black-Necked Stilts

And a lizard.

Marc and Eliana are Birding By Bus from Miami, Florida to Attu, Alaska and back during their big year. I had the pleasure of meeting them and birding together at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge on their way thru Nevada. Great people I can't wait to see again!

My friends Lansing and Mandy met us at the Discovery Center so all the kids could play together again. Super fun day playing in the nursery, the cafe and getting lost in the five story climbing tower!

We conducted our first Bone Marrow Registry drive in the hopes of finding our friend Heston's match.

While going thru the things we had left at a friend's house, Daddy found his medical records....this is only THREE years of documentation! Yikes!

We split our stay between Lisa and Dan's and Richmond and Robyn's house. Lisa's kids are so very adorable so we were happy to finally spend time with them. My kids were also happy to catch up on the Food Network's Kids Baking Championship. 

We found some interesting creatures at their house, like this large lizard.

One night after we had the kids lay down to sleep, Asher called for us saying there was a scorpion in his room. In 10 years of living in Vegas, I had never seen a scorpion inside a house, so I was a little skeptical, but I also had flashbacks of the time Asher found a snake in our closet! He told us it was on his neck and he calmly waited for it to crawl off before calling for us. After a frantic search, we found the little guy, a Bark Scorpion, the most venomous species in Nevada. It was a bit hard to sleep after that.

The next morning I went out to the refuge and bought a black light flashlight so we could check the house for scorpions. They glow so bright, you can not miss them with this light. We all slept better knowing the house was scorpion-free after that.

When we moved into our RV four years ago, Richmond and Robyn happily took care of our Bella. She could not handle being left alone in our old RV, so we knew she wouldn't enjoy living in one fulltime. It was a hard decision, but absolutely the right one. We were coming up on Bella's 12th birthday this year, and although we'd been warned about the weight she'd lost and her getting sick often, seeing her so thin was still a shock. I could tell she didn't have much time left. Saying my final goodbye to her was very difficult, but I'm so glad I had the chance, as she has already passed away as I write this. She was a great dog. She had so many adventures and the love of two families, more than any dog could ever hope for. We love you Bella!