Today we're off to Las Vegas... pictures from the cell phone will be here. Other pictures will be put on here in a gigantic blog post once we get back. Feelin' calm and casual, ready and sparkly, happy and silly. :) Days and days of time to play, time to hang out with Kenny and Mom and Pops and Mark and goofy Las Vegas types we meet along the way. Going to see the Amazing Jonathan one of the nights, at the Sahara. Geocaching some caches I found located on the strip. An aquarium with a shark is on the list of plans as well. Mostly, though, walking around and checking out everything... EVERYTHING! :) Temps will be in the low 70s during the day, 50s or so at night. Suitcase has been packed since Saturday... I've been ready for a trip of this kind for years! Will miss the kids, longest we've been away from them, but I think the phone and computer laptop will help to bridge the miles and make it easy. Got a few things to finish up this morning before we leave later on today. It's a very pretty autumn morning... I'm going to walk around the yard and hug all the trees before I go, because I will kinda miss the pussy willow and the holly tree and the flaming red leafy bush out front. By the time we get back home, that red leafy bush most likely will have dropped all of its leaves on the front lawn.

I got an email from a band in Vegas... might go check them out, they play out at clubs a lot. Got a lot of information and ideas from people who have been to Vegas... my brother in law was super helpful last night, letting us know what to avoid, like Comp packages where they try to sell you timeshares for a 'few hours of your time' and in return give you tickets to shows and money for gambling, but there's all kinds of hitches in it, and the hours spent saying 'no' is upwards of four hours or more. Might be great for a couple actually considering a timeshare in Vegas, but if you're not, it's not worth the hassle.

When we get back home, we're taking the kids to see the Chicken Little movie, which they keep asking us when we can go, as well as a trip to the Museum of Natural History, which just got in two baby Diamondback Terrapins (turtles). The museum letter has a picture of these little guys, and they are so cute! I'm looking forward to that as much as I'm looking forward to Vegas! :)

I'm off to start the mornin' cleanup and to putter around the yard... :)