The Muppets Take Las Vegas, Pt. 1

Thursday morning, June 13, really did dawn and we left the house on schedule with 31 sets of clothings, 3 wagons wheels, 2 wagon tongues, 1200lbs of food, approx. 1786 bags and 4 passengers.
Spoiler: no one either died or even contracted dysentery.

The first plane we rode on was classy! Everyone got their own screen with free programming of all kinds. Here, Adele enjoys watching How to Train Your Dragon with me.

Miles chose Wall-E. Yes, before we even left the ground. Take advantage!!

Travel day, Thursday, was a pretty tough ordeal. It was physically demanding to carry 1 heavy suitcase, my carry-on, a diaper bag, a bag of board books AND Adele. Jon was carrying just as much, so he could neither help me nor carry Miles, much to Miles' dismay. It was a lot of running fast in order to WAIT really hard with grumpy kids, a lot of sweating and shushing and being raked over the coals by the TSA because I brought things like babyfood pouches and butt paste in the diaper bag. I feel like there was a time when airlines were actively trying to get customers to enjoy themselves and fly with them, instead of taking for granted that we had to use them and treating us like despicable huddled masses. Anyway.

We made it. Kids played on the first flight, and (mostly) slept through the second (except when any announcements were made; then Adele made everyone nearby feel her wrath). Upon arrival, though, we had to collect our luggage, take a train to the main airport, take a bus to the rental car place, rent a car, drive in an unfamiliar city and check in to the hotel, at what felt like 12-2 am. But we soldiered on and, in the morning, a blue sky and gorgeous desert landscape was our reward.

Our hotel, Arizona Charlie's. Best name in LV?

No, not. This one is.

We drove to breakfast at Denny's, due to great hunger.

Tallest in LV: The Stratosphere. See the roller coaster? Yeah.

Palm trees excite me.

There are indeed churches in Sin City!

Miles was a huge fan of the outdoor pool experience! He had a blast and, despite our layering of sunscreen upon sunscreen, got a cute little tan.

Adele didn't so much like the pool. In fact, she hollered and screamed whenever we approached it, both days. Oh well. Probably just as well that little ginger stayed out of the sun.

Corey, me, and the bride all read novels. Bliss!

We were all fascinated by the naked, treeless mountains.

We spent Friday evening walking the old strip (drove through the new strip on Sat; more to come). It was quite a spectacle! There were tons of strolling characters looking for tips, some of which were more suitable for children than others...

Here's a child-friendly character!

Adele wanted no part of it. She had a bit of a rough time on Friday, poor thing. But she cheered up for Saturday! As you will see..

A long-awaited party

No, it wasn't a belated celebration of my birthday. This weekend we got a long anticipated visit from Grandpa Jim! Grandpa Jim rolled in at 12:30 on Saturday and met us at Price House. Miles shook his hand and said, "Welcome to Blacksburg, Virgina" as he'd been rehearsing (his idea).

On Saturday I focused more on having a visit than on taking pictures. Jon was in Memphis, so it was just Grandpa Jim, the Littles, and me. We gave him a quick tour of some of our favorite places: Price House, the market, Virginia Tech, and Heritage Park, where we picnicked next to a gorgeous view of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We had a delightful time introducing him to various members of our church family, and then in the afternoon we tarried in the horticultural gardens, near Tech's campus.

She was pursuing ducks here.

See?

 It's a gorgeous spot, and very meditative.

 Free beauty always does a lot to restore my faith in the world.

These two are best buddies.

 That evening, we visited Macado's, a local novelty restaurant. It has a lot of enormous animals and just large kitch. You know, what TGIFriday's is trying to be, but missing by about 3 parsecs of authenticity.

 These three will be reunited in one month, when Miles turns four. So it wasn't so much goodbye as see you later!

 

Now we're preparing for our trip to Las Vegas for Michaela's wedding. We're very excited! 

But even as we celebrate this joy, we are also heavy for our friends' loss. Please keep our dear friends, the parents of a three-year-old boy who recently and unexpectedly died, in your prayers. It's been a nightmare for them and everyone who knew them is devastated for their loss. He was a very loved child. I've been mulling over the timing of the lectionary readings from this past weekend. The Old Testament reading involved Elijah reviving the widow's son; the gospel had Jesus resurrecting the son of the widow of Nain. Life? Death? Both at once? May God convince us more and more that we are always in his hands, every moment of our lives and beyond.

31 Years Young

Since my birthday fell on a workday, we celebrated on Sunday. What I wanted to do for my birthday was to dust off my skates from the attic, for the first time in probably 5 years, and find out if I could still skate.

I could.

Another item on my list, though, was to get Miles on his roller skates for the first time.
He learned a kind of beginner's shuffle by the end of the night, as I taught him, one foot at a time, muttering "one, two, one two..." When we saw a little girl take a fall, he watched gravely and said, "She probably didn't go 'one, two.'"

There was some fear, but we went slowly and gradually, I went from holding onto him with two hands, to just one...

... and in the videos below, see him go between supports with no help at all! Watch him catch himself in the first video and avoid a fall.

This second video shows him just after a fall that brought tears. I was so proud of him for getting back on his feet! We're still at more of a shuffle than a glide, but to my mind, the main thing is to stay vertical and confident as much as possible. He professes to want to be a "fast-fast skater" like Mum someday.

Both kids got to enjoy the other attractions at Adventure World, including a bouncy house...

Skeeball (Adele would just walk right up and deposit her ball in the 1,000 hole, yes. Is there something wrong with that?)...
And arcade games:

DELIGHTED Adele got to do a driving game.

She LOVES cars, and was vrooming for a long while after this.

Don't tell Miles there are no quarters in his machine. Oh, and Jon's car came in first this game!! Go Pater Familius!

Yeah, she scaled this when no one was looking and was perched near the top before I caught her.

A beautiful sight...

Having a blast! Yay 31!

Before we left I had a couple more laps, and Miles and I did some figure skating.

The gentleman who worked there was so sweet as to give us three free skate coupons, I assume because we are such enthusiastic skaters. I suppose we'll have to come back!

Outside

Now that the rather cool Blacksburg spring has melted into an angelic, warm-but-not-hot Blacksburg pre-summer, we are taking every opportunity to get outside!

On Memorial Day Weekend, we began with a family visit to the Price  House, complete with garden frolic.

Unfortunately, Miles was showing the beginnings of our family's shared Memorial Day Virus. Jon had it during the week, followed by Adele. Miles was afflicted from Saturday till Sunday night-ish, and I... am still waiting. Actually, I think it's fairly safe to say, at this point, that that illness FEARED TO INFECT ME. Yeah, MDV. Come at me now.

Anyway, on Memorial Day Monday, we made another visit to our dear little Mill Mountain Zoo.

Miles admires his silly-mirror-image.

They have a spunky new snow leopard!

Adele rode the train for the first time. She enjoyed it hugely, and cried, signing "more more more!" and "again!!" when it stopped. We were able to distract her pretty handily with some pigs and goats, though. Her pig sounds are really coming along.

The walk back to the parking lot was unusually gorgeous.

Napping in spite of herself on the way back.

Monday the kids and I went to another one of Papa's softball games. He's part of our church's league. Anyway, we had a rather quintessential summer evening, sitting on a blanket with friends, keeping a lazy eye on the kids, and just enjoying the start of a delicious Blacksburg summer.

Can you see the rainbow?

Miles could!

Miles' new friend, Noah, was technically rooting for the other team.

I don't think anyone here cared about team allegiances at all.

Viva Summer 2013!