Vegas Vacation

We went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago. Kent had interviews there, and I needed to play. I got the good end of that one, didn't I? We have been wanting to go down to Vegas for awhile, so it was great. We stayed the first night in Cedar, and were able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Miles. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving, so we really enjoyed being able to spend some time with them. The next day we headed to Vegas, but made a really fun pitstop in St George. We met Bruce, Mandi and their kids, and Scott at a park and had a picnic lunch. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a nice visit. The park had rock climbing walls, a tiny bit of water, and little desert hills to explore. The kids had a great time. They miss having cousins close by.

Mandi snapped a family picture. It sure is hard to get everyone looking the same direction!

Camille loved climbing on the rocks. Getting up was a breeze. It was the coming down that took awhile. Thankfully it wasn't very high, or we may have been there all day!

Reed liked climbing the pillars more than the rock wall. Maybe it was a little more his size.

Here are the cousins. I made them take one nice one, so that they could be silly in another.

Emma didn't make it into the cousin picture.

I was SOOO happy that Isaac smiled for me. He was being so cute and willing to smile. He wanted to show off his rock. He used to not want to smile for pictures when I would try and take them of him. I was sad I didn't get a good one of Ammon.

The kids were all a little car weary, so the break was perfect.

I am really sad that I didn't take any pictures in Las Vegas. What was I thinking? We stayed with Pauline and Kirt. They are always so nice to have us. The kids played non stop, and had a ball. I had a great time visiting with Pauline, and learning from her great example. She is so organized. Her home runs like a well oiled machine. I always go home with ideas of how to I want to do things. We were able to have dinner and hang out with our friends the Watkins one night, which was great. They are such fun friends, and we always have a great time visiting when we get together. On Saturday night, we had a real treat. We were able to attend the Saturday night adult session of stake conference. It was an amazing meeting, with messages that really touched me. On top of that, we were able to see many old friends, all in one place. It was a jackpot of friends! It is so hard when you go to visit, and have such limited time. There are always WAY more people that we want to see, but just don't have enough hours. SAD. After stake conference, I went over to my cousin Kerry's house and visited with her well into the night. We usually have to get together in the middle of the night so we can get enough interrupted visiting time. It was great to see her. We left on Sunday, went to church in our old building in St George (but missed our old ward ) and then headed up to Cedar where we had Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Miles, Aaron, Jessica, and their kids, and Scott. It is such a nice pit stop to have Cedar in the middle of Salt Lake and Las Vegas. After dinner, we headed on home. Oh, I sure do love vacations. It was really fun, but it is always nice to be home when you are done.

Kent had a few good interviews while we were there. He felt like they all went well. He still does not have any offers, but has companies that he is still in the hiring process with. No company seems to be in as big of a rush to hire, as we are to have a job. Patience. Not an easy thing when you want and need to work. But we are hanging in here, and know everything will work out. We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers in our behalf. We have been blessed through this process, and are grateful for all the extra help we can get! :)

Valley of Fire Photo Scavenger Hunt

As part of our family reunion, Kent and I were in charge of organizing a Photo Scavenger Hunt of the park. It was really fun. We divided into two teams, gave each team a list of places to see, and a list of pictures to take. Each place and pose were worth points. The rule was that everyone had to be in each picture, except for the photographer. Sometimes this was easier than others. The point was to not just take pictures of scenery. Take pictures of people in the scenery. We had just over two hours to complete the scavenger hunt. With our lists in hand, and the competitive spirit that the Miles family is famous for, we set out on our adventure. Our team was our family, Bruce and Mandi's family, Scott, and Ambree. The other team was Grandma and Grandpa, Kirt and Pauline's family (minus Ambree), and Aaron and Jessica. In the end, our team lost. But I figure, there are no losers because we had a blast, and got some fun pictures. Good memories.

1.Picture of a park animal- these lizards are really neat. They were huge. We didn't press the issue of getting someone in the picture. Otherwise, we would have NO picture!

2. The most relaxing place you can find- this is my nephew Ammon kicking back in the sand. 

3.The other team thought the this rock looked pretty relaxing.

4. This is on the Mouse Tank hike. We are all trying to do the TOYOTA jump. As you can tell, I skipped out on the jumping part because Morgan was asleep.

5. The other team did much better with their jump.

6. I take credit for this find. We were supposed to find something funny. This cracked me up. Can you see it? This rock looks a profile of a man with a big nose. Bruce climbed up there to compare profiles.

Well there you have it. We had a great time. It was a great way to get out and see the place, and also just have a great time together laughing and being creative. I highly recommend it if any of you are trying to think up a fun reunion idea.

7. Can you believe how nimble Grandma Miles is? I don't know many people MY age the can do the splits! She is AMAZING!

8. This was a cool find. We were supposed to do what the sign says. We thought this sign would do. These are four of the Miles boys. The sign in the background is a little hard to see, but it says "Next four Miles". They are the next generation of Miles boys. Kent just commented that he hopes their road isn't curvy like the sign says. That's right boys, straight ahead, no curves! :)

9. This is another shot that is a little easier to read the sign.

10. The other team is also doing what the sign says.

11. Here we were supposed to take a picture with someone's pet. The two kids and the dog are what we came up with.

12. We were also supposed to take a picture of something crooked. We thought the dogs tail would work for that.

13. We decided to go and find the Mouse Tank. This is probably where we went wrong in our strategy to win, because it was a hike that took a little time. But it was neat, and worth the short little hike.

14. This was for the picture, Can you believe we can all fit in here? This is my Brother in Law Scott. I am glad he was willing to try to fit in there, because I wasn't! :) The other is of Kent and the kids. I don't know if you can tell, but Kent is cut in half by this rock. Can you see it?

15. This is a picture where we were supposed to make the people in your picture look small. We were at the Beehives.

16. This was at a place called Atlatl rock. We were making funny faces. Can you tell, or do we just look normal?

17. This next place is called Arch rock. We are doing the same thing as the picture. We are trying to make an arch.

18. This picture was taken at the Visitors center. We were supposed to take a picture with a park employee. This guy was a good sport to help us out.

We had a great time, and made some good memories. It was fun way to check out the park and also get some good pictures.

Miles Family Reunion 2008

We had a wonderful little vacation starting on March 15th and we got home on Easter Sunday. It was so much fun to be together for so long with no work-only fun things to do. We went to Cedar City first. Kents brother Dan and his wife Jen and their kids were here from Alaska, so we were able to visit with them for a few days before they went home. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. We were in charge of the Miles family reunion this year. We held it at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. It is between Mesquite and Las Vegas. I can't believe that we lived in Vegas for 7 years and never went there. It was a beautiful time of year to be there. We LOVED the warm weather. It was beautiful weather to camp in. We had a great reunion, and I think everyone had a good time. We did some fun things, and also had time to hang out and visit.

The kids had a blast climbing on all of the rocks. They just played and played all day long. They love being able to just run free.

We had some fun games

A pinata that Grandma and Grandpa filled with SOOO many fun kid toys

A kids had a treasure hunt that Uncle Scott made up ( the squirt guns were the treasure)

Of course Foo Foo had to come along. Morgan drug her thorough the dirt, threw her on the ground, and who knows what else. It was filthy, but she continued to enjoy having it in her mouth.

We did a really fun photo scavenger hunt too. I will post pictures from that later.

We had a great time with the Miles family. What a nice time of year to go somewhere warm, too!

Easter

We had two Easter egg hunts on our trip. We had one at Grandma and Grandpa Miles house with Dan and Jen's kids and Carson, and then another at The Robison's house. Can you say candy overload? The kids LOVED it.

After they found their eggs, Jessica had them all look for an empty egg. After it was found, she did a little lesson about the resurrection, and compared the empty egg to the empty tomb. I thought it was a neat idea. She said she had read about in the Ensign.