carson turns 8

carson has bit of a love of lego's, he will spend hours in his room building all kinds of different contraptions.  When it came time for his birthday party, we thought it would be a perfect theme for his party.  lucky for me, interest has a million ideas for lego birthday parties.  

our cupcakes with chocolate lego's on top.

i told the boys we would have a contest to see who could build the best lego creation.

pass the present.  aaron was cracking these boys up with some crazy music to listen to, while they passed the present around.

we could not decide what creation was "the best." i seriously thought these were the cutest little things ever.  they just kept bringing them upstairs.

a lego piñata in the garage.

when paige was a baby, she ran out into the way of a kid swinging at a piñata, and got hit in the head.  since then, we always make sure everyone sits nicely on a blanket while someone it swinging.

the boys were unable to break the piñata, so they voted to let aaron take a turn.  so, so funny.  he destroyed the piñata and a few batts.

we enjoyed some cupcakes and opened up some presents.

happy birthday carson.

a few more pics from vegas

one of the only reasons for me to head down to the strip, is to see the bellagio fountains.  i love that they are set to music and so pretty to watch.  i also loved that it was so warm outside at night, felt so much like summer in april. 

after we watched the fountains, we walked inside the hotel to see the gardens. they were amazing:)  as you walked by the flowers, i was in love with the smell from all those flowers.  i seriously wish someone would come up with a air freshener that smelled that good.  i could not believe all the real flowers they had everywhere.  loved it in there.

hoover dam

aaron and i were able to take a little vacation and head south towards warmer weather.  we left the kids with grandma and grandpa and enjoyed a few days of no responsibilities and great weather.  on friday we spent half the day at hoover dam.  we bought tickets to go on a tour of the inside of the dam.  it is truly amazing that a structure like that was built so quickly, and without the technology we have now.

the picture of this bridge does not do it justice.  it is huge, and so high over the canyon below.  lots of people were walking out onto the middle of it, i was a little afraid to even drive over it.  

the arizona side of the power plant.

every once in a while we would get caught in a swarm of tiny bugs, this is aaron swatting them away while i was trying to take his picture.  it was such a beautiful day, so nice to spend it outside after these longs cold months of winter.

 the inside of the nevada side of the power plant.  that place was ginormous.

 a tunnel near the bottom of the dam.  i was trying really hard not to think about how much concrete was above me, and how much water was being held by all that concrete.

 about midway up from the bottom, the dam has air vents.  this is a picture our tour guide took of us after we peeked out of them.  pretty amazing to see the dam from that view.

 a vertical air vent. we had to walk over that scary thing to get the other air vent.  i didn't really love that part.

some dark pictures of the stairs that the engineers used to use, the steepest steps i have ever seen.

big fishy's

 after the tour it was getting pretty warm, we decided to grab some lunch and spend the afternoon sitting by the pool reading our books.  such a lovely way to spend the day.