Christmas 2014

We spent Christmas at the Bowles Family Farm in Idaho, and it was magical.

 It snowed on Christmas Day. Doesn't get much more festive than that!

Three days, three hikes, two national parks and one national monument

We took advantage of the opportunity provided by Labor Day weekend to get out of the heat of Las Vegas and visit some amazing places in Southern Utah. Our first stop was meeting Grandma & Grandpa Brough in St. George for lunch. Nora loves them so much, and calls them both "Buff" (that's how she says Brough).

Then we continued to Cedar Breaks National Monument and took a 2-mile hike around the rim. It was windy and 64 degrees, compared to 104 in Las Vegas that day.

Nora absolutely loves riding in the backpack. She talks non-stop to her daddy as they go.  

We stayed two nights in a ski lodge in Brian Head, which is not far from Cedar Breaks, and about a 90-minute drive from Bryce Canyon. The lodge was great, and had an indoor swimming pool that Nora is still talking about.

We spent most of Sunday at Bryce Canyon National Park. It's characterized by red rock and hoodoos, tall skinny spires of rock. We hiked about 5 miles around the rim of the canyon.

Giving Daddy a hug.

At Sunset Point

Nora looks pretty tired, but Mike is the one who should be tired after carrying around this 26-pound toddler all day. (I had the comparatively easy job of carrying our water, lunch, sunscreen, and camera.)

On Monday we left Brian Head and drove to Kolob Canyon, a branch of Zion National Park that's between Cedar City and St. George. We hiked a couple of miles and it was just a gorgeous day.

There are several more national parks in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California that are all fairly close by. We're planning our next long weekend already. Will it be the Grand Canyon? Yosemite? Or Death Valley? So many options.

July 4th (and Nora is 18 months old)

Nora is 18 months old, has strong opinions on many things, a vast and rapidly expanding vocabulary, and amazing curly hair. 

Star spangled girl in St. George, Utah

First ride on a carousel

Family photo at Grandma & Grandpa Brough's house

With Great-Grandma Brough

Mommy's girl

Too little for sparklers, but not too little for glow-sticks! Thanks, Aunt Kim!

When we get soy cheese at Trader Joe's, Nora has to keep it "wif you" (with her) in the cart. This is what it looks like when she says "cheese."

The American Library Association (ALA) annual conference was in Las Vegas at the end of June and we got to see lots of friends from Wyoming and from Illinois. This is Nora's new friend, Oscar, whose mom is my good friend from library school.

While Uncle Nick was visiting we went to the Mob Museum.

We've had some really hot days -- this was one of them. A person kind of wants to melt when it's 110 degrees.

Nora loves Nick and his "tar" (guitar)

Nora got to spend a day with her grandma and grandpa while we went up to Cedar City to the Shakespeare Festival. We had lunch with friends and then saw "Into the Woods." It was fabulous!

Note: Speaking of musicals, we also saw "Book of Mormon" in Las Vegas in June and really enjoyed it. The singing and dancing were fantastic! Let me know if you want to talk more about that one. ;)

Mother's Day, Anniversary, Commencement

May tends to be a month full of celebrations for us, which makes it very fun!

Mike and I celebrated our anniversary with our first Las Vegas night out on the town. (Let's be honest: we were home by 9. But it was still fantastic to get out!

Mike sent me these beautiful tulips to celebrate 7 years of wedded bliss.

And dessert at Cafe Bellagio included this lovely creme brulee.

We celebrated Mother's Day with some friends from the library by going to the conservatory at the Bellagio and seeing the seasonal flowers there. Nora's favorite part was watching the fish in the koi pond.

Yesterday I went to UNLV's commencement. I was thinking about my own college graduation 10 years ago and the last commencement I went to, which was my graduation from library school 5 years ago. I love celebrating new graduates! They've worked so hard and have so many interesting things ahead of them. 

Commencement selfie

Since the semester wrapped up at UNLV, the semester also concluded at UNLV preschool. Nora is moving on to a new class!

This giant owl is in the lending library at the preschool, and every day when we leave Nora says hi. Friday she wanted to hug the owl.

Easter 2014

First, a little throw-back to Easter last year:

Check out the cheeks on that little baby! We lived in Laramie and visited Idaho, so she wore a sweater dress for Easter.

This year, we had lots of Easter fun in Las Vegas.

Yes, you can see a jelly bean in her mouth.

We had a wonderful Easter brunch with friends from the library:

And we had a very fun Easter egg hunt with my cousin and her family:

Nora was absolutely thrilled with her Easter basket.

She stopped and clapped for herself every time she found an egg and put it in the basket.

We also colored some eggs.

And feasted on a Honey Bunny from Great Harvest Bread.