Photographic Update

Ok, so I was just going to show you all some really funny Halloween pictures, but I went to download them from the camera and realized we had over 250 pictures on the camera!! Oh my...I must be really behind. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy this 30 second recap of the last few months.

First up.... Chicago! You might recall that we spent Labor Day weekend in Chicago. We had a ridiculously good time, and here are a couple photos to prove it.

This one was taken on one of those architectural boat rides through and around the city. There were a lot of pictures that showed Chicago better than this one, but if you want to see Chicago, I'm sure you'll find a better website than this one. If you want to see me and Clay, here we are!
Next up we have Chicago's famous "Bean". I'm pretty sure it has a more proper name than that, but I can't recall it at this time. The "bean" is a large art structure on Chicago's lake-front that is shaped like a bean and is completely mirrored. Looking into it gives a really great image of Chicago's cool skyline, but if you peer a bit lower, you can also see some goofy tourists taking pictures of themselves INSIDE the bean. Groovy, huh?
I think I mentioned that we were going to Las Vegas for a wedding. We went. We saw. We laughed. We LOVED. We love Doug and Michelle, and we love Vegas. Oh, and each other. In this photo, we were all dressed up and ready to go to a fancy-schmancy dinner at B&B (a Mario Batali restaurant) a couple nights before the wedding. The picture was taken in the lobby of the Mirage, where we all stayed. This is the night that Michelle learned to NEVER offer to buy Doug dinner on his birthday without first finding out a bit more about the place we're going to eat. I can easily say that was the most expensive meal I've ever eaten. That Clay kid sure likes to eat nice, and he's generous enough to take me along for the ride.
The next night, Michelle had learned her lesson and let Doug buy dinner at Bouchon, an awesome French Bistro in the Venetian. Dinner was "slightly" less expensive, but I think we all enjoyed it even more than B&B. The waiter was super friendly, and I mentioned that this was Doug and Michelle's last dinner before their big Elvis Wedding day. Well, after that, we got the royal treatment. We had indulgently ordered three desserts for the four of us to share, but the waiter brought us FIVE desserts, PLUS a little treat tray, and only charged us for two. It almost made me cry, but we had to leave a LOT of those desserts behind because we were just toooo full to eat another bite.
Ok, still in Vegas. Are you still with me? This weird picture is taken at the Mirage's "Secret Garden". This is where Sigfried and Roy's famous tigers live, and is also a dolphin habitat. We got a true education on dolphins on this particular day, as two of the dolphins were feeling rather frisky. Um....we'll just say that I was almost embarrassed to watch there for a couple minutes.
We LOVED walking through all of the different hotels in Vegas and seeing all of their decorations and displays and such. The Bellagio is one of the nicest hotel/casinos, and is known for their MASSIVE dancing water display outside. Inside, we found some really cool things, too. They have a conservatory where they completely redecorate 5 times a year. It was all decked out for fall, and was just really neat.
Still in the Bellagio's Conservatory...
Ok, now skip forward a couple more weeks and you're almost up to date. We went to a friend's party for Halloween, and I had to show off the costumes. First up, Clay. He was some funny character from the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy named Arthur Dent.
Here is the Arthur Dent from the movie. I guess it worked, somehow. The geeks got the idea, anyway.
Now, here is my costume. I was the Swedish Chef from the Muppets! Everyone thought my costume totally rocked. A big shout out and thank you to Cooper for loaning me his chicken which totally made the costume work. I guess that also leads to an indirect shout-out to Granny and Papa for giving Cooper that silly chicken. Who would have ever thought that someday I'd be calling Carrie Beth saying, "I have a really weird question, but do you guys have a stuffed chicken I could borrow?"

Just for comparison, here is the actual Muppet:
Whew.... Blogging is hard. If we're not very busy, then there's nothing to blog about. If we're super busy, then there's no time to blog what we're doing. Luckily, we're still in Super Busy mode. This weekend we'll be making the annual mecca to Gatlinburg for our fun fall family vacation. After that, we hit the holiday season big time, with a trip to Mayfield for Thanksgiving, then the madness of Christmas around the corner. What in the world???

In other news, I am still embroidering, slowly but surely. I do a few stitches, then get mad at them and put it away for a day or two. I actually ripped out some stitches tonight, which really made me sad.

This time change is really messing with me, and I think I'm supposed to be sleepy now, but I'm not. Clay has already crashed out on me, though, so I suppose I shall hit the sack.