The Monster

We had an eventful and quiet week all in one.

Tuesday was Carl's last day at his job and he'll (hopefully) be starting his new one on Thursday. I hate to jinx anything even though it seems to all be a go! Once it's all final I'll spill some details. :) This meant he has had a much deserved break for a few days. It's been nice for me to have a few days that Carl's been able to take Carson out of the house to play. 

Carson is talking SO MUCH now. It is so bizarre to actually have a conversation with him! 

I've just been taking snapshots of him around the house in the last few days because I had kind of taken a break for a little while.

For starters, he got his first freckle! I noticed it the other day and it is so dang cute. It's right above his lip, almost like a little beauty mark. This was the only picture I could get where he was sort of still and you could see it.

Yesterday they went to the CAT dealership close to us to check out the tractors while I got some work done. They came home with this:

Another reason I haven't taken too many pictures of him lately is that he makes it so darn difficult now. Anytime I have the camera near his face he wants to put the camera strap on while I'm holding the camera, then won't give me a real smile. This was today:

So I let him take his first picture. Unfortunately I threw it in auto and was blinded by the flash. I'm glowing! haha

And a few more random cute ones:

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

Carl and I had the BEST weekend!

We had been trying to find a weekend to get away, partly because we just needed a night away and we wanted to celebrate our upcoming anniversary. I really wanted to go stay up in Black Hawk (which is like Wendover) because we would have stuff to do so we could stay up late and have fun. On Friday morning I came across an awesome coupon to stay at the Isle and get free dinner too. Before we took off Carl had an awesome "meeting" which we were already really excited about. Hopefully we'll have some really good news to report any day now.

We took off after work, got checked in and went for our awesomely free casino buffet. 

We didn't want to spend a lot of money, but I did want to play some of the cheap slots and stretch what we took over the night. I sat down with our first $5 at a nickel slot while Carl ran an errand. I hated the machine right off the bat and immediately switched to a penny machine. My five bucks didn't last long, but I got my drink and was good. Carl came and sat next to me, lost $3 really fast and put in another $10. I was giving him so much crap because I didn't want to blow $20 that fast. 

Carl was waiting for his drink and had $1.10 left on the machine. These were penny machines, but you could only bet $.30, $.60 or $.90 each time. 

The waitress comes back just as Carl hits MAX BET and says, "well, here we go". And THEN............

WE HIT THE JACKPOT!!!!!!

Carl took this pic while it was still counting. You can see it is over 60,000 credits here and that we had four triple sevens.

On that very last roll when we were getting bitter we won $1,001. I'm not even kidding, we were laughing like little kids and my cheeks hurt so bad from smiling. Obviously that isn't a huge amount of money, but when you are expecting to go home just losing a little it is an awesome feeling.

Carl hit CASH OUT like his life depended on it and we ran to the cashier. We didn't touch another machine for the entire time we were there. :)

We went back to visit our machine and take a picture with our new friend.

After that we went over to Ameristar and just walked around listening to bad casino cover bands and being giddy that we could have an awesome night. 

On Saturday we were lazy and then went up to Silverthorne to get me some new sunglasses at the outlets. I haven't had "real" sunglasses for over five years! I'm always too cheap and then I'm mad that I don't have ones I like. Now with the LASIK I wanted to get some because I should and I can wear them now!

Then we went over to a big BBQ festival in Frisco. We were going to try to meet our pals up there, but we took too long and didn't make it by the time they left. Sorry guys!!!!! But we had some amazingly good food. Two washes later, my hair still smells like BBQ smoke.

Mmmmmm, brisket sandwich and frozen cheesecake on a stick covered in white chocolate.

We were so excited to come home and see Carson though. We got up yesterday and made breakfast for Father's Day and then took Carson to a cool park by us. He begs me to go to the park everyday now so he was a happy clam.

At this park they also have a neat water area for the kids to play in. We hadn't planned on playing there, but it looked really fun. We just let him run in his diaper and shorts. He wasn't sure it he liked it at first, but he ended up having a great time.

For dinner we tried grilling ribs for the first time with some BBQ sauce we got at the festival. They were so yummy for first-timers! So all in all we had such a great and successful weekend. 

I hope everyone had a good Father's Day too!

I'm a new woman!

I got LASIK on Saturday!!!!!!!! 

I was tired of watching everyone around me getting it done (including my mother) and I was getting super jealous. :)  I decided just to go get a consultation to see if I even qualified before I made my mind up. Sure enough I was good to go and so it took me a few weeks to work up the nerve to make the appointment. 

It was one of the scariest things I've ever done and honestly, I think I'd rather have ten more babies than do it again. It was not fun at all. But I survived and I can see!!!!! My eyes are still pretty tender and I am on guard with Carson around. I've been avoiding holding him etc. because he really likes smacking me without warning. 

Nap time! You know you're jealous..... (I can't believe I'm posting this. haha)

Carl was so good over the weekend though. He took me and my mom to our appointments and took Carson to play while we were there. Then we came home, Carson napped and Carl took him to the zoo in the afternoon. It gave me a chance to rest. Then yesterday Carl, Carson and Luke went up to Saxton Mountain for the day. I was bummed I couldn't go, but I had to go to a follow up appointment and needed to rest some more. 

They had such a good day though! Carl came home with tons of pictures from his camera and Carson is still talking about the mountain, Jeep and four-wheeling. 

Apparently it was still very wintery up there. These pictures of the clouds right across the way look so neat.

Like a good neighbor

I just have to share a few of these photos because I was really happy with how they turned out! We have great next-door neighbors and they let me use them as photo guinea pigs. I seriously love their son Cole and he gives me the biggest smiles ever. We just went out in the empty part of our neighborhood the other night in late evening and shot away. These guys are too cute!

I was also lucky enough to get to capture his very first ride on the swings. :)

We're just waiting for Cole to start running so Carson has a new partner in crime!! ;)  I always tell him he has to hurry up so they can kick all the girls off our street. haha

Memorial Day Week. Huh?

We had so much stuff going on last week. We had a big BBQ with a ton of friends (way more than I thought were coming...) and watched UFC. I tried to have a good time and didn't take out my camera much at all that day. But Megan and Justin brought over Kito and Lola to play and Carson had a ball with them. He kept trying to throw the tennis ball to Kito, but would throw it back over his shoulder. Kito wasn't too pleased and gave up on Carson. Haha

Megan says Lola rarely lets you take a picture, which was true, but she is such a pretty and sweet dog. I got a couple of them while they were sleeping in Luke's new big boy truck.

Then on Monday Carl's step-dad Dave, his wife Carrie and Carl's little brother Jordan drove out from Utah. They all love it here and it's a good break for them when Dave gets some time off. This was their third trip out since we've lived here! On Tuesday we all went to the pool for the first time. Carson jumped in feet first and was totally in his element. I'm so glad he isn't scared of the water at all. We used his floaty from last year which was a tad small for him now, but it worked great still.

Carl was behind him in this pic, you just can't see him. We didn't just send him out alone. :)

This Saturday we went up to Loveland to the Good Guys car show. Apparently there were over 2,500 cars there. Everywhere you turned there were more and more cars so you couldn't even get a grip on how many there were. They were all from before 1972 (I think).

This one was a fifty-something BMW Isetta. It had a motorcycle engine in it and was sort of adorable.

It was REALLY hot that day though. Carson actually laid down in the stroller the entire time which was a shocker. He always refuses to lay back, but he just chilled and watched everything.

He still hasn't quite mastered the art of straight sunglasses yet. :)

And just because I can't not share this..........apparently a vendor of outdoor chairs thought this was the best choice of doll to put in their product. This has got to be the scariest. doll. ever. Enjoy.