Ice Skating

There is an outdoor skating rink at the outdoor mall where Ryan's firm move to over the summer. We were meeting a family there for dinner and to see a little Christmas parade one evening and it happened to be the opening night for the rink. They had Elsa, Anna, and Hans skating out there. It was so cute and Willa was entranced and pretty much pestered us non-stop to go ice skating.

Finally a week later, it was her turn. Ryan started with her while I stayed with June, but I took over after a bit. Ice skating with a child is a labor of love. It probably took us 30 minutes to get around the tiny rink once, but slowly and surely she got used to the feeling and movement and was doing much better. She was in absolute heaven and wanted to stay out forever. She got brave enough to even skate a little without holding onto anything. There were a couple of hard spills, but she loved it. The next day at preschool she drew a picture of us skating at the rink with the Christmas tree in the background. She was so excited to show me the picture, it was adorable. She is dying to go again, but next time I think we will try to find an indoor, less touristy and expensive rink. It was fun for the experience, but now can go the cheapy route :).

It was a really pretty and festive setting with lots of holiday music.

Her drawing, the tree with the star, the blue ice. So sweet.

Thanksgiving

We were so excited for Thanksgiving because so many of Ryan's siblings were going to come to town for it. Shannon, Lianne, and Dan and Melinda all made the trek. This year we got to see Lianne's family twice, which is much better than to not seeing them at all for the past two years. It was also nice because my girls remembered everyone from being in Utah together in September.

Of course, the cousins had so much fun together. Shannon got the girls matching nightgowns that were so adorable...after I cut the buttons off of Willa's.

Claire slept over at our house on Thanksgiving Day. It was probably a bit of a letdown because we were getting home late so I was lecturing the girls on how we were going to go straight upstairs and brush teeth and change into pajamas. Claire started jumping on the bed and obedient (and tired) Willa said, "Claire, this is not the time for that!"

On Friday we all went to the Adventuredome to celebrate Scarlett's third birthday, which was coming up on Saturday. My girls were unsurprisingly scared of most of the rides, but they did more than I expected them to do. June surprised me by wanting to go on the Frog Hopper with the cousins and I feel so bad at the look of terror that came over her face when the ride started. She ended up putting her head in her arm until it was over. It didn't scar her too much because the next day she wanted to play "Frog Hopper" where I pretended to be the scared one and she comforted me. To this day she will talk about it and how it was a little scary.

Here is a picture before the ride started.

The next morning we met up for breakfast before everyone headed out. It was such a fun weekend except that poor Ryan came down with the flu and felt pretty miserable. It was a big letdown for him.

I had a great time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, though. Usually we go out of town and I don't get to do it. Rebecca ordered a turkey so all I needed to do was the sides. I actually enjoyed it a lot, even though it was more time consuming than I was expecting. I had to keep stopping to wash mixing bowls and measuring cups because I kept needing to reuse them.

A few things from November

Willa got some Legos for her birthday. Ryan helped her put them together the first time, then she begged to do them alone later. I sat by her and gave a little advice, but she's getting the hang of following the directions and coming up with something pretty similar to what it is meant to be.

Somehow a diaper (clean, I hope) made it into the washing machine. I had to take a photo because it was so hilarious how loaded with water it got. Those diapers can really hold a lot of fluid!

One of June's many illnesses this fall was Roseola. She seems to have a bad cold every other week or so. One week she just had a raging fever and all she wanted to do was lay on the couch all day. I was thinking I would take her to the doctor the next day if the fever hadn't broken. It broke that night and the next day I found this rash on her belly when I was putting her in the bath. I took the photo and sent it to my mom and Alyson and they immediately replied that it was Roseola.

The rash isn't painful at all, it appears after the fever breaks and you aren't contagious any more; it is one of the only ways you would know if you had Roseola unless you specifically knew to test for it during the fever. Poor June, I was reading up on it afterwards and basically it's a virus characterized by very high fevers. Kids are at risk for febrile seizures because their temperature can really spike. I feel bad that I wasn't more sympathetic to Junie and that I probably wasn't as vigilant in watching the fever as I should have been.

After much hard work and perseverance, Willa mastered the big monkey bars at the park. I'm proud of her for working so hard at it, while simultaneously dreading the next challenge she sets for herself. She gets very frustrated at her failure but will not take any help or suggestions.

During this same period she made it to the top of quite a big rock wall. I get so frustrated with this one because she just stares and looks at it, but she gets stuck about halfway up and starts crying but won't take suggestions about ways to go up or to get down, she just wants me to carry her down. Normally, I just let her hold onto the wall crying until she figures out a solution or jumps. Or when I get really annoyed, I rescue her on the condition that if she does it again with the same screaming reaction, then we are going home. I don't mind her trying, just the meltdowns in the middle of it. One time a random person rescued her. My main philosophy at the park is that the girls need time to explore their surroundings and try new things and I don't always want to be the one to rescue them from whatever they do. I want them to try to figure it out on their own. She's about 50/50 on the wall now. Here is after one successful ascent.

During all of this, June likes to find just the right stick and "fix" all the screws in the playground.

I also have this video clip of her running from park toy to park toy singing "You can do whatever you want, you can do whatever you want. This, or this, whatever you want." The freedom to do whatever you want must seem like Xanadu to a two-year old. 

One last cute thing about June. She calls herself Junie-bug and a few weeks ago I was explaining about middle names. For a while, if you asked her what her name was, she would say, "June Aunt Becca Daniels" for June Rebecca, it was totally adorable. Unfortunately, she's corrected herself and now says it the right way, but it was awfully sweet when her name was June Aunt Becca.

Halloween

Finally, it's December and I'm going to post about Halloween. Happily, Halloween corresponds with Nevada Day AND the end of term for public schools, so Ryan gets a three-day weekend for work and most kids have a whopping five-day break. Willa's preschool party was on Wednesday, since they got Friday off for Nevada Day. She decided to wear her "Mommy Cinderella" dress for this party.

They trick-or-treated around the preschool and younger siblings got to dress up and go along, too,which was the bees-knees for June. June was determined to go as Rainbow Dash even though she's the exact perfect size to wear the Lambchops costume this year! It about killed me to not use it, but she passed on all attempted candy bribes, which is saying a lot because she lovesss candy.

Luckily, I got a little photo of her in the costume while playing at home. In her defense, it's a bit of a bulky costume to wear.

Since everyone was out of school on Friday, we met the Thalmans for a hike and picnic at Red Rock. It was a beautiful day out there.

Finally, we got around the carving our pumpkins. My memories of pumpkin carving include using kitchen knives in a freezing cold garage. My fingers would be so cold and frozen after pulling out the pumpkin guts, it was miserable. Much nicer in warm Las Vegas with appropriate tools. I was expecting the worst with the girls and sharp objects, but it was surprisingly enjoyable.

We ate Halloween dinner at Rebecca's new house and went trick or treating to a few houses in her neighborhood. There aren't a lot of kids there and most of the houses were dark, but it was fun to do just a little with Rebecca. For actual Halloween, Willa was a fairy, she did her hair herself (meaning, she didn't want me to do it).

By the time we got home to our neighborhood, the girls had more fun just sitting in the driveway and passing out candy. This was awesome because it lowered our candy consumption considerably later on. There was plenty of candy, but we weren't swimming in it. The only sad part was when June went to give a teenager in a wolf mask some candy and he purposely scared her. What a punk! I should have grabbed that candy back. His friend was polite enough to take the mask off when they were passing by on the street again. Overall, though, a very fun night and weekend.

The High Roller

I've been wanting to go on the High Roller, a big observation wheel on the Strip, for quite a while. I believe it's the tallest one in the world and it seemed like a fun attraction that we could enjoy without having to battle hordes of tourists, casinos, and cigarette smoke. On Tuesdays it is half off for locals so Kim and I met down there in the afternoon when her girls were out of school. 

We had a lot of fun! The kids were all free and it ended being a very affordable activity. Here we are getting ready to board. The wheel moves very slow (as I had to keep reassuring my girls before) and I was surprised that it doesn't stop to let you on and off. It thought maybe it would unclip from the wheel like a ski chair does, but nope. 

It took forty minutes for the entire revolution and we had the whole pod to ourselves. It was a very fun and affordable afternoon activity. I'm glad we got out of our comfort zone and tried something new.

Swimming at Red Rock

 I just remembered this photos and found them again, so this post is several months behind schedule. Red Rock resort sent a mailer out at the beginning of summer that had a bunch of locals' deals that were good until the end of July. The one that was perfect for us was the pool entry for two. It expired on July 31 and that's the exact day I ended up using it. I kept procrastinating because I needed to get a new players' card (which is basically like a Smiths card or grocery card, but if you use it at the casinos you get points, and you can use it at restaurants, or anything at the casino - not just the gambling). Anyway, the unknown always causes me a little anxiety and procrastination even though I know it will be easy if I just get off my duff and do it.

So, we almost didn't go, but I'm so glad we did. It was easy to get my new card and no hassle getting in. It's always fun to have a new pool adventure, especially at a fancy resort pool. They've got this large wade in area that leads to the bigger pool so there was fun for all ages and abilities. We stayed until the girls were ready to go home. It was one of those perfect summer days when you do something out of your regular day schedule and just decide to pack snacks and throw the humdrum to the wind.

And who can resist goggle-faced babies?

The only downside is that Ryan was working. And really, the pass was only good for two people (luckily they didn't count June), so he couldn't have come anyway. It's just sad that his office is about a quarter mile from where we were and there we were soaking up the sun and he was living the working man's life up in his office.

Sinatra

A few weeks ago I got an exciting phone call. The principal harpist for the LV philharmonic needed a sub for a show she was doing on the Strip and wanted to know if I was available. When you move to a new place, you meet some harpists and then it's just kind of a waiting game until one day all the other subs are busy and you get called in. It's not that you can't do it, it's just that they don't know you that well and they have their usual people they work with. Then, if you can do the gig well, you're on their radar for future jobs. I had met this harpist before and she is good friends with another good harpist friend of mine, but I had never played for her. So, like I said, I was really excited to get called because it was really a good foot in the door for me.

The show is/was a Frank Sinatra show at the Palazzo. Now the music wasn't difficult but the show has been playing five nights a week since January, so they obviously weren't having any rehearsals for me to try playing with them. I sat on the stage two nights with a copy of my music to watch the show and I also had a recording from the show that I practiced with at home, but that was it. Even though it was pretty simple stuff, I was really diligent about being prepared. I didn't want one note, one pedal change, or one rhythm to catch me off guard.

The really cool thing about the show is that they wanted it to the most authentic Frank Sinatra show ever. They put it on this year because he would be turning 100 this December. The man who sings knew Sinatra and an impersonator. He goes through almost two hours of make-up to look like Sinatra and he totally does. The conductor/pianist was Sinatra's personal music director and pianist for ten years, and half of the orchestra was Sinatra's original band that played with him. Apparently they even flew some of the musicians in who were living elsewhere in an attempt to get as many original people as possible. The lead sheets are the real deal, the ones they used for Sinatra. Some of the harp parts are nearly hand-written and have lots of different harpists' markings on them. It is so COOL! 

I was excited and intimidated to work with such amazing musicians. The conductor's name is Vinnie Falcone, which might be the most mafia-sounding name I've ever heard in real life and he's pretty famous. One minute he's conducting, then he's playing the music, then he stands up and conducts by just snapping the fingers in one hand. The main harpist was telling me that every night he plays things differently on the piano, just following the chord progressions. The drummer is Tommy Check and he has no music either, no lead sheets, nothing, just a list of songs. One time while I was watching, the singer just looked at Vinnie and said a random song and they started performing it, drums came in, and then they looked at the bassist, who is also quite well-known, and he jump up off his stool and started playing too. It's just incredible. The other harpist said that they do that a lot - just add in random songs in the spur of the moment and those main guys can just play with no music.

I played on the 24th and am going to play again this coming week. It went really, really well and I was so glad I'd practiced and put the time in to feel comfortable with the music and to have fun. The harpist texted me the next day and said she had heard great reports about me and that everyone will love to have me play with them again. I felt pretty good about how I played, but I was so pleased to hear it from her too. She thanked me for being concientious about the music and taking good care of the job. It was a really big high to play in such a setting with such an ensemble and to be part of something to exciting and professional. I'm also excited to have earned the trust of the principal harpist so that she will call me for future jobs.

Getting ready for the show.

View of the back side of the curtain as everyone is taking their seats.

As a side note, I really feel like being a musician would be a great job for a mom or dad if two parents needed or wanted to work or if you were a single parent. Curtain is at 8:00 most nights and I left at 6:30 to get there an hour early. So I was home with the girls all day, had dinner, helped bathe them, and left as Ryan was finishing the bedtime routine. I was home around 10:00 or 10:15 so it wasn't a super late night either. I mean, you wouldn't be able to support yourself from this gig alone, but if you were also teaching and doing a few weddings or other events a month it would be a comfortable income and you could really be there for your kids.