"So much fun!"

OK, its morning now, and I just re read the 2 posts that I added yesterday.  For some reason it took me FOREVER to do these two posts.  #1 I had way too many pictures, #2  I was getting interrupted by someone in my family about every 5 min. to help them with something "they REALLY needed me for" #3 there is a new way to upload pictures since the last time I blogged and I haven't completely figured it out yet #4 I was tired after Lucy's slumber party!

As I read my posts, I noticed that I wrote the words "so much fun" in almost every picture caption! (I probably do that a lot).  Well, the Stanford vs. Duck Game and Vegas really were "so much fun" so I am not going to go back and change it now, but please forgive my lack of expanded vocabulary.  Maybe you could make it into a drinking game and take a drink of your coffee every time you read "so much fun" ha ha!

To tell you the truth, my weekdays, are often, the opposite of "so much fun", but it would get old to hear me Blog about that over and over, so luckily, you get to hear about all of the "so much fun" times in my life, which usually happen on the weekends!

Cousin Vegas Trip!!!

Is it wrong to love Vegas as much as I do?

I just have so much fun there!  It is especially fun when I get to spend time with my super fun cousins.  We all grew up close and we have stayed that way as we have grown up.  The most fabulous thing about my cousins is that they have all married awesome people, so in other words, we all have a blast when we get together.

Marrene, Me and Tawnya

We all met up at the pool at the MGM (which is where we all stayed), as soon as we got to Vegas.  Most of us had drinks in hand right away.  It felt so good to sit in the sun and catch up on eachother's lives.

 A picture of the whole crowd once we had all made it poolside at the MGM.

The only "cousins" we were missing were my cousin Megan who lives in New Orleans, my cousin Chris (who stopped by after I had left) and my sister in law Kate, who just sent Kevin this time.  We missed them though! 

Sitting by the pool for a few hours was the perfect way to start the vacation!

If you don't show up with the appropriate Vegas clothes, we take you shopping.  On our way back from the pool, the whole cousin crowd stopped at a very "Vegas - like" boutique  to hook my brother up with the perfect Vegas look!  It was actually pretty fun watching the guys try on all of their cool Vegas shirts and glasses.

Next up was dinner at the Mexican Restaurant at the New York New York!

What a fun dinner, lots and lots of laughs.  Our waiter's name was Maverick, which led to way too many "Top Gun" quotes.  "Talk to me Goose", "Where's Ice-Man", "You can do this Maverick".  I am sure that this poor guy had NEVER heard this before!  Don't worry, we gave him a big tip for putting up with us!

drinks at the bar before dinner (sorry, a little out of order)

*side note - whenever I say "drinks" it usually means Diet Pepsi.  Pancho doesn't drink at all and I usually limit it to one drink a night. . . but we always have a blast, and love hanging out with all of our "boozer" friends and family ha ha!

Francine and Sean

speaking of "boozer" family, these two were out of control the whole weekend!

-just kidding, in fact not even close, but a lot of fun!

 Yes - we are the "older" cousins.

My brother Sean is one year younger than me, and we have 4 boy cousins who are all a year apart.  Growing up, I was the only girl cousin.  Luckily for me, they all married such fun and amazing women!  10 years later 6 more cousins were born (the younger cousins) all a year apart.  Out of the 6 younger cousins, my brother Kevin is the only boy! 

My cousin Brian and his wife Tawnya, with my cousin Kendra popping her head in the picture!

They all flew out to Vegas from Montana.

 Ha ha, Kendra again!  with me and p-man.

Pancho was looking pretty "hot" in his Vegas clothes :)

After dinner we rented a Hummer Limo to take us for a ride around town to see some of the sights.  We had a few people in the group had only been to Vegas once or never been there, so we wanted to swing by the fountains in front of the Belagio and a few other famous sights.

My cousin Jeff, his wife Lisa (you go girl!) and my cousin Jody with his wife Marrene.

 Tawnya, Brian, Sean, Francine, Kevin, Pancho, Kendra and Kelly!

We were blasting the tunes and loving our luxury limo.  I felt like a Rock Star!

. . .the limo dropped us off at downtown Las Vegas.

This pic is of the whole cousin group in front of the Limo.

 Once we got downtown, it was a little wild and crazy!  It was all decorated for Halloween down there, and there were tons of people dressed up in costumes.  We saw about 5 Elvises, Ozzy Ozborne, Prince, Michael Jackson, Zombies, and Kiss.  There were also lots of little side shows going on that you could stop and check out.  We saw a concert, a magic show, a mad scientist, and there was all kinds of really weird "people watching"!

I loved it, so entertaining!

Sean got stopped by Zorro for a duel

Pancho and I were rockin out to the light show.

It comes on overhead about every half hour and it was all QUEEN songs, with a Halloween Theme.

It reminded us of Sam's love for Queen.

We also gambled while we were downtown.  None of us are big gamblers, and the tables are much cheaper downtown as opposed to the strip.  Francine was loving the "dozens of dollars" Sean had won at that point.

 . . . and here are some of the "younger cousins" :)

My cousin-in-law Joe, is married to my cousin Heather (middle) sitting next to my cousin Allison.

 We rented a cabana by the pool for the whole day Saturday!

It was so much fun!  We had a TV so that we could watch all of the Pac 10 football possible.  We have cousins who are Huskies, Wildcats, Trojans, and of course Duck fans, so there were a lot of games to watch.  Of course we also took naps, read magazines, soaked up the sun, had a few cocktails, and talked A LOT! 

*I love how Joe is acting like he is passed out, Francine and I are doing our fake Vegas Party Girl poses and Kendra has the model pose going on . . .

Heather, Tawnya and Kelly

getting the party started early!

On Saturday night, the cousins split into two groups.  One group went to a Motown show, but we chose to go with Jody and Marrene, Sean and Fracine to dinner and the Cirque de Soleil show LOVE.

We ate at this really nice restaurant called Nob Hill at the MGM.  I ordered the lobster pot pie and instead of a price (like all of the other items on the menu had) it said MP next to it.  I figured anything with the words "pot pie" in the name can't be that expensive.  When we got the bill, my dinner was over $100.  Whoops!  Apparnetly the Market Price for lobster pot pie right now is $85!  It sure was delicious  though!

 . . . before the LOVE show,  (sounds dirty, but it is really Beatles music) we had a few drinks at Revolution. . . a really cool bar in the Mirage where the LOVE show was.  Don't we look so Vegas? ha ha

Pancho, Me Francine and Sean

It was so much fun to get to spend time with these guys.

Marrene and Jody topped off our fun group of six. 

We had such a fun evening together.

I absolutely LOVED the Love show!  For real, it was so good.  Pancho and I have seen a lot of shows in Vegas including most of the Cirque shows, but this was by far my favorite.  I was so glad that we went.

After the show, we met back up with the rest of  the cousins one last time before most of us flew out the next morning.  We met up at the BB King bar in the Mirage.  There was a live band there playing great music.

We all exchanged stories about the shows we had seen and lamented the fact that this short weekend was not enough time together.

My weekend ended on the right note though.  Most of the time when you order a Diet Soda in Vegas, you get this tiny little cup with a drop of Diet Pepsi in it.  I was so happy that I finally got a decent sized Diet Pepsi!

What a fun weekend!  My only regret, was that we never made it to the tatoo parlor to get our matching "I (heart) cousins" tatoos.  There was talk of making this vacation an annual event, if so, We are in!  I really do  love my cousins and I am so glad that I got to make these fun memories with them.

Fun With the Family and a GREAT Duck Game!!!

It was so much fun to have Kevin, Kate and Finn come down from Seattle to spend the weekend with us and go to the Oregon vs. Stanford game!

Max, Uncle Kevin and Sam

We were all so excited for this BIG game!

My parents threw a huge Tailgate Party (of course) and a few of my cousins came from far away for this awesome game as well.  It was like a mini family reunion and the Ducks did not disappoint!

The boys and I had so much fun visiting some of our friends who were having tailgaters

all around the Autzen Stadium Parking Lot!  As we were heading to one party, they got to get their picture taken with former Oregon Player Steve Smith!  They also got his autograph.  Not only that, but they also picked up free bracelets, string backpacks, and hats from all of the businesses with tents passing out free stuff!  They were pretty excited!

Kelli, Me and Brenda

We made it to our good friends The Franssens tailgater.  It was so much fun!  They had tons of great food, music and drinks, as well as the BEST parking spot EVER! 

(the game was a Blackout -everyone was supposed to wear Black)

The boys all having fun and playing football at the Franssens Party.

Sam loved getting his picture taken with all of the crazy characters that we saw there!

This is one of his favorites, Duck Vader.

He also tracked down "Green Man"

My cousin Scott, his wife KayCee and their son Colin came down from Spokane for the Game.

 My cousin Kate and her husband Devon brought their kids Mason and Peyton down from Portland.  We are a family of VERY devoted Duck fans!

Pancho and I had to do some tag team to make it through this weekend.  Pancho took Lucy to her soccer game while I took the boys to Autzen to tailgate and hit as many parking lot parties as I could.  Then Pancho met me at the game for my parents tailgate and we switched kids.  Panch took the boys into the game and I took Lulu home, along with my sister in law Kate and my nephew Finn.  We watched the game from home curled up on the couch.  I hate to admit, that since I started working, I really enjoy this way of watching the games, and it was so much fun to hang out with my sister in law and nephew too!

Me, Lucy, Kate and Finn

Partying it up at my parents tailgate before heading home to watch one of the most exciting Duck games EVER!!!

My brother Kevin, with his wife Kate and my adorable nephew Finn.

My Mom and Dad, who deserve so much credit (and thanks) for always throwing such great parties for me and all of my friends to just show up for. They think of everything, and we all just get to show up.  Thank You Mom and Dad for all of the work that put into these fun parties.

What a super fun weekend!

Friends, family, food, drinks, an AWESOME Game!  What more could I ask for?

I'mmmmm Baaaack!!!

I think it has been about a month and a half since I  have posted on my BLOG.  This is a true testament to how busy my life is right now.  I actually have about 3 more things to post (Duck Game, Vegas with my cousins, and Lucy's Birthday is tomorrow) but it is getting late for me and Picasa just told me that I have to pay $5.00 to load more pictures (not sure what that is about!).  So off to bed I go.  Tomorrow, I am going to rush home from work at 4:00, so that I can be ready for Lucy's Birthday Slumber Party at 5:00.  Should be fun!  Hopefully it won't be another month and a half before I get those pictures posted! 

Sam's Playing Flag Football!

Sam is absolutely football crazy!  He loves to watch it, he loves to play it and he loves to talk about it!  This is his first year playing flag football.  His team had a rough start, but they have improved a lot and have now won their last 3 games.  I love that Sam is so passionate about a sport, but I have to admit that I hate that most of his games are on weeknights from 7:00 - 8:30pm.  It is really dark and cold at that time, and I am usually exhausted by that time of night.  Of course they have to be on weeknights too, when Pancho is out of town, so its all up to me!  OK enough complaining though.  On the positive side, Sam really is having a really great season!

He mostly plays on the line and he is really good at getting in there and "sacking" the quarterback too!

I am bummed that these pictures turned out blurry, my camera was running out of batteries.

 The Huddle

Sam is number 10, on the  left.

 He gets pretty intense before the snap.

The best part about football for Sam this year is that  he is the kicker for his team!

He absolutely LOVES this reponsibility.  Every time his team scores, he is so happy, not only because his team scored, but because he knows he is going to get to kick the ball off to the other team.  He practices at home in the front year every night.  His hard work is really paying off . . . he kicked the ball 35 yards at his game tonight!  Way to go Sam!

O'Hara Jog A Thon

I just had to mention the O'Hara jog a thon, because it ended up being a big deal around our house again.  Max ran the most laps for the whole 5th grade class and he won a medal!  He ran 41 laps, which equals out to more than 10 miles.  AMAZING!  Pancho and I would like to take some credit for this, but I am sure that you can tell by looking at us that the super fast running skills are not coming from us  (hmmmm milkman?).  We sure were excited for him though!

 Max and some of his buddies (and my students) before the race!

 . . . some of the adorable girls in my class.

I have such a great class this year!

 The assembly before the jog a thon. . .

 We had some of the Uof O track athletes come and speak to the kids.

 My fake running pose with my class right before the starting whistle.

For me it was actually a "talk a thon"  I was chatting it up with parents, students and my teacher friends the whole time!

 Lucy and Colin

We were so proud of Lulu,  She ran 15 laps which beat the pants off of the 2 (thats right two) laps that she ran last year!

Michael and I with our 5th grade classes, at the end of the jog a thon.

It was such a fun day, and we were so lucky to have such beautiful weather, as well as raising $70,000 dollars for our school.  Now thats some school spirit!