Sikorski Saga

Katherine Kensrud and Annika picked the girls up from the Wheelers and continued to babysit at our house. Kit had the girls doing arts and crafts projects all weekend! Great job sharing the bathroom at such a young age! Goobers has started sleeping in the bathroom sinks. Since Tim wasn't using his sink, Goobers might as well take over.

We had a late brunch with the birthday party crowd and then decided to walk the strip. Tim and Adam with the Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower. Kyla loves saying that she made it to Paris again! The Bellagio is across the street from Paris. Paris also has a hot air balloon sculpture. Shopping on the Strip gets you anything from Harley Davidson to Louis Vuitton and the Walgreens and CVS ! Quick walk from Paris and we're in New York, New York! First stop was the MGM Grand and the lion habitat. Lazy kitties. Speaking of kitties, we could pay "one low price" for two people to interact with the cubs for 5 minutes. That low price was $200. We'll take pictures from this side of the glass for free. Walking across the strip and getting the long view behind us. Just inside New York New York, they had a candy shop with a Statue of Liberty made out of jelly beans! Natalie loves candy, so we had her pose. Also behind her is the world's largest gummy worm. We stopped to w...

The girls went to the playground with the Wheelers and had their pictures taken. They decorated photo frames. (Luella said she decorated Kati's frame and Kati decorated Luella's frame.) The Wheelers surprised Tim with these presents on Father's Day!

Kyla and Tim had to get up at 3am to make it to the airport on time. Their first flight had mechanical problems that were resolved in 45 minutes, but that made us 45 minutes late. We missed our connecting flight and waved to it as it pulled away from the gate. So we loved the power towers in Detroit as we were stuck there for four extra hours. We got to Las Vegas and checked into our room at the Flamingo. We had a pool view. Our room was pretty swanky! We ate lunch at Margarittaville . All dressed up AND somewhere to go! Today is Angela Johnson's 35 th birthday! She flew in from Okinawa , Japan so we could all party with her! She was in NDSU Army ROTC with Kyla and stationed at Fort Carson, CO with Tim. We left the Flamingo to drive to the Palms in style! Limo ride for the birthday girl! We enjoyed being squishy in the limo! All twelve of us enjoyed being squishy in the limo ride! Really it was cheaper for the 12 of us to get a limo than to get a few taxis. The first bar we we...

Luella and Kati had their first overnight sleepover with friends and no parents! Tim and Kyla are heading to Las Vegas, Nevada for a college/Army friend's birthday party and their flight leaves super early in the morning. Katharyn, Tom, Madelyn and Rysa Wheeler are watching the girls until Saturday morning. The girls played dress-up before we left. Kati was Cinderella. Rysa was Tinker Bell. Luella was a fairy princess.

The deer are once again in our backyard. Tim encourages them to eat more and fatten up for when they will meet again this fall hunting season.

Kyla and the Craft Group at church presented the graduating high school seniors with blankets to symbolize the prayers they are wrapped in as they leave home. Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures. After dinner we decided to roast marshmallows and make s'mores , since we couldn't have a beach fire and the hotel didn't have any grills. Rain boots are all the rage when going camping chic! Real sticks work when metal skewers can't be found. Tim can't wait to go camping again for real.

One last picture of the Atlantic Ocean before we have to drive home. We were part of the fast moving traffic - leaving the beach on Saturday. We had to be back for church on Sunday. At least we beat all the people and felt like we had OBX to ourselves! We pulled out our favorite seashells to put in a vase. All the other shells from the Outer Banks plus the ones we found in Virginia Beach and other fishing trips, we put out in our flower beds. There are even some horseshoe crab shells from Virginia Beach last fall. We have enough to line the whole walk way!

Kati is so tired from playing in the sun, she goes to her blankey , instead of pulling it out of the bag and carrying it around like always. We spy a beer truck with our favorite Colorado brew, Fat Tire! We know what's being served with dinner tonight! Our very patriotic daughter at the Wright Brothers National Park. Remembering that the Wright Brothers flew the first plane in Kitty Hawk, NC didn't connect in Kyla's mind that the Outer Banks and Kitty Hawk were the same place until this weekend. The first glider and airplane models in the museum where a park ranger gave a f un and informative speech. We claim Igor Sikorsky as family, even though he spells his name different than our Sikorski . It's a small concession to be thought family of the inventor of the modern day helicopter! The big rock behind the people marks where the first flight (and three subsequent that day) took off and the smaller markers indicate where the plane landed. The take off marker rock. Kyla p...