RUSSIA?!?!

 We opened up our YumBox and discovered our country for this month is.... RUSSIA! (that's Putin in the lower left-hand corner).

Lesson for today: the Russian people are innocent bystanders. It's Putin who is pure evil.

And you can be upset about their evil-dictator-monster-leader, and still find their treats yummy.

Raising $$ for Ukraine

 My girls are pretty great.

They have been wanting to do something to help Ukraine. We decided they could make and sale Ukrainian flags.

I bought the fabric, and they started sewing. And my friends started buying. All told, they sold 5 large flags and 10 garden sized flags and raised $275. The money will be donated to Ukrainian Families of Colorado- a local group that is trying to raise $100,000 to send medical supplies to the border and into the country of Ukraine. We decided we wanted to help a local organization, and this is a great group.

(The first ones we made were the wrong colors. Thanks, Google. But we eventually got it right. Now I have 10 yards of blue and gold fabric I don't know what to do with. Oh, well.)

That Camille!

 Camille's job is to put away the silverware. She was putting it away and Ben said something sarcastically to her, and she said- with a complete threatening voice- "Careful, Dad. I have knives."

Ben's Birthday

 For his 40th, I rented Ben his dream car to enjoy for the weekend. I never thought I could outdo that gift, but this year I did it.

I got him the most marvelous gift of all time and solidified my status as greater-than-Giselle-Bundchen-combined-with-Martha-Stewart-and-Wonder-Woman.

Yes, I'm that amazing.

What is this make-you-weak-at-the-knees-gift?

Mud mats! Now, when we come inside, the mud mats will soak up all our wet mud and we won't spread it around the house!

And this, dear friends, is what middle age looks like.

Crazy Hair Day

For 4H they had Crazy Hair Day. Camille decided to put a worm in her hair. She didn't win, but she had fun (after she burst into tears and said, "mom, I'm freaking out!" because her hair wasn't quite working out as she hoped).  She looked pretty cute.

Las Vegas: End Notes

 We asked the girls what their favorite parts of the trip were. Here's their answers:

Audra: Titanic.

Claire: Gondola ride.

Camille: M & M Store, Hershey's Store, and the Ethel M. Factory.

Ben said, "Wait- no David Copperfield?"

This is our rental car. We decided we don't like small SUVs as a family car- the girls were pretty scrunched in the back.

Our second hotel wasn't really a hotel- it was more like an apartment complex that rented out apartments. It had two nice bedrooms, a full kitchen, dining area, a huge soaking bath tub- it was really nice.

This was a very different trip, but we loved it. It was really nice to see a new state and learn more about Nevada and see a part of the country that we hadn't explored. And the Grand Canyon really is awe inspiring. It's so fun to go to new places and explore!

Las Vegas: Day 5

 Today we went to The Springs Preserve, Inn N Out, and the E. Mars Chocolate Factory. The Springs Reserve was neat because it had a lot of Vegas and Nevada history in a large park. Once again, we learned a lot about Nevada. Camille is in fourth grade which is the year they are supposed to learn about Colorado history. But now I feel like she knows more about Nevada than Colorado. Can that count?

This is the cactus garden outside the chocolate factory. Ben was in Heaven as it reminded him of his mission in Arizona.

Camille may have been bored with pictures by this point:

Do you see the workers in the back waving? We basically got a private tour with this gentleman, Chris. It was a very small factory, but really cool to see in action. Plus, we got some chocolate. 

This was the cat/dog exhibit in the museum at the Springs Preserve. Here they had to try and beat the time of a dog going in and out of the hurdles.

Camille got the fastest time:

We took a break to get some Inn N Out. There was a bit of a line, and we wouldn't say it was worth it. But, it was still fun to do.

A large part of the Preserve is dedicated to learning about water and drought. In this part, they got to "carry" water like they have to do in so many parts of the world.

The old town Nevada was really cool. We enjoyed that quite a bit!

The girls got to do some roulette, until Audra broke the machine!

Train ride around the Preserve:

The girls had fun just being kids and playing at the playground.

Hoover Dam

 We didn't know tours had started again after Covid so we couldn't do a tour, but we still stopped by the Hoover Dam and walked across it. It was pretty cool- we went from seeing God's masterpiece of the Grand Canyon to man's masterpiece.

Audra in Nevada, Ben in Arizona