Cinnamon, the Beautiful Pirate Temptress

You may remember that we took our kids to watch the pirate battle in front of Treasure Island Casino in Vegas last March. Little did we know, the show had been entirely re-vamped to be very suggestive...oops! Unfortunately, between the cannon balls and gunfire, Amber caught on to the plot of the show (pirates searching for literal booty...nice) and really took a liking to the star, Cinnamon, with "Sin" for a nickname.
From that moment, she has been obsessed with Sin, the pirate girl, and had a pirate birthday party, found a pirate costume, showed off all her scandalous dance moves, etc. When she heard we were going back to Las Vegas, she immediately packed her pirate dress, had me put in her pirate earrings, and sprinkled every conversation with references to Sin and how excited she was to be going back. Amber asked me if I had Sin's phone number so she could call her to tell her she'd be there watching, and she even thought for a minute that Sin might let Amber climb up on her ship and slide down the rope. Aaaagh! This is my four-year-old speaking!
The minute she awoke on Saturday, Amber jumped into her pirate dress and couldn't be convinced to wear anything else. The events of the day were such that we couldn't stick around in Vegas long enough to see the show (oh, darn...I was crushed) and poor Amber was heartbroken. She sobbed with the most sad cry for almost 20 minutes as we left the city, and was comforted only by being told that we'd definitely come back for her to see the show some other time. I guess when a person has a stripper for a role model, they're bound to be let down in some way or another...he he!

Saints, Sinners, and Almost Winners

We loaded up our car and took off for St. George to spend a day playing with Jen and her family and to watch Adam run the Ragnar Relay Las Vegas with my crazy runnin' family. We had a wonderful weekend; here's the rundown:

Friday morning, we all took showers in the "cool shower" at the condo. Amber loves it because it has a shower head that's connected to a hose, so she can spray everything from floor to ceiling inside the shower enclosure. Then, Adam packed up his running gear and we drove him to meet the caravan of runners who were crammed like sardines into two Suburbans to make their way to Overton to start the race.

We cruised over to Jen and Jimmy's cute house for a day full of fun and yummy food. The kids had a wonderful time playing together, I had a blast hanging out with my sis, and we culminated the day's activities with a trip to Red Lobster for dinner. Once the kids were tucked in, I took full advantage of the peace and quiet by painting my toenails and fingernails (a rare occurrence) with my favorite fall color. I finished watching "21" and went to bed early. It was pretty great, even though I did have to share the bed with Rex. That's never fun!

"Picnic Panic" was one of the many activities all the cousins enjoyed.

We woke up bright and early on Saturday, showered, ate, and I loaded up the kids so we could watch Adam cross the finish line with his team. We made it safely and the kids slept from Mesquite to Vegas. That was a nice drive! We ate a yummy lunch with Adam and Amy's family at Islands (hamburgers on whole-wheat buns...delish!) and quickly drove across the street to the finish line. After parking and weaving our way through the Red Rock Casino, we waited patiently for the last runner to approach. The kids had fun playing in the sand, and I loved watching all the teams finish the race. Some had outlandish costumes in which they traveled the entire 178 miles, and some of the runners' body shapes and sized amazed me.

Adam's darling sister, Amy, ran the race with him and they both were on the fast team...he he. I am so excited to run in a Ragnar Relay!

Here we have Utah Fold 'Em racing to the finish line. I was proud of Adam, Amy, Marianne, my mom, and my friends who took third place in their division. The other team, Utah Hold 'Em, took fifth, and I was also proud of my dad and Angela who ran with them.

They all posed with their cool medals and showed off their sweat stains accumulated in the 24-hour trek completed sans showers. Despite the craziness, I can't wait to have the baby and get into tip-top shape so I can run with Adam in the next race.