Christmas Vegas Vacation (lots of pictures)

We hope everybody had a merry Christmas. Our family did. Plus, Lucas wasn't sick this Christmas with a fever and full body rash, so that was a nice. Here are some pictures from our Christmas vacation in wonderful Las Vegas with Wayne's family.

I know it may seem weird, but we were happy to leave Carson City, where we have been having a cold, white December, and head south to Las Vegas, where we enjoyed a warm, brown Christmas. It was also great to see Wayne's family, especially his Uncle Jay, whom we haven't seen for years. We were also happy to visit some of our favorite Las Vegas food establishments (shout out to Raising Cane's and Zaba's!) that we sorely miss in the great white north.

The night before we left Carson City, we had a pre-Christmas present opening with Lucas. We were worried about fitting all of Lucas' gifts (he is so spoiled) in our small car, so we let him open them early. He was happy to finally be able to open all the funny boxes under the tree.







Christmas Eve we made gingerbread houses. I feel our house was the best, even though Wayne broke the roof and ate most of the candy before we could put it on.


Here is Wayne putting on the roof, right before he broke it :)


Our competitors Brandon and Jay.


Rodolfo got into the spirit late, but, despite his prediction, it wasn't enough to help him team claim victory.


These are the finished products. You be the judge of who won (hint: pick the house on the left). In all honesty, they both turned out very nice, and yummy!

Christmas day was full of eating, opening presents, and of course, lots of fun. Santa brought Lucas an awesome red wagon, among other fun toys. He spent most of the day sitting in his new wagon with all the stuffed animals he could fit in there with him. Christmas is always more fun when there is a kid involved. Thanks everybody for all the wonderful gifts.


Lucas' new Radio Flyer wagon.


Christmas breakfast.


Lucas looked so cute in his new Elmo Christmas PJs.


Lucas opening presents with Mommy.


Even Bentley got into the Christmas spirit. Doesn't he look so handsome?

The next day we took Lucas to see the fish at the Shark Reef inside Mandalay Bay. He thought is was great. He loved just looking at all the colorful fish as they swam around.


Lucas checking out the surprisingly calm piranhas.


He liked the colorful fish the most.


Good thing there was a thick piece of glass between Lucas and this sharp toothed fish.


Having fun with Mommy.


This is not a great picture, but it is of Lucas checking out the jellyfish.


Resting with Grandpa Matt at the last exhibit.


Lucas and Grandpa Matt making funny faces.

We had an awesome time in Las Vegas, but sadly, we had to come back to Carson City so Wayne could go to work. Still, Lucas is having a fun time playing with all his new toys.





Happy New Year!

Snow! 2 more posts below.

Now if you have read the previous post you will know that I was not particularly happy with snow. It and I were in a fight and if I never saw it again that would be fine...this is what I woke up to this morning...of course!


This is our street covered with the horrid white stuff.

The front of our house...keep in mind this was probably 8 o'clock this morning and it has snowed ALL DAY! There is way more snow now.

This is Wayne standing in our backyard to demonstrate how deep it is.

This is our back door.

This is the front door.

Now even though I am in a fight with snow...Lucas is not so we took him out for his first experience in the snow. He thought it was great! Traitor. :)

Here he is in the backyard. See he thinks it is great!

Here are Lucas and I in the front of the house...the street actually. As you can tell he is way more interested in going to play than taking a picture with mom.

Here is him enjoying the snow some more.

Wayne pulled him up and down the street...and yes that is a laundry basket. What can I say we are warm weather people...were are woefully unprepared for snow fun. But it worked great and didn't even ruin my basket.:)

Isn't he handsome!!!

San Francisco

This past weekend Wayne and I were able to take a little vacation over to San Francisco. My parents were kind enough to come up to watch Lucas so Wayne and I went by ourselves. I am not going to lie...it was hard to leave him. I knew he would be safe but this was my first time away from him overnight since he was born so I was a bit of a mess.:) But we were able to do a lot of cool things and we made it home in one piece, just barely, but more on that later.

This isn't a very good picture but this is us at Alcatraz Island with San Francisco in the background. It is only and mile and half from the prison.

This is Wayne at Alcatraz Island that is the Golden Gate Bridge over his shoulder. The head phones are for the great audio tour at the island.


This is Wayne in one of the prison cells.

This is the sign that welcomes you to Alcatraz.

Here we are on the island with the bay in the background. The hats were absolutely necessary...it was freezing!!!

We walked from the train to the trolley station to go to Alcatraz. On the way we passed the Bay Bridge here is Wayne with it in the background. This picture really doesn't do it justice...it is huge!!!!

Here is Wayne and AT&T Park...home of the San Francisco Giants. We passed it on our walk to the trolley station.

Here we are on our hour and a half train ride to San Francisco from San Jose... it took a long time but was way better that driving in the insanity that is San Francisco. He were staying in San Jose because the Rebels were playing there and we wanted to be close to the game. I actually don't have any pictures of the game because my camera had died by then but after some ugly play we did pull out a win. :) The important things in life right.

Here is Wayne at Winchester Mansion. It is this mansion that Sarah Winchester the widow of the president of Winchester Rifles built on 24 hours a day for 38 years!!! It has all sorts of weird stuff because there was absolutely no plan. Stairways that lead nowhere, windows and door that open to walls etc. It was pretty cool. The reason for all the building is a long story so if you are interested just google Winchester Mansion.:)
Those are all the pictures I took but the most "exciting" part of the trip was the way back. A trip that took us 4 1/2 hours on the way there took nearly 12 on the way back. Why you ask? Snow!?!? We got caught in a snowstorm on the I-80 over Donner Pass, we got a few miles up the mountain and the traffic just stopped. 2 hours later they informed us the road was closed unless you had chains which, being from Las Vegas, of course we didn't. So we went back down the mountain got chains, put them on and traveled 30 mph all the way to Reno. Now keep in mind it is maybe 60 miles to Reno from where we were...5 HOURS later we pulled into Reno. During all of this we also had the fact that my parents were supposed to catch a flight back to Las Vegas at 3:00, so we had to figure out what to with our sweet little boy Lucas. Luckily we have some great friend in the ward who agreed to take him short notice, and a great friend in Shelley who was willing to take him over night. Luckily we made it back to Carson City by about 7:00, after picking up our other car in Reno, (my parents had to take it to the airport) and me driving white knuckled all the way to Carson City. Special shout-out to Wayne for never losing his cool during the whole trip even while I was pretty sure I was going to have either a heart attack or and anxiety attack. What a great husband!!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year, we were able to go to Logandale and spend it with my family. After an 8 hour trip from Carson City the night before and then the 3 hour trip to Logandale that day Lucas was pretty done with the car but he had a great time seeing the family. Thanks Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jo for hosting us all and thanks Mom and Dad for letting us stay with you.


Here is Lucas looking for the horse...he had just woken up from a nap I swear he doesn't look like that much of a ragamuffin all the time!

This is Lucas loving their backyard swing. This picture is blurry because I had to take it from so far away. Every time I would get close to him he would freak out and wave me away. Probably because I would have made him get out because the whole time he was about 2 second from taking a header right off the swing. The joys of being the parent that always says no. :) (In Wayne's defense it was my parents that had him on the swing, not Wayne.)


Here he is finally seeing the horse. This was about as close as he would let it get before he would run away.

This is Lucas having some road rage in the play car.

This is the whole group...what a great Thanksgiving being able to eat outside.

Introducing Thorley Baby #2

So this may come as a big surprise to some of you be we are expecting our 2nd baby...and it is a boy!!! As some of you may know it was very difficult for us to get pregnant with our son Lucas so we thought it would take quite awhile for this one also, but (luckily) it was much faster and cheaper this time. This little boy is due May 1st. I am about 17 and a half weeks right now. Below are some pictures of our cute new boy!!!!

This is a profile.

This is him facing us. He kind of looks a little scary! :)

This is the proof. :) He probably won't appreciate this later.

Here is a whole body shot.

What we have been doing in the past month

Here is an update of what we have been doing for the past month.


We took the cutest monkey around trunk-or-treating.

We carved pumpkins.

Lucas wasn't to impressed by the innards. :)

We played in the leaves.

And looked at the birds flying by.


We went to the pumpkin patch.

At took a picture of our little "piggy." :)

We went through the corn maze...and it only took us 45 minutes.:)

and we acted silly.:)

There is our month...now Grandma can get off my back.:)