Digital World

We live in a digital world now.  It really is a bittersweet thing for me.  On one hand.  I love how technology has come such a long way and the conveniences it offers to me.  I can send a letter to a friend within seconds.  If one of the kids has a report at school, I have loads of information I can find with a few clicks of a mouse.  You can look up an address and get directions just that fast.  There are so many things you can do with all these electronic gadgets out there.  On the flip side.  It has created somewhat lazy and unimaginative kids.  That sounds a bit harsh, I know.  Between, DS’s, I-Pods, Netflix, video gaming, cable, and many more.  Kids in todays time, tend to just want to sit and either watch or play with this digital world.  At the daycare we will send the kids outside to play and within 15 short minutes, they get bored and want to come back inside.  I remember as a kid, I practically lived outside.  We would play outside, using simply our imaginations for HOURS!  We would get plenty of physical activity, running around, or riding our bikes.

This is why, when I see things like this, it makes my heart happy.  They are playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” with some of Keira’s stuffed animals (notice I said some, not all).  I love it, when they are content playing something like this, no electronic devices needed.  We have recently started having “no electronic days.”  This means we have to go the whole day without watching TV, playing any video games, getting on the computer, etc.  My kids at first thought of it as punishment, but by the end of the day, they were having so much fun, I don’t think they even thought about all the electronics.

We need to go back to the days when there was old fashioned fun to be had.

Girls Weekend

For my best friend Becky’s birthday this year I decided to something extra special.  She was going to be turning 30 after all.  Although, if you ask her, it’s her first anniversary of turning 29 (she might be in denial, shh, I won’t tell).  You see, last year in September was when I turned 30.  Becky made it a big deal of course.  We got massages.  She took me to Park City for the night.  We sat in the hot tub.  Painted our nails.  Went out to eat.  Went shopping of course!  Watched a movie.  It was so much fun.  So, it worked out well that she would be turning 30 just over 5 months after me.  So for her surprise, I decided to take her to...VEGAS of course!  I was so excited planning it.  I knew it would be so much fun!  Then, our other awesome friend, Jenn had asked me what we were going to do for Becky’s big birthday this year.  I thought, oh, that would be fun to have Jenn come to!  So, I let her in on the surprise and she was excited and all for it.

So, our plan was to leave on Tuesday morning (her birthday was on Wednesday) and then we would stay until Thursday, when we would head on home.  Of course, Becky couldn’t make it easy for us.  There was a lot of hoops we had to jump though, to make this work.  First was, she was in charge of the book fair at her kids school, which happened to be that week, so her awesome husband called and got that all rearranged and taken care of.  So, our plan was to see if she would want to come to breakfast with us  on that Tuesday morning.  Of course, she said she had the book fair that morning to do.  So I just figured, well, okay we will just show up to your house that morning BEFORE she had to go to the book fair.  THEN, I find out, that before the book fair, she was planning on going to the gym that morning.  So, I had to rearrange some things.  Then, I was going to go with her to the gym and take her from there.  Then I find out, that she wasn’t going to shower at the gym, just go straight to the school to set up for the book fair.  I couldn’t take her to breakfast all STINKY!  Ugh!  So, then I had to make even more arrangements.  Then, she DID decide to shower at the gym.  At, that point I was thinking, seriously!?!?  So, the day came, we went to the gym and on our way out, I took her keys, told her she was being kidnapped for the day and to get in the car.  She of course was panicking, about all her obligations.  I had to assure her several times, that everything was taken care of.  So, we met up with Jenn, went to breakfast, and oh ya, while we were in the gym, Becky’s husband (who she thought was at work) and Jenn were at Becky’s house packing a bag for her.  So after breakfast, the plan  was that we were just going to get on the freeway and start driving and see how long it takes her to ask where we are going.  We actually made it all the way to Payson before she finally asked.  That was when we finally told her that we were actually going to Vegas.  

We had a TON of fun there!  I brought a DVD player and all my F.R.I.E.N.D.S. dvd’s to watch at night.  We had magazines, a TON of junk food and NO KIDS!  We walked around on the strip, we were completely entertained by watching all the different kinds of people.  There was a man dressed as a tree, he would stand up against a tree, and he would blend right in, then when people were walking by he would move and scare the crap out of people, oh, I should probably also mention he was on stilts to.  We went shopping at all the outlets they have, and got some awesome deals.  We went to the show called Mystere’ by Cirque Du Soleil.  It was amazing!  Some of the acrobatics they do and the muscle and talent they have to have to do these things.  Such a good show.  We got to sleep in (my favorite part).  Then, of course there was plenty of girl talk going on the whole time.  It was so much fun!  Makes me want to go again!