Portland Rose Parade 2010

Okay so it's been more than 20 years since we've been to the Grand Floral Parade in Portland. This year our granddaughter was marching with the Prairie High band. Who knew she'd follow in her mother's footsteps with the same high school band!!! Anyway the parade has changed a lot since then but we had a good time with the big street party that happens this time every year.
We were lucky to be able to sit next to very friendly, non-smoking people. Across the street was Reser's and they had a barbecue going on plus they gave out pepperoni sticks to everybody.

Here's our little group on the street. Some people camp out (we had friends and sons who use to do that) but we managed to find a fairly decent spot relatively close to the starting point. When they close off streets later in the morning more seating opens up for latecomers like us.

Key Bank (big sponsor) was passing out chalk along the parade route and Anna made this sign for her sister to march over. By the time the parade comes by the street is covered in drawings.

There was a magician walking the street and stopping every now and then to entertain the crowd. He came to us and picked Jayden to help him with some of his tricks. That was fun and it kept the boys busy for a while. Jayden loved it. Here he helps turn an umbrella into scarves and vice versa.

Here comes the Prairie High marching band with their director.

I understand the band took 3rd over all the bands.

Follow the arrows to Meghan who plays the trumpet - very well I might add. By the time we saw her in the band we couldn't get a decent shot so some of us took off down the street getting more chances for pictures. I think she thought it weird to keep seeing us in different spots.

The floats (which were fewer than we remember) weren't as spectacular as they use to be but here's a few of the best. This is the Key Bank (big sponsor) float. Features storybook characters (i.e. Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan).

The guy in the white suit walking alongside is a Royal Rosarian. One or more of them accompany the entries - at least the floats anyway. It's a big society that's in charge of the whole thing.

There's a little boy dressed like a chimpanzee in the mouth "playing" the teeth. You could here the music, plus the mouth opened and closed on him! See the guy in the red shirt on the right? He's communicating with the float driver who can't see so well!

This was Fred Meyer's contribution - loved the birds and birdhouses and lots of flowers. (Ignore the Broadway Furniture sign in the back - it was across the street from us.)


This was one among MANY horse groups. The Pendleton Mounted Cowboy Band. They stopped in front of us and with encouragement, played for us.

This was a group of over 400 Boy Scouts that was the area National Jamboree Contingency. Most of them (if not all) were carrying flags. It was a neat sight.

It was little chilly when we first got there just after 8:00 am but the sun came out and got warm by parade time (10:00 am). Reached 80 degrees this day - the latest day in the year to hit it as far as records go. Let's hope summer is finally here!!!

Okay so it's time to blog again. I meant to do Christmas but it just didn't happen. So let's start with today.

8 years ago in 2002, 3 little babies were born within about 6 weeks of each other. This past week those 3 little grandbabies were all baptized!

This is A'dra, Jayden, and Kaylee

First was A'dra on February 28.

Next was Jayden, on March 6.

Then came Kaylee on March 7.

Needless to say it has been a busy week preparing for these events. We have had the privilege of our family gathering around in support of each other and just enjoying one another's company.

This is A'dra with her dad, our son Rick. Doesn't she look gorgeous and excited to be baptized?

This is Jayden with some of the special men in his life: grandpa, dad, and uncle Jon. He looks excited too - as well as toothless.

This is the Labadie family afterwards. Anna, Kristina, Dion, Meghan and Jayden & Ethan. What a great group!

After Jayden's baptism on Saturday morning everyone came to the house for a barbecue lunch. This is a favorite family activity. We were blessed with a warm sunny day which is not a usual March happening. The cousins had a blast playing in the "woods" and the sandbox as well as the swings. Jeff and his family came over from Pasco to join us.

Kaylee, Jayden, Jesse up a tree!

Gracie!





Usually we enjoy the shade of the maple tree during our barbecues but as you can see it was a little too early in the year for leaves! I don't think we've ever had an outdoor barbecue this early before.

YUM...

Ice Cream Floats!!!

Later in the afternoon Jayden was participating in his very first Pinewood Derby. His cousin Wesley would be racing in his last derby.

Jayden's car is on the left and Wesley's is on the right.

Jayden came in 5th overall. What a cute car!

(How appropriate for the son of a teacher!)

Wesley came in 4th overall. What a jazzy truck.

Jesse brought a couple of his cars along and the cousins were actually able to race each other after the derby. His "money" car was pretty fast!

Cousins enjoying more root beer floats!!!

Jesse, Austin, Ethan, Jayden
















This is Kaylee with grandpa on her special day. Earlier in the week she had tripped and split her lip open, needing 3 stitches inside her lip. Thankfully the swelling went down tremendously before today.

After Kaylee's baptism Becky had cake and ice cream at her house. One of the MANY people attending the baptism was Tammy and her cute little family. We don't get to see each other so often these days. This is her with my mom. Someone mistook Tammy for one of Becky's sisters and she laughed, "Haven't heard that in years!"

It was great to have family together during this time. I can't think of when I've been more proud of or thankful for my family. They are a great bunch and I love them all.

Trip to Las Vegas; November 1-4, 2009

So in conjunction with training for a new business venture, we had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas. There are really no words to describe this place. I thought it was cool when I saw the "strip" from the tarmac of the airport one time. Nothing can compare to seeing it up close.

This sign has been around for eons (or should I say neons!!) It was probably right on the road originally. Now it's in the median of a big highway. They have an exit for you to get off on (LEAVING town, I might add) in the middle of Las Vegas Blvd.
This is where we stayed. Not just your average hotel. Kristina & Dion have a resort membership which they took advantage of here. We had a 2-bedroom suite which was very comfortable. We never did get into any of the pools.
On our first evening we drove down the boulevard just to look. Phil and I were snapping pictures out both sides of the car. We were able to go inside a lot of the places on Monday night after our training. This is Excalibur Castle. We never did go inside but it was so darn cute. At night it's lit up like crazy (but then what isn't in this town?)

This is New York, New York. The place is created to look like the skyline of New York. It even has a Statue of Liberty. Coney Island is also represented both inside and out. Check out the roller coaster that goes around the place. Kristina and Dion actually rode that thing - right after we had dinner!

They even have a Brooklyn Bridge you can walk on as the sidewalk.

As you can see after driving down the road in the daylight, we also went back the next night and walked the boulevard after dark.

This is a HUGE golden lion outside MGM Grand. Check out the little pedestrian below for size. The size of everything is what really gets to you. Kristina said she now had a visualization for a word one of her students uses: "ginormous". I could not think of a word until Kristina said "opulent". That was a good word too.
Here is a 4-story place where you can find ANYTHING with the M&M logo on it. There was the cutest chess set made from M&M figures for only $195 or brass characters in a band for over $1200. You could even buy M&M's in any flavor imaginable for $12.95/lb.

Here's a wall with the M&M's through the years. Are you old enough to remember them all? I know I am.

This is a 70 million dollar LED cover over a street in another part of town - further from the big casinos. A passer-by said "welcome to little Mexico". They were broadcasting a concert down the street in preparation for the Latin Grammy Award Show coming soon. This was a scarier part of town than the regular boulevard!

We were able to run out to see the Las Vegas Temple. As you drive up the road it looks like a castle on the hill (which there aren't many of - hills I mean). The only reason we got onto the grounds was because a fireside was going on next door and this was for overflow parking. We would have gotten closer perhaps if security hadn't told us to move on. You can see the Las Vegas Blvd from here as well.
This was the headquarters where our training took place. We had no idea how many would be here for training. When we walked in the door we discovered we were the whole class. We got very one-on-one training. It was really interesting and very informative.

They even spelled our names right!

After class on Monday (about 3 pm) we headed out to see the sites.

This is the Stratosphere. 1,149 ft tall. Yes they got me to the top but in no way was I doing ANY of the rides up there!!! There are 2 rides that go out over the edge, of course and one that goes up & down the tower on top. Next year they plan to put a bungee jump on the thing!!! The view is spectacular and the elevator went up faster than the 4-story one in our resort. Planes don't even come down that fast either! Ooooh my ears!!!

Every place not only has their own casino but they generally have shopping malls as well. Yes this is inside but it's made to look like you're outside!

You can go around the world on one street. Here's a half-size Eiffel Tower. Also represented are Rome, Venice, Egypt, southeast Asia and the south Pacific. There are full-size pirate ships and huge statutes and waterfalls everywhere.

There was a conservatory inside the Bellagio that gets redecorated every 6 weeks or so. It had a fall theme of course including this talking tree. There were venous flytraps that worked as well.

The concierge in the resort told us to be sure to see the 2-story chocolate fountain at the back of the Bellagio. We hunted and hunted and suddenly found ourselves standing in front of this thing. It's behind glass. It was kind of neat but after seeing the size of everything else on the street it was not what we were expecting.

By far, one of the best things to see are the fountains in front of the Bellagio. Every night they dance to the music each 15 minutes. We saw several showings.
It was just plain elegant and gorgeous.

Kristina had to fly home a day ahead of the rest of us. She missed this volcano show in front of the Mirage. During the day this is a lovely waterfall in a lagoon. At night it turns into a raging, fire-spouting volcano complete with drums beating till the ground shakes. Spouts of fire come up all around the bottom of this thing in time to the beat.

This is the Luxor. A black pyramid that shines a spotlight into the sky at night. The lights along the edge run up and down. This Sphinx head is the roof over the front entryway. We came through the back taking pictures all throughout (like all the other places). When I took a flash of the hieroglyphics on the doorway, security told me I couldn't take picture inside, only outside! The only time we were stopped. The place is hollow inside. Each floor has a roof from the floor above but also a grand view of the whole inside.

This is an unbelievable, unreal place. Truly another world with some serious money floating around the place. All in all we had a great time and certainly enjoyed the sunny, warm days. Now it's on to the next big adventure: opening the store