10 hours without kids? Best day ever...

Today was fun! 10 hours without kids- how can that not be fun? During the day, I got a babysitter and Kes and I dropped his truck off at the dealership to get some much needed maintenance work done.  We've been putting this off for way too long.  It needs just about everything you can imagine from windshield washer fluid, to sensors replaced, different odd parts, tires, etc.  We visited a couple of 4x4 shops to look at the ridiculous prices of rims, tires, lift kits, chips, exhaust systems, etc.  Wow.  With a lot of money and not much brains, you could go hog wild in those places.  Don't worry mother, we walked out. The price tag seemed a bit unstable even for how nuts I can be sometimes.  The truck is still sleeping at the dealership tonight so it can get in shape tomorrow. 

After our truck fun, we went to lunch at a Mexican supermarket in town.  I love being the only white girl in the whole store- it's so cool.  I wish I could speak Spanish! Kes went on a spanish speaking mission and half of our workers don't speak English, so he uses his Espanol every day.  I ordered in English and the order gal understood me just fine, but I love listening to everyone around me.  I love watching how hard the guys work preparing the food. It was cool and a really fun experience.  I still have half of my yummy burrito saved in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch.

This afternoon after we got home, I put Gunman down for a nap'um and the boys and I worked on cleaning and washing my car and the hunting truck. Dad worked on his phone, so he wasn't able to participate in the fun. The boys helped out a ton and we got both vehicles washed, vacuumed and de-junked.  You would have been proud mom! Both the boys enjoyed using the pressure washer.  They even worked for quite a while sweeping up straw in the driveway.  Kes had the grand idea to get some straw for the dog's beds. This straw somehow fell apart in the back of his truck and pieces went all over my driveway. The straw made quite the mess when it mixed with the car wash water and mud residue from our vehicles.   Wow.  The boys worked hard and were able to help me sweep it all up and get it a little less ghetto. 

After the fun car de-junking, I was able to get cleaned up for our work party at Cheesecake Factory.  It ended up just being our Office Manager and her husband, instead of all the other workers, so we had a great time.  After a very yummy dinner, Kes and the gals husband went to REI and the office manager and I went to a store in town called Charming Charlies.  It's just about the cutest store you have ever seen for jewelry, belts, shoes, hats, purses and other ladies accessories.  I think the thing that makes it the most fun is the entire store is organized by colors.  So if you walk in and want to find red accents, it's so easy! They even have a few really adorable shirts.  The shirts are not meant to be worn alone, but would be so cute over a small t-shirt or tank top.  Really, it's pretty much the cutest store I've been in for quite a while.  Here's a couple pictures of our fun. 

Charming Charlie's is in a really swanky party of Las Vegas called Boca Park. It's in the new Trivoli Village shopping area.   It's pretty ritzy and snooty.  It's one of those places in town where you wouldn't want to bring McDonald's to eat on the benches or something.  Here's one of their decorated scenes for Christmas. 

On a Santa note, I just purchased the Leap Pad bundle for the boys' Christmas.  For those of you like me that didn't know what it was- it's similar to an adorable green or pink iPad for children with a much discounted price of $99- not $500.  I only found this beauty of a product last week.  The boys played their cousin's Leap Pad during our visit to the Speedway to see the lights. Yes, I'm pretty much behind the times when it comes to new techy products and such.  I don't know how long it's been out, but I'd never heard of it.  Apparently it's selling like hot cakes.  I just called all the stores in town I could think of and everyone was out of stock.  I found a bundled price on the Leap Pad website that included the Leap Pad, a case, wall charger, rechargeable batteries, a $20 gift card to purchase games and 2 educational games for $199.  I paid a few extra bucks for next day air shipping and tax.  Grand total $228 and it will be in Santa's hands by Friday.  Hopefully I win big points with the boys for this one.  Even Bean has been asking for one since they saw it.  Please don't tell me if I got robbed on the price.  I really don't care at this point.  The boys wanted it, so there- tis done.  Sweet Bean today said "Do you think Santa will bring me one of those toys I played with Tysen?" I said "The Leap Pad?" and he said "Yea, I told Santa I wanted a monster truck, but I really want one of those now.  Should I go see him again and tell him I don't want the monster truck anymore?" Sweet Bean.  Your Christmas wish will come true, you just may have to share it with Rooster.