Ducks

In our neighborhood, we have some ducks that wander through frequently starting this time of year through the summer.  Not something you expect to see in a neighborhood like ours but we like it.  They are often in our yard.  We used to feed them bread but last year they got so comfortable that they used to camp out in our neighborhood pool so we decided to stop feeding them.  Not that they can't come visit, but a duck in the pool is just kind of strange.  Plus, to have duck dropping floating around in the pool was not very pleasing.  We had our first visit a few weeks ago.  Elaina loves to watch them in our yard.  Here is a shot of her greeting them with Erik....



A stroll down memory lane.... part 3

We are done with the Vegas trip.... So, to change it up, I thought I would post another trip down memory lane.  This one is about one of the baby showers I had while I was pregnant.  I am not sure I have ever posted pictures of me pregnant and looking at these pictures, now I remember why.  But, this blog is about memories so I'll take one for the team, I suppose.  Anyway, there are not a ton of pictures but there are a few.  This was a baby shower that was held for me by my friends, Sabrina and Tonja (from church).  It was held at church with many of my church friends and many of my former co-workers.

This was the cake made by my dear friend, Sandy.  It was carrot cake (my favorite) and was decorated like a cabbage patch with tiny babies all over it under cabbage leaves.  It was ADOREABLE!!!!  and DELICIOUS!!! 

Ugh!!!  Can you say "round??"  I wasn't even my biggest yet.

Me and my friend, Lesli

Me and Sandy (the cake maker)

My sister, Kate, me and my mom... playing the "what's in your purse" game so we're digging trying to find whatever it was that was called out....

That is really about all for the pics... Again, just wanted to post this for memories.  I loved being pregnant and miss it (not the way I looked but all the other stuff was cool).  All in all my pregnancy with her was easy breezy.  Until next time......

Wax Museum

One of the things we did in Vegas (by suggestion) was go to the Wax Mueseum.  It was pretty cool, I have to say, but just not long enough.  I felt like were were in and out in no time and to spend the money we did to go I expected a bit more.  It was pretty amazing how to scale all of the wax scuptures were and so life like.  In fact, it kind of creeped me out - you just walked from room to room and there were all these wax statues everywhere.  At times, it was hard to discern who was real and who was wax.  Creepy.  But, blogworthy, so here we go...

Just chillin with Jamie Foxx

Me and Eva Longoria - one of my guilty pleasures  - watching Desperate Housewives on Sunday nights (now you know, don't judge).  Eva (aka - Gabby) is my favorite character

The Rock

So dreamy....  his wax figure, not near as cute as he is -unless this is what he looks like in real life.  If so, I've been wrong all these years.

Erik talking to his therpist... Oh wait, that's Ben Affleck.

That's right, Erik, show him how it's done....

Seriously....  He is HUGE!

Whatever,  Erik, not gonna happen!!

Me and Stevie... I actually am a big Stevie fan - just singing along

I tried with the whole head cock thing, but can't be near as cool as Gwen

Put up your dukes!!

God Bless America!

"I had a dream" that one day Erik would meet the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr
Seriously, though, wouldn't that be cool???

If you are ever in Vegas, this is a cool place to go.... We would recommend it on a rainy day.

Our time with Elaina!...by guest blogger, Aunt Kate

Well, as most of the Stringfellow’s loyal readers know, Erin and Erik went for a fabulous trip to ***VEGAS baby***! The Gates Clan (aka Aunt Kate, Alexandra and Quentin) lucked out and had the pleasure of babysitting Elaina for the week.

We haven’t hung out with a 3-year-old full time in quite a while so the whole gang had lots of fun playing “Cooker” (that is playing chef with plastic food and little kitchen ) and remembering that getting a kid in and out of a car seat is a real workout sometimes! Elaina seemed fascinated with the fact that she didn’t “have a door” in Aunt Kate’s car (I drive a 2 door Blazer) and she liked to tell us that every morning on the way to her school . I hope Elaina had as much fun as we did and I hope her teachers at school don’t think I am too crazy for letting her wear some of Aunt Kate’s BRIGHT RED lipstick to school in the morning !!!!

I took these pics with my camera phone, so they aren’t great, but here are a few highlights from our week!

Elaina quickly learned to chill with her cousin Alexandra!

And we thought Alexandra was hysterical wearing Elaina’s bunny!

As most of you know, some VERY bad storms with tornados blew through our area on Wednesday, so we had to take cover (Aunt Kate doesn’t take tornado warnings lightly). We were watching the news closely and here are Elaina and Quentin in the basement riding out one of the storm cells….they didn’t seem nearly as anxious as Aunt Kate was! We passed the time by coloring pictures.

Afterwards, we went to take a look at the hail that caused a LOT of damage to cars in our area. This is a picture of Quentin holding some pieces (and Elaina’s little feet in the background).

This is a pic of the front flower beds – the white stuff is hail! CRAZY WEATHER FOR SURE!

We hope that Elaina comes and stays with us again! We love her!

Vegas, baby!!

It's over a week since we've been back from our Vegas trip and still no post update on the vacation.  So, here it is.....To sum it up, we had a FANTASTIC time.  We went in celebration of our 10 year anniversary (which is in a week). Vegas is something to see, that's for sure.  We enjoyed seeing everything (I was wide eyed the entire time).  Best part about the trip - Phantom of the Opera.  It was completely amazing.  We also saw Cirque de Soleil, "O."  It was phenomenal as well.  We also scored tickets to a magic/comedy show that was cool and hysterical all at the same time.  The food we ate there was spectacular (and expensive) but, for me, totally worth it.  I am a big fan of dining out especially when it's so delicious.  But, seriously, the most incredible part was spending 5 complete days with Erik and connecting with him.  Elaina was in good hands back home (stay tuned for a "guest blog spot" from my sister, Kate with details of her week with Elaina).  We got some much needed "us" time.  Here are some shots to cap off the week (I'll try to keep it short but no promises).

Check out this room... super nice.  It had drapes that opened and closed by remote.  What???

The light/water show in front of the Bellagio.  Very cool.  Pictures don't capture how cool it is

A view at night of part of the strip

A pose in front of this water feature at Caesars Palace

The strip during the day (part of it anyway).  There is no way to get a picture of the whole thing from the street

And again - another view of the strip - I actually like this one with the flowers

This is a view from a balcony (not our room) from the hotel we stayed at.  It's the canal that you ride on a gondola in and go through the hotel.  We did not do this.

This picture does not capture how cool this was but this is a view from inside the Venetian.  With the way the ceiling is, it feels like you are outside in Italy (or at least that's how I imagine it to look - never been)

At the MGM, they had a lion exhibit.  The guys were in a cage with 3 lion.  The lion were gorgeous but look at this guy stooped down just chilling with his lion friend.  I would never do this.  They threw the ball, ran and played with the lion.  Entertaining but crazy if you ask me.

Some interesting things I saw and thought were blogworthy...This was a statue of liberty made entirely out of Jelly Bellys at the New York New York

 



This was a purse at the coca cola store made entirely out of aluminum soft drink tabs.... interesting.  Do people actually buy this stuff???



This was a ledge just across the way over the canal at the Venetian.  Why would people throw their change on it??  I have no clue.  I was trying to find a way to get over to it to get money for the slot machines.  I never figured out how to do that with out getting hurt or arrested.

We ate at the Mesa Grill, Bobby Flay's restaurant.  I am a fan of Bobby Flay so I wanted to try it plus my sister told me it was delicious.  Turns out, it was seriously the best food I've ever eaten. 

 

 I took this picture - we ordered tuna nachos (except it was called something much fancier then that).  Well, out came this.  Not the nachos I had envisioned.  These tasty chips that you ate the tuna on came on the side.  BUT, it tasted so incredible.  The entire meal was to die for.  You have to eat there if you go.



Keeping in line with food, we ate the last night at this place called Serendipity.  I ate this ginormous doughnut.  I should have taken a picture of it with me holding it to give you an idea of just how big this doughnut is.  But, this will have to do.  It was about 8 inches in diameter.  YUM!

One more pic of us eating at Magarittaville.  Food was good - entertainment was even better.

And just some poses to round this whole post off... me in front of this huge butterfly sculpture made out of flowers.  We must have walked past this thing 50 times coming and going out of our hotel

Erik and I in front a water feature at the hotel

At dinner before we saw "O"

Terrible pic but this was before we saw 'O' while we were sitting in our seats.  This was before I had to put my camera up, they don't allow photography.