Area 15

 Too much time between posts but I am still alive! Me and my family are doing well and survived 2020. Now well into 2021 and this summer, the boys and I did some traveling both together and separate. 

We took a summer trip to Vegas with the boys and myself to see how the outside world is handling Covid. I decided to get a GoPro and try to document our trip in June. The video recording part is pretty easy but the everything after takes me considerably longer. I am currently trying to figure out editing but so far I can manage to slap some clips together and insert transistions along with headers and closers. I keep telling myself that the majority of people start off horribly and amateurish so I am in good company. 

Eventually I will try splicing clips and adding effects but I want to become proficient where I am at now and keep working on it. 

So here is my first video of Area 15. I used Wondershare Filmora to edit this video.

NHL Awards

Something serious happened over the last 10 years that has taken a hold of me....most of you already know this and it's LA Kings hockey and pretty much any NHL hockey. Sure it started innocently enough with me trying to be a good wife and get some tickets for H.
 A simple 3 game pack. I didn't know any better but I bought them on the side where the Kings shoot once. Well, we upgraded to a 10 game pack on the other side of the rink, then started up closer and closer to the glass while adding up the games. Half season then heck lets go for the full season. 

I admit that I didn't fully get hockey till about 6 years ago. The Kings were not a very good team but they drafted some young, exciting players so it was nice to watch them mature as players. Then the Kings made the playoffs! And lost in the 1st round, repeat that same thing the following year. By then, I was fully hooked so here we are.

My friend Kat and I had planned to take the kids to Indio in June. We go almost every summer and it's fine. Hot, desert & we go mostly for a change of scenery. This year I thought, well maybe we should try Vegas. Kat has a timeshare there we can use, lets try that. Oh look, we can tweak our dates to coincide with the NHL Awards. I'm sooo sneaky. 

So we headed down to the Wynn with the kids, I gave them some $ and sent them off for about 3 hours while we hung out at the red carpet to get a glimpse of hockey players. It helped that the Kings won the Stanley Cup (again) too.

We met some nice fellow women hockey fans and had a great time. :) The kids endured the heat okay and managed to spend their money on LEGOs.

I won't bore you with lots of pics from the awards so here they are....

Vegas weekend

Had a great time with the girls in Las Vegas last weekend. Four days was plenty for me and we were able to check out several of the new places that seem to srping up every few years.

We stayed at the MGM Grand, mostly because the Frozen Fury is held here. With the NHL lockout, the game was cancelled which was a bummer but hey, we can still have fun. And we did...there was a drunken moment right off the bat and a electrical malfunction due to human error regarding the electric cart which almost stranded someone far from our hotel. But that's what makes a trip unforgettable. :)

I played Megabucks for the very first time. I wasn't doing too well at video poker so I put my $15 into the slot machine and when I was down to my last $3-5, I won $125. Yippee!! Another night I put my $20 in and doubled it so that game was lucky for me this trip.

We flew in on JetBlue and that part was super nice to avoid the driving/traffic. On our way home, a bunch of rowdy women were on our plane that sat a couple rows back but I'm sure the entire plane could hear them. Very annoying but it was only a 41 minute flight. And they were there for the Kings game. Ugh. they give hockey fans a bad name.

I didn't take a lot of pictures on my digital camera but here are a few.

David Copperfield

New York New York

Cool Kirin statue

and the plaque describing it.

I have to develop some film and will upload those sometime whenever....

I did notice how much the smoke/cigarettes affect my breathing while in Vegas which is a huge negative. On the strip, gone are the fantastic food deals like steak n eggs for $3.99 which I miss and even the cafes are not such a good choice. We had dinner at the MGM cafe and my burger cost $18. On the other hand, it looked like Monte Carlo is a better choice if we come back. Less smoky, wide variety of slot machines etc, and their cafe had good food for decent prices. We had a late lunch during their happy hour and I had a cobb sandwich for $6 that I really enjoyed.

Red Rock

We had a great weekend in Vegas. I did not step into a casino or touch a slot/video poker machine which is unheard of.  We hung out at the  Tahiti Village resort and had a relaxing time by the pool and lazy river. A huge thanks to Anthony and Yvonne for a lovely stay. Our 1 bedroom suite was just right for us with the kids. They loved everything.

Red Rock was our big outing and it was such a beautiful day. I got to try out my 2 rental lenses on the scenery which was lots of fun too. I'd like to do some of the hiking trails when it gets cooler.

There was a funny story involving Hector arriving Saturday morning and I had met him downstairs with his room key. Hector needed to park so I rattled off our room number and went back up to the room. Of course, he didn't hear the important part A tacked onto our room number 2212A. He put his card key into 2212 and the door unlocked, so he walked in and came across an older couple making out on the sofa. Uh, awkward! :) Oh well, chalk it up to another amusing hotel story.

We did get to check out Carlos' new home which is really nice and spacious for him with a huge backyard for BBQs.

Front of house.

Backyard which includes a cactus garden, horseshoe pit and gazebo.

Back of house.

Congrats to Carlos on your first home! May you enjoy it immensely and have lots of great times there!

Brief Hiatus

I had so much going last week but I'm back and ready to share with the class...

First of all, my mom received her Chinese visa on Wednesday. I don't believe I blogged about my ordeal with the Chinese consulate but it is all resolved now and that is the best part. Hector and my mom leave for Taiwan this afternoon and will be gone for a week. I'm sure they are both very excited and hopefully I'll have some updates later in the week.

I went to Vegas for 3 days last week to celebrate my BFF Kat's birthday. Wow, we had a lot of fun and we managed to win some money to make our trip fun. We stayed at the Sahara and enjoyed that casino. There were plenty of nickel video poker to keep me extremely happy and enough penny slots to entertain Kat. My big jackpot was the 2000 nickels I won by getting 4 aces and a 2. Woo hoo!!

I celebrated by buying a Micheal Kors purse which was made sweet by being on sale. So I got 50% off and the one I wanted was all out so the floor model was offered for an additional 10% off. Yeeeesssss. :)

We had fun on the monorail which was easy and convenient. It was nice to hang out with Kat and have some girl time. I even finished my stripey socks so more pictures to come!!!

headin out

Tomorrow, I'll be going to Las Vegas with my BFF Kat to celebrate her birthday. So hopefully we'll be lucky at the slots and have lots of fun. Meanwhile, Hector gets to hang with the kids and make the final trip to the Chinese consulate to pick up my mom's visa.

So that's all for now...lots to do before I leave. :)

Lake Las Vegas

Our lovely view from our balcony at the hotel. I understand we are in the desert so this is perfectly normal. Some people would disagree...

A nice spacious room...too bad we didn't spend more time here.

An awesome view at the outdoor reception. We were at the Loews Lake Las Vegas resort.

Gorgeous cake and it was so delish!


Some of the nice touches to the reception.

The bride and groom...her gown was fantastic and she looked stunning. I didn't get any good pictures of her but congrats to Robin and Shawn.