Back from Las Vegas!

Warning! Lots of pictures ahead. I don't do slide shows, sorry.

Well...we got back Tuesday night, but we wished we had gone an extra day. A day for driving there, a day to play and another day for driving back? It's just not enough. We should have scheduled 2 days to play, but now we know for next time.

We dropped Braxton off Saturday night, and the younger boys Sunday morning. Then off to get some breakfast to start the vacation off right at IHOP. Colby and Mike drove to Nevada, usually I help but I got a break this trip. The weather was perfect. We checked into our hotel, The Palms. It is the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. We all were extremely impressed and grateful that we got the good rates that we did. We rested from the drive and then we were off to eat German food. Bavarian style seating, that means lots of tables with benches, you won't always know everyone sitting at your table. Live polka music, and the workers all dressed for the occasion.

(Sorry, I didn't notice the food looked a little obscene when I took the picture but it was good.)

Yum! Colby, Mike and a bunch of our friends all used to work at The Bavarian Chalet in Ogden.

(Mike and Christina Peterson)

So, we miss the food and jump on every chance to eat it since the Chalet closed. If you haven't experienced a Bavarian restaurant, you should if you get the opportunity. Culture, tradition, good food and fun all rolled into one.

After dinner, we drove around sight seeing while looking for a store that Colby wanted to check out. The next morning we got to sleep in, wahoo! I haven't slept in for a LONG time. It was heavenly. A bit of shopping in the hotel and it was time for lunch at In-N-Out Burger. But first, we had to find someone to jump our car because we left a light on all night. Gotta love it! After our delectable lunch, we parked at MGM Grand and viewed the lions then visited the Rain Forest Cafe gift shop before walking the strip for some more shopping and fun.M&M shop, Coca-Cola Shop, a water show at the Bellagio, then to the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

(Colby and Mike snuggling.)

We paid for some outlandishly expensive refreshments before walking the 2 miles back to the car. In fact, Christina and I were so sore and tired from walking that the guys offered to let us hang out at Bally's while they ran three blocks and drove back to pick us up. They were so thoughtful. We hit the Bistro Buffet in our hotel before heading to the casino floor for some light gambling.

(Colby wanted this picture with Mike in front of the Alien slot machine.)

I hate slots. I much prefer blackjack or nothing at all. But I'm not a big gambler, I prefer to use my play money to shop with. Colby loves to hit the tables, but he is a conservative player and sets a limit for himself. We had a good time, and our hotel wasn't saturated with smoke like some of the older hotels, so it was bearable. We had some of the best non-alcoholic Pina Coladas we have ever tasted.

Another morning to sleep in before we are back to the real world.

(Good morning!)

We snagged some breakfast and checked out our rooms. Had some more pina coladas and a bit more gambling fun before we all piled back into the car for the long ride home. Thanks to the Peterson's for going with us and all of their entertaining antics. And a huge thanks to our parents for watching our kids. Oh, and to our good friend Doug, for feeding the cats and checking on the house.

More antics from Gabriel...

Gabe is starting to get really good at writing his name, as well as other letters of the alphabet. In fact, he takes every opportunity to draw or write that he can...

With a sharpie. Thankfully, only with dry-erase markers.

Out Patient Procedure

Colby had a simple eye surgery yesterday. In the past, he has had these small bumps appear on his eyelids, and it is not a stye. They are called Chalazions. He had 2 removed in 2006. Well, lately he had a major one appear on his good eye, he is legally blind in his right eye, and it was impairing his vision although he said it didn't hurt. We finally got insurance set up on Feb 1st, and now we have the cards in hand, so we scheduled the removal on the "bump". It was a simple procedure, although uncomfortable. This one was so large it took the same amount of time to remove as the previous two. As of last night, he looks a lot better.

Happy Birthday Colby!

I'm posting this late, but that's because I was spending time with him instead of blogging. Wednesday was Colby's 27th birthday.

(The drive to move Colby to California, March 2000)

I took the boys to get him a present, they decided on an Indiana Jone's Lego set for their dad to build and display in his office. But, as soon as we got home from the store and Gabe saw Colby, he told him the surprise. So, unfortunately we didn't get to wrap it and watch him open it. But, he did sit down with the boy's and let them help him build it. He even let them play with it, before putting it in his office for safe keeping. I bought him a cake (I don't cook, I'm terrible.), and my parent's took us out to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Layton, Garcia's. Mmmmm.....flautas, pina coladas, chips and salsa, and churros for dessert. Love it! His parent's gave him some spending money for our Vegas trip this weekend, he always asks for money as a gift and they gave in this time. We had our first day on his 16th birthday, 11 years ago. His family and I went to Pizza Hut, then bowling. Over dinner I clearly remember his mom telling me that I was robbing the cradle, I was 18.

(Our first dance, girls' choice of course!)

Good times! I am so grateful to have a younger man in my life.

(Braxton and Colby, Toone home, spring 2003)

He keeps me laughing when I get too serious and stressed out over the little things in life.

(Engaged May 28th, 2000.)

He also keeps us in touch with old friends and new, because it's a priority in his life, and he has impressed on me to do the same. He is cheap and determined to fix anything in our home that breaks himself. Though I complain at the time, I am extremely grateful for this. We save money by him learning a new technique, and he will never stop and give up, he will finish until the job is completed and whatever was broken is back to normal again. Though we have MANY differences that we argue about daily, I am so grateful that I fell in love with my younger sister's friend, and snatched him up those 11 years ago. Happy birthday Colby, I love ya!

Marriage Tag

For all you married people out there! Tag your married friends that you want to know about!(Don't forget to tag the person who tagged you!)

1. When was your "engagement" anniversary? May 28th, 2000 (2 years exactly from our first kiss).

2. When is your "marriage" anniversary? August 24th, 2000.

3. How long have you known your spouse? Since fall of 1997, so almost 12 years.

4. How long did you date/court before you were engaged? Two years.

5. Where did you meet your spouse for the first time? He was one of my younger sister's friends, and a bunch of them were sitting on our front lawn. I didn't recognize them, so...rudely I said,"Who are you?".

6. What is your spouses full name? Colby Robert Koch

7. Do you have any children yet? Yes

8. How many? Three boys.

9. Do you have any house pets? Two cats.

10. Do you own a house or rent? Own.

11. Do you live in the country or town/city? City.

12. What is one of your favorite activities together? Hanging out with friends and going on vacation.

13. Do you have a favorite vacation spot? We love to go to Las Vegas alone, and to Southern California with our kids.

14. How many siblings (including in-laws) do you have? 2 brothers, 2 sister-in-laws, 2 sisters and one brother-in-law. Colby only has a brother.

15. What church do you attend? LDS - North Ogden 23rd Ward.

16. Is this the church you were married in? Yes, although we were married in Pleasant View, and then sealed in the San Diego Temple.

17. What town is your current address at? North Ogden, UT.

18. Do you work or stay at home? Stay at home mom/Domestic Goddess.

19. Where did you go on your honeymoon? We moved me from North Ogden, UT to Thousand Oaks, CA. It wasn't very exciting, we still need to make up for that....no money back then.

20. Leave a piece of advice for the other couples: I agree with my sister, no one tells you it's so much work, you have to constantly work at it and compromise for each other. Don't stop the dating process, especially after you have children, that's when you need it the most.

Las Vegas here we come!

Colby and I have been so stressed lately with things breaking, other people's things breaking so we have to fix them, and the kids all acting out against each other as well as at us. We need a getaway, and soon. So, we called up some friends and planned a Las Vegas trip scheduled in two weeks. We leave the 22nd and come home the 24th of this month, we are counting the days, hours and minutes. Don't you ever just need to get away from your house, kids and family to appreciate them more. Well, we do! We are also sooo... done with the cold and snow, it's depressing and everyone in our home has cabin fever and therefore at each other's throats constantly. After living somewhere that is warm and sunny most of the year for 6 years, you have a hard time adjusting to such gloomy long winters. I used to be able to take the kids to the park to play by January or February, I miss it. Yes, I do love being back in Utah closer to family and old friends, and creating new friends. But I really wish the weather and climate of Southern California could have followed me here. Sorry for the complaining, I'll stop now. Colby found a great deal at The Palms in Vegas, I was so excited to stay where so many celebrities take their weekend excursions(Yes, I am a celebrity nut.). We are trying to see what shows we can see on the lower end of the price range. Blackjack, shopping, sleeping in, no bedtime routines to struggle with, maybe a trip to the spa, a ride or two on a roller coaster and wonderful food; doesn't that sound wonderful right now? YES! We are putting a small portion of our tax return to a much needed escape. I'll let you know how the trip goes in a couple of weeks.

First Tooth.

We are excited to announce that Braxton lost his first tooth today. This is exciting because he is about the last kid his age in the entire world to loose his first tooth. Or so it seems. His friends and cousins have all lost their first or more teeth, so he was ecstatic. He told us it was loose before church, and an hour after church he had worked it out with one of his favorite food items: an apple.

Before.

After.

I'll have to have a conversation with the tooth fairy to see what the going rate for a tooth is nowadays.

Some call it seepage, we call it flooding...

So here is what we have been up to these past 2 weeks...

We came down to the basement two weeks ago today to find 1-2 inches of water in our food storage room, half the hallway, holiday decoration area under the stairs, Colby's spare computer parts closet and 1/3 of his office. I guess with all of the rain/snow and melt off, it was too much for our soil to hold, and therefore decided that our home needed to take some responsibility for it. It seeped up through the concrete. We cleared out all the wet areas, borrowed a wet vac and got to work with that and about a million towels. A friend came over when it was dry and sealed the concrete for us, and we are slowly working on getting everything organized and back into place.

(This was all in between our couch and TV downstairs. We made it a priority to clear an area to watch Biggest Loser and Heroes.)

Luckily, none of our food storage was ruined, and nothing in Colby's office was affected by the incident. I did finally get the food rotation system that I have been asking for out of this, so...wahoo!

It's that time of Year again...

Hey girls! (You know who you are.) You better go and eat some Mongolian BBQ at Wok 'n' South and have a slice of Dulce de Leche Cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory for me tomorrow. I miss all of you that would celebrate this day of the year with me. For those of you who know me, you've heard that Colby is not that into Birthdays. And I whine and complain each year about it, so I started celebrating it with the ladies who put up with me whining. Thanks to all of you, and thanks to those who are going out with me this year. Tomorrow it's the big "29", watch out "30" here I come. Sorry, I'm not usually one to be quiet about my birthday, the day should be celebrated and not hidden from others.

A Visit to Chuck E. Cheese.

So, I think that we can finally say that IT IS DONE! Gabe is potty trained! And only 1 month shy of a year in the making. He has kept his pants dry 2-3 nights/naps now. And during the day has been accident free for a couple of months. We are very excited about this. I thought Braxton was hard, but Gabe was much harder. I don't blame it all on his stubbornness, some of it was both of his parents not keeping on top of asking him to go on time. Well, we have been telling him that we will renew our Dinosaur Park pass when he kept his pants dry while sleeping. So, sometime this week we will do that. But I had been wanting to take the boys to the new Layton Chuck E. Cheese for some time now. However it's never much fun for me to struggle with my three boys alone in an overly crowded area. So, I excused Braxton from school today and we went down and played. Now, I am usually one who doesn't like to take my kids out of school for anything: no vacations, and they have to be really sick for me to keep them home, no faking! But, lately Colby has been trying to convince me to relax and enjoy the time with my boys while they are young. When they are teenagers they might now want to do things with me/us. Also, Braxton has been getting burnt out on homework, and routines and schedules, complaining he doesn't have enough time to play what he wants to play and get enough sleep. Seriously, he told me I kept waking him up too early for school(7:30am), so I told him to go to bed earlier the next night(bedtime is at 8pm). Also, my parents just arrived home last night from a 17 day Book of Mormon Tour in Guatemala and Mexico. So, we wanted to meet up with her and visit with Aunt Heidi (my younger sister). So, again here's the rundown: Gabe needed a reward, Braxton needed a break from school and routine, we needed a visit with Aunt Heidi and Grandma Miller, and Tristan had a great time as well as I. I don't know why I feel that I have to explain myself to you all, but I was trained that the kids don't stay home from school unless they are sick with something worse than a cold. So there you are, we had a lot of fun. I had a ton of different coupons to use there, so we got drinks, pizza, salad bar, dessert pizza, and a bazillion tokens. We came home with prizes, full tummies, 2 sleeping boys and smiles on Braxton and my faces. It was a pretty clean place, but about 1/3 of the games were already broken. That was frustrating since that place hasn't been open too long. All in all, our tokens all got spent, and we had a lot of fun together.

Gabe and I trying to pop all of the bubbles on the screen.


Tristan playing a broken Whack-a-mole.

Tristan, Aunt Heidi and Braxton riding his favorite ride/game there.

Mmm... lunch!

I think Gabe spent his entire load of tokens on this bowling game. People were still playing it when we left, because it has about 39 games in it.

They rode this for about 2 seconds, enough for a picture. Neither liked the way it rode.

All out of tokens, but he can pretend it's moving.


We earned 500 tickets as a family. Wahoo!