Catch up...

I realized that it is a lot harder to keep up with my postings than I thought it would be. The longer that we are here in Las Vegas (which is all of 2 1/2 weeks) the more I realize how much I like it here. Don't worry...we won't end up moving here or anything crazy like that, but I'm really glad that we decided to do this travel nursing assignment. Anyways...

We haven't been up to much lately, just working and doing little things here and there. Last weekend was our first time going to the strip!! The lights were crazy! All of the hotels had different themes and seemed to try to outdo one another for the best reputation, they are amazing! We just walked around, saw the eifel tower and the water show at the Bellagio which was really cool. We ate a late dinner (after 9pm, sounds like us doesn't it?) at a noodles place at the Bellagio. After a few hours of walking around I had 6 blisters from my heels. Note to self, wear comfy shoes!

This weekend we are off to go camping in Arizona at Lake Havasau. Apparently this is the last weekend to go quail hunting so of course Brent is jumping at the chance to take Bella hunting one last time for the season. I've heard that when you camp in Arizona you have to watch out for rattlesnakes, tarantulas, and scorpions, sounds fun, huh?

Here are a few pics from our last weekend...

Photos!

Look to the left and take a look at our new pictures of our trip. Hit the photos tab to the left :)

What a week!

I am long overdue to post pics of our new place and for an update. Once we got here and settled in we've been busy exploring this new area!

So since I lasted posted...yes we do have electricity! We have had it for the last week and we're enjoying our place so much more now that we have light...imagine that! We finally feel settled and that this is where we are going to live for the next few months.



So update of what's been going on:

I've started my job at St. Rose Dominican Hospital at the San Martin campus. It is a new hospital and it's gorgeous! Everyone has been very accepting and my first few shifts have gone well. It's certainly not Gillette, I'll always be loyal to Gillette, they are the best co-workers anyone could ask for! :) I'm working 12 hr. nights and am getting used to a new hospital and the flow of things. I am definately learning a lot and getting out of my comfort zone.



We went to San Diego this past weekend. It was thursday night and Brent and I were contemplating what to do for the weekend since it was going to be a 3 day weekend for us. We thought, it's a 5 hr. drive, it was going to be gorgeous for the weekend with weather in the upper 70's, and to top it off my parents were vacationing in San Diego that weekend. It was perfect to be able to see family and get a piece of home while we're out here. It was the best weekend! The weather was amazing- 78 degrees and sunny the entire weekend. Brent had never been to the west coast, so it was fun to be able to be at the beach and watch the waves and daringly go up to our knees in the surf- the water was cold! It was 55 degrees...I wasn't brave enough to swim. We brought Bella to a dog beach and she loved swimming in the waves. Brent found a great hotel on the beach. Thanks Brent for such a great weekend!



Brent is out golfing right now- the perks of starting work at 6am due to being in Pacific time and having your job still be in Central time. He's done with work at 2, so he's got the afternoon to golf or be out for the the rest of the day.



I'll post some highlights of our apartment and our San Diego weekend:

Oops!

Has anyone ever been in a store with a cart full of stuff including a broom sticking out and knocked over a full display of boxes of valentine's day chocolates?? Oh yeah, I definately did and it was awesome. No body looked at me while I quickly picked up 30 boxes and held the line up...no body at all.

A great way to to make my entrance in Target...

Red Rock Canyon

What a great day! Yesterday was our first day in Vegas and we spent it moving in quickly to try and beat the sunset and have sunlight to get everything in it's place since we had no electricity. We ended up doing so many things that we skipped all our meals, so we both weren't in the best of moods by the end of the day (okay okay, I was pretty grumpy by the end of the day and was taking it out on Brent). We got to the hotel last night and fell asleep by 8 pm (Pacific time) and slept for 13 hours!! Driving wore us out!

Today we tried out a church in western Las Vegas and went grocery shopping and became members of the Albertson's (grocery store) discount club. After doing some "normal" activities, I felt much better about living here. I was starting to feel homesick about 2 hours after we got here yesterday, but now after driving around and getting to know the area, I feel like we can live here for 3 months. Not like we have a choice to turn around now :)

It was gorgeous here today, 64 degrees and sunny. We went hiking at Red Rock Canyon. It's about a 15 min drive from our apartments. It was amazing. We were going to go up a certain trail, but we missed the trail and went "off roading" on our own trail. We kept wondering why we didn't see other people on the "trail" and when we were going to get to the fantastic scenic geologic feature that was promised on our map. When we kept climbing up the trail and were walking into snow on the path, we decided to turn around. haha, oh well- it was still fun!

No Electricity?!?

We finally arrived in Las Vegas!

Our apartment is wonderful! It's in a great area in Vegas- I love looking out the window and seeing palm trees and mountains! We have a fireplace in the bedroom, a little patio, and its a nice gated apartment. For a place this great there has to be a catch, right??

No electricity! I called my travel nursing recruiter and was told that there was a miscommunication somewhere and we would not have any electricity until Monday morning because it's the weekend. So as soon as we unpacked everything we could in the daylight, we packed up a suitcase and moved into a hotel for the weekend. Certainly not how we were expecting to spend the first few days of our trip, but it ended up being better than we expected.

We didn't get to take any pictures of our apartment but we will and we'll post them soon.

Here's us crossing to border into Nevada:

Loooong roadtrip

Travel update:

We are currently in Beaver, UT at a hotel. It has been many long, long hours to get here. But...we only have 3 1/2 hours left to get to Las Vegas! Since I'm sure that everyone wants to hear all of the details and exciting moments of the trip, let me fill you in.

Thursday we drove through the long state of Nebraska to Denver, CO. Nebraska is a very wide and flat state that seems to go on forever and ever. We finally got to Denver and stayed with Heidi and Adeeb after going to a pub for a great cheeseburger and to watch the playoff game of college football? I think? Clearly I wasn't watching the game, I was chatting with Heidi.

Friday morning we left and got back on the road again and headed towards the mountains. It was gorgeous! I wish that I could wake up and see mountains every day! It made the time go by fast with the great scenery. My camera battery died just as we were coming up to the mountains so unfortunately I don't have many pictures. We stopped in Vail to stretch our legs and walk around the cute ski shops. It was picture perfect in Vail. It had just snowed and there was thick snow on the trees and we walked down a path that was next to a little stream. It was so pretty and since I couldn't take a picture, you'll just have to imagine it :)

At one point when we were driving through Colorado into Utah, there was absolutely nothing around, no cars, a sign that said no service for the next 106 miles, no radio stations that came in, and no cell phone service. It was the setting for a freaky movie! Not to worry, we made it safe and sound to lovely Beaver, UT.

Alright, here are some pictures from the last couple of days.

Our car was packed to the brim with all of the essentials :)


Beautiful mountains!!

Now I'm off to bed because tomorrow we get to move in to our apartment!

Vegas Baby! Here we come!

So we are officially on our way to Vegas! It really doesn't seem like we packed everything up that we'll need for 3 months and we won't be back to our house until the middle of April!
I found that it was hard to really know what we would really need and had to have to live for 3 months. I thought we were bringing a ton of stuff, but then we started packing up the car tuesday night and we had a ton of extra room! We went out to eat that night and resumed packing the car up on wednesday morning. I don't know what I was thinking...our car was FULL! It was like playing tetris...we have everything perfectly wedged in and there is NO extra room for anything. Bella is almost touching the roof in her kennel.

So we left on wednesday afternoon and drove to Omaha, Nebraska to visit some college friends, Chris and Janna. Janna is due the beginning of February- it's so exciting! On our drive back through Nebraska, we will get to see her new baby girl!
We left this morning and are now driving through Nebraska to Denver, CO to stay with our friends Heidi and Adeeb. We only have 450 miles left to get to Denver...uugh!

Right now Bella is breathing dorito breath on me... phew! It's bad. This morning we put her in the car while we got a few more bags from the Evan's. When we got back to the car we found her with a bag of doritos in her bed and she was inhaling them as quick as she could. It will be a fun rest of the car ride...

I tried to post some pictures to this, but our connection isn't the best while we are in the car. So I'll post them later.