Reno

I was born in Reno.  I went back for the first time as a sophomore in high school with my high school BFF, Karrie, and we spent 3 days at Circus Circus winning happy crap adorable stuffed animals and making serious googlie eyes at the very buff and sexy strong and handsome flying trapeze artists.  I was enamored by the aerial acts, and secretly wished that I could be "one of them."

Fast forward about 8 years and I was one of them.  Y'all know how I got the job, and y'all have seen the pictures of me dangling by my toes so I'll spare you the rest of the details....for now!  :-)

Fast forward 2 years later more or less and Kyle and I went back to Reno for his 21st because we wanted to par-tay in this Biggest Little City happen'en town.  We had the best time ever.  Since I am too lazy to dig out our pictures from eon's ago, I'll spare you all the fun details of that trip since not having the pictures wouldn't do it justice.  But, I will tell ya that we were seconds away almost got married.  However, we knew how badly my dad wanted to pay for a big wedding so we decided against it.

Fast forward 15 years later, and we decided to ditch leave the kids at grandma's and go to Reno for a few days.  It was fun....really fun.  It was a bit more mellow than when we were there 15 years ago, but I think the fact that the strip isn't really a strip any more and that we were exhausted parents that hadn't really gone away child free for 7 years had something to do with it.  We had talked about Vegas but seriously, mellow was what we were looking for.  Although the street that was once lit up by lights and had a semi decent nightlife was pretty much desolate and run down, I was still pleasantly surprised by how nice the 3 connected casinos remained.  All three were extremely clean, semi-smoke free, excellent service and most importantly A-MAZ-ING food!  Kyle and I walked, laughed, relaxed, took pictures, and we enjoyed the calmness of it just being us until...  I learned how to play Pai Gow!  Then I got all crazy and had to endure sleepless nights and empty wallets!  :-)  It was a wonderful vacation for us.  I certainly hope it isn't another 7 years until I get to play Pai Gow go on another vacation with Kyle.

Ah, yes, my ol' stomping ground!

Best pizza and wings in the world!!

I will always love this little city. 

As much as I loved my performing life at Circus Circus, we chose to stay at the Silver Legacy because after all this was a child free trip!

US!

Us again!

My favorite clown at night.

We saw this show and while it was no Cirque Du Soleil, it did give Kyle the inspiration to light Holly's hula hoop on fire for next year's talent show.

The highlight...my cousin Lori drove up for a quick visit.  Just want you to all know that she has kicked cancer in its ass faith like no other and God has been very good!  We would love for you all to keep praying for her continued strength and healing.  She is AMAZING!!

...and she is mean!  She always picks on me!  Actually Kyle told her to throw me in the fountain so I guess he picks on me too!

LOVE YOU Cousin Lori!  It was so awesome to see her!  I hope she can come visit WA soon.

Seriously, we quickly took this picture then ran for our life.  It isn't what it used to be.  Okay that was a bit of an exaggeration.  We didn't run, but I did stay very close to my man!

Happy US on vacation!