Vacation Pics: Vegas and the Stratosphere

OK. This is part 2 of our vacation pictures. Not sure how many parts there will be, but I hope it will end before you get bored. We start off this edition with a few more pics from the wedding (because I got some pics from my mom and dad and they had some good ones). We then have some from our trip to the top of the Stratosphere and a couple of the rides there.

This is why Chris and Kelly chose this resort for the wedding. Behind that mountain is Lake Tahoe. Beautiful.

Me and the prettiest girl at the whole wedding (sorry Chris and Kelly =).
More...
...and the kids.

Honey and Grampa were overdue for their afternoon nap.

Annie knows what is REALLY important.

I guess I had better include this one. This is me presenting the Best Man Toast (and me without a toaster...yeah yeah, bad joke but whatcha gonna do? =).

Now...on to VEGAS. Whoop whoop!!

Annie, Honey, and Grampa on the top of the Stratosphere.

View of Vegas from the observation deck of the Stratosphere.

Jordan and Zack...appearing suspiciously not up to something. I got my eye on you 2...

The spire of the Stratosphere...actually a rocket ride called Big Shot, at the top of which you are over 1,100 feet in the air. It is very cool because at the top of the ride, you can't even see the Stratosphere building below you. Wow. I almost peed myself (I think Emily did, but don't tell anyone...shhhh).

Aliens we encountered on the top of the Stratosphere. Gorgeous aliens, but aliens nonetheless.

A view of Vegas at night...1,000 feet in the air.

One of the thrill rides, Insanity.

The third ride, X-Scream.



Notice how overwhelmed they were with excitement...

Next post - video (bad, dark video, but video all the same) of one or two of the rides.

Vacation Part 1: The Wedding

In another post I said we would get some photos of our recent summer vacation on the web. Well, things got away from me and I never did post more photos, but now the wife and kids are out of town (HALLELUJ....cough cough...umm..I mean...gosh, I sure do miss them just to death - whew..nice save Chad..heh heh)

...ANYWAY

Here are the long awaited photos. I am sure that droves and droves of you, our loyal readers (all 3 of you) were checking back daily to find out what we did on our trip. Well, here ya go:

First off, Jordan and Emily went to work with me the day we left.

Here are Jordan and Emily pretending to be useful.

In all fairness, they actually did some work...here Jordan was working on a spreadsheet...Emily was working on her Nintendo DS...hard work to be sure!

More...
We went to Reno to start out because one of my best friends, Chris Palmrose (here in front) was getting married and asked me to be his Best Man (for whatever reason, I think he may have been drunk =).

(above, from left to right: Tim, Phil, Chad, Dennis I think...can't remember... I am just terrible, Kenny, and Chris)

The kids squinting.

Mom and dad.

Beauty and the beast.

Jordan just heard about the cake! Boy is he excited...

Excited? Not so much..

As you can see, Glynna was very excited to dance, especially since as Best Man I had no choice. You can also see that I am good at faking that I am enjoying it.



Quality father-son time.

Coming soon...part 2...

First Videos from the new Digital Video Camera

We got a new video camera. It is a JVC Everio hard-disc-drive camera (no tapes, no disks, just download to the computer). Here are a couple of videos. I am also trying to learn how to change video size in the computer because these short videos at native resolution are over 100 mb big. Wow.

Yeah, I know...woohoo...real exciting to watch the kids sitting on the couch. Hey, give me a break! I have a new toy and MUST MUST MUST play with it. It is a compulsion. Better than shoplifting anyway.

Okay, here is another one, this one is Jordan and Glynna working on my birthday present. I INSISTED on building it myself, but they insisted even harder that they wanted to build it as it was my birthday present. I am decidedly against giving WORK for gifts!

So that is it for now. Look for more fun videos in the future, and probably a few boring ones as well. IF we ever get the house clean, we will do a video tour for everyone who has not been able (or simply DOESN'T LOVE US ENOUGH) to visit. =)

Welcome one and all...probably just one.

I wanted to kick this off myself, since I created it and all. I thought long and hard about having a blog site where my family could maintain a presence on the Web and provide for family (quite a few) and friends (at least 1 or 2) who are spread far and wide to get a glimpse of the happenings in our lives.

Therefore, welcome to the inaugural edition of the Todd Blog. We are the Todds (there are 6 of us) and these are our Blogs (likely to be 6 eventually, but don't hold your breath).

Let me introduce everyone:

First, and most importantly, there is....drum roll please....ME!!

Not.

Let's start at the top, see if you can guess the order of appearance of our bloggers.

1. Glynna (aka...has yet to pick an aka....wife, mother, picker of the nightly restaurant)
2. Chad (aka LogGrad98...creator of the almighty blog, eternal smart-alleck, picker of the t.v. channels)
3. Jordan (aka...has yet to...well, you get the idea...eldest son, newest driver, hence frightener of the mother)
4. Emily (ditto...eldest daughter, star of stage and screen, resident singer)
5. Duncan (again...youngest son, irritant to the eldest brother, collector of random things - but mostly knives and things found by the train tracks)
6. Analysse (same...youngest kid, otherwise known as the Spoiled One, and Irritant to All...although she is dang cute)

So that's the gang. We enjoy driving around the country, although recently it is cheaper to, well, do almost anything else. This year we went to Reno, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam (or Darn as the kids insist on saying), the Grand Canyon, St. George, and back home again.

We also really go for movies, so watch for our reviews. And, as you guessed I am sure from Glynna's brief description, our most favorite past-time is making restaurant owners RICH RICH RICH (again, watch for reviews). As a group we love chinese buffets, McD's (of course), and...best of all...SUSHI. Even Emily, who hates fish, will eat sushi.

See? How bad could it be.

That is enough to get started, I guess. I will let all the others introduce themselves in time (and probably force any of them that waits too long =), and give your their aliases...because I insist on aliases for all!

Bu-WAH HAH HAH HAH!!