Where's Frances?

We lost Frances in Cabela's but finally found her in the camoflage
department!

Fishing

Maddie's our best fisherperson

Fishing

Frances loves fishing in our neighborhood pond. Hasn't caught anything
yet.

The Springs Preserve (The End)

What There Is to See Outdoors

There's lots to see outside at the Springs Preserve. Here
we are at the entrance.



Cord checks out the river bed.

Maddie adds some beauty to the beauty of the outdoors.

Cord, Frances, Gus, and Homer check out this cool
stone merry-go-round.

Here's the whole gang standing on the seats of this neat
outdoor theater.

Frances volunteers to be the star of the show.

Anyone named Gus raise your hand!

Jenny and the two Gus' take a stroll thru the pretty desert gardens.

Frances and Homer are fascinated by this gardening display.

Cord poses by this quite large cactus.

Erin was accidentally planted in this pot. But since she looked just right,
we picked her out and took her home.

The whole gang checks out this display, trying to figure it out.
No one did!

It was a great day, but time to go home.

Hope you get a chance to see it in person someday.

THE END

The Springs Preserve (Part IV)

The Museums at The Springs Preserve

There were many displays and museums at the Springs Preserve and we had a lot of fun checking them all out.
Here's Maddie, Gus, and Cord in the entrance to the first museum we entered.



The kids listened to some information on flash floods...

....then saw one come crashing in on them. Homer was a bit nervous,
but everyone else took it all in stride.

Maddie checks out the innards of a Gila Monster.

Frances does an even closer inspection and nearly ends up
inside forever!

Jenny isn't sticking her tongue out at you...
...she's just imitating the Gila Monster Cord is looking at behind the glass.

Erin gets a bit freaked out by this creepy vampire bat.

She and Jenny decide they want to check out something a little more fluffy.

Erin, Maddie, Cord, Homer, Jenny, and Frances pose
outside an Indian hut.

But Homer wants to see what's going on inside that hut!

This display informs us of the growth in the population in Las Vegas each
decade and the amount of water being used during that decade.
Jenny poses under "1970's" the decade she added to Las Vegas' population.

There's still more to show, so feel free to check us out again tomorrow.

The Springs Preserve (Part 3)

The Springs Preserve Gift Shop

I think we had almost as much fun in the gift shop as we did in the museums!



They had some wonderful puppets. That's an owl that I'm
holding. He turns his head and blinks his eyes.

Gus took a liking to this large lizard.

Maddie, Cord, and Gus were even brave enough to take a ride on him.

Frances is admiring these great recycled pieces of art work.
They're spiders, frogs, turtles, and lady bugs, all made
from old military helmets and other pieces of metal works.

Jenny is taking Homer and Frances picture in front of the display as
a ruse for getting a pattern for her kid's next Saturday art project!

Homer and Frances find a cool spot to sit and rest for a moment.

It took the kids a while to notice that the floor they were walking on
concealed some pretty scary reptiles underneath.

Above the gift shop was a tasty Wolfgang Puck restaurant with this great view of the
city from their nice patio dining area.

The weather was so perfect that we decided to eat outdoors.
Here Grandpa is handing out the drink orders.

If you're not bored with this place, come back again for a few
pictures of some of the great museum displays.

Springs Preserve (Part 2)

I'm sure you've all been dying to know more about The Springs Preserve,
so here's a few pictures I took in one of the museums on Las Vegas history.

We ran into an interesting group of people while in there and
right off Erin took a real liking to one of the men in the group.
Frankly, I didn't get what she saw in him!



Maddie made a friend there, too.

Gus invited this young lady to take a train ride with him,
but she wasn't too responsive.

Homer was only interested in finding place to sit.

But Cord, being a Boy Scout, shooed Homer away
and offered to help the guy lift his heavy load.

Frances felt that this guy was a bit too forward
and shouldn't be staring at her. She put him
right in his place, though. That girl can take
care of herself!!

We eventually ditched that group and headed for the train.
Cord was first to board.

Followed by Erin..

Who never did find an available seat. But Frances, Homer,
and Jenny, got front row seats for the ride.

But Jenny, being the devoted mother and aunt,
gave up her seat to Maddie and Gus for the rest of the ride.

Come back again and I'll show you some more of this
fabulous spot in good ole' Las Vegas.

Check Out This Place!

While in Las Vegas, Jenny and Erin took us to this great museum and park, called The Spring Preserve, where we had a fantastic day with everyone. There were tons of displays, fabulous gift shop, and this extremely creative park that I'm focusing this post on.

This is Cord checking out a giant bird's nest.



There were so many places to climb and explore.

Here's Gus E. up on some rocks that rival those at the City of Rocks!

Frances and Homer found this little train more to their liking, though.

This is a better view of that giant bird nest.

Frances wasn't much for climbing up high, but she didn't mind posing on this huge snake.

Even Gus got in on the fun.

Tomorrow I'll show you some of the other fun spots at
The Springs Preserve is Las Vegas.