Busy much?

It seems as though life has suddenly become very busy at this Simmons house. Not that things were not busy before, but now it is getting out of control. Therefore, the blog may suffer more than usual. We apologize to our two readers and hope you return when we are able to find time to post something. Just so you know, Jeph is taking 20 credits which means classes every morning and two evenings labs during the week, working 30 hours at the clinic, and volunteering every other saturday at an optimetric clinic. I still work full time for the state, go to school full time in the evenings, and I've started volunteering at Butler Middle School on Fridays. Needless to say, we see each other once in awhile. So if you want to get ahold of us, try calling in June.

January?

Vegas

Here are some pictures of our most recent vacation


Kissing atop the Eiffel Tower at The Paris


The Scenic strip




"I"m proud to be an American"
Our good friends Trent and Erin from Georgia met us in Vegas and it was a great time. These are pictures from our drive through Red Rock Canyon.




After the Canyon experience, we headed in the opposite direction to the Hoover Dam! Jeph and I have always wanted to go there so it was fun to be able to see it in real life!


Believe it or not but Jeph was taking a picture of the clock.






Jeph was way excited because a few weeks before our trip, he watched a documentary about this new bridge they are building and all the fascinating stuff that goes into it.




On our way back into town we stopped by the famous Vegas welcome sign. Then it was off to Planet Hollywood for....

An Acoustic Evening with Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds!!!!

Jeph has been dying to see these two in concert for many years and after the DMB Salt Lake show was canceled this year (for the second year in a row) I promised him we could go to this concert to make up for it. It really was a fun show and I'm glad I could be there to see the joy on Jeph's face the whole night. Our seats weren't too bad either-front row of the balcony.







This was Erin's first time in Vegas so we took a day to go through all the hotels on the strip and see all the attractions. It was exhausting.



Luckily though, Trent and Erin are both into the Food Network and were kind enough to treat us to a dinner at Bobby Flay's Las Vegas restaurant- Mesa Grill!! It was delicious and we would recommend it to anyone.

This is mine and Jeph's SIXTEEN SPICE CRUSTED CHICKEN with Mango-Garlic Sauce

Erin's SMOKED CHICKEN + BLACK BEAN QUESADILLA with Avocado & Toasted Garlic Creme Fraiche

And Trent's GRILLED FLORIDA BLACK GROUPER with Red Chile-Tomato Sauce, Crushed Avocado & Barbequed Red Onion. Sadly, Jeph and I ate our Roasted Pumpkin Soup before we could get a picture of it.

For Mike Bailey

The Bellagio was the only hotel that actually felt like it was Christmas time.




These Polar Bears were made out our flowers. You can see the water leaking out of them.



Typical Trent


Dessert! This was our Deep Dried Oreo Sunday. Delicious, but I'm very glad that we can say we didn't finish it!


All in all, it was a really good time with some good friends and good entertainment. I don't think Jeph could have asked for a better Christmas Present!