The kids stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in Detroit.  Harriet is giving me the “don’t you dare extract me from Grandpa and put me to bed look.”  Thanks so much to Grandma Jan!  Grandpa Goose had a orthopaedic convention in New Orleans diring the time that the kids were there.  Grandma wrangled the 2 kids for most of the time that we were in Vegas.  All of the reports are that they had a super fun time visiting churches, having playdates, making waffles and playing with sidewalk chalk.

The trip started off nicely when Delta bumped us up to 1st class :-)  Did you know that they served the soda in GLASS cups?!  It was like we’d never had a soda from a glass before.

We really enjoy the restaurants in Vegas.  Jared ordered this bottle of wine, it was exceptional.  (Don’t worry, I only had a couple of sips)

We took matt and Val over to Bellagio to walk around.  There’s a jewelry store there that is mind blowing.  I was ogling over a really beautiful necklace when the jewelry lady asked me if I’d like to try it on.  Everything that you see on that necklace is diamonds.  It was quite beautiful!

Really, who needs Paris when you have Vegas? ;-) Jared and I really really like Japanese food.  We had had a very nice meal at Shibuya last year, it was really fun to go back.  Look closely at the front of that plate.  There is a one inch crab garnish protecting the dish. Here’s our trade show booth.  We got to talk with so many people.  It’s great to meet so many photographers!

We took one evening to see O. They don’t allow pictures but here we are in the seats before the show.  It was a 10:00 show, which is 1:00am Michigan time.  The athletes/performers are incredible .  Even though I was watching it I could hardly believe that people are able to do such amazing things with their bodies.  

Now that I own this wide angle goodness I can begin shamelessly copying photographers like Nate and Jaclyn, Max and Sean.  Warning, if you click on the these links you’ll soon discover the total awesomeness to ultra talented photographers.  I’m pretty certain that these guys were born with cameras in their hands and never discard a single picture.

Thankfully yesterday was beautiful.  The kids and I went to the park and we all played.

Ryan and Stacey’s wedding was beautiful! Everything about the it was fabulous, especially the couple. I had a great time that day. It’s easy to tell that Ryan and Stacey have will have a fun and amazing life together.

Jared and I have been traveling a bit this month. A week after returning from our anniversary cruise we dropped the kids off in Detroit with Jared’s parents and we flew to Vegas. Over 12,000 photographers gathered at the MGM Grand for a photography conference called WPPI. We had a booth at the tradeshow (thus no camera). We did a lot of standing and walking (thus no high heels). We had an amazing time. We met with tons of ProPhoto Blog clients who stopped by our booth to meet Jared. I love working a booth where dozens of people stop in and tell me how much they love my husband. We also met hundreds of photographers who were excited to find a solution for their blogs. It was great.

Vegas surpassed my expectations. Honestly, I until now I’d thought that Vegas was kind of cheesy–in an 80′s sort of way. Like a big, weird, hedonistic Disneyworld. All of those are true, but it is somehow really cool. There are tons of really great serious restaurants inside each hotel/casino. Every restaurant is designed decorated and lit better than any that I can think of in Holland. They make CityVu look out of style. The MGM had lions in it–like a zoo but cooler. You could buy iPhones from a vending machine. We went to Bellagio and saw the dancing fountain, a 2,000 piece Dale Chihuly chandelier, ate Sushi at Yellowtail, and stopped in at Bobby’s room to see if we could gawk (no dice). It was a really fun place. Blues Traveler played a private concert for WPPI. We got to see the show from a decent spot ;-)

On the way home Win played around with my point and shoot. He took a beautiful self portrait and a great shot of Hattie and me.

Please note that all of these images were taken with my point and shoot.

Here are a couple of my favorites from Matt and Dana’s wedding.

Yes, it’s November.  No, Harriet isn’t wearing socks.