Winter Blast 2011

Last week, I travelled to Lake Havasu, Arizona for the Western Pyrotechnics Assocation's WinterBlast 2011 event. I went with our company to sell the event shirts, hats and jackets. I was excited to go on my first official business trip!

Overall, the trip was a success! We sold out of all of our event merchandise and sold a lot of the other year-round merch that we brought. It was a lot of work and tiring, but it was fun too! Basically, the event was for pyrotechnics (professional or hobby) to get together, attend some seminars on fireworks, shoot some fireworks off, etc. Then, at night, there would be amazing fireworks shows! Like, the best I've ever seen. Here's a little recap of the trip:

View from the airplane of the mountains.

Our plane landed in Vegas and then we drove 2 hours south to Lake Havasu. We got to cruise the strip before leaving!

Mandalay Bay Hotel

Luxor

New York New York

This is the fancy mall that was featured on the Bachelor! Notice how the hotel building is leaning. Pretty cool!

Bellagio Hotel. This has the big fountains in front (like on Ocean's Eleven).

Caesar's Palace=classic Vegas

On the drive to Lake Havasu- nothing but desert and mountains! Beautiful!

I liked his guy- Terrible! That's his name! It was a gas station (with a casino).

I got my own hotel room- felt like VIP! I don't know why the blankets were so lumpy.

View from my hotel room

Our merch stand inside the Trade Show tent.

The event was at a racetrack with absolutely gorgeous scenery of mountains surrounding it.

Check out this awesome ad on the semi. This is for one of the display companies. Their show was pretty amazing.

Our merch stand at night during the public fireworks shows.

Playing a few slots at the Vegas airport!

Til next time...Laura

The Ultimate Challenge!

This weekend, we hosted the Ultimate Challenge Party! It all started when I was eating some pringles and realized that every time, I have to stop myself eating more of them. I always feel like I can eat more but I restrain myself. So, I made my 2011 New Year's resolution to try and eat a whole can of pringles at one time, just to see if I could do it. Now, a lot of people have thought that seemed easy, and maybe for most people it is. But I suck at food challenges! I've always lost! Anyways, talking about this resolution, we came up with the idea of having a party where everyone had to do some type of challenge. Last Friday night was the night!

Here was my challenge: eating a whole can of pringles in 10 minutes. I did fail at the time limit, it took me 21 minutes but I ate the whole can!

Best part is I accomplished my resolution and it's only February!

Tony's challenge was eating 50 McDonald's chicken nuggets!! He did it! Not sure how well he felt the next day though!

Dan's challenge was keeping three balloons up in the air without one of them touching the floor for 60 seconds. I think he made it for 12 seconds. Jeremiah ended up with the best time for the guys- 42 seconds.

Daniel's challenge: stuff 50 grapes into his mouth and he did it!!

Jeremiah's challenge: bench press Erin and he did it!!

Bree's challenge: stack a deck of cards on a bottle and blow off every card except the bottom one. No dice. She says she did it once when she was "practicing." Guess we'll just have to take her word on that one!

Another challenge we tried and were unsuccessful: taking three full soda cans in one hand and three empty cans in the other hand and transferring the cans from one hand to the other. It's harder than you think!

In my opinion, this was the most impressive challenge: Jason shotgun a can of fruit juice. It was not the small 12 oz size, it had to have been at least 24 oz and it took him like one second to do it! He was so fast, that I thought he didn't even do it. I thought he quit but then he showed the empty can!! I mean, I can't emphasize how impressed I was!

 There were a couple other games in there, but overall it was a super fun party!

Here's a couple of pictures from the blizzard we had a couple weeks ago.

This is one of the apartment buildings. Notice the snow on the roof that had been blown and was just hanging off the side. Eventually this all fell down or melted away. Just goes to show how fierce the wind was to blow the snow all around.

It got sooooo cold a few days after that blizzard. I'm talking that coldest I've ever felt.

This is me going out one day in the cold!

Fortunately, that bitter cold weather is gone! Today even got to 60 degrees! 

Here is the amount of snow that I had to brush off Bruce the day after the blizzard. I gotta say, Bruce is the most awesome vehicle ever in snowy conditions! He can drive through anything and it's great!!

Til next time...Laura

SnowtoriousBIG

So, I don't know if you've heard or not...but we're having a little weather up here in KC today!

Here's my view from my apartment:

Just kidding! I can the tree right outside but that's about it!

My thoughts about the blizzard:

1. Snow started at 7 am this morning and hasn't quit. Expected to around 10-11 pm. When it's done, I think we'll have up to 9 or 10 inches. But there are some places getting even more than that!

2. I've been keeping a close eye on all activity that I can see from my window. Sooo thankful to be inside, nice and warm!

3. A Jeep Wrangler couldn't get up the hill next to my building. That's when you know it's bad!!

4. A couple were walking across the parking lot only to completely disappear in a white wall when the wind picked up.

5. I'm worried about Bruce. He's parked right at the entrance of the lot. A vulnerable spot for sliding cars. But I couldn't find another spot and couldn't leave him on the street.

6. I-70 shut down completely in Missouri. That is some crazy stuff right there.

7. I checked into Snowpocalypse 2011: KC Edition on foursquare!

8. Thank the Lord for instant video streaming on Netflix!!!

9. No pictures yet as they would not have turned out. If I get out tomorrow I will try and take some.


Some funny tweets about today:

 @thejeffchambers: Waiting for God's animals to arrive in pairs to board giant toboggan I've built in my backyard. Snoah's Ark.#kcstorm

@blogkc Oh no, @GrindersKC is closed. The snow terrorists have won.#kcstorms

@Boulevard_Beer: According to Boulevard's weather report, snow piled as high as a Smokestack bottle. http://twitpic.com/3vkfl7 #kcstorm

@SportingKC At this point, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Polar Bear from the @KansasCityZoo walk by my window. #SnowtoriousBIG#KCStorms

@kraxner I'm watching the News and in the Closings at the bottom, I just saw "Work". #snowday!!! #snowpocalypse #kcstorms

@tbaxter I don't think seeing people skiing down my street is normal.#kcstorms


@bull929: LOVE this graphic laying out exactly how much snow we're getting! #ksstorms http://ow.ly/i/7Ks6 #mwblizzard #kcstorms


and my favorite...

@KikiOn1Click this is the antoine dodson of storms ..hide ya kids ..hide ya wife#kcstorms

In non-snow related news...

An updated pic of Baby J! Sooo cute!

 I've been trying a lot of new places at lunch time near my new work in Lenexa/Olathe. The best so far has been SmashBurger on 119th St. The burger was delicious and the fries were exactly like McDonald's. Come to find out, that's because it was opened by a former McDonald's exec! He stole the fries!

 Last Sunday after church we ate at Po's Dumpling Bar on 39th St and State Line. My food was real good- deep fried honey chicken! The service was a little to be desired but that's ok! Made for a more memorable experience. :)

Check out the fancy-carrot-turned-into-flower!

Til next time...Laura