Popping Bubbles

I am a happy camper today my bloggy friends. Today, my blog – and my little piece of the universe – is being featured on Blog Trotting!  Yippee!!! Blog trotting is run by the fabulous Cara (if you know her on the interwebs you can call her Carabee) and features bloggers from all over giving you a little glimpse into their towns. 

For those of you who are stopping by from Blog Trotting, my name is Karin. Nice to meet you! I live just outside of Las Vegas, NV but since there's very little to do in my town, and since most of our family and a lot of our friends live smack dab in the middle of Vegas, we spend a lot of time there.  It's a very popular vacation destination and I'm ready to give you my spin on it! 

Everyone knows what Las Vegas is famous for – the Strip, showgirls and gambling – the motto says it all, "What happens in Vegas stay in Vegas" but what most people don't know is how kid friendly Las Vegas can be.   People always ask me "what is there to do in Vegas besides drink and gamble?" Lots! Come on, I'll give you a quick peek!

Away from the neon lights and dancing girls is a whole world to explore.  One of our favorite family activities is hiking and there are so many beautiful places to hit the trails.

Hiking in Red Rock Canyon

When we've had a bit of rain, the flowers explode during Spring.  You'll never see the variety of colors juxtaposed against the desert backdrop like we get in April and May.  We love heading to Red Rock, but don't get a chance as often as we'd like to.  It's absolutely stunning.  Sometimes, we don't want to get in the car though. We want to stick a little closer to home so we can just throw our shoes on, snap a leash on the Scoobinator (our 95 pound pooch) and  just set out on a quick geocaching trip in the desert around our house. 

Aidan loves finding the treasures! 

Plus, you may find some new friends along the way.

During the hottest part of the summer, you can still hike or camp. You just need to get in the car and head for the hills! Within half an hour you can be in the mountains enjoying the cooler air. 

The colors up there are just as beautiful as they are in the valley.

So the next time you come to Las Vegas, bring your kids. Pack your bathing suits and sunscreen because there are a million pools in town, but pack your walking shoes and water bottles and take a day to visit the better side of Vegas – the one the neon lights don't touch! 

Thanks for visiting me today! I hope you come back again soon…

I admit it. The fault is mine. I have been a terrible blogger lately. Throwing up a couple of posts a month. I should be ashamed of myself.  But that's not the worst part. Oh no. Not only have I been a terrible blogger, but I have been a terrible blog reader/commenter.  My Google Reader is so overloaded because of my terrible case of the don't wannas that it's talking to architects about building an expansion.  I haven't even done a brief  scan to see what's inside because I'm afraid if I open the closet door a crack, it's going to explode out and mess up my desktop.  I don't have time to clean up a mess that big.  (That's a total lie, I have plenty of time but I hate cleaning up messes.)

I wish I had a really good reason for neglecting my blog as well as all of the others that I love to read. Maybe something good like I broke all my fingers in an unfortunate manicure accident and was unable to type due to splints and bandages or I sunburned my eyeballs while lounging around the pool on a super hot afternoon and was unable to read or write, but it hasn't been super hot and I almost always wear my sunglasses. So that leaves us with the truth. I am lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy. 

Oh there's also this….

and this…

I have been extremely busy catching up on two of my favorite shows. But that's still not an excuse. I have oodles of stuff to do today including a date with ze husband, but first thing tomorrow morning I am going to make myself a strawberry banana mango smoothie and plop down on the couch to sort through the mess.  The unread post count stands at 372 right now, by the time I roll out of bed tomorrow I'm sure it will be over 400.  I will not leave the couch until all posts have been read and the necessary comments have been posted. Bear with me, it's going to be a looooong morning!