I haven’t ever been to Vegas, and I never really was terribly interested to go there. That changed when I started hearing about the family-friendly aspects of it. Just seeing all of the amazing architecture would make it worth the trip, for sure! There’s a great book to guide you if you’re thinking of going on a trip to Vegas with the family. It’s called, “Everything Family Travel Guide to Las Vegas”.

That would be a really helpful guide, I would think, so you don’t wander in some place non-family friendly with a gaggle of kids! It also has advice on Las Vegas hotels, too, though. I definitely want to see Vegas at least once, and I think a book like that could be very helpful in guiding me!

I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie and I just loved it! Every week when it would come on, it was like I was there with Laura, and it was so amazing - it was such a different time. A couple of years ago, my son started reading the books and became totally hooked on them! And now, my daughter is doing the same thing!

And Sammie is always begging me to take her to see Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. That is the house that Laura and Almonzo and Rose lived in and where Laura wrote all of the books. There is a museum there now, and almost all of Laura and Almonzo’s possessions are there and you can go through and really get a feel for what it was like to live in their time. It would be so cool to show my kids the 19th Century furniture! There is a cypress stump table made by Almonzo. There is a lapdesk that Almonzo made for Laura, in which she had hidden the $100 for the down payment for the Rocky Ridge farm. There also is a clock that Almonzo had given to the family for Christmas, 1886 - that he wound every night before he went to bed.

The more I tell you about it, the more excited I am getting about it! I would so love to take the kids one day, and I sure hope we get to!

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Our bed is so old - in fact, we got it right after my daughter was born, and she is almost eleven. Now, had those been those fancy-dancy, mega-expensive mattresses, they might still be good. We didn’t have much money back then, being new parents of three kids three and under, so I don’t think we spent very much on it. And my back is confirming that fact today. My back is killing me and it hurts every morning when I get up out of that old bed! I’ve heard that shopping for north carolina furniture is a really good idea, since they manufacture much of the world’s furniture and have some good outlet stores. I do have a few friends up that way now, so it could be a good excuse to go finally meet Cass and Marcus! I found a book that is a guide to shopping up there called, Shopping the North Carolina Furniture Outlets, by Ellen R. Shapiro. That would be really helpful to have that guide before heading out there!

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I was watching TV with my daughter last night, and there was a commercial on for Pigeon Forge. Everything they showed looked either very interesting or very beautiful. I was thinking to myself, ‘where is that?’ …and then when they said, Tennessee, I was so excited! That is probably not far from us at all. I bet we could totally plan a trip there! (Yes, I’m a little embarrassed that I didn’t know where it was, but, since you’re one of those nice readers, I’m sure you won’t make fun of me! Right? Right?) With our being such a rustic, outdoorsy type of family, it would be really neat to get a Pigeon Forge cabin rental. I am sure that we would all have a total blast!

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I would love to go there again. The kids say that I cannot, absolutely cannot, go again without them! Drats! Now you know that’s gonna be expensive! It sure would be a wonderful experience to get to take them, though! When I think about it, my mind starts going crazy with …’oh, I’d show you guys this and I’d definitely want to take you to that, etc, etc’!!! There are just so many wonderful things there that I would love to experience with them! I think if I did get a chance to go again, though, this time I would want to try to stay in a New York Bed and Breakfast - that would be so cool! New York City and a Bed and Breakfast? Wow! Two of my favorite things - all wrapped up in one! That would truly be an amazing trip!

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I am learning all that I can about blogging, and there is a blog conference coming up in June that I really want to go to. It’s called PostieCon and it’s in Orlando, Florida on June 1 and 2. My blogging friends and I are trying to figure out how we can go, but, we are not sure if we will be able to afford the trip. We are thinking, if we do go, about sharing an Orlando vacation rental, so the cost won’t be so high. I know that I would learn so much there that would really help with my blogging, but, I might just have to wait until next year’s conference. Hopefully by then, I will have generated enough income to save up for it!

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I have never been to Las Vegas, but, I think it would be so much fun! And the funny thing is that, I was never really interested in it until my brother took me to Lubbock, Texas! How weird is that? I know - I’m a goofball, but, just hear me out. Lubbock was a dry town, so they couldn’t sell any alcohol in liquor stores in the town. So right outside of town, on the other side of the freeway, was a place where all the liquor stores were and you pass under the underpass, and then - BAM! There they all are, in bright and pretty-colored lights - all lined up in a row alongside the highway! It was the coolest thing. And everyone told me how it was so much like Las Vegas - like a ‘mini Las Vegas’. And ever since then, I have thought that it would be really cool to see Las Vegas. And wouldn’t it be cool to go there and stay in some Las Vegas luxury condos? Fancy schmancy!! And have a limousine take us everywhere? That sounds totally awesome!

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She took me to New York City a few years ago - we went in October 2000. Wow - it doesn’t seem like that long ago, really. We had so much fun - it was a total blast of a mother-daughter weekend! She took me because - get this - it was a dream trip of mine - and she just wanted to fulfill that dream for me! How amazingly cool is that?

And to think - we didn’t check out any of the libraries there - I bet they have some incredible ones! Well, it was a short weekend - there were quite a few places we didn’t have time to see. We had really wanted to see the New York ASPCA - they have a really great facility there. I especially wanted to see the cat habitat - from the pictures it looks so cool - it is a kitty cat playroom heaven!

We stayed at this really neat, old hotel that used to be a women’s hotel for young ladies just leaving home and going off to the city to work. They would go and live in these buildings with room mothers, and everything, just to make sure they were safe, and more importantly, behaving themselves. Can you imagine that today - telling your 20 year old daughter she can move out, but, she’ll have to live under constant supervision from some other woman? Funny!

Our room was so small that the two twin beds just barely fit in there - and yet, it was so expensive! It was crazy! We had researched all the different options for hotels and such before we left. We even thought about staying at a hostel, and working for some of our stay. Treehuggers that we are, I’m sure we would have loved that!

One thing I don’t think we looked into, though, was a New York Bed and Breakfast. In fact, I am surprised to find out that there are any - I picture B & B’s as out in the country. That would have been really neat to stay in one of those, too!

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Take a short break from reading and check into Disney World packages! What an amazingly fun vacation spot! I loved it when my folks took me there - we really had a blast! That remains one of my most favorite vacations ever, even at 36 years old! I think I’ll never, ever forget that indoor rollercoaster! That thing was so cool - I think it was called Space Mountain - it was just totally awesome!

It really just totally blows me away that they have fifty-two theme parks out there! One that I really, really want to go see is the animals one - I can’t remember what it is called. The hotel that is right next to that one is so cool! Your room could have a balcony overlooking the giraffe enclosure - oh man! I would love to take the kids to see that!

And of course, there are tons of golf courses - and the beach is just forty minutes away.

Sounds like heaven!

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