Las Vegas 2005

Katie's little sister, Emma, came down to visit us in Utah for the month of July in the summer of 2005. We did all sorts of fun stuff while she was visiting. One of the highlights was Vegas.

My buddy Russ Bennett was from Vegas. He and his wife, Mindy, were pretty much Katie and my best friends in Provo. They were headed down to Vegas for the weekend and invited us to come along. We got to stay at his parent's house and they showed us around town. It was a very enjoyable (and affordable!) way to see the city.

We spent some time in most of the major hotel/casinos. The Venetian looked like a Disney-ified version of Venice (it was way to clean) and the Bellagio's garden was astounding. Their water and light show at night was pretty cool too. Katie and Emma even got their picture in front of the famous Little White Chapel.

By far the coolest part of the weekend was when we got to go to see the Blue Man Group. Russ' dad is a dentist; one of his customers managed one of the casinos off the strip; that casino happened to be part of the same group that owned the Luxor hotel/casino, which is where the Blue Man Group was performing; he was able to get Brother Bennett a number of complimentary tickets; so, we got to go to an incredible $115 show for free! Talk aobut hook-ups!

St. Louis 1994

The Yoder's lived in Saint Louis when we were at Grissom. I'm pretty sure Richard was stationed at Scott AFB at the time. When we moved from Grissom to Germany summer of 1994, we went to stay with the Yoder's for a few weeks first. Mom and the younger kids stayed down there while Allen, Court, and I went to EFY at Western Illinois University. I don't remember much of St. Louis, but I remember playing a really cool fantasy themed platform type game on their Sega Genesis. I wanted one.

Chicago 1993

That summer, Dad took Allen, David, and me to Chicago for a few days. It was a sort of extended guy's night out. We got to a great start by stopping at the store for chocolate milke and donuts. Whenever dad was in charge of food, you knew it would involve chocolate milke and donuts. :o)

While we were there, we went to a White Sox game. They played (I think) the Rangers, and it must have been one of Nolan Ryan's last games because there was a huge to-do between two of the innings about him and his career and such. I liked the hotdogs, but I thought the game was pretty boring. I've never been much of a baseball fan.

As a side note, after that whenever I played RBI baseball I'd always try to play with Nolan Ryan on my team.

Other memories from Chicago include:

• A nifty 3-D video game thing that involved putting a helmet on and seeing a world made up of polygons. There were three of four people connected into the same system, and we had to try to shoot each other. My glasses got all fogged up, so I couldn't see anything and got killed pretty quick.
• Going to the top of Sears tower. I was disapointed that there was a plastic shield up that kept me from spitting or dropping a penny over the side. What a bummer.
• There were big posters of those trick 3-D images at a mall we went to. The kind where you kind of have to let your eyes unfocus in order to see the image. I never could get those to work.
  

Indianapolis 1991-1994

We went to Indianapolis several times as a family when we lived at Grissom AFB. The primary attraction was the Children's Musem. There was a massive water clock in the lobby; it must've been at least 40 feet tall. There were several floors, and each one had a different theme. I was in heaven. So much cool stuff to learn, so little time to learn it all.

Niagra Falls

The summer of 1994 my family took a road trip from Grissom AFB India to upstate New York. Most of our time was spent visiting church history sites, but we took a day to visit Niagra Falls. I dont' have many memories of the falls themselves. What I remember most was Drina Yoder's oldest son was with us. When we were on the Canadian side of the border, he ran into someone who spoke Spanish. He had served a Spanish speaking mission, and had a quick conversation with the other guy. I think this was the first time that I observed someone I knew speaking in a foreign language. It was pretty cool.