Pinto Valley Trail

A friendly reminder.  If you are receiving this email from Google Groups then you are NOT signed up to receive new updates from my new blog located at www.elvisrowe.com.  I recently submitted a new post titled Pinto Valley Trail which is available here.

This Blog to Be Closed

It has been a long time coming, but I it is time I close this blog down.

Worry not!  I will be continuing with my NEW blog which is located at elvisrowe.com.  As part of the move, each and every post from here has been painstakingly copied to the new blog for your continued enjoyment.  If you want to continue receiving emails from my blog go to elvisrowe.com, on the right there is an option to "Subscribe via email".  Enter your email address, click subscribe, and wait for the confirmation email to arrive.  Once it does click the link to confirm your subscription and you're done.

I'm excited about starting this new blog and hope you join me.

I Wonder If This Thing Still Works

I'm looking at the last time I put a post on here and it is dated December 9, 2010.  To make matters worse it is describing an event that occurred in May of the previous year.  By my math that would make it near on 3 years since I've had anything significant to add to this blog.  I'm hoping to change that.

Some of you may, and some of you may not, know that I have recently started getting into photography pretty heavy.  I have some new equipment that I have been playing with and I'm trying to get dedicated to it.  As such I have finally registered my own domain name, elvisrowe.com, which will be used for my personal and professional blog.  I also registered elvisrowephotography.com which will be used for everything photography related.

At this time though I'm still not ready to completely break the ties with Blogger.  I really like the platform and find it really easy to use.  The only other real option is WordPress and quite frankly I find it intimidating.  To make matters worse I've had a hard time finding a WordPress template that I really like.  Adding insult to injury the only templates that I do find I like all have a price tag associated with them.  So for now I'm keeping the personal and family stuff here on elvisrowe.com and will launch my photography stuff on elvisrowephotography.com in the future.

In the mean time here is a little taste and teaser, hopefully, of things to come.

A Desert Hike in the Snow

Near the end of May one of my co-workers had been talking about a waterfall he had hiked out to in the nearby Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Thinking this would be a great expedition to go take Lexi on, I packed up lunch, Lexi and Sasha, and drove out to the park.

When we arrived we dropped into the visitor’s center and I asked one of the rangers if they could point me in the direction of a waterfall. I was told that I may have been a couple weeks late as many of the waterfalls that are scattered throughout the park had probably dried up, but my best chance for a waterfall would be at Lost Creek. With map in one hand and Lexi’s hand in the other we rushed back out to an awaiting Sasha still sitting patiently in the car.

Back in the car I told Lexi to climb up into the front seat with me for our little drive to the trail head. The road that circuits Red Rock Canyon is a one way 25 mph road that I thought would be ok for her to sit up front like a “big kid” for a brief stint. She got such a kick out of sitting up front and really enjoyed the view that she got from up there. I came to regret it in the weeks to months later when she would constantly ask me if she could ride up front again.

We pulled up to the parking area and piled into the trunk of my car for a quick picnic before going on our hike. It must have been a funny site to see. A then 5 year old girl sitting in the rear hatch area of a small 4-door hatchback with her 30 something year-old father along with their dog tied up to the door strike. Don’t judge us, we’re relaxing ourselves while enjoying our fine picnic cuisine.


With lunch finished we started up the short trail to go get us a waterfall. The hike wasn’t even a mile and was pretty easy, with the hardest part being some scrambling over some rocks. With our arrival I was disappointed in the pathetic sprinkle coming over the edge of the 30 cliff above us. Lexi on the other hand thought it was awesome!



After crawling all over the different rocks, we started our hike back to the car. Once we were rolling Lexi mentioned something about going up the mountain and it made me think, “Oh why not?” Instead of taking a right, I took a left and we set off to go up to the ski area up on Mt. Charleston.

Last winter the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard had a record year. They were opened longer than they have ever been before. So I wasn’t all that surprised when we got there to still see a couple of large snow piles here and there all up the slopes. Lexi took to them right away and had an absolute blast climbing all over them. It is funny to be down in the valley wearing shorts then go up the mountain to play in the snow all in the same day.

Hangin' With Dad

Beautiful late spring. At Lexi’s school they have a landscaping crew come by every week to mow the grass, trim the bushes, and other landscaping things.

On this particular day Lexi was playing outside rolling around on the grass with a rubber ball. Well she must have got some grass cuttings up under her shirt because her entire chest broke out with these little goose bump looking things.

Of course the school rightfully contacted me immediately and asked that I come pick her up. By the time I get there they are going down and are nearly gone, yet I decide to take her to the pediatrician anyway.

We arrived at the pediatrician’s office only to find they had closed for lunch. As we sat waiting for me to decide if we were going to wait or not I snapped this picture from my phone. I was sitting on a bench and she was climbing all over my back being a silly girl.


Seeing that the bumps had nearly disappeared by now I decided to just take her home and give her a good shower instead of waiting on the pediatrician. They never came back and she never reported any discomfort for the rest of the day.

Later that night I decided I would take Lexi to a movie. Not just any movie but a movie in the park. In Henderson there is an upscale mall called The District that during the summer months hosts movies they project on a large screen. I decided to pack up a couple lawn chairs and ventured out for a late night show. Here is a pic of the two of us enjoying our movie.

Mmmmmm Smoothie

Around my birthday I took a couple extra days off, grabbed Lexi, and headed down to spend a few days with the in-laws. The time before this trip Lexi and Grandma had been having a blast making smoothies for a nice snack in the afternoons. So of course once we got there Lexi just had to demonstrate her superior smoothie making skills. Sometimes the simplest things bring her the greatest amount of pleasure, as shown in this picture.

Such a Big Girl

I’ve been taking Lexi to the dentist since shortly after arriving here in Vegas. Each visit she progresses a little further and further along in the appointments.

Her first appointment went a lot better than I had expected. While she refused to allow the dentist’s assistant to take x-rays, she did allow the doctor to look into her mouth. At the next appointment she again allowed the dentist to look into her mouth, but only allowed the assistant one “picture” of her teeth. The following appointment she finally allowed the assistant to take “pictures” of her teeth only after daddy demonstrated exactly how the film would go into her mouth and the x-ray machine would work.

With this history in mind what happened at her appointment in February absolutely stunned me. We arrived like any other normal appointment without much fuss. It wasn’t long before we were called back to do the initial dental work. This was usually a brief conversation with the assistant followed by the x-rays and concluded with a conversation with the dentist after the x-rays came back. I was stunned when Lexi allowed the girl to take all the “pictures” she wanted of Lexi’s teeth, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

After talking with the dentist we returned to the waiting room while we waited to do Lexi’s cleaning. Again the wait wasn’t very long and a nice assistant came out and called Lexi’s name. I got up to walk with her to the room and the assistant stopped me at the door and said, “No not you daddy, just her.”

I looked at the girl, looked at Lexi and just said, “Well go on with her and be a good girl!”

I sat back down in the lobby and in a few minutes I heard some crying and screaming coming from back in the office. I think some of the parents among you agree you just know when your child is crying or screaming. I thought for sure it was Lexi, but when I asked I was assured it wasn’t her. In fact they invited me to come around and get a quick look in on her. What I saw almost brought me to tears.


Here I was looking on while my kiddo was being so well behaved, at the dentist none the less. I was so so proud of her. I mean you can clearly see that this girl has the cleaning tool in there doing her job and Lexi could care less. It was heartbreaking. This is supposed to my little girl, my little pumpkin! She is supposed to need to hold my hand for everything scary! She’s not supposed to be independent and able to do things on her own! More tears started to well up in my eyes as it dawned on me that my little girl wasn’t so little anymore.

I’m sure there are those who won’t notice, but I figure I’d better say something up front. Yes I am fully aware that she is wearing two entirely different shoes. This was something special like a dress funny day at school deal. So we wore one of each shoe.