Walk for Mental Health

Hey Everyone,

August 15, 2009, Ronnie and I decided we are going to walk 3 miles for mental health. As many of you know, Ronnie and I lost a great friend, Bryan Hoyt Benson to mental illness. SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education) is a great organization that provides so many resources for people that are depressed and/or support who have lost.

Ronnie and I just want to do something beyond ourselves. So, if you can manage any donation, it would appreciated and as all donations it can be written off on taxes. Or if you would like to join us and walk...it is actually only $10 to walk and more IF you was to raise. Here is our website to donate and also you could find information to start your own page.

http://www.firstgiving.com/ambriz

Lots of Love,
Clare

Our Great Friend Bryan

In April 2005, Bryan Hoyt Benson ended his life. He was in the Marines and served 2 tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a hero of our great country, but didn't have the resources. He suffered with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

Yesterday was the 5th Annual Bryan Hoyt Benson Texas Hold'em Tournament which proceeds go to his memorial fund through SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education). We had a good turn out, but next year we'll have to go all out! We have come a long way in the the last 30 years for recognizing and treating PTSD for soldiers and we aren't done yet. Click on the following link to DONATE.

Here is an insert memorial from Bryan's Family on the SAVE website:

Bryan H. Benson 1980-2005

"Your pain is loss of me..... Fear not -
I am not dead but more alive than ever
Feel my whisper in the soft breeze,
Feel the silence in the dark, still night.
I am here more than ever.
I am with you." - Laureen Bluhm

Great hugger
Husband, brother and son
Intelligent
Leader
Funny, sarcastic and dry
Said "sweater" for sweatshirt
Loyal friend
Determined, Marine, outdoors man
Mechanical and extremely handy
Unique
Curious
Cutest lips, strong minded and strong-bodied
Musical, inventive
Loving, loved

Vegas Baby! Part II Literature

Some pictures are the same as posted earlier, but many NEW...


Left: Leaving the hotel for our first night on the strip



Right: Earlier before the sun went down...catching some rays by the pool!



Left: The man and the strip

Left: PH Hotel Where we had sushi at Koi

Right: The view as we first saw it!

SUSHI at Koi

Left: Beautiful Paris Hotel at night

Left: The Bellagio Hotel's famous water show behind us

Below: The lobby of The Bellagio Hotel. Made out of blown glass costed about $2 million just for that.

Left: I love pin-ups and couldn't resist...Monte Carlo Hotel

Left: M&M museum giftshop

Left: Paris Hotel love this picture

Far Left: Coyote Ugly Bar...Rocks!

Left: CraftSteak Resturant owned and chef-ed by Tom Coniglio from Top Chef

Left: PROOF! Me and Jordan dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly

The Bouchon in the Venetian Hotel
Above: Love my seafood!

Left: Kacey and Ben at thier wedding!
Far Left: Taking a Limo in VEGAS to and from the wedding! Fun-fun!!!!
Above Right: Enjoying Dinner at a beautiful restuarant in the Vienetian Hotel

Below Left: A view in the Vienetian

Below Right: It wouldn't be Vegas without impersonaters...Neil, Frank and Sammy

Ronnie recovering from a weekend of FUN!

Overall....Las Vegas was much needed and very fun!!!

Day One

We left Thursday May 28. The airport was an adventure...I hate the new luggage policy! I understand why, but let me explain...each person is allowed one 50lbs. bag each by paying $15, but Ronnie and I thought we were smart to pack one apparently 70 lbs. bag between the both of us. I guess that doesn't work even though we were saving them 30lbs. So, we ended paying an extra $100. In hindsight, we could have switch around and checked in one of our carry-ons. But it was just stupid! We were so discouraged we decided to wait for our flight to leave by drinking at the Margarita bar. I got a yummy Margarita on the rocks and Ronnie got a beer with a tequila shot! We didn't waste anytime! Once we boarded, Ronnie continued with 2 very mini bottles of wine....and I moved onto taking a break with some ginger ale.

Once we landed in Las Vegas, we were still feeling like this is surreal. I couldn't believe we were on a trip away from our life and our children. We stayed with our vacation club called Bluegreen Resort #36. It was very impressive. Our room was HUGE! We had a full kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and bedroom. Off/in our bedroom, we had a double head shower with seat and a double sink. We took a shower 2x a day, because we LOVED it so much! We are still trying to configure a way to get one upstairs in our bathroom! Once we unpacked, we decided to grab some drinks at the pool bar in our hotel for 2 for 1's and sit out in the sun! It was suppose to be relaxing, but we were not used to staying in one place. I could feel us both fidget the whole time. Very comical.

We got ready and headed out for our first restaurant conquest....Sushi! We got referred from our good friend Nader to go to Koi. Which is a chain, but the best! It truly was....we are ruined for life! We had blue fin, yellow tail roll, dragon roll, lobster roll and maybe a cali spring roll. It was great! Though, we were pretty bummed that the main room that looked over the water show at the Bellagio was being used for an event. It would have really been romantic...grrr!

After we ate, we decided to walk it off by seeing the strip. It is amazing how HUGE these hotels are. Each hotel is probably larger than all the buildings in Minneapolis. Pictures and words cannot describe! Ronnie kept complaining how he was tired, tired, tired. I was encouraging that it is our first night in Vegas...We walked around for about 2 1/2 hours and called it a night. The only reason I threw in the towel was because I wore cute shoes and not comfortable shoes...I wouldn't make that mistake again. ha ha So, we grabbed the BEST ice cream in the Bellagio hotel and cabbed it back to our hotel. We are pretty sure that Ronnie was dehydrated by drinking more alcohol then water. We both also had blisters the next morning.

Day Two

The next morning, we both were up at 6am. Our bodies thought that it was 8am. We both laid in bed for 2 hours watching TV...it was great not to have to get up-up and lounge. I don't think we did that even before kids. We finally headed out to walk to Mandalay Bay Hotel for breakfast. We thought it was much closer than it was, but finally made it there. They has the BEST fresh OJ, ok food but the worst service.

We pretty much started at one end of the strip and tried to make our way to the other. We went to the Luxor, which was a cool pyramid themed hotel then continued to the M&M gift shop/factory, and The Monte Carlo Hotel. Then we grabbed lunch at a cafe in Paris Hotel and continued through the Bellagio Hotel again. We also shopped as we went also....there was so much to do and at this point neither one of us gabbled. We got about half way down the strip and we had to go back to our hotel to get our evening attire on...

We went to Craftsteak in MGM Hotel for dinner. Tom Collichio of Top Chef owns and runs that restaurant. He isn't there all the time, but he was there a week before filming for Top Chef! We were disappointed to say the least. It would have been a pleasure to meet him! We had a porterhouse with bearnaise sauce and onions for two....actually the meal could have been for four! It was delicious! Afterwards, we met up with the wedding crew aka Ben Geiger and now wife Kacey and their friends and family in the New York New York Hotel. We sat and had drinks while everyone had dinner/finishing up. Then we youngsters went up to the Coyote Ugly Bar...

Awesome and fun! It was a lot smaller then I had imagined...our group of about 20 got to skip the line to get in with my sweet talking and $20. It was fun...it was a girl power, talking smack bar! Water was sprayed everywhere, drinks we thrown and shots were poured straight to mouths from bottle of an eventually untamed crowd. Yours truly got up on the bar with another girlfriend I met over there. It was liberating...I didn't care that everyone was staring or what they thought...I was doing what I wanted to do! We were there for a couple hours and continued down stairs to an Irish pub where it was ladies night and ladies got in free. Ronnie disappeared with the guys and lost $60 at a blackjack table in about 3 minutes and that was it for the gabbling for any of us. Everyone else bailed by 12:30am, so we went on a mission to grab some food to hang out at the hotel....PIZZA hit the spot. We stayed up until about 2am hanging out...just us.

Day Three

Our last day....We force ourselves out of bed to begin our day...we still had a lot of Vegas to see. We put our swimsuits on under our clothes in hopes to sneak into one of the amazing hotel pools. We took a cab to the Bellagio to have breakfast in their cafe in the conservatory...beautiful and the food was amazing. We met another couple that we met in Vegas Sarah and Josh...it was relaxing and fun! We parted ways, Ronnie and I continued our adventure. We walked through Caesars Palace, which you could tell was an older hotel with the low ceilings, but comparable quality. We each grabbed Teeny tiny ice cream dishes of gourmet ice cream and all of a sudden it was like $28...what?! It was NOT as good as the Bellagio's a couple nights before. Then we walked through the Mirage, where there was a beach/pool called BARE. You can imagine what that was. Then we took a tram to Treasure Island. ARH! Very cool and we decided to catch their free show later after the wedding. Then we entered the Venetian Hotel...Very, Very detailed and gorgeous hotel. There were gondola rides inside and outside of the hotel. The shopping area was made to look like you walking down the streets of Italy outside...much like the Paris Hotel also. We made our way to another feat on our restaurant list....The Bouchon. Which is a french restaurant by a chef that trained at the famous and award winning French Laundry in NY, NY (real one). They were serving brunch at the time which we were not hungry for and decided to get the seafood platter...we got the large one, but realized that we should have gotten the smaller one. It had all cold served lobster, crab, 3-4 different kinds of oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, and crab. It was super fresh and delicious. We attempted to sneak in what we thought was the main pool, but was poorly mistaken. The main one was a couple floors up and needed a hotel key to get in. We decided to head to our hotel to swim and lay in the sun. So we relaxed and swam for an hour or so. Then we got ready to head back out to the wedding aka "the Main Event"

Twenty of us met up at the New York Hotel and we all pitched in for a limo which is what a cab would have costed for each. It was a big Hummer limo with the lights and LCD flip screens. Very nice!

The wedding of our friends Ben Geiger and his now wife Kacey was cute. It was at a little chapel in a Howard Johnson 8 miles off the strip. They were suppose to get married in August, but Ben is getting deployed in July. They had a beautiful night and had the ceremony outside with their friends and families. Afterwards, we went to the Venetian to dine in their several restaurants (did I mention the hotels are huge?) We grabbed a lounge area upstairs in the restaurant and ordered our own food. It was pretty good and relaxing. "The Rat Pack" and "Neil Diamond" came to sing for the party next to us, so we had some great classic music. Once the evening was over for the wedding festivities, two other couples and us went across to Treasure Island for a pirate show. It was corny, but free and fun. It was perfect to end the evening. Then we all said our goodbyes and parted for the trip. It was an ending to our trip because the next morning we would have to catch our plane at 7:45am...

Going Home

Since we had to come to the realization that our trip was over, we couldn't wait to see the boys...time couldn't go at a more snail pace. We took a plane to Salt Lake City and had a lay over then our plane was delayed 30 minutes. Once we landed, we were stuck on the plane for 15 minutes at the gate. Ronnie and I had seats at the back of the plane so we watched our luggage get loaded off the plane. The Minneapolis airport is really nice. They have done alot great updates, in my opinion. We got to baggage claim and somehow from the plane, where we saw both our bags to the gate, they lost the planes bags. Another half hour rolls by. We were suppose to get into Minneapolis at 4pm and didn't make it to our house until 6pm. I was twitching on the way to my parents house to see the boys. I love that they run the second they see your face with a "mommy" and "daddy" to follow. The best part of going on vacation is coming home.

Vegas Baby! Part I

LEFT: Right before our first night out on the vegas strip!

Above:Planet Hollywood Hotel

Left: Ronnie chowing down on the BEST sushi EVER at Koi Resturant in PH.

Above Right: Sex-ay Clare eating here fav....thanks babe

Above: Feeding into the cliche of the Vegas tourist...bigger (the better) frozen drinks from Coyote Ugly Bar