Vegas and Cha Cha

On November 10th the long awaited K-1 Crew girls trip to Las Vegas commenced and it was all we had hoped for and more.

 

 

This is what happens when a group of Moms leave town. They still have to make sure things are running at home without them.

 

We aren't exactly party animals so it was kind of a funny choice to meet in Las Vegas, but it also happened to be an easy (and relatively cheap) place to fly into from different locations and since we really didn't care where we met it seemed like as good a choice as any.

 

 

First stop was The Cheesecake Factory. We like to eat family style wherever we go.  The only thing better than eating at a nice restaurant is getting to try 5 different dishes during the same meal. Our plan was to hit restaurants around 4 p.m. for an early dinner and miss the crowds. 

 

 

Yeah, it was as delicious as it looks.

 

 

The malls along the strip are definitely more extravagant than anything I've ever seen.   This particular mall looked like you were walking through Italy at dusk.  The roof was painted and lit to make it look like an evening sky.

 

After dinner we made our way to the Bellagio to see the famous fountain show.

 

After the show we called it a night.  It was 6 p.m. and a great time to get away from the strip before the real crazies started coming out.  We ran to get the 6:15 shuttle back to our condo, but just missed it.  Fortunately sitting around talking for an hour while we waited for the next one was no problem since that is all we really wanted to do anyway.

 

Heather hooked us up with a 2 bedroom condo with a kitchen which was the perfect place for such a gathering.

 

The next morning Heather took one for the team and went to some owner's meeting at Worldmark so we could all get discount tickets to a variety show that night. While driving around we saw this guy standing on a corner with a sign that said, "Parents killed by Ninjas.  Need money for Kung Fu lessons or Chuck Norris." There are some weird people hanging out in Vegas. 

 

As Heather sat through her meeting we may or many not have gone back to the Tropical Smoothie Café for another round of green smoothies. Delish.

 

 

Once Heather was done we headed to Red Rock Canyon for some hiking.

 

I was in charge of the group selfies. 

 

We finished in time for an early dinner at PF Changs. It was my first time eating there and I left a fan.  It helped that I got to try 5 dishes and not just one.

 

Then it was back to the strip for a family friendly variety show. The theater was in a different mall that made you feel like you were walking through the streets of Morocco in the late afternoon. 

 

Seriously, you really did feel like you were walking around outside.

 

Our digs for the weekend.

 

 

On Saturday we were just going to run to the outlets for an hour or two so Kaylynn could do a little shopping.  I'm a non-shopper myself, but was more than willing to go along for the ride. Once there, however, we all started finding deals and before we knew it one hour quickly turned into 5 and even I started to enjoy myself. Weird, I know.

 

I had to take Ker-dog to the airport in the afternoon, but came right back for more. I can honestly say I have never spent all day shopping before.  We had to stop when we were out of room in our luggage to take it all home.

 

We missed Ker-dog at our last dinner at an Italian restaurant.

 

This is what happens when 5 women spend 5 hours at the outlets. 

 

 

Before attempting to pack our suitcases we all took a turns showing each other our purchases and sharing what great deals we got.  There was enough oohing and ahhing and "Wow! What a great deal!" to make anyone feel like a true master shopper. We even clapped at the end of each presentation. Too bad I don't always get such positive reinforcement when I "have" to shop, I might actually start to enjoy it. he he 

Sunday morning we arrived at the rental car return at 7 a.m. so we could catch our 8:45 a.m. flight out of a very busy airport. We rented a mini-van for the weekend and I was the designated driver on the rental agreement.  When we got our stuff out of the van I didn't realize that my phone had fallen between the front consul and the seat.  In fact, I didn't notice it was gone until we were already on the shuttle to the airport.  The shuttle ride was a good 15 min so even though I stayed on the shuttle and went right back it the return place it had been a full 30 min since we turned the car in. By that time they had already moved the car to have it cleaned and they didn't know exactly where it was.  I was in a panic, of course, so when I realized it was going to take a lot more time to track down the car and look for the phone  I had no choice but to leave it and hope they would find it and send it to me. It's a good thing I was wearing running shoes because I had to make a mad dash back to the airport so I wouldn't miss my flight.  I ran out of the rental car building and jumped in a cab and yelled, "Get me to the airport as fast as you can!"  just like they do in the movies.  The driver got me there in record time and after running through the airport and quickly moving through security I made it to the gate in time.  I didn't love being without my phone for 4 days, but the good news is that they did find it and I got it back on Wednesday night.  So, how much does it cost you to forget your cell phone in a rental car? 60 bucks. $20 for the taxi ride and $40 to have them mail it to you. Ouch, I know. I'll never leave a rental without checking for my phone, again. Lesson learned.

Fortunately I was able to get home on Sunday in time for church arriving only about 10 min. late for Sacrament meeting.  Adam survived at home with the kids and I doubt they really noticed I was gone. It's always fun to have Dad in charge. Jameson had an art show at his preschool while I was gone. Here he is with his treasures.

 

On Monday Jenna had her first ballroom dance competition.  It was originally planned for the Saturday before which was when I was going to be in Las Vegas, so I was really happy it was moved to the Monday instead. We are ballroom dance rookies so I really had no idea what to expect, but they did give us very strict instructions on how to do her hair and make-up. I learned that this competition was a practice competition with only her company so it was the shortest competition they will have all year (only 4 hours), but it didn't take me long to realize that investing in a stadium chair with a back for future competitions might be a good thing. Bleachers get really hard after 4 hours! The first 2 to 3 hours was the actual competition, the last part of the event was the floor show where they performed their team dances in costume.  Jenna competed in the Cha Cha and the Tango. This is the first time I have ever seen her dance and I was impressed.  She and her partner even made it to the semi-final round in the Cha Cha. 

 

 

I tried to keep her in the middle of this video if that helps you see which one is her.

 

 

Here she is in full competition makeup complete with false eyelashes.  Her good friend Gracie came to support her.

 

Her team during the floor show. She is in the front.

 

 

Perfect form in the dip.

 

I didn't have my phone back from Vegas yet, so my pictures were from other cameras.  Jenna loves everything about ballroom dancing and we are quickly learning how to navigate the world of competitive ballroom.  There are more girls than guys so they had to do each routine twice so all of the girls would have a chance to perform. 

 

It snowed for the first time this week. Agh, I guess winter has to start sometime. It seems that no matter when it comes, I'm still not ready.

 

 

Halloween

Crazy hair day at school isn't my personal fav, but the kids all seem to love it. Fortunately this year Korinne took care of it herself with this American flag/ice cream cone creation. It was definitely an original.

 

 

Britton and Jenna did well at their piano recital this week.  I didn't take a picture of Britton, but I did get video of his performance.

 

It seems as though musical recitals are always lumped together at the same time of the year.  Britton played in his first high school orchestra concert. 

 

Even though Halloween was on Monday the schools had the kids wear their costumes on Friday for obvious reasons.  Jenna was a vintage lady from the 40s.

 

And Korinne was a female pirate.

 

Jameson wore the dinosaur costume for school, and then picked a different costume for Halloween night.

 

Britton recently collected donations for the orphanage in Ethiopia for his Eagle Scout project. He was pretty excited about how much he was able to gather.  There are a lot of generous people in our ward/neighborhood.

 

On Halloween Café Rio did a "kids eat free" day so I decided to take Jameson on a lunch date.  I think he was most excited about the fact that the kids meal came with a drink.

 

That night before trick-or-treating began our neighbor Annie had all the neighbors over for a pot luck meal.  We have some really great neighbors and it was fun to get together before the craziness began.

 

Jameson decided to be the Koala Bear for Halloween night. Here he is trick-or-treating with his friend Owen.

 

 

I was more than thrilled that Jenna was willing to pass out the candy on Halloween night after getting home from ballroom dance.  She insisted on getting dressed up in her costume to do the honors.  Wow. She is way better at this festive holiday stuff than I am!

 

 

I'm not going to lie, Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  The amount of sugar floating around is insane, but I think I'm outvoted on this one. Once it is over it means that November is officially upon us.  I may or may not be ready for snow, but I'm sure it won't be too long before it is here anyway.

Surprise!

The party started this week when my sister Libbie came into town from S. Carolina.  In recent years she has become a personal trainer/boot camp instructor so she put her skills to use on Wednesday morning with a Zumba workout in my kitchen.

 

 

Even though it was just the 2 of us I felt like I got the full experience.  Libbie doesn't hold back when she leads a workout.

 

 

Post workout selfie--very Libbie"esque".

 

That afternoon we went out with a group of my friends for a birthday lunch for me and one of the other members of the group, Emily, who has a birthday the day after mine.  Because it was a big birthday for me Emily gave me 40 suckers with a sign that said "40 sucks". Very thoughtful.

 

 

Good thing Libbie is blonde or she may not have fit into the group. ha ha I never realized that I'm the only brunette in our lunch group.

Hilary,Carrie, Libbie, Erica, Emily and Lacie

On Monday I was trying to come up with something fun to do for my birthday.  It just happened to be during fall break this year and the kids would out of school.  I had the idea to take the family to Lagoon since it would be open because of the break, but after calculating the non season pass cost for our entire family for one day Adam just said, "Why don't you just go with Libbie."  I thought it sounded like a great idea so I pitched it to Libbie who said that my text about going to Lagoon made her laugh out loud but she was game. What? Don't most 40 year olds want to go to Lagoon without their kids for their birthday?? It's perfectly normal, right? Once Libbie and I decided we were definitely going I texted Heather to see if she wanted to "throw caution to the wind" and come down a day early for a girls Lagoon trip. It took some finagling on her part, but she made it happen and the 3 of us ran through the gates giggling like school girls at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.

Frightmares at Lagoon

Heather showing off her amazing outfit. She got cold and used Libbie's extra shirt.

We left the park for lunch (best decision ever) and had a super delicious (and healthy) lunch at Zupas.

Back at the park the adventures continued, like when our car broke down in the middle of Dracula's Castle and the Lagoon employees had to push us out of the ride.  We were packed pretty tightly in the little car and were laughing so hard we were crying. Apparently when our car stopped it stopped the entire ride and they couldn't resume operations until they got us out of there. Hmm, maybe we shouldn't have tried to all fit in the same car. . .

 

It was definitely a first for all of us.

 

We ran into my cousins' wives Jenn and Cassie. What are the chances? Always nice to get caught up.

At the end of the day and after all of the roller coasters Heather finally admitted that her favorite ride at Lagoon is the Lady Bug Bop in kiddieland so we waited in line with all of the little kids and took our place next to them on the ride.  She was right, it really is one of the best rides at Lagoon. It is a bit silly to go on a kids ride without kids, but we were glad we did it and I promise I didn't push any little kids out of the way to get to it. he he

In line for the Lady Bug Bop

Our favorite ride of the day? The Rocket. I think we went on it 6 times.

 

The last time we rode the Rocket we pulled out the hoods since it had gotten a little nippy.

 

As we were leaving the park we walked past this photo op with Zombie Chainsaw people and thought to ourselves, "Why not?"

 

I concluded that there are still some things scarier than turning 40.

 

We left the park around 8:00 p.m. and when I walked in my house after dropping Heather and Libbie off at my parent's house I was more than a little surprised to find that Adam, my parents and the kids had spent the day painting the family room and kitchen. Surprise!

 

My house has needed to be painted forever, and has been bothering me for some time, but it seems that there is never a good time to start such a big project since my attention span for painting is about 15 minutes and I knew it was going to take a lot longer than that!  To put it lightly I was more than thrilled it was happening and that it was happening without me! They painted the ceiling white and the walls the same color we used in our basement.  It looks really good.

 

Not only was the painting getting done but my parents had an Electrician come to our house to install a chandelier that we have had sitting in our garage for a few years now.

 

 

For 8 years we have had this little dorky light fixture in our 2 story entry and now we finally have a honest to goodness chandelier.  It looks soo much better! Yep, my family knocked it out of the park for my 40th birthday.

 

As I dropped Libbie off on Thursday night she said she had a fun workout planned for me at 8 a.m. the next morning and then asked me if I had keys to the church.  I told her that my birthday present to myself was a long bike ride out to Porcupine Dam, but she told me it wouldn't tire me out too much and would be fun.  The next morning I picked up Heather and Libbie and went down to the church building for whatever workout Libbie had planned.  I was more than a little surprised when I walked into the gym and found this:

 

Lea, Lacie, Emily, Kristen, McKenna, Libbie, Hilary, Erica, Andrea and Heather

Libbie had planned a "Boot Camp Surprise Birthday Party" for me.  Since everyone around here goes out of town during fall break I was surprised they were able to find enough people to even have a party!  It was definitely a surprise because really, who would ever see this coming?? 

 

At the end of our workout led by Libbie we each took a shot of some super healthy green juice concoction and had some fruit and banana bread.

 

 

My friends were really good sports and we had a fun morning workout together.

 

After my surprise boot camp workout I did go on my long bike ride and my family finished painting the kitchen and family room while I was gone. It was awesome to come home and have it all done!

 

 

Then it was off for a session at the Temple.

 

 

It was just after 4 p.m. when we left the Temple and we were hungry, so on the way home we decided on a place for dinner and told Adam and my Dad to start getting ready.  By 5 p.m. we were at Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse waiting for our chef food show to begin.

 

 

It was so fun and the food was delicious. Definitely a good choice for my 40th Birthday dinner.

 

I don't think I could have packed more in or had any more surprises for my big Birthday. Thanks to my family for making it a very memorable way to start a new decade of life.

 

As luck would have it the Pumpkin Walk was on this week so Libbie and Heather got to experience small town America with us on Saturday morning before Heather left for home.

 

The theme was "American Heroes" and there was enough patriotism, guns and praying pumpkins to be a Kristen approved event.

 

Photo Op.

 

This display pretty much sums up how we all feel about the Presidential Election between the "Pathological Liar" and the "Narcissistic Buffoon".  It's a no-win situation and I refuse to vote for either candidate.

Obligatory picture in front of the Despicable Me height board.  Libbie just aced out Jameson this year.

 

It was a great week and hopefully not too boring for the kids who stayed home and worked hard during their break.  Our house looks so much better so I hope they enjoy the fruits of their labors.