Vegas

I have been absent from blogging because we have been having fun in Vegas!  Kam had National dance competition and convention at the Mirage this week so we made a mini vaca out of it.  It was going to be just me and the kids, but C surprised us last minute and decided to come.  We were all pretty excited to have him along for the trip!  I didn't take any pictures with my nice camera, nor did I get nearly as many photos as usual, but we were busy.  SO busy! 

The roadtrip from Phoenix to Vegas is only about 5 hours and we had plenty of time to check into our room and explore the strip in search for lunch.  My kids have never been to Vegas and they were in a bit of culture shock with all the naked cowboys, characters on the streets and people lighting up cigarettes everywhere we walked.

Kam's first night there and it was time to get ready and dance.  I took this picture of Kam walking down the hotel hallway to the elevator, costumes in tow. 

She danced and danced and had several costume changes along the way.  My mom, sister and all the other cousins were at the Mirage as well, but Gigi competed earlier in the day so they had time to relax.  Thankfully they grabbed us a pizza at CPK and brought it up to our room.  Owen ate half the pizza in one sitting... so between dances Kam and I found some dinner in the casino and headed back to the dressing room.  She had a late call time and we sat around until about 10pm waiting for the girls to go on stage.  The teens did fantastic as always.. I am so proud of them!!  Confession:  we were up at 4am, drove 5 hours, danced all night and by the time we got back to our room it was 11pm.  We totally skipped out on the awards ceremony at 1am... eek.  Bad mom!

The next morning I dropped Kam off at convention early in the morning to dance.  I took Owen out to the pool to swim and we met Kel down there with the girls.  The kids had fun and the pool was FREEZING cold.  Kam joined us for a smoothie during her break and went back to dancing while we played in the pool for a couple hours.

Thankfully Kam was done dancing around 12:30 so we had plenty of time to grab some lunch and explore the strip some more. 

BLT Burger at our hotel had the best Mocha Milkshake... so good!

We explored TI and Ceasars Palace a bit and headed back to our room to relax before meeting the fam for dinner.

We were going to try out Gilly's BBQ at TI, but headed down to the Linq instead to eat at the Yardhouse.  The kids really wanted to go on the High Roller wheel, but I was a buzzkill.  At $35 a person to ride a ferris wheel?  We'll wait until Disney in a few months.

We had a party of 10 so we had to entertain ourselves while waiting for our food.  My mom and my silly kids.

Lucy and I trying to take a selfie...

Kel and her littles..

The food was fabulous and the kids ate mostly their ice cream.  They were just too tired, or too wired, to eat.  This picture tells a million stories.  Bridgi just wants to run around, Kam is totes faking her smile, Owen was getting ready to elbow Gi in the side just to annoy her, you can see on Gigi's face he already has, Liv is so over it and Lucy is happy as always.  After this the kids were so excited to get their photos taken with the "characters" on the strip.  Creepy Minnie mouse, showgirls (Owen was so embarrassed), scary minions with felt eyeballs... there were a ton of these guys out. 

We arrived back to the Mirage at around 9pm, just in time for the Volcano show.  Our hotel room was high up with a volcano view.. just under one of the Beetles faces on the left. 

There was another day or two of conventions, I lost count.  We late in the afternoon and headed home.  C may have lost a few bucks gambling and I just don't even try.  By the time we checked out I was done with the casinos, smoke and spending $$ on food.  We had a great time, but we were ready to come home.  A shout out to Kam for all her hard work this week.. she danced hard!  Another shout out to Owen for eating orally the majority of the trip and not using a stroller once.  He walked all over!  Amazing!

It's good to be home.  School starts in three weeks!!  Time to make the most of the summer that we have left.