Vegas Baby!

I am so behind in all that has happened these past few weeks! I have felt so busy and so overwhelmed by everything that has been happening I can hardly keep up with e-mails!

I'll start with Cash and my's adventure we took together last weekend!

Every year since I was about 12 or 13 we made a family trip out of my dad's business trip to Vegas for the JCK Jewelry Show.  The last time Blaine and I went was when I was pregnant with Eli. I hate Vegas, it is just not my scene--at all.  Even before I had kids, when we would go, I was in bed early and up early to go run. I am too cheap to feel like gambling is fun. BUT it was always a trip where we were all together for a few days, would go to fancy dinners and just be able to all be together without "real life" in the way.  My dad has stayed at Bally's since he started going to the JCK show years and years ago, so that is where we always stay during the show and this trip is always very predictable because we do close to the same thing every year.

I had missed the last 6 years and every year when they were all there I would feel so sad and wish so badly I was there with them.  We tired to make it work for all 5 of us to go this year, but the cost and the fact that is was Vegas, not the most kid-friendly place:) kept us from doing that this year.
We decided that the next best thing was for me to go, and take Cash with me.  I was a little nervous about taking a child to Vegas, but I was beyond shocked at how many kids were there, all over the place, and how much there was to do for kids.   I was going merely to be with my family and the place didn't really matter to me as long as we were with them.

The plan was to leave at 5:35am on Friday morning, so we could get there at 7:30am and have the entire day on Friday.  So we woke everyone up at 4:15am and headed to the airport.  We said good-bye and Blaine and the boys left us in line to check our bags.  By the time we got up to the desk, we were told that our flight was flat-out cancelled.  It is 5am now, and Blaine has already made his way back home.  The next flight we could get on to get us there was 5 hours from now.  This new flight/route would take us to fly 4 hours to California, 2 hour layover, and fly an hour and a half to Vegas---that is 6 hours in the air, with a layover compared to the direct 2 1/2 hour flight we were supposed to have putting us into Vegas around 5pm.  I was tired and frustrated, and maybe cried just a little bit to the guy at our gate.  But Blaine drove back to the airport with Eli and Owen, picked us up, we took Eli to school and then went to Torchys's for breakfast before he took us back to the airport.  It was an awfully long travel day, but Cash was the best travel companion I could have asked for.

He just let me cry, didn't try to talk sense into me, or tell me to get over it,  just looked at me and smiled and gave me a hug, he didn't have an opinion about where to eat, where to sit, or my bad attitude.  He just went with the flow, did not fuss a single time, and was happy the entire day.

We finally boarded the flight (the first one was also delayed an hour) around 11:30, we were off.  We sat next to the cutest college girl and got a new babysitter out of our flight--looking for a silver lining.
Cash just moved from one thing to the next the entire flight.  He fell asleep about 20 min before we boarded which totally ruined my plan to have him sleep the whole flight.

But after 14 hours we finally made it and I have never been happier to be in Vegas! And Cash was never happier to see Ethan. We had 3 adjoining rooms, so we were able to go between our rooms the whole weekend which was so fun.

They had all spent the day at the jewelry show and were ready to lay low until dinner, so that is just what we did until we headed out to a seafood restaurant.  With Cash being a vegetarian, and not eating normal things that kids usually enjoy, bread, being one of those things (or cheese, rice, any meat or seafood, any thing with any kind of sauce), I ordered him a bowl of noodles--he went to TOWN! Perhaps because it was the first "real" food we had eaten all day.

We were up early Saturday morning so we headed downstairs to get some coffee and milk and wait for everyone else to wake up before we were going to breakfast at 9 together, and then everyone was headed to the jewelry show while Cash and I headed to the pool.

There is SO much stimulation in Vegas, that after breakfast and swimming, Cash passed out for a good 3 hour nap!
That afternoon we walked around, explored, and walked to another hotel for an early dinner with my Dad's longtime friend Ernie and his daughter.  My dad met Ernie on his 21st birthday and traveled the world with him. We spent some time going info different stores and walking around that evening.  We even ran into some very cool people....

Yes, Cash looks terrified in this picture. And yes, that is my dad also acting like a super-hero in the back!
But we had seen Spiderman the night before on our walk home and he would not stop talking about him and wanted to see him so badly, so when we saw him Saturday night, I was not going to let the opportunity pass us by without taking a picture.  Yes, Cash was clawing at me as tight as he possibly could and yes, his legs have never been tighter around my waist, but he loved it. I promise, he really did.  He spent the rest of the trip saying "Spiderman, right der (there)!"

On Sunday morning we woke up early.....and woke up Loli.

Did the buffet breakfast at Paris, ate too much, walked around, went to the pool and then we headed out again to walk down to Cesar's Palace to see the talking statue show and shop a little bit.

He was thrilled about throwing his pennies in the fountain!

While there was so much we wanted to do there, the trip was just too short to fit it in and Cash had such a good time just being there, and with everyone that it wasn't worth the effort (taxis, carrying around a car seat--taxi drivers are against car seats by the way, the cost, and fighting crowds).

The statue show was a little bit of a let-down. I remember it being so different from when I was a kid, but it was fun to see anyway.  After all the walking we headed back to the hotel, and watched a movie.

And then we headed back out to Ceasars to the buffet that apparently is verrrry popular! Had we known how long we would have been waiting to get in, we probably would have gone somewhere else but we were too invested when we realized it so we stayed and waited.  My dad's back was acting up so he found a place to sit and Cash kept him company in-between running around with the other kids in line playing hide and seek around a large pillar.

We stopped to watch the fountain show on the way back to the hotel, and some great street dancers.  But by Sunday night we were all pooped and ready to head back home.  Cash and I were on a flight with my parents back to Austin, so Monday morning we packed up and headed home--thankfully on our scheduled non-stop flight!

I love any opportunity to spend time with any of my boys one-on-one so this was SUCH a treat for me!  He was such a fun, easy little travel companion and I will cherish the time I got to have with him all to myself!  Not to mention being there with my family was so wonderful. I had really missed being there with them every year. With everything going on, I feel even more connected to the idea to never miss an opportunity to be with them and those I love.