This year had to be our smallest group yet.
We had the following attend:
Suzanne, Sandi, Aunt Tuny
Me, Marilyn (aka Mom), Linda and Pam Christensen. It was still a nice relaxing time. I think this is the most I have been to the pool ever on an AGW!
Mom and I did the typical Flight - Robert was sweet enough to come and stay with Dad while Mom escaped and went to see her sister and play with us in Vegas :)
Flying over the Grand Canyon just never gets old - so pretty!
This year we tried somewhere new for me, the Southpoint Hotel and Casino. Not a bad little place:
Yes, the pool area really was that nice - weirdly so.
Very nice and recommended if you are going to Vegas. Word to the wise, make your shuttle reservations the day you get into the hotel - don't let them throw you with their speel that you can reserve it 24 hours prior - that little statement is meant to throw you off - book it right then... save yourself some heartache - lesson learned for us!!
Mom/Linda/Pam and I were the first to arrive and get our room settled, there was a bit of a snafu in that they didn't bother to tell me on the phone when I cancelled room #2 that we can't have a roll away with a two queen room - so the plan that I was not sharing a bed was a done deal at that point - the hotel was FULL for the next few nights - we found out why here:
Yes, those are the events happening that very weekend we were there. I was in LOVE with that bull artwork, but more about that later.
Cousins L-R - Sandi, Linda, Donna, Suz. WE did have a great time laughing about how we're strating to have this be the OLD lady group as Suz was the youngest of us all at somewhere between 45 and 50. Don't worry Suz, I don't give away your age!! We had a lot of old lady, body function discussions and medical appointments - ha!
Linda brought a fun game called Telestrations
We all got in on it - it's really quite funny in that you start with either a picture or a word and try to get the last iteration of it back to you - our BEST word was Ultrasound. Everyone drew a great illustration and all of us understood exactly what it was - thank goodness for mom's hu?
We went to dinner downstairs at the little Mexican restaurant and NO pictures - how sad, eh? It was a delish meal though!!
The first night I met up with Sue Brumbaugh and her husband as they were in town to meet up with some folks they knew from Mildenhall. It was nice to spend a bit of time with them (now to find the picture we took... can't seem to find it anywhere!!)
On the way back to the room, I saw my one and only drag queen - hard to try to be sly while taking a picture of someone across the room... sigh... She was Rue Paul worthy for sure!!! The one in the dark hair who's 1/2 a head taller than anyone at the table. I should have just told her I loved her dress and asked for a picture!!!
I stopped and talked to one person with a 2nd runner up on the last day of the rodeo and was asking what event he was in. He was actually Royalty and part of the crew who does the publicity for the rodeo, etc.. He had broken his back like three times and no longer participated in the rodeo as such, but was a time keeper. He was so nice and talked to me for a good bit. Then I helped put one of the guys numbers back on his shirt - it was very heavy felt -I wasn't expecting that. I was thinking paper of some sort, but nope - learned a few new things this trip for sure.
Night two was dinner with Beth and we chose to go to the Prime rib place downstairs! Love Beth and the fact we can always pick up and chat when I'm in town. She's a special gal for sure!!
Rose shaped butter - cute!
Making salads table side.
Bethie arms - Beth also happens to be the selfie queen!! She tought me a few things during this trip when it comes to selfies!!
Ok, so WHY this picture? Well, they were putting steaks down all around the table, starting on the far side, Then in front of Sandi he sets down a bowl of mushrooms. They had already had their replacement shakes, so they had in essence already eaten... but this just got me to giggling... not sure why it tickled me to much, but it did!
The the four of us went to the Bellagio to see the fountains and the atrium. I Love the atrium decorated for fall!!
Mom and daughter heading to see the sights!
We hiked down to see the fountains and our timing couldn't have been better - we no sooner got into place when the music started... and it was MY favorite "Luck be a Lady"... ahhhh! Perfection!
Monday - everyone is headed home... Linda is down in the green area to the right of my head - far side of the picture - she is going early morning Yoga - the rest of us are chilling out, getting ready and just enjoying the morning. She's so dedicated!!
The artwork
Ok, the artwork was really beautiful for the rodeo, so Monday I asked someone what they would do with the posters once they were removed and no one knew. I wasn't deterred and asked around and was told to call the art department and ask, so I did. I told them I really loved the poster and would love to have one when they were removed and Kathy was so sweet, she told me to come down at 11am and she would save me one!! Well, I put that on Facebook and Liz immediately wanted one too - so when I asked Kathy (like I"m best buds with her now, can you tell??) if she happened to have another and explained my problem and that my child now wanted one too. She said they were all spoken for ... BUT she would print me another - WHAT the WHAT???? Yes, talk about a GREAT gal (*thus the first name basis! - ha!)... so I got one and so did Liz :) Bonus!!
yeah, these boob lights were sent to quite a few people during the trip - hahahaha! They are where OLD boob lights go when they grow up!! hahahaha!
Sisters!!
Another mom and daughter moment of Linda showing pictures to mom from her camera.
The final farewell shot... from here Suz and her crew stayed in our room until they could check out and our crew went to New York so Linda could ride the roller coaster and we could get a hot dog at Nathans... as well as going by the Hershey's place for Linda to get some goodies for her co-workers. Shes such a better co-worker than I am!! :)
Why do I mention this??? Well, THIS is what we were greeted with when we got back to our room....
Such a sweet note... until you open the door :)
Hilarious!!!! But just wait gals, it's ON now!!
Such a funny way to end the weekend!!
From here, I had one last friend to get in touch with and meet up with. Leslie and Sara came to the hotel and met up and visited. There is hontely not enough time in a night to catch up anymore! I think I may have to watch for cheap flights for a weekend trip just to sit and visit and catch up with them. Great friends that I miss dearly!
The next day bright and early we headed to our flights and what seems like such a LONG trip home because we lose a few hours crossing time zones. What only takes us an hour to get to takes us 5 or 6 to get home then the drive from the airport. I'm glad I chose to fly home the next day as I would have HATED driving that drive home at midnight for sure!!
Until next year!!
