Viva Las Vegas!

Mamma Mia

The Birthday Celebration

This was the "Big Vegas Weekend" that we have been planning for 3 months. My grandma has been wanting to go to Vegas for sometime now, so for Christmas we decided that we'd all take her on her birthday. Well, we headed to Vegas to celebrate while the birthday girl stayed home. She was very sick this past week and her antibiotics didn't kick in as quickly as we'd hoped. It was a gametime decision and since everything was already paid for, we decided to leave her at home and celebrate in her honor! In all honesty though, she probably wouldn't have had a very good time. She's used to the old Vegas where you sit and put quarters in a slot, pull the handle, hit 3 cherries, and hear your quarters come gushing out of the machine. Those machines must currently be up on eBay because the machines now take credit cards instead of quarters, use buttons instead of handles, there are 10,000 different winning possibilities, and a receipt prints your total winnings!

We had such a great time. We shopped 'til we dropped...literally. We thought we had run a marathon when we woke up the next day. Our feet and legs hurt so much from all the walking. Candace's credit card even put a hold on her card! What do you do in Vegas when you've visited every retail store? GAMBLE! We taught my mom how to play Pai Gow and I think we created a monster. She is a closet gambler and we couldn't get her to leave the table. We met some great friends at our pai gow table and I say "our" because we never left it all night. Randomly, we played with the same 2 people both nights. Kelsey tried to plan another trip to Vegas with them, but they weren't getting her hints. We thought maybe they were a little annoyed with our behavior since we were in a drunken stuper, but we personally thought we were hysterical. Yeah, we may have crossed the line a few times, but mommy was there to keep us in line. Believe it or not, we went to bed before our mom did. On Saturday night we finally called it a night at 2am (and with the time change it was really 3am), but Peggy didn't want to leave. She was hot! We decided to leave her with our new friends, but made sure they watched her and didn't let her order any drinks or buy cigarettes!

We saw Mama Mia on Saturday night, but the highlight of the night was going to see Rascal Flatts and Kellie Pickler. They were awesome, but it did help that we were front and center...literally. We were in the "dog pound." I don't know if that's a common name for it because I've never been to a concert in the "dog pound" but it's the open space right by the stage. We could touch the stage, I even high-fived the cute guitarist and he threw his guitar pik at Kelsey. We both reached for it, but she pummeled me like a single girl going after the bouquet at a wedding and I had no chance. She fumbled it! Seriously, she's an All American and she fumbles the guitar pik. Are you kidding me? Kellie Pickler was amazing as well, she has such a beautiful voice.

A big thank you to JJ and Kelsey for allowing us such an amazing concert experience. Kelsey had texted JJ when she learned that Rascal Flatts was playing to hint to him that it would be fun to go. A few phone calls later, JJ called with tickets for us. Apparently, he has a friend who has a friend who knows the band. Therefore, we also claimed to know the band all night!

Yes, he was really looking at me!

In the "Dog Pound"

We had so much fun, but did learn a few things that we'll have to keep in mind next time we plan a trip:

1. Don't plan a trip to Vegas for an 89-year old woman. Seriously, what were we thinking?

2. Don't plan a trip on day light savings weekend.

3. Don't book a 7am flight out on Sunday. A 5:30am wake up call is just too early, Candace!

Kellie Pickler Live!

Robers Out!