Travel for 1

Last weekend, I took my first official trip away from the family. The purpose was to attend a trade show for new and innovative ideas for my business. I also thought "Me" time has been highly regarded among women I know that I should try it out for myself.
The result: the trade show was wonderful - and - Ryan and the kids were dearly missed.
I learned that I'm more capable of proceeding through airport security with 5 kids rather than by myself. I dropped my boarding passes two times, had bags falling off my shoulders and misplaced my passport a couple of times.

I think I'll wait another 12 years to try again.

Please note, Ryan managed with no trouble at all. He attended to important Sunday meetings, coached Basketball on the Monday evening 0 visability blizzard conditions and led the Cubs Group on Tuesday evening in - 38 degree temperatures. All while juggling 5 kids, packing school lunches, driving to and from school (15 km away), supporting homework efforts, making dinner, cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry and, oh ya, maintaining his daily career. He is super. We're both glad the effort was required short term.

112 Stories above Las Vegas.

This is the Stratosphere - where the picture was taken from. This is a picture of the Luxor Hotel. BUT really, I have a weakness for Palm Trees. LOVE them.Mandalay Bay. My favorite building to walk through. I'm certain it was the equivalent of 10 city blocks when walking within (not fact, just certain).Pretty lights and pretty fountains were also a highlight. I seriously have an appreciation for amazing architecture. I cannot wrap my mind around how a New York city was crafted into one building. There's also a roller coaster winding throughout.
I felt like a part of Back to the Future traveling on the Metro Line. Super futuristic looking.

Okay, this building wins the prize. I believe it's just an office building at the North end of the strip (so I didn't research it's name) but SO cool none the less.
Although I found traveling away from family difficult I was glad to have some quality time with my sister. She was the happiest I've ever seen her. She loved the trip so much that she says she's already planning her next one. That's fun to travel with. She wanted pictures with every fountain, day and night.

She was also very excited about a $10 slushy drink sold in the shape of the Stratosphere that was approximately 24" tall. A crazy price in my opinion. I promised to buy her $10 worth of slurpees here and fill them into my eiffel tower vases to create the same effect - as it seemed more cost effective and humorous. I'll take a picture if I actually do it.


I am certain this was supposed to be my flight home. Instead of taking Gate 54A I should have taken Gate 54B

Mom tackled M&M World just to have something cool to bring home for the kids!

Well! ... I had collected individual bags of each child's color code. I knew I was paying by weight but suddenly realized that I would also be paying for the weight of 5 bags. So, in an effort to avert a conspiracy to acheive more revenue thru M&M sales, I consolidated into one bag.

This meant we had a fun sorting project before we could eat. I know, I'm a little quirky. But it provided for a fun afternoon project.

The finished project. Oh, and, the bags were not my idea. Before I knew it Amanda had pocketed 4 empty bags because she insisted the kids each have their own matching bag with M&M logo. I was willing to use sandwich bags ... really!

Happy M&M kids.

So the trip was worth it for the fact that I was able to scope out all the appropriate sights for our family to see in a month. Like, the Pirate Show at Treasure Island. I thought it would be great for the boys ... but turned out to be a non kid-friendly version since I last remember it.

We are booked to eat in the Rainforest Cafe for Dinner, we'll be visiting the Shark Reef and, of course, M&M World.

In short, Vegas is not the most appealing place to travel with the kids but it will be fun to have short-term exposure to it before heading out to sunny Californ-I-A.

I also took a quick visit to the condo we've booked. It's so pretty. I imagine we'll be happy to spend a ton of time here too.