It's something we look forward to every year. Our vacation with our pharmacy family, the Sims'.
As I mentioned, I finished my half marathon. Took a shower. And then we hit the road. I must be in some sort of decent shape, because my muscles/body wasn't noticeably sore, even after putting in a grueling workout, and sitting in the car for hours. And at the end of the 13.1 miles there was nary a blister to be found on my feet. OK.
This year, we decided that a good meeting place for our trip would be Las Vegas. In the middle of July. Hotel prices were dirt cheap. Probably because no one else really wants to visit Las Vegas in the middle of July.
We ended up staying at the SpringHill Suites in Henderson, NV. It was away from the strip, and it had an indoor pool. SpringHill Suites are my most favorite Marriott brand hotel to stay in. But this particular hotel stay was the worst.
They couldn't get us in a double-queen room for our first night. Aggravating. And then, it was going to be way too much of a hassle to change rooms (ie- they wanted us to check out of the room we were in at noon, store our luggage in our car, and then re-check in to the room with two queen beds at 4PM). Needless to say, we ended up staying in our 1 King room for the duration. It wasn't ideal. But it worked.
Sleeping arrangements kind of looked like this:
Among other things that were abysmal about this hotel stay: the hotel pool was so overchlorinated that they kids only swam in it once, for ten minutes. After that short time, they got out because Reagan was literally gagging, from the noxious fumes.
Breakfast was a zoo. Heaven forbid, anyone held up the line. One morning, apparently, I wasn't fast enough in getting the yogurt out of the fridge, and not one- but TWO ladies started verbally berating me.
Even more awesome, was a trip I made to the car. Another guest of the hotel was walking out to her car. This girl was very large. And yet, she had on teeny-tiny jean cut-off shorts, and sky-high hooker heels. I couldn't help but stare at the mass of blubber walking around on stillhetto's. Apparently, I didn't divert my attention quickly enough, because the girl started shouting at me, and tried to goad me in to fighting with her.
When I rolled my eyes at her, it made her more mad.
Thank goodness there was a bit of distance between us. The confrontation didn't amount to anything. But it was still unnerving.
Yeah. We definitely will not stay at this particular hotel. Ever again.
DAY 1: Consisted of swimming (mentioned above). Eating at Presto Café; which was very yummy! Running to Walgreens to stock up on snacks. And visiting with the Sims' for several hours.
Day 2: Nick and Garrett took the girls (Lily, Reagan, Elsa, and Cami) to the Lion preserve in Henderson. While Katie and I dragged the poor little boys (Cohen, and Steele) to the outlet mall in Primm, NV. From what I heard, the lion preserve was amazing! They also took the girls to the M&M store.
When we reconvened at the hotel, we spruced up and headed out again.
We dropped out kids off at Kids Quest, in the Red Rock Casino. It's a drop-in day care center; that has a giant play-place, video game stations, and many other things for kids to play with. I'm not going to lie. I had massive anxiety about doing this. I was nervous the entire time the kids were there. Everything turned out well. The kids had a fantastic time. And I know that they were well taken-care of. But I'm not sure how inclined I'd be to do it again? Leaving my kids with strangers? Not something I'm very comfortable with. Also, it was pricey. The babysitting charge was almost twice as much as the price we paid for dinner.
Anyway, while the kids were at Kids Quest, the adults drove to the Bellagio for the buffet.
I had a picture of Nick and me at the restaurant. But it didn't upload. And I'm not going to take the time to figure out why. Just imagine us eating at the Bellagio. Delicioso!
It was nearly 10PM, when we went to pick up the kids. Even though the sun had gone down hours ago, the temperature outside was still in the triple digits. Plus, it was windy. Outside, it literally felt like you were being blasted by giant hair-dryer. Blech.
Day 3: We had a leisurely morning. Every time we would walk through the lobby, the kids couldn't resist playing with the curtains.
Then, we all caravanned in to Las Vegas and went to the strip. The Venetian Hotel was gorgeous, as always. We picked up a selection of pastries from Bouchon Bakery. I love that place! We ate in the food court of the Venetian. Don't you love how, even in the food court, the table-tops are marble?!
In one of the parking garage's we saw a Rolls Royce: This was more exciting to Nick, than me.
Walking the Strip was enough to send Reagan in to a tailspin. No surprise there. It's enough to overload anyone's senses. Nick was carrying a crying Reagan. And at one point she wailed: "I hate this city". Nick told her she never had to come back. And that seemed to calm her down.
When we checked in to the hotel, we were notified that there was a chance the carpets and upholstery in our room might be cleaned during our stay. But that it took 4 hours to dry, maximum. We didn't think much of it, when we saw them heading in to our room to clean the carpets, that morning as we were getting ready to leave.
We were gone for well-over 4 hours.
But when we got back to our room, everything was still sopping wet! You can still (sort of) see the wet spots on the couch, in this picture:
Even, 24 hours later, there were still soggy spots on the carpet. Yep, I was definitely not digging this hotel.
Eventually, the Sims' kids finished their naps, and we decided to go to Wet N' Wild for the evening. Truth be told. this was the part of the vacation that I was least looking forward to. I'm just not a fan of water parks.
I was shocked to discover that this activity turned out to be my most favorite part of the entire trip! It was so fun!
The water park isn't huge, which is a good thing when you have small children. No one ever got lost. And at so many of the water parks I've been to, the employees are downright rude, and sticklers for the rules. But not here. I mean, they still had rules; of course. But EVERYONE we encountered was so nice about enforcing them. I loved it! And the kids did too.
All of the kids had a great time going down the water slides, and floating in the wave pool. I would go back to Wet N' Wild, in a heartbeat!
Sadly, I didn't get any pictures.
After Wet N' Wild we hit up an In N' Burger. It was sort of a this N' that- type night. :)
Day 4: Another morning of no-rushing. Sims' came over to our room and we watched several episodes of the cartoon: Korra. And then it was time to say goodbye.
What a great group:
Usually, this would be a good place to finish the post. But the drive home was just too eventful, not to include!
So, we stopped in St. George, UT on the way home, and got pizza for lunch.
About 30 minutes south of Fillmore, UT, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Reagan wake up from a nap. I turned around, and it took me less than a second to see that something was wrong. Reagan looked deathly pale. She said, "Daddy! Roll down the window!", and I screamed at Nick, "Pull over! She's going to throw up!".
We were cruising down the highway, so obviously, Nick couldn't stop on a dime.
And Reagan vomited all over herself, and the car.
Poor girl.
We pulled over on the side of the freeway, and did our best to clean her up.
Then, we drove to Fillmore, and stopped at a Dollar General. I went in and bought Reagan some clothing to wear. And I took her and Elsa in to the bathroom. I cleaned Reagan up, and I tried to get Elsa to use the potty.
But stubborn Elsa, insisted that she didn't need to go. Argh!
I texted Katie, and told her that Reagan had barfed. She texted me back and said that Lily had wet her pants.
I told her, that in an odd way, it made me feel better.
A few hours later, Katie texted me and said that Cami had just thrown up.
What did we feed those poor kids?!
Icing on the cake: We made it home, and Elsa tried to hustle it in to the house, but the doorknob on the garage was sticking. So, she wet her pants on the top step of the garage.
I suppose it was a good thing I was already in "cleaning mode". But, really?!
I guess there always has to be something memorable about a road trip. Ha!
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