So I am home safe and sound and in one piece from my trip to Vegas. It was AMAZING and well worth how completely exhausted I was at work yesterday. I love Vegas, I love Theresa, I love her fiancee (Jenna), I love her future in-laws, I loved this whole weekend!
First some background. I don't know if I ever actually mentioned it, but I'm a bridesmaid in Theresa's wedding this October, which I couldn't be happier or more excited about. I feel so incredibly honored to have been asked! The bridal party is pretty scattered: I'm in Flagstaff, Theresa's other two bridesmaids live in Las Vegas and China, and her fiancee's bridesmaids are split between California and Colorado. The China and Colorado people couldn't make it, but 4 of the 6 of us were there. This trip has been planned since, like, February, so I've been looking forward to it for awhile.
I took Friday, the first, off from work so that I could get on the road at a decent hour and stop in Kingman on my way. I went to my mom's and she had completely forgotten I was coming, so I unintentionally got to surprise her. I got to town just before Austin was getting out of school, so I went to the bus stop with her to pick him up. He was super surprised and RAN over to me as soon as he was off the bus, and totally knocked me over. I told him he's just getting too strong for me, and he told me it's because he works out. (True story). After we got in my car to go to lunch, he said, "I KNEW one of these days you were going to come, Auntica." I just love him. We let him pick where to go for lunch, which of course meant we went to Cracker Barrel (side note: I always let him pick the restaurant because I know that's what he'll pick). After we had lunch, I mentioned I needed to run to WalMart and buy a charger for my phone before I headed out (I forgot to pack my charger, natch). So my mom said she needed a few things and asked if we could just go together, so I said sure.
Well, I should know better. When my mom says she just needs a few things, it actually means we're going to be at the store for at least an hour and that we're going to leave with a cart full of groceries. Groceries that then had to be loaded into my car and then unloaded at my mom's. By the time I got gas and left Kingman I was an hour behind where I wanted to be, which was disappointing.
Also disappointing was the drive over the bridge to bypass the Hoover Dam. I watched that thing being built for so long and was looking forward to driving it, but the sides are so high that you can't see anything over the edge. Kind of a bummer.
I got to Vegas and promptly got lost, in part because I had directions to the hotel where I'd be staying but since I was running late, by the time I got to Vegas we were meeting up with Jenna's parents at their hotel for dinner. I don't know how I manage this crap, I've only been to Vegas like a hundred times, but whatever. Long story short, I did eventually get to where I needed to be and found Theresa and it was all uphill from there.
Friday night we (we being me, Theresa, Jenna, Jenna's parents, and Jenna's brother in law) walked over to the Bellagio and watched the dancing fountains for awhile. Then we went back to Jenna's parents' hotel and played Cards Against Humanity, which was hilarious and very entertaining. Later Jenna's sisters (AKA her bridesmaids) got there so I got to meet them. We ended up hitting the casino for a bit, and then went to our hotel, which was an amazing 2 bedroom 2 bathroom suite (seriously bigger than my apartment). Theresa and Jenna had one room, Jenna's sister and her husband had the other, and I had the pull out couch in the living room.
Saturday was dress shopping day. We started with a Starbucks run, then had an appointment at a bridesmaid dress shop in Henderson. The place was honestly a little meh, we did find some things we liked but the issue was that they didn't come in the right colors (particularly the green that Theresa wanted for her side). We ended up picking dresses, but decided to go to the later appointment at David's Bridal just to see how that went. Between appointments we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, where I'd never eaten before, so that was fun. It's a good thing we don't have one of those here because I'd be freaking fatter than I already am.
The David's Bridal appointment was much better than the first appointment, there were a lot more options as far as dresses, and we all got to just pull whatever we wanted to try on, so we ended up with a huge variety of dresses to look at. (Plus the bonus of hearing Jenna's mom offering her opinion to the couple girls there who were trying on wedding dresses, it was hilarious). As much as I hate trying on clothes and then essentially modeling them, it was actually fun. We chose dresses there (the same dress for each side, in different colors) and I LOVE the dress we picked. Plus the price was legit half of what it was at the other place, so bonus. (Side note: I totally teared up while we were dress shopping, because . . . I don't know. This is a whole new experience for me, and it's so awesome to think that randomly meeting years ago led to that, y'know? I don't have a whole lot of friends from college, and I've burned a lot of bridges, so to know that there is a person I met in college who still likes me, who likes me enough to want me to be in her wedding, was kind of overwhelming. I don't even care how lame that makes me sound, it's true).
After the dresses we had dinner at a buffet, which was completely empty because it was fight night. At some point after dinner, Theresa and I and her future brother in law went back to our hotel to change or something, and I left my wallet there. So when we got back to the other hotel/casino to gamble, I had no freaking money. I was so mad at myself! And since it was fight night the traffic was horrendous, so going back to get it was absolutely not an option. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing because I ended up spending way less money than I anticipated, but it still sucked. After awhile Theresa and I just went and people watched on the strip, but that was kind of terrifying because it was so packed (again, fight night) so we went back inside and people watched. Still entertaining.
Sunday morning we swam at Jenna's parent's hotel and had lunch there before we headed out. I ended up leaving the same time Theresa and Jenna did. I stopped in Kingman on my way back and got to spend some time with my dad, which was nice. I ended up getting home way later than intended (Jenna and Theresa got back to SLC before I got back to Flagstaff so . . . yeah). Work yesterday was just pure torture but it was worth it!
Overall, it was just a fantastic trip with some fantastic people, and I'm so glad I got to go. Theresa and I have had a lot of great experiences together and we have a lot of great memories, and this weekend will definitely be one that stands out.
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