longest.weekend.ever

Well, we are on our way home from vegas as I write this. Thank you Verizon wireless card for allowing me to check my email, keep up on all things celebrity and update my blog while driving through lovely Wikieup, AZ. For the record, i hate car trips. really, truly hate them. I just can't do it ever again. I start to go crazy. I passed crazy about 2 hours ago btw.

So, first off I suck and never took a single photo while we were in vegas. Yup…connor was in the pool for the first time in his life and I didn’t document it. Worst.parent.ever. But we did have a pretty good time. Here’s a quick rundown of the long weekend there…

Thursday we didn’t even leave town until 11:45 which was super annoying. Jeff and I wanted to leave around 9am but jeff’s sister had an important doctor appointment so we waited until she got home. Check in was at 4pm and I’m the type of person who likes to get all the available hotel time in as possible so I’m thinking 11:45 + 5 hours drive time = 4:45…ok, now remember that we have two kids age 2 and under…add 1.5 hours for 3 stops...and we’re arrived at 6:15…and yes, we arrived in our rooms a bit after 6:30pm. Rediculous. Anyway, once we got there we were so incredibly exhausted. We just wanted to crash and we did. Wait=that's not true…since Saturday was jeff’s 28th birthday I wanted to make him brownies so Stephanie and I ran to target to get supplies.

Friday we got up and went swimming. I’m casper white so I needed to get a few good hours of pool time without spf800 or whatever it is that my paranoid hubby uses. So, we’re playing in the little children’s pool with the 4 boys and my inlaws. The water was so nice…literally like 90 degrees and awesome. It felt like bathwater and I loved it. So we just played with pool toys and kept the boys entertained. Connor mostly liked it-he’s a happy baby pretty much all the time so not too tough to please. He stayed in his little baby raft and threw toys at everyone. Well, he’d had enough after a couple hours so we decided to pack it up for the morning and get some lunch. I didn’t notice, but Jeffrey told me that my back was ‘kinda red’. Yeah. Sunburn. I’m a dummy. So, that sucked. Putting a bra on when your upper back/shoulders are burned is not #1 on my list of things to do. Still hurts. So, we went to lunch, and even made a costco run. Exciting right? in case you’re keeping track…our wild & crazy las vegas vacation has so far consisted of target, costco and a swimming pool. Ok…as we waited for my sister’s flight to get in we swam some more—this time with the sunscreen. Sarah arrived around 5 and we got cleaned up and had dinner. We decided to head to the strip and leave the kids at the hotel with steph who doesn’t do the vegas stuff. Ok, so gambling totally isn’t my thing. I’m too practical and too boring I think. I’d just rather buy a good wine, a great pair of shoes or even a yummy meal for the money I could crap away at a table. Anyway, sarah, Jeffrey and my MIL spent 3 hours at a 3 card poker table. Jeffrey ended up $60 I think and Sarah and Diane walked away broke. Nice. See this is what I don’t get. There is just no appeal. I played slots off the same $20 for about 2 hours and spent the last hour at a blackjack table and ended up down a total of $8.75. thrilling. I eventually started to nod off at a video poker machine at the bar and decided it was time to go. I do though, love, the free drinks so there is that perk…

Saturday we got up reluctantly and tried to figure out what we were going to do. Sarah and I had planned on seeing SATC at the 11:45 show on the strip. Unfortunately, she was still sleeping off the night before and I just couldn’t wake her. I was really looking forward to seeing it. And seeing it in vegas seemed like a cool idea. Crap. So we went swimming again, and then had lunch at this little café at the resort. When ryan and megan arrived late the night before, we told them that we’d check out the outlet shops across the street. I’m a coach whore and that’s how they got me to agree. So, we got all packed up and checked them out. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much AZ Mills and it was horrible. I really hate outlet crap. I love Coach outlet but does there really need to be a Big Dog outlet store? Really? When we got back, we barbequed and had planned to play games and hang out all night. Unfortunately, those who remembered we were in vegas wanted to go and do more gambling. I was not interested so I skipped it and stayed back and watched Enchanted with Meg, Steph and Ryan. Another crazy night for us!!
Sunday we got up and had a big breakfast together. Then I was totally blown away by jeff’s mom telling me that we have to wash the dishes in the suite before we check out. Ok, this is something I wasn’t going to write about because I tend to come off as super snobby and whiny, but…this place was a shithole. Seriously. Jeff’s parents have it this weekend as part of their timeshare. They kept telling us it was a ‘resort’ not just a hotel so that’s why there wasn’t a casino on site. Then she tells us it’s only 2 miles away from the strip and there is a shuttle. Yup, it’s over 4 miles away and that’s 30 minutes in vegas traffic. And this ‘shuttle’ only runs until midnight and only picks up every hour and a half. So dumb. And the room…our sliding door blinds were broken and were stuck open. Jeffrey pulled them desperately trying to keep the 5:30am sun out of our room that I think they are permanently jacked up. The water closet door in the bathroom was one of those pocket doors and it didn’t shut. Let me tell you that this is absolutely imperative with 4 kids around…geez. The big adult pool heater was broken. That was piercing cold. It was empty except a few drunk peeps that probably didn’t even realize they were in water. The part that really drives me crazy is that I have two favorite things about staying at a hotel/resort and it’s the trial sized products and not having to clean up after myself. Can you see where I am going here? No trial sized items. Nothing. Seriously-nothing. And housekeeping-non existent. No turn down service, no fresh linens, no new towels, no refilling the toilet paper rolls, emptying garbage cans, replacing used cups, etc. I’m not kidding. There are two doors down the hall from our room. One says Trash Room and one says Housekeeping. When your trash gets empty you drag it to the trash room and get new bags. If you want new sheets or towels, you take yours over to the Housekeeping Room and get new ones. Am I being ridiculous here? So yeah, when we left for the weekend we literally had to clean the place. I was going out of my mind. No one else seemed to think it was a big deal.

Well, that was it. It’s now about 4:45 and we’re about 20 miles from Wickenburg.

Also, as a random thought, my son loves the Plain White Tees song “Hey There Delilah”. When he was really sick earlier this year, and I had to give him breathing treatments he’d scream until I sang the song. When he’s fussy in the car, we’ll put it on and he calms down immediately. Not so for this trip. We played it on repeat each night. I almost died. I liked the song in the beginning. But you can’t hear the same song 135 times during a night of sleep and expect to still enjoy it. Yes, I did the math. Anyway, in summary I hate that song now.

I’m ready to start planning/saving up for a real vacation. I’m totally fine bringing connor along. I like spending time with my son, but I’m fine the other way as well. Adult time is good for everyone. I really like cruising and would be open to doing that next time. I really refuse to count this as a vacation. It would be like going out of state for a relative’s funeral and calling it a vacation. Ok, I just likened this trip to a funeral so I’m going to end this negative tirade now and try to nap a bit before we get to Wickenburg. Connor is screaming and we’re going to need to let him run around a bit the first chance we get. maybe i'll take a few rest area photos so this trip isn't a complete photographic slack off!!