Vegas...again.

My family has started a yearly tradition of going to Vegas for the Cup weekend which is either the last weekend of February or the first weekend of March. My Grandpa is part of a time share and there are several properties there, so they stay at those. I had not planned to go this year as I just went to Irwindale and went to the Truck race in Vegas last Fall. The Tuesday before my Dad was going to leave, he talked me into going with him..which wasn't very hard, and by the next morning I had talked Ashley into coming..which also wasn't very hard :) My Dad drives down there because after he spends the week in Vegas, he continues on down to Phoenix to stay at my Grandpa's place there for awhile.

We left on Sunday morning, literally 5 days after planning to go. We drove to Twin Falls the first night and stayed at the McKean's. They cooked us a nice meal and my Dad and Eddie played the Wii while Ashley and I played with her niece Kaili.

Monday morning we finished the trip to Vegas, only about 7 hours and got settled into the condo. Ashley and I went grocery shopping and then we BBQ'ed steaks and I made potatoes and salad. It was actually so nice staying off of the strip. We were only 2 miles from it, yet we were far enough away from it.

Tuesday My Grandma, Ashley and I went to PF Chang's for lunch and then went to the Outlet mall for our girls day. We had a lot of fun laughing! Later that night we had dinner at Lawry's steakhouse before meeting up with our friend Kevin and his race team. We watched them play Craps for hours!

Wednesday we didn't do much besides relaxing which was so nice..

Kevin told us we were the oldest 20 somethings in Vegas...oh well, it's not like it was our first time..we have done Vegas, many of times :)

Thursday morning we went and picked up Kevin and took him to Voodoo tattoo to get his first tat. I had decided I would get one too, but mine took about 5 min. A simple "be" on the inside of my left wrist. People ask me why the word "be". Well, I love the word because it can mean so many things. It is sort of my personal mantra..be happy, be calm, be thankful, be loving..be anything! Luckily it only took 5 minutes because it hurt so bad, I was over it! I don't understand how people get tattoo's. The pain is not worth it to me. Kevin was there all day, so Ashley and I left and had lunch and did some shopping before picking him back up.
Thursday night we had dinner at the Hard Rock, hung out at Margaritaville and then called it a night.

Friday was a fun, unexpected day. My friend Jennifer won us VIP tickets to see Dierks Bentley at a new casino resort out towards the racetrack. She lives in NC and wasn't in Vegas, so she gifted her tickets to us and we had a great time. We got to show up early, meet Dierks and get our pictures with him, stand stage side the entire concert and create many memories. We had a great time! Thanks Jennie girl :)

We went to both the Nationwide race and the Cup race. Kevin spots for a team that runs both series and I texted him Saturday afternoon telling him I felt like I was at Monroe at the end of March on opening night, it was literally that cold! Sunday was much nicer reaching 70 even. The Cup race was pretty boring, which is what I expected at that track.

Sunday night Ashley and I went to The Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, only intending on going to the Roxy store. We walked in and Ashley spotted Club Tattoo and she was set on me getting my nose pierced. I have wanted it done since I was about 16 but have always been too scared to do it. With some convincing, I decided to do it. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would. So I left Vegas with a tattoo and a piercing..a sign that I needed to go home :)

Monday morning we packed up all of our stuff and headed down to Goodyear, Arizona where my Grandpa spends most of the winter. We had a nice dinner with him and watched the Bachelor season finale..which I won't even get into, had some great wine and then called it a night.

Tuesday morning Ashley and I both flew to our homes and our big adventure was over! We had such a great time and most likely, we will be doing it again next year!