regionals and p.s. vegas sucks

This year, Mary's tumbling regionals were in Vegas.

We figured we could make a fun family trip out of it, and that way everyone could watch Mary compete, and we could all be together.

Oh, the things we learn in hindsight. 

We ended up selling  Maggie back to the lady who sold her to us (another story, another day), so we decided to use that money to do something fun in Vegas.

We got tickets to the Tournament of the Kinds show in Excaliber.

Right when we pulled in to Vegas, we checked into our hotel, and drove straight to the show.

The show was awesome!  I am so grateful we did it.  The kids absolutely loved it.  We had front row seats too!  There were knights, jousting, sword fighting, fireworks, dancers, kings, horses dancing, and everything a child's heart could only dream of seeing in person.

The boys were completely awe struck through the entire thing.  Mary loved the horses and the dancers. Molly was freaked out by the whole thing, and actually fell asleep toward the end.

the wizard came by to say hi

our knight and the jester.  Luke was completely into the whole thing but he was too shy to get in the picture.  He was just so amazed to see a real knight, in person. :)

yep, dinner along with the show.  No utensils, and whole chickens.  It was pretty cool.

After the show, we headed back to the hotel with some very tired kids.  They were not fans of having to walk through a smoke infested casino in order to get to our room.

Throughout most of the trip, the kids talked a lot about how yucky they felt being there around so much filth.  Aside from the show, the trip was pretty much a massive train wreck.  I think, some of the reason, is that the kids felt so unsettled and uncomfortable inside.

I am very glad my children are sensitive to things like that, but man, I nearly had several panic attacks trying to shield them from so much of it.

The next morning was one of Mary's competitions.  She competed on floor.
We decided to take the whole family.
Let's just say, our children struggle with sitting still.  It was quite the ordeal, and it was very, very stressful.
Mary did really well on her passes.  Unfortunately, she took a step on her first landing.  The competition was really tough and close, so that step put her in third place.
Honestly though, 3rd place at a Regional competition is amazing!  She was happy, and we were very happy for her, and proud of her hard work.  Regardless of how crazy the whole thing was, we do not regret being there for Mary.

When Mary was done, we had to wait another couple hours for the award ceremony, so Ben took the kids back to the hotel to swim for a while.

The rest of the day, we decided to try and see some of the cool things Vegas had to offer.

EPIC. FAIL.

We drove to Mandalay Bay, found parking, unloaded the kids and the stroller, dealt with crying and tantrums, walked forever, and all the while, told the kids how cool the shark tank was.
Well, the shark tank was no longer free.  Nope, the shark tank was over $100 for our family to go see.
Argh!

So, it was walking back to the car, loading in to the car, more crying, more driving, more parking, more unloading, and more tears, as we made our way to MGM to see the lions and tigers.
They got rid of the animals 4 years ago.
Doh!

So, it was walking back, loading into the car, more tears, more snacks, diaper changing, more driving, more parking, and more walking to go see the M&M factory.
Well, it is NOT a factory.  It is a little store where they charge $10.00 for a $1.00 bag of M&M's.  To top it off, it was surrounded by girls that were completely naked from the waist up.
This is how William handled his tour of the Vegas strip. 

He kept asking us why girls were showing us their bums. ugh, ugh, ugh

On our walk back to the car, the last straw snapped when a dude drinking a can of beer puked...on me.  Yup, down my arm, on my shirt and in my hair.  I can't even think about it. 

We accepted the fact that Vegas sucks, and headed back to the hotel, with crying, tired kids, and high hopes of swimming and trying to redeem the night.  In came the rain and the wind.  Rock on.
  No swimming.

We ate dinner, watched TV, and called it a night.

Mary had a team party, at the pool, late that night.  Mary and I went to it for a while.  It was really cold. It was fun to talk to the team and their parents though. Bev, Mary's coach, turned 60 that day, so we ate some cake and sang to her.

The next morning was Mary's double mini competition.  We packed our bags, and decided to leave right after the competition.  By this point, we were done with Vegas.  Even Mary said she couldn't wait to get out of there.

Mary did beautiful passes on double mini!  The only glitch, one foot was out of bounds on her first landing.  She placed 3rd again.

Pretty awesome to come away from a Regional competition with two opportunities to be on the podium.

Way to fly Mary girl!

After the awards, (where two of the babies cried the entire time) we drove to the hotel, loaded our bags, and headed home.

The trip was pretty horrible, but I am so thankful that the two big things we went there for worked out.  Mary's meet, and the show at Excalibur.  Both of those things turned out great!

Other than that, I am pretty sure Vegas is the last place we ever want to go to again. Good riddance!