Ava returned home from her mission this week! I didn't tell her I would be at the airport when she got off the plane. So I was super excited to surprise her. I landed just a few hours before her which gave me time to chat with my family and hang out in the missionary waiting room. Graham was tracking her flight and pointed out that her plane was the one pulling into the gate we could see from the waiting room. I was so anxious and excited!
Instead of standing with my family and the big Best Day Ever sign, I hid behind a nearby pillar so that she wouldn't see that I was there when she saw the family. Sure enough, when she landed she didn't see me. I watched her hug everyone, and it was the best! Seriously so tender. I remember what it was like when I got back from my mission and I just knew a little bit of what she was feeling.
I could hardly wait another second to give her a hug. I ran over and tapped her on the shoulder and just like that we were in the biggest hug. I think she was totally surprised. It was the best day ever! I hadn't ever been to a missionary homecoming so, I was just downright giddy to be there. I brought her a Lei from Hawaii. She looked so cute and was still the sweetest peach I remembered her being.
I was so glad I was could be there for her as she was released as a missionary. All memories of my mission were coming back, and I just knew that so much had happened to her it's just hard to even explain.
After we went to lunch at Buca Di Beppo, and we were laughing at the table we were seated at. We had the Pope in the middle of the lazy susan joining us. Ava sat in the huge chair in the middle. We laughed and caught up while eating. Romney, Austin, and baby Pearson joined us. It was Ava and I's first time meeting Pearson. He was so adorable. Gavin wasn't able to make it because we used all our vacation days to hike Everest. But I had him on facetime and he was able to see Ava that way.
The next day we went shopping in Provo. Nothing like shopping with the sisters in good old Provo Utah. Ava just couldn't shake the feeling of not being with a companion and couldn't believe that little Callie was walking around all by herself.
VIVA LAS VEGAS
Surprising Ava wasn't the only surprise she was getting that week. My dad was working in Vegas that weekend, so we decided to fly over and spend the weekend there with him. Us girls flew over a day early so we could see Donny Osmond's show! We had so much fun poking around at all the shops and eating the yummiest food before the show. This was my first concert ever! The only Donny songs I knew were his from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat album.
Donny put on a pretty good show. I loved all of Donny's sparkly jackets and shoes. He opened up dancing and singing to a song from his new album in a purple suit coat grinning so big.
Donny also must be very proud of all his accomplishments because he kept bringing up all the awards he had gotten, and the famous people he had the chance to sing with. Not something I was expecting. But it's Donny, so you can't be upset about it. We sipped on some Shirley Temples and danced to his music enjoying the show.
We were by far the youngest people in the room. One gal flew all the way from Wells to see Donny. She came just for the show and was leaving the next morning. I mean, there were some HUGE fans there.
When the show ended, we walked to see the Bellagio fountain show and the Volcano show from the street.
Vegas is full of all sorts of fun people definitely a unique place for sure.
As we got into a taxi cab, the driver asked us if we liked to party. Did he see who we were? We had little Callie with us and my mom said we are own party and entertainment and I just loved that.
The next day we decided to go to Madam Tussauds wax museum. Let me just say we had a blast walking around. They had the best tunes going, and we were loving all of our favorite people made of wax.
We took so many pictures. At first, we were being really careful not to touch the wax. Once we saw other people full-on hugging them and kissing their checks. We couldn't keep our hands off.
I couldn't believe how real they all looked the detail is unreal. I would have liked to see a documentary about how they were made. And I wonder how much it costs to make a wax figure.
We took tons and tons of pictures. One of my favorites was Miley swinging on her wrecking ball and Johnny Dept.
After we decided that we needed some Cake. We just love cake. The day before we saw the cutest sweet shop with the yummiest desserts. They had so many sweets. When I asked them how much their cake pop were and they said 6$ I was shocked. I mean jaw-dropping. I think I said out loud to my mom and sisters that we needed to go somewhere else and get cake.
Well, we ended up finding the best rainbow cake with really yummy frosting. Again not disappointed.
We ended the night with dinner with my dad who had arrived several hours later than he wanted due to a canceled flight and without Graham..
That night we put on TLC and the show was my 600+ lbs life. The mans name was Shawn and he was over 1,000 lbs. His story was quite sad but we couldn't stop watching. He ate around 30,000 calories a day.
Sunday was pool day! My dad was staying at the Caesars Palace so we were able to hang out by the seven pools they had! Thanks, dad!
We ate some more yummy cake while we where. In face we all had to share a piece because the cake slices were seriously so big. I said who on earth would be able to eat all this cake. Ava turned and said I know somebody. Our friend Shawn. ;)
That night we Giordano's pizza. I had only ever seen this place in Chicago and it was just as amazing as I remembered. There are so many paces you can eat in Vegas that you could spend weeks here just eating. We sure had some really yummy food.
That night we rode the tram down to New York and walked all over Vegas taking a million pictures and really just having the time of our lives. I am not kidding we all took photos in front of everything. We were out late just enjoyed the city life.
We also stopped at the Bellagio Gardens and WOW they are really beautiful. Of course it was packed like crazy but I understand why they were just beautiful.
Before my flight back to Hawaii, we had to get the famous Sprinkles cupcakes from the vending machine. I guess this is a popular vending machine in Vegas. They had 6 of them just at the Vegas airport. As we were sitting there we saw so many people running to get their sprinkles.
We all had the best time in Vegas. I hugged my sisters goodbye as they hoped on their plane to Provo and I got in line for Kauai.
That's a sum up of Vegas. We came, we ate, we saw, we left.
No comments:
Post a Comment