Monty's Mayhem: Vegas

Last Thursday, I ventured off to Vegas for the first time with 12 other girls to celebrate my best friend (basically since birth) and her bachelorette party. Relaxing, kid free weekend, right? Well, it sure didn't start out that way. I woke up Thursday morning, shuffled the kids off to preschool, went to a chiropractor appointment, and got home around 11:00 am. My flight left at 5:20, so I needed to leave by 3:00. Plenty of time to shower, finishing packing, tie up loose ends, one would think. Little did I know that when I got home at 11:00, Kyle would drop a bomb on me saying he had to fly out that night to Germany for work. "Ummm, wait, what?!" Was my reaction. Followed by, "You've got to be kidding me! Who's going to watch the kids?! I'm not cancelling my trip! You sure will do anything to get out of watching the kids for a few days :)" Ok, so after the initial shock that he was really serious, my mind went crazy. Fortunately, Kyle's mom had that day off, but had to work the next 7 days. But, she hopped in the car, drove 6 hours, picked up the kids, and drove them back to Illinois. Yes, a godsend. Kyle ended up flying out around 8:00 that night. Crazy, right? Expect the unexpected in this household. The kids spent 2 days with Kyle's parents, and 2 days with mine. I flew back on Sunday late, and then met my Dad 1/2 way (In Bloomington, IL) for lunch on Monday and picked up the kids. Without our parents, we have no clue what we would have done. They saved us (and the kids!) I can honestly say though, after spending 3 days in Vegas, coming home Sunday night to a quiet house was pretty nice :) And I got a full 10 1/2 hours of sleep Sunday night- it.was.awesome!

Ok, so now that the pre-vegas story is out of the way, time to tell the real Vegas story. I had such a great time. We did an Ice Bar the first night there, it was freezing and we wore parkas, boots, and mittens, and it wasn't as "glamorous" as we expected, but I'm so glad we did it. Friday the weather was perfect! We did a pool day, a bottomless mimosa brunch/lunch, pizza for dinner, and "Thunder From Down Under" that night. It was a "strip show" but not really :) Their bottoms stayed on the entire time. But is was quite the experience with 150 screaming women in one place :) Saturday we were all quite "tired" a.k.a. hungover from the night before, so we had a relaxing pool day and took it easy that afternoon. We then had dinner plans at TAO and I had the best sushi I have EVER had. I am a newbie on the sushi scene, so I'm not really cultured and able to speak great lengths on it, but this was some darn good sushi. We hit up some fun bars, nightclubs, tested the water at some gambling, went through the hotels and did a casino "hop." It was a great time, but I was ready to come home Sunday!

Running. You will see in my previous blog that I talked about being a "runner in progress", wanting to tackle a 5K next Spring. Well, plans have changed a bit. I have a friend who is/has convinced me to do the Indy Mini Marathon next Spring (May 2). Yes, a Mini Marathon....13.1 miles. THIRTEEN point ONE MILES. You heard that right. I've never even done a 5K, but, here goes nothing. So, today, upon going to the gym, and having never ran more than 3.2 miles on the treadmill, I challenged myself to get to at least 4. Well, I made it to 4.2 miles. My furthest distance to date. I honestly probably could have kept going endurance wise, but my legs were getting tired, which means I need to strength train more to build up my leg muscle. I know 4.2 is a long way from 13.1, but there are great training programs to follow, and I have a few good runner friends I can lean on for advice. Kyle said he would join, but I'm not sure he has 100% made up his mind. So, wish me luck. I can say that running is now becoming a "hobby" for me. As a stay at home mom, I look forward to my time at the gym each afternoon, kid free, sweating it out, listening to music, and watching HGTV- all uninterrupted. I feel so good when I am done running, and think it puts me in a better mood overall. Not many stay at home moms get time to do things for themselves, and this is one thing I can do for myself, that no one depends on me for, and that affects no one but myself. This challenge is really just for me. To see if I can do this, for myself. We will see how it goes once training starts (in January) but I'll keep upping my distance until then, hoping to be able to do 6 miles by the time training starts.

Proof I did 4.2!