dirty vegas

The shields girls plus mom Christy were going on a girls only/no kids trip to Vegas. They invited me along and and after a drawn out decision making process filled with anxiety and stress, I finally decided to go. I was scared and sad to leave Oscar for the first time but I am so glad I went. Nate basically forced me to go and I am glad he did. Christy is such a fun mom to be on a trip with and we all spent so much time laughing that I nearly peed my pants once. I knew it would be a good trip when Amy mass texted all of the girls telling us not to forget our slutty shoes and lip gloss. (Not a single one of us had a shoe with a heel higher than one inch) We stayed at the Planet Hollywood hotel in a Legends of the Fall themed room. There were pictures of Brad Pitt all over our room, and a steamy one of him directly above the romantic over-sized bathtub. Here are the highlights of the trip...



Friday night we went to a piano bar to see this killer piano duo that took requests w/tips from the crowd all night. We all thought we were big shots when we each gave him requests with $5 attached to each request, until they started announcing their $20, $40, $60, and $100 requests. Turns out $5 won't get you "Only girl in the world" by Rihanna- they totally ignored that request.


Sister slacks purchases. Sooooo much shopping went on in Vegas. ( So much, in fact, that we became delirious from shopping and didn't notice the thief that pick pocketed Tara's purse and stole her wallet right from under our noses. Passport, cash, cards, license. I HATE thieves.) Vegas shopping is a little different in that it entails being attacked by SUPER loud and aggressive club music no matter where you go. Actually, not just shopping, I think there is some kind of city ordinance in Vegas that tourists MUST be bombarded with absurdly loud club music at all times, in all things, and in all places.


Christy was really antsy to go to a club the whole trip. I think mostly it was because she genuinely thought us girls wanted to go and that her "old mom" self was holding us back. We tried to explain to her MANY times that we truly had no interest in going clubbing, but she thought we were just being nice. Finally we decided to educate her on what actually went on in a club so that she'd lose interest in going. We asked her what she thought happened there. She said, " you know just dancing" and then she did a little dance kind of like the mashed potato or the twist. Then we taught her the horrors of what kind of dancing actually went on there. (The sneaky bump you feel from behind you while your minding your own business dancing.) She laughed so hard she almost peed her pants but she didn't believe us. So later that night we get "VIP" passes to go to some club JET for free, and we decide to finally just show her what really happens there. All we had to do was walk down the dark corridor of the club entrance and be attacked by some Pitbull song and she finally understood it was a whole different ball game. We wanted to go in to show her what it was like but we had forgotten Tara no longer had an ID. So here she is after being traumatized by the realization of my generation's filth.


Yes Sally is doing the splits in this picture. We got to go to the The Beatles LOVE Ciique du Soleil show! I almost didn't get to go because I was a last minute addition to the Vegas group and there kind of was no way to just add on a seat next to the group. But Christy worked her magic and got me a ticket and i am SO GLAD she did. Thank you SO MUCH Christy, it was truly the best show I've ever seen. I've been to so many concerts and I really think this was the best show I've ever seen. The music sounded so incredible. It was almost like the amazing sound of a record but more perfect and way louder. They had such good song selection. I think we all were expecting the same old hits that are over played, but they did a great job at choosing Beatles songs that haven't been run into the ground. I also think I loved this show because I have never really found The Beatles appealing. I know, I know, I'm un-American, I understand that. I get that they are the original of everything, but I just have never found their music appealing. This show FINALLY made it click for me, I finally get it. I get the Beatles now, and I love their music.




Cute mom and daughters in the glitz of the mall with the crystal ceiling. Giant drapes and walls of crystals. Glitz, glitz, glitz.

We ended the trip with a bang though. As we were leaving the parking lot of a strip mall off the Vegas strip, I was driving with Sally caravaning with the other girls. I had my window down and was driving slowly through the parking lot as a man runs right past me on my side of the truck. Sally and I both laugh and say, "woah, he for sure just robbed some place. he's running from trouble." He was truly running for his life, sweaty and panicked, but we just kept going and then saw two men that were chasing him. We told them which way he went. We go a couple hundred more feet and see cops zooming into the gas station in front of us and there is a dead body on the ground. Immediately in seconds, ambulances and tons of cop cars swarm into the gas station. There was a woman screaming crying and people everywhere. I almost turned around to go follow the guy without really thinking, but Sally said no, we probably shouldn't. We told the cops what he looked like and what direction he went. No one really seemed too interested and no one of authority was really moving at all. Sally and I were really frustrated that no one went to go chase him. We looked up the story in the news and it turns out the victim who was shot multiple times, hasn't died but is is critical condition and they haven't gotten the guy that did it yet. SO FRUSTRATING. I had such a fun time with the girls and we made some great memories, but I think Sin City is a pretty accurate nickname for Las Vegas.