What do you do when you're grieving?

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It’s probably not the norm to pack up and head to Las Vegas the day after ones father’s funeral.  But we did.  The trip had been planned as Brady was scheduled to attend the NAB Conference, and it presented as a great opportunity for us to flee town for a few days – just the four of us. 

I hardly remember throwing our belongings into suitcases last Sunday in the aftermath of sadness that filled my soul.  After some thought, we decided to follow through with the chance to have a “vacation” after not having been away since our last trip to Colorado in mid-2013 when I was battling horrible morning sickness while pregnant with Liam.   (WHO NAMED IT MORNING SICKNESS?)

A few days away from our business, a few days away from homestudy paperwork, a few days away from responsibilities & obligations.  We had zero plans other than a scheduled flight there and a scheduled flight back.  It sounded wonderful. 

The trip was filled with a lot of laughs, a few 4-year old tantrums, some tears and sorrow on my behalf, but mostly the extraordinary gift of presence and family.  We’d managed to put aside all conversations of the past or future and just be.  It was healing in many ways, but also extremely foreign after months of feeling like I couldn’t make plans for something as short as a coffee date let alone anything else.  My calendar was finally wide open.  It’s a relief yet eerie, really. 

A week has passed now since that day we packed up and jet set on our trip.  In reflection, here is a list of my top 12 most memorable Las Vegas moments:

12. Ubering with two kids through Sin City - while wearing one - and carrying two full grocery bags & three gallons of water.  This has to have been the equivalent of running the Boston Marathon.  I won the gold medal, thank you very much.  

11. Walking through the Mandalay Bay Shark Aquarium.  The beautiful aquatic life turned us all in to curious wide-eyed beings.  It was magical.  

10. Getting to our hotel room & zipping open the suitcase to discover that a bag of cocoa powder had exploded while in route.  It managed to completely cover all of Brady’s underwear and not much else.  I told him he better not toot or he might blow a chocolate cloud of dust.  

9. Skyla’s Vegas blowout.  I threw away her outfit & my shirt.  ‘Nuff said. 

8. Gazing out the window & knowing that my dad took in the same view only two months ago.  He’d stayed at the Circus Circus two floors higher than us while he was on his crazy last-hurrah road trip in late January.  

7. Experiencing our kids’ first plane rides!  Skyla rocked it & Liam was excited as could be.  A bit too excited considering it was passed our bed times.  Go.  To.  Sleep, child.    

6. Liam walking up to Zoltar to wish that his head would get bigger and he would grow a mighty beard.

5. Exploring Circus Circus & the Adventure Dome.  Rides, games, & clowns galore!  Brady was not disappointed to have missed out on the clowns.  

4. Laying smooshed up against Brady while together occupying 1/3 of a queen size bed while a horizontal 4-year old occupied the rest, while Skyla had the other queen bed entirely to herself.  

#parenting #iwasnotcomplaining

3. Lounging poolside with our babe snoozing on my chest while watching Brady & Liam laugh & play in the pool.  The sun was hot, the music was fun, and that moment was blissful.  

   

2. Volunteering for Tribute in the MSP airport (LONGEST DAY EVER!)  We caught a 12:45am flight home from Vegas to Minneapolis, landed, and endured our 4-hour layover as planned.  Before we boarded our flight home, they asked for volunteers to stay back due to having overbooked the plane.  They offered compensated flight expenses, so we shot up to the service counter to volunteer to wait the additional four hours until the next plane.  We’d agreed that we were insane & sleep-deprived.  That was possibly the longest four hours ever.  And then it was time to board again...

And they needed more people to stay back while offering a hotel stay for the night.  We took it.  Liam conked out around 2pm that afternoon and slept until 7AM the next morning.  Skyla slept 12 hours, as Brady & I had a full night’s sleep also.  We woke up well rested & ready for our final jaunt home.  I’m thankful we made it home to La Crosse before the April blizzard hit. 

1. The famous m&m store on the Vegas Strip.  It was the one & only place that Liam had been overly eager to visit.  We’d been walking and exploring for hours already, and minutes before we’d finally made it there, our tired boy fell asleep in the stroller.  By “asleep” I mean he’d passed out cold.  We tried to wake him but he was zonked.    

We did what any A+ parents would do in that situation and took lots of pictures of him asleep throughout the store.  A few onlookers laughed as we positioned him in front of the various displays, and we’d contemplated whether to tell him or not that we’d gone there altogether.  We took our sweet time browsing through the three-story store in hopes that he’d wake up.  He didn’t. 

So, we walked to the nearby Walgreens and bought him a $2 bag of m&m’s to enjoy when he woke up.  He was one happy kid with that bag of m&m’s, and he laughed at the pictures of himself asleep throughout the store.  “That was SO cool, mom & dad!”