6.04.2008

Set my soul on fire

I just woke up a few hours ago. I'm pretty sure I basically slept for 14 hours. We had a pretty busy, draining vacation in Las Vegas this weekend. My older brother got married (again) Saturday evening.

If you don't know my family's background, we lived in Las Vegas for 11 years. I consider it "where I grew up," and "home," even though I haven't lived there in exactly 9 years. I love going back, because there's a great balance for me between being a tourist, and going home. I know enough about downtown to know what I want to see and how to get there, but with everything changing so much, each experience feels new, and there's plenty I've never seen. More than the Strip, though, I enjoy heading into the residential parts of town, where tourists don't go. It's a really great town to live in. This weekend the weather was perfect. It felt like southern California to me, high 80s to mid 90s, LOW HUMIDITY. Here's some of the pictures I took. If you need more, I'm sure they'll all be posted on Facebook in the next few days.

Let's start with our amazing view at our first hotel....


My nieces getting manicures and pedicures (their hands were still drying)



Me and Bethany on The Strip in Jody's Mustang convertible




Go team? I hope the photographer's view of this was somewhat convincing.


Flower girls and ring bearer.


Beautiful house where the wedding was held


All the Smith Sisters-in-law


Forget the lights, this is what I miss about Las Vegas (The mountains, not the guardrails).



Our suite at the Venetian. It's how we roll.


Very similar to a picture from our honeymoon


A perfect 12th






The wedding was really great. It had its typical "Cory" moments, if you know him you know what I mean. The rest of the family spent the time chasing his daughters around, keeping them out of the pool. It was a little strange being at my brother's wedding and not knowing anyone there except my immediate family. But, I'm glad Cory has that kind of support in Las Vegas. Some day I'm going to have a chance to get to know his new wife. The only other time I had met her was the day before my wedding, and I'm not sure we said more than two sentences to each other. This time, it was her wedding, and we talked probably the same amount as before. She seems like a great person, very good for Cory.

The rest of the trip was slightly less stressful. On Sunday, Cory, Hannah, Jody, Victoria, Hope, and Grace all left Las Vegas, leaving my parents and Bethy and me. After sharing our bed with a 5-year-old the night before, we decided to splurge a bit and spent a night at the Venetian hotel. We were completely exhausted, but had a nice dinner at Grand Lux then walked along the "Grand Canal." The next day we had lunch with an old friend of mine, and I came down with something ending the day feeling horrible. We saw "Phantom" with my parents, which was amazing. We had bought tickets in the next to last row, which was what we could afford, but as soon as we sat down the usher asked us to follow him. I was thinking we'd be moved up a few rows, but he kept walking us down closer to the stage. He sat us in the 10th row, middle section. Bethany and I were just a few feet away from the chandelier when it fell. It was the perfect way to end our trip, until I stayed up almost all night with a fever. I survived the flight home and had lunch with my parents. Once Bethy and I finally got back home, I crashed on the couch. And, I must say I LOVE our bed. I haven't slept that well in a while.

That's our trip. Now real life is here, phone calls and emails to return, people to deal with. I hate it. But it must be done.

1 comment:

Bethany Smith said...

It was a bit exhausting. I don't even know how I kept going. But I enjoyed every minute of it because I was with you. Even if I got maybe and hour to two hours of sleep every night. <3