Kelly's Best of the West Tournament

BEST OF THE WEST!!!

This weekend finally came!!  Kelly, Erika and I had been counting down the days :).  And boy did it deliver!  The drive down was interesting, with the slushy roads, Kelly driving, all the stops (bathroom, drinks, treats, gas, to switch drivers you name it :) felt like we stopped a million times), and it felt like it took forever to get there.  

Kelly got four hours of driving! But we made it!  Got to the hotel around 2:30, found our room and put our (Free because of Nate's Government status) parking pass in the car dash and drove out to Carl's Jr. for some late lunch.  Then it was time for their first game!  This first game was pretty cold.  Too cold.  Luckily we were watching Lacrosse!  Made it all worth it.  I was so glad I had Erika with me and didn't have to sit there alone.  She was good company!  We lost to Skyline, but had a whole night of fun ahead of us! 

 We headed back to the hotel.  Kelly showered and got ready for her all-night pizza party with the boys lacrosse team.  Erika and I got settled in for some Chinese take out and movies in bed :).  It was so much fun to spend that time together!  We were shocked with how much food came!  I had purposely ordered for 1 because it was a little pricey, thinking we'd have to supplement with the treats we had brought, but it was SO MUCH FOOD!!  We barely scratched the surface, the two of us!  I loved the sushi!  It's been a LONG time since I had sushi!  We watched (Erika's choice) Tinker Bell and didn't even get all the way through it before Erika was done and konked out on the pillow next to me :).  I had to stay up waiting for Kelly the rest of the night by myself!  I learned that it's probably not a good idea for me to watch Forensic Files that late at night, in a hotel, basically by myself, while my teenager is out "partying" :).  In the morning, we were able to get ready pretty casually, we LOVED that the shower had amazing tea tree shampoo and conditioner in the shower!  Not the lame hotel stuff!  We went downstairs for our free breakfast which was amazing as well!  I really liked this hotel!  I would totally recommend it to anyone!  Springhill Suites in Henderson, NV.  After breakfast, we sadly packed up our bags and loaded the car to check out and head on out to her second game.  We were playing Jordan at 10:00.  Funny that we had to drive six hours away to play a bunch of schools that are right here in our valley!

  We lost that game, which was a bummer, we really didn't want to lose to them again after state last year.  But we found Panda Express and enjoyed some lunch.  After that we weren't really sure what to do with our time- we had a couple hours to kill.  So we decided it was the perfect time to go out to the temple!  It was only a half hour away, so we figured we had plenty of time.  We got there and walked around and took pictures- absolutely loving the place!  Kelly and Erika classified the palm trees.  Giving them different names and such.  It was a great time!  

Then the fun all ended when we were heading back to the field and my phone started taking us a weird way AROUND the mountain range behind us.  It was weird, and I wasn't sure it was the way we wanted to go, but it looked like it could work, just looking at the map.  And there weren't other options.  So I headed out that way.  It was nerve-racking because it was so desert-y.  Felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and I was checking to make sure we had enough water if we were to get stranded or something... even though we were only miles out of town.  So we kept driving.  Following my phone.  Then we came to this little building/gate/pay station and found out it was in fact a way to get to Henderson, but that we needed to pay $25 to get through!  I was not in the mood to pay money to drive somewhere, so I decided (STUPIDEST DECISION EVER) to turn around and go back the way we came.  The problem was- we were already running low on time.  And unfortunately, there wasn't a "way we came".  We had to take all the back roads to get there and were 20 minutes late for Kelly's 30 minute warm up.  Jaw drop.  I felt horrible!!  Kelly handled it really well- I would have been crying if I were her.  And of course! because she was late- they didn't start her, or give her as much playing time.  SO IRRITATING!!  I don't want to be a special case, I don't feel like we should have special treatment, but we are ALWAYS AT EVERYTHING AND ON TIME!!  Kelly NEVER misses practice or ANYTHING for that matter!!  So it bugged me.  I'm over it now, but seriously!!  Not my favorite part of the trip.  I'm surprised I even wrote about it- I've been trying to block these hours out of my mind!  They were not fun.  But anyway- we got back to the field, played game three- lost.  Then back to back, we played Viewmont too.  This game was intense!  We were ahead the whole game, and then somehow Viewmont scored a couple goals during the last few minutes!!  I couldn't believe it!  We were glad we didn't lose, but the tie was a bummer.  After that game and mine and Erika's hike back to the car, we were back on the road.  I had decided that we needed to stop in Vegas for some tourist-y fun.  I wish I had thought this through a little further, but it ended up going okay.  We parked at the MGM hotel and made the trek through the parking garage, the food court of the hotel, then out onto the strip and over to M&M World!  

This is one of my favorite places.  It's just so cute and colorful :).  All we did was walk through and look at all the stuff.  Kelly picked out a cute hoodie, Erika picked out a pen and I found a deck of cards.  When we bought our souvenirs they offered us a $5 blanket :).  So we got that too.  It was a fun time with mygirls, but I think we were all a little nervous about getting back to the car.  It was darker outside when we were done, than I thought it would be.  So that was nerve-racking.  But with the help of Heavenly Father we found our way back to the car and were able to really start home!  It was almost 8:00 when we left Las Vegas.  We stopped for some dinner and then drove and drove and drove.  With onlya few stops to use the bathroom or buy random foods to keep me awake.  I cannot believe how long that drive felt!  I had asked Heavenly Father to help me not get sleepy- I didn't want to drive sleepy (I had promised Zero Fatalities I wouldn't) and knew if I started to doze off I would go find a hotel.  I didn't want to do that though, so that was my prayer- I was fine with being tired- I just didn't want to be drowsy or sleepy.  It was quite the miracle that we made it all the way home without me getting sleepy.  We got home around 2:00 am. Time to sleep!  2-22-19--2-24-19