Las Vegas Desert Ice Competition

We're back from Vegas! Brooklynn was there for an ice skating competition and it turned out to be a nice little vacation. We drove down Thursday and arrived in Vegas about 630pm. We got settled in our hotel room (we did not stay on "The Strip", but at this really nice Hampton Inn that was about 10 miles from Las Vegas Blvd.) then went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner and drove around the area to see what was there. I have to apologize; I have gotten really bad at taking pictures, so I don't have very many.


Brooklynn and her friends, Kristin and Abby and her coach Kelly.

Anyway, Friday (yes Halloween day. Brook kept saying how weird it was to be doing all these non-Halloween things on Halloween. It didn't really even seem like the holiday) we headed to the strip to see M&M World and the Coke Store. Brook was in heaven, she is such a knick-knack shopper. She spent an hour in M&M World trying to decide what to get for her friends and herself. The Coke store wasn't nearly as cool, but she did manage to find a souvenier there too. We had to be back to the rink at 4 so we had a quick lunch at the Rainforest Cafe in the MGM then headed back to get ready for practice ice. We found a few of our ice skating friends and invited anyone who wanted to come back to our room for pizza and a movie, that was our big Halloween celebration. We ended up spending the night with just one other family, the Farimonds, but it was lots of fun. The girls went swimming then we watched Kung Fu Panda on Pay Per View. That was our Halloween. The good news is - NO LEFTOVER HALLOWEEN CANDY! No temptation!

Getting warmed up

Kristin, Abby, Brook and Emma making silly faces


Saturday was the day of the competition and we had a practice ice session at 6am, so we were up at 5 to get ready and be checked in by 545am. After practice we had just enough time to head back to the hotel, grab some breakfast, get dressed, hair done and makeup on and be back to the rink to check in for the competition. Brook skated at about 9am, and did really well. The competition was different than we were used to being in a different state, and even though our coach reviewed the rules and our programs followed those rules some of the girls we competed against were doing more difficult moves, that are not allowed at that level when we compete here at home. We never did find out how that all worked, but we took it with a grain of salt and knew that we had done our best. Brooklynn came in 5th out of 6 competitors, which was fantastic for her. Her goal was to just not come in last. I know that sounds weird, but we take it one step at a time around here.



After Brook competed, we went back to the hotel to get changed and took a little nap. We got lunch at this Asian place that was kind of like Teriyaki Stix then went to a movie. We saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Our ratings are as follows:
Brook: Liked it
Jason: Lame
Steph: Silly

Then it was back to the rink to see some of our friends compete. After everyone was done with their events for the day we met at Fuddruckers for dinner and a birthday celebration. Then came the fun part. We all headed to Circus Circus to the Adventuredome indoor theme park. The girls had a blast riding the rides and generally just being silly. The adults all tried valiantly to say awake, we'd been up since 5am after all. It was very fun!