Abby's family goes to Vegas every Spring Break with another group, which happens to be the family of Colton's basketball buddy Ethan. Abby's family invited Colton to come along, and Ethan had his girlfriend attending also (Abby and Emmalee happen to be best friends too). There were lots of pictures from the trip, and I had Colton do a write up ...
March 25 (Saturday) I got dropped off at Abby’s house around 3:00 to just hang around for an hour or two before getting ready to leave. After about an hour and a half, I helped Dustin (Abby’s dad), pack up all the luggage into his truck and we left for the dance studio that Abby had rehearsals at. Once we got there, we picked up Sydney (Abby’s sister), who just got done with dance, then Abby headed into the studio for about 45 minutes for rehearsals while the three of us waited in the car. Once she got out, we left for St. George. We made two stops on the way down there, once in Payson to get food at a Beto’s, we also stopped at a gas station to get some drinks before we got back on the freeway. Then we stopped once more before St. George at a gas station again for treats and snacks. A little after 10:00, we arrived at their condo in St. George where Hannah, (Abby’s sister), and Erica (Abby’s mom), were already there. Hannah had just gotten her tonsils out so Erica had flown down a day early to be with her for a bit. We only stayed up for about an hour more just chilling around the condo then we all headed to bed.
March 26 (Sunday) I don’t remember the time everyone got up but we pretty quickly packed everything up that we used so we could get on the road. For breakfast, we had some store-bought cinnamon rolls that were not very good, especially the frosting. Hannah had a lot of little gifts like treats from coworkers that we helped pack into her car, then when leaving, Abby and I drove Hannah back to her apartment as Hannah wasn’t really supposed to drive. We hung out there for just a little bit then Abby’s parents came and got us in the truck. We stopped at a gas station once more for a drink then were on the road to Vegas. We left at around 1:00 and got to Vegas at around 4:00. We Facetimed Ethan and Emmalee as we were arriving, who were already in the hottub of the hotel, so Abby and I just hurried and dropped off our luggage at our rooms and headed down to the pool to hangout with them. We swam for a couple hours and went back up to the hotel rooms.. Everyone just hung out for a couple of hours, then Abby, Emmalee, and Sydney got permission to take Dustin’s truck to head to the store to grab some stuff for Sydney. Back at the hotel, Ethan and I showed a magic trick to the adults that took them a long time to figure out. I had a couple other magic tricks that I was just completely blowing everyone’s minds with. After an hour, I got a call from Abby, telling me and Ethan to walk downstairs and across the street to the casino that had a really good place to get shakes. We thought it was weird that they couldn’t just come pick us up, but we walked over and saw why. They surprised us with a prom response poster, “We hit the JACKPOT for Prom! Yes!” They just went in on a poster together to respond to both of us. We took some pictures then got some shakes before heading back up to the hotel. For the rest of the night we played some games then Ethan, Emmalee, Abby and I watched a movie. We fell asleep for most of it but Ethan and I had to wake back up to head to the other room to actually fall asleep.
March 27 (Monday) Woke up early on Monday at around 7:00 to go on their usual hike (this trip/hike is a family tradition). Took about 30 minutes to get ready, pack up lunches and clothes before heading off. It was a 45 minute drive to the start of the hike in Arizona. The first hour of the hike was nothing special, just walking down the trail talking with everybody. After an hour, the trail led into the middle of these canyons, which was really cool. Just basically rocks on both sides of us while we were walking in the middle. Two hours in we came across the Colorado river. There were tough hills to hike up shortly after that. On the way down one of the hills, Ethan slid and landed his hand right on a cactus. Dustin, not very carefully, plucked the spikes out of his hand and we kept going. A few minutes later, we arrived at the streams of the hot springs. Also came across some nude old men on that part of the hike which was very fun. I changed into my swimsuit and some water shoes for this part. Ten minutes into the streams we came across the actual hot springs. There was a big ladder that led to four different pools of hot water, each getting hotter as you go higher up. We walked through all of them to the end, placed all of our bags and food down, then headed back into the third pool to relax for a bit. We talked for a bit with some other hikers then got back out to complete the second half of the hike. We ate our lunches after getting out and started walking again. The hike back didn’t seem as long, but it was a bit harder. We had to go up some large hills and canyons. It was particularly hard for Erica, this being the most strenuous work she’s done since her chemotherapy in just a few months ago. She had breast cancer last year but was able to beat it. We finished the last bit of the hike and then had the drive back to the hotel. The parents dropped all of us off then went back out to do some grocery shopping. Abby and I took a little nap once we got back. We just chilled out for the rest of the day as everyone was pretty exhausted after the six mile hike. The parents made some frozen lasagna and enchiladas for dinner that we all ate while watching tv. Luckily, Abby’s family is also obsessed with The Office, so that was always an easy option to turn on. I spent a lot of time in the room messing and solving the Rubik’s cube that Dustin brought, he is also able to solve one and we spent a lot of the week geeking out over it. Nothing else really happened for the rest of the day, the four of us watched another movie to end off the night before Ethan and I headed back to the other room.
March 28 (Tuesday) The girls had already scoped out the days of the trip that would be the warmest, so they had already planned that Tuesday was going to be a pool day. Abby and Emmalee were really looking forward to tanning by the pool and this was the best day to do it. We headed down to the pool in the morning, where it was pretty hard to find a table to claim. We eventually got one. We were at the pool for over five hours, I did pretty good with sunscreen, my only sunburns actually coming from Wednesday. Everyone showered up once we got back up to the hotel room and just hung out for a couple of hours. After a while, we decided to go to the outlets, which is pretty much a mall. We walked around the stores for a while, especially Nike since there was some cool stuff there. While the girls spent a lot of time in the Vans store, I got distracted by the little shops in the middle of the hallways that were selling some interesting rubik’s cubes. I bought a 3x3 cube that was built of spheres instead of squares. Abby and Emmalee bought some cool hats and once we got out of there, we all headed back to the casino where the shake place was and got some dinner there. They had some decent burgers and fries, which we all ordered. We only had a few minutes back at the hotel after, Abby and Emmalee wanted to do a little photoshoot with a digital camera on top of a parking garage right next to the hotel. It was really fun and we got some good pictures, even though we had to work through the wind. We just watched some tv once we got back then went to bed after.
March 29 (Wednesday) Wednesday was probably the least eventful day of the trip. Right after breakfast, Emmalee had to leave Vegas early, as she had a volleyball tournament starting up the next day. We hit the pool once again for a few hours, but it was a lot colder this time. The wind was blowing pretty hard so I spent most of the time in the hot tub rather than the cold pool. We tried a new board game that Ethan’s family had for about an hour. I did not enjoy it all though because it was long and complicated. We chilled out for another couple hours then Dustin suggested we go out to the big Cabela's store. We walked around there for a while and it was actually really interesting, especially the small aquarium that they had. Ethan and a few of the parents were really craving some fish tacos for a while so we hit up a fish grill a couple hours later. The menu showed what items were spicy and what items weren’t. Most of the fish items were listed as spicy so I just got some chicken tacos, which were still very good. We drove back to the hotel after that and played some more board games. Dustin showed me a short documentary on Netflix about some of the fastest speedcubers, which were people who competitively solved rubik’s cubes. Not much else happened that night, watched a bit of tv then just headed to bed.
March 30 (Thursday) This day was also not that eventful. We didn’t really do anything in the morning, watched a bit of The Office with Abby’s family and then Abby turned on the movie, World War Z. It’s an intense zombie apocalypse story that I definitely fell asleep during. Dustin snapped a funny photo of me and Ethan just slumped out on the couch while watching the movie. A bit later that day, we split up for lunch. Those who liked sushi went to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant while the rest of us headed to Buffalo Wild Wings. Lunch was really good and we met back up right after where Ethan’s family split off to the outlets again to get a gift for Emmalee’s birthday. Abby’s family and I drove for a while around the strip looking at all the buildings. We got back to the hotel and watched some more of The Office, Dustin and I also watched some I.T. Crowd. I tried to learn some more magic tricks during that evening but it didn’t go so well. Once it got dark out, we all headed down to the hottub for our last night there. Dustin and Erica also picked up some shakes for everyone to eat while in the hottub. Once we got back up to the rooms, we just hung out for a couple hours before everyone went to bed.
March 31 (Friday) Friday was just all about packing up and leaving. Ethan’s family was leaving a few hours earlier than Abby’s, and I was in their room so I got up a bit earlier than all of Abby’s family. I used that time to pack all of my stuff up and help Ethan’s family pack up everything they brought. From there, it was just more packing until we were ready to leave at 11:00. We made some stops on the drive back, we stopped in St. George to see Hannah for a bit and stopped by some friends of Abby’s family for a bit. We also hit a gas station to get some drinks and then we drove all the way back. I helped Dustin take everything off the truck and then Abby and I headed over to Emmalee’s house for her birthday. We were playing some games at her house when we had the genius idea that whoever lost the next game would have to swallow Emmalee’s new goldfish that some of her teammates got her as a joke gift. Ethan and I went into her room to see the goldfish when Carter also came in and just asked how funny it would be if he swallowed it while everyone was in the other room. We thought he was joking but we closed the door and he swallowed it. Highlight of the night.
