Anyways, CW sent me this when he first got there…

He got upgraded to a 60th floor suite at The Encore Hotel.  Now I was jealous.  I think I secretly do like Vegas, I was just trying to tell myself it was no biggie.  I was starting to wish I was there with them.  Damn.

That day and night I kept getting texts and pictures from them telling me to “get there” and that they missed me.  Well, about 10pm that night I decided to just “look” at how much flights were.  They in NO way ever figured I would actually jump on a plane mind you.  Getting pumped, I saw that flights weren’t bad actually.  Granted I would have lay-overs both ways (which I hate–yes, hoi paloy), but if I left that next morning at 6am, I would get to Vegas at 10:30am–not bad.  Next, I texted Tammy to see if there was any way she could stay with Wrigs and Goose.  Once she heard what I was thinking, she said, “of course”!  LOVE HER!!!!  Thank you again to my Tammy girl!  I never would’ve been able to go without her help.

So, next…holy moly…I realize that I needed to pack.  I figured it was Vegas, so it wasn’t too hard to just throw tons of dresses in a bag.  The hardest part was deciding what jewelry I was going to bring…and I hoped it matched the outfits I had thrown in there.  I know, what a big crisis to have.  So, I got 2 hours of sleep, loved on my pups, got up at 4 am and left the house when it was still dark out (you know that’s way out of the norm for me, so this must be important).

My flights were great (only an hour lay-over in Houston) and I actually managed to book window seats on all flights, woo-hoo!  This is when I really started getting antsy.  I could see the strip…I’m coming….kind of weird that Vegas actually has a lake…

I landed in Vegas, freaked a bit because my luggage was pretty much the last bag to come out of the turnstyle (although not entirely a disaster if I had to go shopping), and jumped in a cab.  The energy in that airport is addicting.  The “ding ding ding” of the slot machings, screams of people greeting each other, the signs of all the shows around town…I couldn’t help it, but I sooooo want to call them and tell them I was there, but, I had a plan…not sure what it was going to be, but I was determined to just “show” up and see their reactions.

This was also important to me because it seems we’ve all been pretty good at surprising each other…CW surprised me with a trip to Chicago for my bday one year (he wouldn’t let the ticket or security people at the airport even show me my boarding pass, I didn’t know till we sat down for a cocktail and he texted me a picture of my boarding pass saying “CHI”).  To top it off Kel and Jan were already there, in our hotel—I was in serious shock.  It was the best, street fest, great food, an architecture tour, concert, seeing my friends, brother and the Cubs!  Next it was our turn when we surprised Jan with an early trip out to San Fran for her bday.  We were sitting at a bar when they just wandered in (well, Kel obviously was in on it)…love surprises.  We had a limo take us around Napa one day and played that off like we were just going to breakfast…drove the coast and went to Pebble Beach, Carmel and Big Sur on a whim.  Another fab trip.  So–it was finally my turn, and I was ready–but, nervous.

Turns out I had a right to be nervous…I get to the hotel, go to the reservation desk and soon find out that they can’t just let me in CW’s room.  I get it–I could be some psycho ex-wife or something.  Ok, no biggie.  Blip..I get a text..it’s from CW and it’s a picture of the pool.  Ok, at least I know they’re here at the hotel.  So, I’m standing there looking out at the pool (and realize that there are 3 pools), I slowly figure out that it’s not going to be simple.  They have big, ol security guards at the entrances to the pools-you have to have a hotel key to enter.  I’m guessing they don’t want it to turn into the Sundays like the Hard Rock pool has.  I get it, but now, this is stressful.  I start texting, “whatchya guys up to“, “are ya hanging at the pool”, etc.  I was supposed to be on the boat with Steve and Lori, so that was part of my plan…”on the boat, not the greatest weather” (yes, I’m sneaky).  After about 20 minutes of getting no answer, I start calling, again, no one is answering me.  I’m figuring that they’re probably in the pool and won’t even look at their phones all day =( BOO!!!!  I keep trying and finally CW answers..ok, here we go…don’t blow it.

“Are you guys at the pool?”, “We just finished breakfast and heading there now”.  “Oh, well, we all sent you guys something to be delivered to the pool, but the hotel just called me and said they can’t do it, that you need to pick it up at the front desk”.  “I’ll send Janet.”, “No, Steve said it has to be you”. (I find out later that CW made both the girls go with him because he thought for sure it was going to be something obxnoxious like balloons or something that he’d be embarrassed to carry…haha).

There I am, with my luggage–I don’t wave, I don’t say anything, I just wait.  CW sees me first, points and stops dead in his tracks.  The girls kind of bump into him and follow his point….wa-lah!!!  They could NOT believe it, CW was in shock for about an hour.  It was the greatest surprise I’ve ever pulled off.  I was a part of one of those moments that I was watching in the airport–such love that I was there, ahhhh.

Whew…you still with me?  Yes, it took me that long to get to the point that I was in Vegas haha…We spent the day in the pool and headed to dinner that night.  SW’s is the coolest restaurant at the Encore hotel.  CW had reserved a table outside weeks before….

We got up early

(yes, I did also and didn’t even complain, CW was shocked).

Headed over to The Wynn for breakfast

and then spent another beautiful day like this…