Football

First of all, I have to give a huge shout out to the best in-laws ever. Not only did they suggest we go to Las Vegas for the Utah/Boise State game, they bleed BLUE. BYU blue. They wanted me to experience a bowl game and thought it'd be fun to go to.

We left Tuesday afternoon and headed down to St. George. My father-in-law knows a guy who has a third (!) home down there and said he'd be very offended if we didn't stay there. It was a lot nicer than the Hampton which was where we were planning on staying. And it smelled better because we didn't have to share a room with my stinky brother-in-law. j/k

The house had amazing views of lava rock and the red rock up by Entrada. If you look to the left of the picture, you can see a rainbow on the left-side of the window. WOW! Totally gorgeous.

To be honest, I was as excited to go shopping in Vegas as I was to go to the football game. I couldn't wait to head to H&M. I wasn't disappointed! It was three stories of clothes, clothes and more clothes. I'd get an armful and try different things on from each level. Dallin got REALLY bored. But I made the most of the hour I had in paradise. I got two new coats. I fell in LOVE with them. I got the long black one that has some leather accents on it and a double-breasted, shorter, navy blue coat. I've been looking for a navy coat for forever and I finally found it! After my mega shopping spree we went to a casino to play some roulette.

DISCLAIMER: As shocking as it is, I've never gambled in my life before. The last time I was in Vegas and of legal age to gamble, my bff and I were going to play some nickel slots but everything is electronic now, you don't just stick your money in, and we were too lazy to figure it out!

I watched Dallin and Mike lose $20 real fast and I didn't want to play. It looked so dumb! Why would I just want to give this stranger $20 and lose it and not even get something cute out of it?! Dallin finally convinced me to just try it and I played for quite a while. I scored on one play and actually went up by about $10. I guess I got greedy because then I decided I wanted to win all the money back I just spent at H&M and kept playing. Ultimately, I lost my $20 and all the money I spent at H&M but at least I got cute clothes.

We went to dinner then headed out to Sam Boyd Stadium. The DUMPIEST stadium ever! Their parking lot isn't even paved! And with the record amounts of water that had been dumping non-stop, it was a mud pit. We made it to our seats armed for another monsoon but it quit raining through the whole game! Just little sprinkles here and there.

Boyz II Men sang the National Anthem and there was a cool flyover at the end of the song. It blew out my eardrums. You couldn't even hear the end of the song if you tried. It was a pretty raucous crowd and we had to laugh at all the drunk fans on both sides. The Utes played amazing the first little bit and I actually started to believe that we were going to give them a fight and make for a really close game! Then our receivers must have took lessons from their rivals down south and started dropping every ball thrown there way. It was ugly. It was still a fun atmosphere to be in and I'm glad that we went! The parking lot was a nightmare to get out of but we made it back to St. George that night before we had to hit the roads and brave the potholes to come home. (Who fixes potholes and shuts down the freeway 2 days before Christmas anyway?!)

I'm so glad we went. It was SO nice to get away. We even stopped at the cemetery in Payson to see my grandparents on the way home. That was special since I hadn't been down there since their funerals almost a year ago. Their headstone is so pretty and Mike blazed a trail through the snow so I could get out there since I had on sweat-capris. So thanks to Dallin, Mike and Thomas for being good sports and not rubbing in the loss too bad!