Reflecting on the Concrete Jungle
After a few days back to the reality of kids, work, and life, I find myself in a moment of quiet reflection that is suddenly flooded with images and thoughts about our recent trip to Vegas. You may have seen video from 
The primary purpose of our trip was family bonding. Les and I have eight kids, of which Sevin is number one, and our family is of utmost importance. My mom passed away in September, leaving my father as the sole remaining grandparent to our kids. “Grandave” had talked for years about taking Les and me to Vegas, having been there multiple times himself for business and pleasure. So we finally took the plunge! We ventured into the den of iniquity led my dad and his wife, Jill.

It was basically the blind leading the blind.
Dad and Jill live in the mountains of North Carolina, really close to Cherokee, where he sneaks off to Harrah’s at the reservation after a morning of golf to play a little video poker now and then. Let’s just say he is an expert at penny slots, but not exactly a heavy hitter. Since he quit drinking and smoking years ago, he is thinking he needs to preserve his retirement income for a long future. He always seems to come out ahead, here’s to hoping he is right!!!!

Leading up to our trip, Les studied up on craps, thinking he was ready for the high limit room. But when push came to shove, the red white and blue slot machines and video craps were more our speed. Les was willing to risk it all for a bigger win. Me, I stop when ahead and move on. Different strokes for different folks!

The one thing my dad really wanted to do was the Beatles Cirque de Soleil”Love.” He was always a fan, and this was the music played around my house as a kid, so we were all on board. And what a great show!!!!



Groovy, baby!!!!!!!!!
Dad and Jill had to hit the hay early for a 6am flight on the morning of departure. That’s 3am eastern (our) time! So after an early dinner, Les and I headed to the Prince tribute show, Purple Reign.

Les is one of the biggest Price fans ever, so of course this was on the must-do list. And also of course, we had to splurge for the front row vip seats!



Well worth it, I must admit! Especially since we could tell the performers actually sang and played the instruments!!!!!

And not only that, but I almost thought Prince was standing right next to me!

I actually got chills!
But I woke up feeling like a little bit of a bad mom. We had left all of our kids back home in Florida. It was prom night for our senior son, Pace, and junior daughter, Prophecy. If something bad had happened, we would not have been there. Not to mention all the starving children we could feed with the money being tossed around in Las Vegas. BIG GUILT TRIP!!!!!!
But on the flip side, lots of jobs are to be had out there in that concrete jungle, and I guess many mouths do get fed as a result.

And not only that, we followed through on a promise to Dad, and that was really special!!!!
I reflect thankfully for our older kids that kept watch of our younger ones while we were gone. Thanks to #3 child, Season, and her boyfriend JP for keeping our “baby boy” Bene, and to #1 Sevin for going with his girlfriend, Morgan to the prom pictures to represent!



Vegas was, as Les said, “like Chuck E. Cheese on crack.” Sensory overload. Over the top. We had a great time, but as they say in Kansas, “There’s no place like home!”
