Las Vegas/Miss USA

I'm back from Las Vegas, and one thing I can definitely say for this trip is that it was full of excitement - both good and bad (and sometimes really bad!). Heather Rouba asked me to come along with her to attend the Miss USA pageant. Her modeling agency, The Anthony David Agency, represents Miss Kansas and Miss Oklahoma and she wanted to see them compete. Her sister-in-law has a relative who works with American Airlines. Through her, we could have standby tickets flying out of Dallas for next to nothing. It sounded good to us so we were in! Note to self: if something sounds to good to be true, it usually IS! So we drove down Thursday night to Dallas, stayed at her brother and sister-in-law's house, got up Friday morning at 4:45am and headed to the airport. Here we are in the terminal waiting for the first flight out to Vegas. Don't we look so happy?Donna Morgan tunic provided by Dillards Penn Square

Well, everything downhill from there! As a standby flyer, you wait until everyone else has boarded the plane and, once they see how many seats they have left open, they call the standby passengers. As we were waiting to be called for the first flight, another passenger told us that the absolute worst day to fly standby to Vegas is Friday because it's so popular. We had no idea! We don't ever go to Vegas and we had never flown standy before. We were clueless!

So sure enough, we missed the first flight. We were still trying to stay positive at this point though, so we somewhat cheerfully walked to another terminal to wait for the next flight out. I'm sure you can guess by now that we missed that one too....... AND the next one. We were already really worried about getting out when bad weather in the area caused the airline to cancel the next three flights out to Vegas. Fabulous! So now all of the people whose flights were canceled were on standby for the next flights - ahead of us. Suddenly we were 100 and 101 on the standby list. Not only were we not going to make it to Vegas that day, we were worried we wouldn't even make it out on Saturday.

We contemplated just giving up and driving home at that point but, not only had we been looking forward to this trip, we had non-refundable Miss USA tickets that weren't cheap and Cirque de Soleil tickets that really weren't cheap. It killed us to just walk away from it but we were stuck. The tickets at that point, if we had tried to just purchase them, were astronomical and neither of us could do that. Finally, Heather decided to contact her husband's host parents (Yury is from Belarus) because she knew his host dad, Brad, had tons of frequent flier miles from his business travels. She explained to him our situation and he instantly did what he could to secure us two tickets out that evening. He called her back to tell her we were officially booked on the 9:30pm flight to Vegas! This was such a blessing! There were tons of people whose flights were canceled that were going to be stuck at the airport that night. Without Brad, we would not have made it to Vegas. I am sooo grateful for him!

While we were waiting at the airport to hear back from Brad, Heather looked over my shoulder and said "There's Jon McCain!". Are you kidding? Nope. Sure enough, there was Jon McCain standing just feet away. So I sure did dig out my banner and walk over to him to ask him for a picture. He was so kind and even said he knew where Edmond was! As crazy as the day had been up to that point, this was definitely something that perked us up! Here I am with Mr. McCain!

Since we had several hours before our flight out, Heather's brother and sister-in-law came back to get us and take us to dinner with them. We went to a barbecue place and ate darn near everything they had! We hadn't eaten all day!

FINALLY, we made it to Vegas!!! I couldn't look more tired in this photo.

We went to pick up our rental car and, since it was midnight by this point, the only car they had left was a Grand Marquis. It wasn't exactly what we we pictured ourselves in to cruise the strip but hey, it was comfy. I refered to it as our "couch on wheels". As we started heading down the strip toward our hotel, a car pulled up next to us and started honking. Niether of us would look their direction. We were thinking "Really? We are exhausted looking and in a Grand Marquis. You are seriously honking at us?!" They finally gave up and moved on. About a mile later it dawned on us we didn't have our headlights on! We felt very humbled!

So we finally fell into bed at what was 3am to our bodies, which were still on Central Standard time. We had been up almost 24 hours straight. BUT WE WERE THERE!!!!

So now for the fun part of the trip! (I do realize this is becoming the longest post ever in the history of blogging!) We hit the strip the next morning to check out the hotels and do some shopping. We instantly found my favorite store on the planet! Kensie tunic and leggings provided by Dillard Penn Square

In front of the Paris hotel and "The Eiffel Tower" (with Zara shopping bags, you'll notice!)

Inside Paris, we met another of Heather's models who was there to see the pageant, Michelle, and Mrs. Nevada, April Swartz for lunch. I had a ham and cheese crepe that was yuuuuummmmmy!
The fountains outside the Bellagio

Michelle, Heather and I in front of the "Arc de Triomphe"

Here we are at dinner before seeing the Cirque de Soleil show, "O". Words cannot describe how amazing this show was. The restaurant had THE most amazing chocolate-dipped strawberries!
Ok, I had to take this picture. Heather is 6'1" without shoes so here she's about 6'4". While she was waiting in line, this petite Asian lady walked up and stood next to her. She literally came to her waist! It cracked me up!
The Chihuly exhibit on the ceiling of the Bellagio. All of those flowers are made of blown glass!
I couldn't come all the way to Vegas and not play a single slot machine. I went all out and spent a whopping $3!!!
On Sunday, we pretty much spent the entire day at the Planet Hollwood hotel. It is where the Miss USA pageant took place that evening. We loved the modern look of the hotel and I somehow dressed to match the interior! Evo Vorro dress and Jessica Simpson striped wedges provided by Dillards Penn Square

While at Planet Hollywood, we ate at an amazing Mexican restaurant, Yolos.Heather's Kensie dress provided by Dillards Penn Square

With April and Michelle inside the Venetian

Here I am all ready for the pageant! Every person there that had a title of any kind wore her banner. We ladies were all over Planet Hollywood! I have to admit that I felt a little like a celebrity! I was taking pictures with people all night! I even met a couple of people from Oklahoma. It was a very fun evening.
I met a lady that I will be competing against in Tuscon. She was so sweet. It wasn't until we were posing for this picture that we realized we were Michigan and Oklahoma - the same as the top two in that night's Miss USA pageant!

I was a little starstruck when I got to meet Diane Tucker. She was Mrs. America in 2007 and went on to win Mrs. World! She is sooo beautiful and every bit as sweet. Let's hope some of her good luck rubbed off on me!With the adorable Kandis Holt, Miss Oklahoma Teen USA
Here I am with 1st runner-up and Miss Oklahoma USA, Morgan Woolard. She is so gorgeous. I kinda just wanted to stare at her!

With Mrs. Nevada 2009, April SwartzEven though we were sad Morgan didn't win, we had such a fun time.

Well, it was a good thing that we had a really good two days because the drama of our travels were not yet over. We left our hotel at 5:30am, got to the airport, and checked in without a hitch. Security even went quickly. Things were going so well that, after I mentioned it outloud, I actually said "I hope I didn't just jinx us!"

Well, apparently I did. After a stress-free flight, we arrived in Dallas at 1pm. We got on the shuttle to get back to our car so we could head home to Oklahoma when Heather realized she couldn't find the car keys. As in, THE KEYS WERE NO WHERE TO BE FOUND AND WE HAD NO WAY OF DRIVING THE CAR HOME. We searched every inch of our bags and the keys were nowhere. I felt so sorry for Heather because I knew that, for every bit of freak out I had going on, she had it twice as bad. The nice shuttle driver dropped us off at the parking lot office so we could check lot and found. We kept our fingers crossed that they had been left on the bus when we were at the airport the first time. No such luck. Heather called and hired a tow truck to take her car to the nearest Nissan dealership. Once there, they would be able to take the VIN number and make and program a new key. So of course the tow truck driver (who was supposed to show up within the hour) took THREE hours to get there. The only place Heather and I had to sit at the office while we waited for him was in two wheelchairs that were back behind the building. We decided to have someone take a picture, telling ourselves that we would laugh at it all someday. I mean, seriously, what are the odds that all of this would happen to us in one trip!? I would love to know how many hours we spent at DFW airport when you total it all up. We were starting to feel like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. After three hours of waiting, we made it to the dealership where they (thankfully) made and programmed the key within 45 minutes. We were finally on our way home!!!!

This trip had a lot of stressful and tiring moments, and a lot of amazing and fun moments (I, of course, talked about CF to many new people!). One thing is for sure - it was a trip I will never forget!