I have a confession to make: even though I intended to bring a camera and take lots of lovely pictures for you of Las Vegas, it seems that our camera was that one thing thing we forgot! I thought about buying a small digital camera while we were there, but it turns out that Las Vegas is not really the place to get quality at a decent price. Sorry! So instead, I will take some pictures from online to give you an idea of what we saw.
On Friday (before we left), Kayle and I hosted a board game night at our house. Sarah and Gary Burns came over and we played Wits and Wagers and Settlers of Catan (SeaFarers). We also enjoyed M&Ms, chips and salsa, strawberries, and fresh pineapple...and, of course, some great conversation. Gary and Sarah were in our old CG, so it was delightful to see them again and share a love for board games. We invited our current community group members too, but they were all unable to come. They say, "the more the merrier," but sometimes small groups can be even more fun.
On Saturday morning, we went to go help the Salvation Army in Renton install some computer software. They had about 10 computers donated with nothing on them, not even an operating system. Armed with Windows 7 and Office 2010, Kayle and I were determined to get those computers in good working order, so the after-school tutoring program could finally use them after almost 2 years of waiting. When we first arrived, Kayle promptly announced that it would take us no more than an hour to install everything. We left about 5 1/2 hours later, tired but satisfied that we did a good job. We needed to install Windows XP before we could load Windows 7, so we basically had an assembly line of discs and command prompts. Meanwhile, Kayle also replaced some of the CD drives that weren't working and installed more memory, taking needed parts from the computers that would never be fully operational. All in all, we got 8 computers fully installed and connected to the internet despite many, many obstacles involving codes and missing discs. We did it (and I actually helped a lot...you can even ask Kayle)!
That night, we came home and packed for our trip. On Sunday, we woke up bright and early to pick up another Microsoftie at 5:30am. Our plane left at 7:50am, so we were all dragging ourselves around and looking forward to just a little more sleep. We arrived in Las Vegas around noon and picked up our rental car, a silver PT Cruiser. Then we checked into the Bellagio hotel, where Kayle's Visual Studio conference was held.
We had a nice view of the courtyard with the hotel pools as we stayed on the 21st floor. Everything in Las Vegas is over-the-top so there was a lot of artwork and a beautiful botantical gardens area to explore, right in our hotel.
After checking into the conference, we bought tickets to see Blue Man Group, a comedic, and somewhat strange, percussion show.
It played in the Venetian hotel, so we had plenty of time to walk around. We also ate at the Bellagio's buffet and discovered our own gluttony. Both of us were full beyond enjoyment, which was probably aided by the fact that we entered the buffet at brunch and stayed until they put out the new food for dinner. Alaskan King crab legs (which I'm still mildly allergic to, I re-discovered), prime rib, steak, amazing desserts, sushi, quail, and pretty much every side dish you could ever want! Very delicious! We went back to the buffet later in the week and did not over-indulge ourselves to the point of regret...we learned our lesson!
Monday was Kayle's busiest day for Microsoft, so I had three large chunks of time to spend on my own. We ate the continental breakfast together before parting ways. Kayle spent most of his time standing at a booth for Visual Studio languages and answering questions about new features of the 2010 product.
He knew about 10 people from work and they fed him nice lunches every day. Kayle also attended the keynote speakers and a session or two of interesting lectures/training. On Monday night, he had a lovely work dinner (without me!) and enjoyed the amazing food there.
Meanwhile, I got out my walking shoes and book and decided to tour the Strip. I sat by the pool for a while, sat by the aquarium in Caesars Palace (hotel next door), walked by the exceeding expensive shops (Prada, Armani, Rolex...ooh la la), and looked for a camera. I walked from my hotel all the way to the Venetian in one direction and the MGM Grand in the other direction, stopping at the M&M World store, a Ghiradelli ice cream shop, and a few camera stores. Mostly, I liked just walking around in some of the luxurious hotels, all decorated according to theme and many with something interesting and free to see. Unfortunately, I got shin splints from all that walking around, so I was less inclined to tour with Kayle when he was done with work. Everything in Las Vegas is so far apart, even if it looks close on a map. It's a maze sometimes to get from one hotel to another or find your way through a casino and many hallways of shops! Kayle was impressed with my navigating skills once we did walk around a bit!
On Tuesday, we mostly hung out at the hotel and enjoyed a much-needed restful vacation. Our room was cleaned about 4 times/day, so we were amazed to come back to an immaculate room almost every time we returned. That evening, we ate dinner with Sendhil, a guy who leads Children's Ministry at church and happened to be going on this trip as well. We had a great conversation over dinner, although we did walk really far before ending up at the Bellagio buffet again. On Wednesday, we had to check out around noon, so we brought our luggage down in the morning and ate breakfast together again. I finished my second book, The Pearl by John Steinbeck (The Lovely Bones was the first book I read). I also started writing some postcards and sat in the one of the many courtyard hottubs. One of the closing events involved free ice cream, so we each enjoyed a dark chocolate Dove bar before going to the closing session together where they gave away all kinds of prizes. Kayle did not feel compelled to enter any of the drawings, so we mostly just laughed as the radio talk show hosts made all the winners answer silly tech-related questions.
By Wednesday afternoon, I was sore and both of us were tired and ready to go home. We ate at the Flamingo hotel cafe and walked around the gardens featuring flamingos and other birds. We decided to try to catch an earlier flight, since our scheduled flight did not arrive in Seattle until midnight. Of course, I just had to stop at the discount Disney store we saw on the way to the airport and, as a result, we arrived at the gate just after the first potential plane home left. Oops! Luckily, we were about 15th on the list to fly standby and just made it on the second and last flight before ours. We landed around 10:30 and arrived home soon after 11, exhausted and not entirely looking forward to work the next day.
On Friday, my only students decided to take the day off to celebrate a birthday. So, I got the day off! I did some much-needed grocery shopping and several loads of laundry. I also cleaned the house and unpacked for both of us. Of course, there was some napping and TV involved as well as my new Wii Fit exercise routine. At night, I went to a youth group movie and theology night where I popped lots of popcorn, watched "Where the Wild Things Are", and hung out with my girls (about 5 of my girls attended plus a girl I know from volunteering at Eastside Academy).
On Saturday, Kayle left early to meet the guys from community group at a doughnut place. When he returned, I took the car to meet a woman who is going to start leading youth group with me soon. We talked in a coffeeshop for almost 2 1/2 hours, just getting to know each other and discussing some theology. I think we will start meeting every other week or so to study through Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology" together. I am very excited to have some deeper theology conversations, since Kayle loses interest in most topics quicker than I do. Afterwards, I came home long enough to wrap my present before departing again for a baby shower all afternoon. At night, Kayle and I needed some time together, so we watch a date movie and just talked.
Finally, today, I taught in primary at church and Kayle discussed some tech decisions to be made. We attended the second service together. Our campus is gearing up to lease a new building in downtown Bellevue, which is very exciting. We will have much more space, permanent rooms (no elaborate set-up and tear down every week), and some of the relocated central operations. Pastor Mark would also preach live at our campus much more often. So, we're hoping and praying the new building inspections go well! After church, I took a long nap and we played some tennis at a nearby school.
Well, we love you and miss you! We have been much busier lately, so I hope to find time to post soon! Until then...
Angie and Kayle
