This is the Bowman family: (minus Ryan and Clarissa, because they didn't dress up)
After the party, Matthew graciously stayed with the sleeping girls while Ryan and I went partying! I know, weird, huh? Guess what is even weirder? It was at a smoky bar. bleh! I was pretty scared of the place. Our group was in the back corner. I didn't look anyone but our group in the eye, I didn't move from my chair for the first 10 minutes. Then I chose a song, and went straight back to my chair. I stayed within arm's length of someone in our group the whole time were were there. Well, except for when I got brave, and headed to the bathroom all by myself! It was scary. I truthfully think I was more scared by the venue than I was of singing. Oh, we went for the karaoke, and it was really fun! I must admit, I was nervous. The song I chose I didn't recognize at all, so I hurriedly chose another one. "Just a Girl" by No Doubt. It also didn't sound familiar, because I was the one supposedly singing, not the artist! I was so used to hearing the artist sing it, I didn't know how the song went. Luckily, my (Ryan's) cousins and sister were there to cheer me on, and sing with me. By the time I got to the chorus, I think I did alright. If I ever do it again, I will do so much better!
Later, a group of us girls got up and sang "Sweet Caroline". It was really fun, and I really enjoyed singing with them.
Ryan sang "In Your Footsteps" by Depeche Mode. He did awesome. Derek and Amber (cousins) also sang songs, and they did great too.
By the time we had done those songs, it was about 1:00 AM! Agh! I don't normally stay up that late. We brought 2 very drunk cousins home. Ryan, of course, was hungry, so we stopped and got him a Carl's Jr burger. While we were in the drive-thru the before mentioned cousins both got out of the car and hurled. A couple of times. Yuck! Thank goodness we were stopped already! A definite deterrent to drinking, in my opinion. So we got home really late, and Irma was sleeping in our bed. (Matthew had skipped out on us, I guess.) Ryan offered to sleep on the couch so she wouldn't have to walk back to her room, but she wanted to go.
After the party, but before the karaoke, I realized I had forgotten my ID. We drove 10 minutes back to get it. Ryan went into the room while I stayed in the car. I guess when he got to the room, the door wasn't closed all the way. If it was me, I would have probably freaked out. The girls were both asleep within about 10 feet of the door. Well, he went in and found Jerry and Irma in our bedroom, because Matthew had gone long-boarding with Jerome. Lest you think Jerry and Irma were being irresponsible for leaving the door open, they were expecting Matthew and Jerome to come back, and that way, they wouldn't have to wake the girls by knocking on the door. Ah. What a relief. So many scary things can happen!
Sunday morning came bright and early. Ryan was a sweetheart and went out with the girls when they woke up so I could have another 1/2 hour to an hour of sleep. Thanks sweetie! Checkout was at 10:00 normally, but the hotel extended it to noon for us. We got everything back into the car (ending up with more stuff than we came with. How does that happen?) and headed to the Luau.
More yummy healthy food, and yummy desserts. Everyone got a lei, leia, you know, the flowers around the neck thing. They had hula hoops there to have contests, balloons, a limbo bar, (how low can you go?),a plastic beach picture, and fun decorations. It was fun, but we were about ready to head home. We had been playing for 2.5 days straight, and it was hard!
We all said our goodbyes and headed off. Oh wait, we need to stop at the gas station to go to the bathroom and get gas. Now we are off! Elayna fell asleep before we got to the gas station (about 5 minutes away). Katie fought sleep for about an hour. I actually just about fell asleep as we were leaving Vegas. I was asking Ryan questions, because he had mentioned he was sleepy, and I was listening to his answers, I really was. I just happened to be dreaming about other things in between my mumbled "uh huh"'s and "oh yeah?"'s. Luckily Ryan has a lot to talk about, and it kept him awake. Important since he was driving. Katie slept for an hour and a half until we got to the Virgin River park area. It is beautiful!
We all got out and walked down to the river. We hiked some rocks, threw rocks in the river, (some people, named Ryan, threw rocks into the water way too close for comfort and splashed me! The idea!) and just hung out there for about an hour, I would guess.
The Virgin River park area was really fun. It was a much better rest stop than just a gas station, and we really enjoyed it. Thanks to Jerry and Irma for stopping with us, and suggesting it in the first place!
Then we drove until Cedar City, ate at IHOP, and drove home from there. We got home at about 10:00 pm on Sunday night.
Wow. What a trip. We had a blast. I'm so glad we got to visit with our family. I'm grateful we got there and back safely. I'm grateful to Irma for coordinating and planning the WHOLE (mostly) thing! It was great.
2 comments:
Actually, the song I sang is called Walking in My Shoes.
Sounds like so much fun! Isn't traveling with kids exhausting? You are so brave to do the Karaoke thing. I could never do that! Love ya, Kristine
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