Oliver's Birthday Trip to Vegas

Oliver was treated by our friend Raymond to a fun birthday trip to Las Vegas to watch KU play Duke in a blueblood match-up.  I know they had a great time, and as a bonus, KU even squeaked out a win.  I'll let Oliver tell you about the rest of his trip.

Raymond asked me during the summer if I would want to go to Las Vegas to watch KU play Duke. We stayed at the New York New York Hotel, which was really cool.

The outside of the New York New York was awesome.

The first night we walked around and went to Allegiant Stadium, which we were hoping to get a tour of, but there weren't any open spots. It was still cool to get to see it.

Each night we ate dinner on the bottom floor of our hotel, which had lots of restaurants and casino things. The pasta we ate the first night was really good.

We ate breakfast at this restaurant, The American, both days. 

On Tuesday, we walked around a lot and saw what the Las Vegas Strip had to offer.

This is the flamingo exhibit at The Flamingo Casino and Hotel.

We did the High Roller, which was a 500 foot Ferris Wheel where you were in a big bubble type thing. The views of Vegas from up there were awesome.

We also went up in the Eiffel Tower, in the Paris Hotel. It also gave us a cool view of the city from above.

The game was played at the T-Mobile Arena, which was similar to the T-Mobile Center is Kansas City. 

Our tickets for the game were pretty good. We were in the lower bowl towards the ends of the court.

The game ended up being a great one, with KU coming out on top at the end. It was a very fun trip that I will always remember.

Beauty & the Beast Musical!

 As you might remember, Violet was involved in the Middle School musicals the past 3 years ("Once Upon a Mattress", "Alice in Wonderland", and "Frozen"). Well now she's in high school and the auditions for the high school musical began the first week of school.  Violet was given a few roles in the Core Cast!

The High School musical is much different than the Middle School had been.  They began practices in August and practiced nearly every evening until the productions last weekend.  Thankfully the directors were very gracious and allowed Violet to come every OTHER night through most of that.

After several months and lots and lots of practices, the big weekend had arrived! As you can see, there were a few change-ups for the cast.  They were small in number, but did a FANTASTIC job!

Opening Night!

There's our Violet in the program!!

Violet was in the Opening Scene where Belle wonders about her "Provincial Live." Vi made a great villager roaming around.  She's an expert roamer.

Her second scene was the "Mob Scene" towards the end.  She never actually yelled, "Kill the beast" but she was enthusiastic in her role nonetheless.

All of the cast did a really great job with their performances -- such a fun show!

As usual, the curtain call was probably her favorite. She was bowing before anyone else!

And she just kept bowing.

Lots of applause for these awesome kids!

We got a couple pics with fellow cast members. Some of Violet's favorites were Makayla and Miana.

Violet is blessed to have lots of friends and family who came to support her during her three performances.  

Grandmas and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncle, this girl is so loved!

Syd even brought her some beautiful flowers!

She was SO excited to see her Syd!

We didn't get a full family picture because the boys couldn't both be there the same night, but they definitely both supported their sis! (I was SO excited that Calvin was home for Thanksgiving so he could come watch.)

I'm so proud of Violet and how well she did through some long rehearsals and performances.  She loved being a part of "Beauty and the Beast" and I look forward to next year's musical!