I am lucky to have a husband that wanted to take me with him on his busines trip. I needed a break from my busy "retired" daily schedule.
SUNDAY
Mark and I left on Sunday at 8am. Our first stop was at Primary Children's Hospital to visit our granddaughter Ava who is in NICU.
Amber and her other newborn, Ivy, arrived soon after. She is staying with a friend out in South Salt Lake City. Mark was unusually patient about spending some time with Amber and then going out to eat with Amber. We ended up spending 4 1/2 hours in Salt Lake City.
It was 4pm by the time we got back on the highway to Las Vegas. It was 9:40pm by the time we finally got to our hotel room at the Cannery.
We love the location of our room on the 1st floor. The pool is right outside our room, so the ice machine, and the fitness room is just down the hall.
MONDAY
I spent a couple hours this morning in the Fitness center exercising and watching the movie "2012". I never did get to see the end of the movie. Mark and I went to lunch at the Victory Cafe inside our hotel. We both had the fish special.
2pm Mark had arranged a meeting with 6 other men from all over the country. They met for just a couple of hours.
Then Mark and I drove to Chip Swarze's home. It should of only taken us 25 minutes, but it took us us a lot longer. The traffic in Las Vegas is terrible. We spent a great evening with Chip, his wife Cheryl, and 4 of their children: Sarah (one of my special Cedar Badge kids), Aaron (17), Janessa (16), and Emma. Chip (I first met him at Boy Scout Wood Badge and later served as an advisor with him in Cedar Badge). I admire Chip, he is an awesome LDS father. Chip barbacued hamburgers for us and then we all played Apples to Apples until 9pm. It was a great evening.
TUESDAY
7AM Mark left to drive to his training with Dan from Idaho Falls. I slept in. This is the view from our room.
Mark has lost contact with a friend who lives in Las Vegas. That is the tough thing about people not having phone land lines anymore. So I drove to the address that Mark believes they live at. And then when I arrived, I found that is was in a gated community. A lady driving in let me come in and I left a note on their door. I stopped at Wal Mart to buy a new battery for my Fit Bit, the first battery lasted from December 28, 2012. Then I shopped for swim suits at Ross', and got Mark some pants and shorts at Big 5 sports. I enjoyed a yummy jamba juice with added protein.
Back at the hotel I went for a swim. Mark came out in his new swim suit, with his boots, tall white socks, and a button down shirt on. On my, that's why I don't need him with me to buy him clothes. I'll try again tomorrow because the pants were all too small, and he needs something besides those huge boots. I made him put back on his tattered blue jeans before we left for dinner. We drove down to the strip with Dan Haley and we went to dinner at Bubba's Shrimp Company. My pasta penne with grilled shrimp was absolutely delicious.
Then we walked around the entire Miracle Mile Mall, and stopped to buy some frozen yogurt. We left at 8:30 and drove back in heavy traffic to the hotel.
10:00pm Mark was talking on the phone to Amber for a long time about her sick babies and where she is going to live for the next few months when I left to go see the movie, "Oz, the great and powerful". It was an interesting idea about how the Wizard came to be in the Land of Oz. I was the only person in the theatre that holds 141 people. That was a first for me. When I got back to the hotel room, Mark was just getting ready for bed. They had a lot of homework to do from their training. I felt bad that I had wanted to walk around the Miracle Mall and that it took so much time.
WEDNESDAY
The week has been flying by. I feel lucky to be in 70 degree weather while it is 44 degrees back home.
I made my traditional sloppy joes and warm cider with cinnamon sticks. Years ago I made this when my kids when out trick or treating so they could eat, drink, warm up, and head back out for more trick or treating. I would just keep it warm on the stove.
I added some fun and good meatball spiders this year.
This is as dressed up I got for Halloween.
Since I don't have kids at home, I had time to go to this presentation about a man who rode his bike from Idaho Falls to Alaska! It was very inspiring. I would like to do something like this. 
The rolls raise a second time after the dough has been rolled and cut.
Nancy
And
