Abe and Betsy Meet Donny and Marie

I drove home from Rexburg on Thursday and went home for one hour to hug my babies.  Then Abe and I took off for a trip to Las Vegas that we'd had planned for months.  No offense to the many good people who live in the Las Vegas area, but I DO NOT LIKE Las Vegas-- so what would induce me to go there?  Especially when I was... shall we say... in a fragile state of mind after dropping off Bethany.

How about DONNY AND MARIE!!!!!  Several months ago they announced they'd be closing their Vegas show in November.

 Andrea, (left of Donny) knowing Abe is a very big Donny Osmond fan,
 turned to Abe and said-- "We are going!"
This wonderful group began as a book club, but now they are just our people.

These are our freakishly happy faces upon realizing we had front row seats and passes for a meet and greet after the show!

And here we are feeling young and hot, because seriously, compared to most of the crowd we really were younger and dare I say, hotter!  Ha ha ha! Kidding.

Abe totally hogged Donny all to himself in the meet and greet!

Look-- Marie looks concerned!  Why does Abe not want to talk to her?  Why only Donny?
Abe had a story he had to quickly tell Donny about who told who when and where to sit down.  It involved a Huey Lewis concert 21 years ago and and overly exuberant Abe at that evening's show.  Clearly, Donny was amused:)

 I have given Andrea a new nickname-- "The Dream Maker".  Abe seeing this show likely would not have happened without her.  We thought we were paying for regular tickets-- how silly of us.  We should have known better.  Andrea had other plans and surprised us all with the Meet and Greet.  Such a fun memory.

We all went out for a very hearty breakfast at Mr. Momma's.  I highly recommend.

Inspired by my pirate themed glow-in-the-dark golf outing up in Rexburg with Bethany, we decided to look for a miniature golf place in Vegas.

This one happened to be KISS themed.  It might be hard to believe, but none of this group were really big KISS fans.  No matter.  We stayed and played.

And it was pretty fun!  I liked that my nails glowed in the dark:)

We spent the afternoon chilling at the pool.

Originally, I wasn't very happy to have this trip happen the same week as taking Bethany.  In the end, it was probably the best thing for me because I was very distracted from my sadness.

And each of these beautiful souls has sent grown children out into the world, so they could empathize.  We were in good company.

I have been very thankful for a kind and understanding husband as we pass through these new parenting stages together.