What a TRIP!

So our trip to Vegas started off a little "differently" than usual. Sammie and I left Saturday morning and were making great time. We stopped for lunch in Barstow and then jumped back on the freeway expecting to arrive in Vegas around 2:00. Well as I drove up the freeway ramp, Sammie started yelling, "MOMMY, I have an eraser in my nose... get it out!" I couldn't imagine what she was talking about but then it all became clear. I pulled off the freeway into a deserted spot and looked in her nose. Sure enough, she had a bright pink piece of eraser in her nose. It was from our school carnival the day before and it was a Disney princess eraser shaped like a lipstick with a delicious scent. Well, a piece broke off and she was smelling it and decided to put it in her NOSE! I couldn't get it out so I called the Dr.'s office who connected me to a nurse's advice line. They advised me to go to the ER because if she inhaled the eraser, it could go into her lungs which could be dangerous and she would need surgery. GREAT!!! So, thank goodness for my navigation system. I programmed it to find the nearest hospital which was backtracking about 11 miles in Barstow so that's where we went..
Sammie got admitted to the ER after I filled out a bunch of paper work. At the top of it was marked "semi-urgent". We had to wait about an hour or more to see the PA and she came in and said the eraser probably wasn't even in there anymore since Sammie was sitting there calmly. She kept sneezing and sneezing and her nose was running profusely. I told her that Samantha had a high pain tolerance and that I was pretty sure the eraser was still in there but she said sarcastically "we'll see". Well, after she looked in the WRONG nostril, and didn't see it, I told her to look in the other side and sure enough, she saw it. Then she disappeared for another half hour and said the doctor would be back to take it out.
Meanwhile, there we are in BARSTOW Community Hospital which is like being in Wal Mart. The element of people was quite interesting.. The doctor finally came in and he was wearing soccer slides and socks. He introduced himself and then said he'd be right back with his "hook" so he could remove the eraser. Well, his "hook" was an unbent PAPER CLIP which he proceeded to drop on the floor, drop in the sink and then finally pick up and place into Sammie's nose ( no, not sterilized) while I held her arms down, the nurse held her head still and another nurse held her feet because she was KICKING the doctor. He got it out quickly and then the drama started. She cried a bit but they gave her ice cream and she was fine! She was a champ! We had to wait to be discharged from the hospital and finally after a total of 3 hours, were on our way again. I think Sammie learned her lesson!




We had a good time while we were in Vegas. We went to the splash pool in my parent's community. It is a shallow pool with sprinklers and different fun water things for the kids. There is also a slide but Sam is too little for it still. Here is her own version of "get ready to go swimming".


On Monday we went on a tour of Anderson Dairy which is the only dairy in Nevada. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. They had a movie with a lot of history about Las Vegas long ago. We got to tour the dairy and see how they fill the milk cartons, where they make cottage cheese and see the giant freezer. There was a cute show with talking farm animals. When the tour was finished, we got free ice cream! This ice cream was SO delicious! It was fresh and creamy like nothing i have ever tasted. It hadn't sat in the freezer for very long and wow was there a difference! YUM!

The highlight of the trip was my first ROYAL FLUSH ever!! I don't usually play poker but every once in a while I do and am always hoping to get a royal even though the odds are that it shows up 1 in every 40,000 hands played. I always wish and wish but never has it happened until Monday night!!!


My dad and I went to this "dive" of a casino called the SKYLINE. It is a locals hang out and the average age is senior citizen. I was definitely the youngest, hottest chick in the place.. EEEKKK
Most of the people are in walkers and can barely see to put the coins in the machine. Yes, some of these machines are so old you have to feed the coins by hand. Anyway.. My dad and I sat down, I put in my $20.00 and was playing nickels for about 15 minutes. I was looking at the pay schedule thinking about how much each payout was. I said to my dad.. "How much is 8000 nickels?". He said, "Oh, it's $400 but that's if you get a Royal Flush, and you won't get that so don't worry!" And a few minutes later, that's when I got Jack, Queen, King and Ace of Spades. I held them all and then hit the draw button and then POOF, the 10 of spades jumped right in there and I got it! I was sooooo excited I was jumping all around in my seat and all the old fogies looked at me and I said, I never got a royal in my whole LIFE and they all smirked and said "oh, it's your first one, you have to share with everyone". They were just kidding but anyway.. I won $400. I gave my dad $100 and I shared with Brad too when I got home.
Our drive home was much better than our drive there!