Conferences, Concerts, & Cold Games!

November involved a lot of travel for us. Before all of that ramped up, Brayden enjoyed a slumber party at one of her friend’s houses and we attended an inappropriate Halloween party at Kendall and Andrew’s house. Let’s just say the costumes were very creative and no pictures were allowed to be shared on any kind of social media. It’s a good thing kids were not invited to this party.

Trent got the chance to attend Microsoft Ignite, which is a conference they host that is geared specifically to developers. It was in Orlando and for the final night of the event, Microsoft rented out the entire Universal Studios theme park and he lucked into getting a VIP pass, which meant he was able to go in early and enjoy rides before others. He brought back home tons of free swag…so much that he gave most of it to his coworkers.

Before he returned from that trip, I flew to Vegas with Renee, Julie, and Christina for an awesome long weekend centered around the Lady Gaga concert. Once we touched down in Sin City, we quickly threw our bags down and went to Sephora where we had appointments to get our makeup done for the concert. Apparently, in Vegas, you can bring drinks with you wherever, so while we waited, Renee and I went and got tasty cocktails for all of us to enjoy while getting pampered. We all left Sephora with extremely long fake eyelashes and crazy eye makeup. It was so much fun. We got ready back at the room (I even ran into a former coworker in the lobby of the hotel…small world!) and headed to Flights for dinner which was at Planet Hollywood and was just okay in terms of food. The conversation and laughter, however, was a different story. We were all in full-on giggle mode and had an absolute blast. From there, we ventured to the Park Theater, which holds about 6,000 people, so it was a pretty intimate environment in which to see her. She did not disappoint to say the least. I had seen her in 2010 for her first major tour and it was incredible. This was no different. She entered the theater by coming down from the rafters above and immediately launched into Just Dance. We were all so stoked and had such a blast. She played every major hit and many others. That night, we went to bed after the show because we were so exhausted having gotten up at 5 a.m. that morning. On Saturday morning, we were on a mission to go shopping, but that got intercepted by a delicious spritz bar at Eataly! After enjoying those, we went to lunch then went shopping and return back to the hotel for dinner. We got a lot of steps in that day! We went to dinner at Catch, which is in the Aria hotel and was absolutely gorgeous in terms of decor. The entryway into this restaurant was absolutely stunning and the food was equally astounding. After that, we went to On the Record, which is a dance club inside the Park MGM hotel, and had an absolute blast dancing off those dinner calories. We were there for a few hours, bouncing back and forth between the hip hop room and the 80s/90s room. They even had a double decker bus with a DJ stand inside. Everyone was friendly and it was so awesome! The next morning, we went to a drag show brunch, which was highly entertaining. The “ladies” were absolutely beautiful and knew how to work the crowd! After that, we went to Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat to check out the lions and tigers. What we didn’t know is that we would actually run into Siegfried in person and talk to him! He even sang Happy Birthday to Christina (she turned 40 right before this trip!). Renee was definitely fangirling! After that encounter, we enjoyed some drinks at an outdoor bar and later had dinner at Best Friend, which is a Korean barbecue restaurant that has a convenience store facade as the entryway. It was delicious. Julie and I rounded out that evening by watching an exciting craps table in action and absorbing some knowledge from a nearby gambler. It was an amazing trip with some awesome friends. What started as an idea for a celebratory trip actually came to fruition! I’m so glad it did.

While I was in Vegas, Trent took the kids to Raleigh to watch the NC State vs. Clemson game. They said it was really cold and, of course, the game did not go in our favor. They still had a great time tailgating with everybody, though. Brayden had her monthly Cotillion class and then Hanleigh and Trent went to Camp Harrison for the weekend for their Y Guides Longhouse event. While they were there, Brayden and I ventured back to Raleigh for a delicious meatball lunch, some shopping and to watch the NC State vs. Louisville football game. Yet another loss for us, but it awesome tailgating, which makes it all worth it. We rounded out that weekend with Landon’s birthday dinner at the Buford’s house while Trent went to New York City for a training event.

Brayden attended her Cotillion Holly ball where she wore a new dress that she bought in Raleigh. Kendall came to our house for dinner one evening and Trent and I went to his F3 Christmas party which involved karaoke and some dancing. The next weekend, I met up with the Triple B’s in Greensboro for the Maren Morris and Miranda Lambert concert. While half of the crew ended up going to the wrong restaurant and the wrong hotel, we all finally found each other and had a great day and night full of laughter and eating delicious food at Print Works Bistro. The concert was really fun, too! Hanleigh had her nine-year old check up at the doctor and is now 58 lbs. and 54″ tall, which means she can ride all of the big roller coasters now at Carowinds! This is a major milestone that she has been looking for to for a couple years! Fury, here we come! We rounded out the month by spending Thanksgiving at Abby and Justin’s house and hung around well into the evening laughing and having some great conversations. We took the girls to see Frozen 2, where, of course, I fell asleep (I can’t seem to keep my eyes open for an entire movie ever). Lastly, we attended the NC State vs. UNC football game where we experienced yet another loss. However, Trent and I didn’t even go into the game. Hanleigh slept in the car and Brayden went in with the Mantaks. Tailgating was so much fun! Hopefully, the Wolfpack make some improvements in their coaching staff and players in the off-season.

View Photos | View Video | View Bathroom Remodel Video Testimonial