Vacation re-cap - finale - I hope!

Wow, this has lagged on for far too long...I'm so not a short-winded person!  You may be wondering if this still is an infertility blog and I guarantee that is the main basis, but we're on a hiatus from the riga-ma-roll of all that!  So to continue with the vacation stuff, let's start on Saturday, the day after the big Gala!

Saturday - 2nd and last day of conference.  We slept in a bit and missed some of the "show-biz" of the conference, but made it for the 2nd half where Doug Lennick was speaking.  He is an old friend of Mom's who works with our company.  Great speaker and good guy. 

 Mom and Doug Lennick, after his talk.

After the break, we had a speech from Lou Holtz, who used to coach football at Notre Dame.  I'm not a huge fan of football other than my University of Arizona Wildcats, but he was a great speaker...I would say the best at the conference for me.  Very funny, worked with our business and life in general, and heartfelt. 

 Lou Holtz

After Lou, there were closing remarks and conference was officially over.  We headed back to the hotel and caught a corporate sponsored bus to Santa Monica for some well-deserved sight-seeing.  Took us a while to get there, but it was a nice afternoon of wandering around and shopping a bit.  A couple little pics from that venture.  

Who knew Iron Man and Batman were heavy beach goers?

It's always hard to get good pictures of the two of us when it is JUST THE TWO OF US on vacation, so some nice stranger on the pier took this.  Not bad eh?  I think we're pretty cute.

I'm pretty anal about my nails for those of you who don't know me personally, but I also don't have them done very often...maybe once a month if it fits in the budget.  I do them myself way more than that.  Anyway, while we were wandering along the 3rd Avenue Promenade, this one booth caught my eye.  She saw my nicely done nails that I had done for the conference and started her sales pitch.  Well, I ended up buying the product and while it has taken some getting used to, it kinda rocks.  It is a way for you to put designs on your nails and even do french tips without a manicurist.  Here's the link click here. You'll see a pic later of the "sample" the lady did on me.  Anyway, had to share.

Hit the bus back to the hotel and got ready for the last Corporate party.  It was called Hollywood goes Bollywood.  Lots of food, drink and fun things to watch: dancers, Henna tattoos, snakes, a lot.  A couple pics from that. 

Part of the set-up and stage for dancers to come later. 

Mom and Glenn.  Glenn has been a fixture in my life forever.  He essentially hired my Mom at our company 30 years ago.  He has become a close friend and a consultant of ours.  Plus he is hysterical!  We love him.

Martha (Glenn's wife) and Mom.  Martha is also a close friend and so great.  They didn't plan to match, but they do well!

True Glenn photo...him, snake and pretty girl.  ;)

This is me getting Henna on my hand.  It was very cool and quick.  Wish it stuck around longer.

My Henna design after she finished.  It's a paste and you let it dry and fall off by itself.  It kind of stains your hand. 

Here's what it looked like after the paste fell off.  If you look at my ring-finger nail, you can see the flower design that was done by the nail lady with the stamp.  Took her all of 3 seconds.

A little video snip from the dancers that I got.  

  We finally tired of the party about 10 pm and headed back to the hotel for some R&R.  Mom and Dad hadn't been up to the spinning bar, so we went up there and just did a walk around.  Then, back to our room where this photo was taken before we hit the hay for the night.  

Typical J face. 

Sunday, got to sleep in a bit because our flight wasn't until later.  Had a good breakfast at the hotel and a small lunch at the airport before the hour and a half jaunt back to T-town.  It's a tradition in our family to grab a bite of Mexican food on the way home from the airport, so we stopped and did that then finally came home where the furry babies were so excited to see us.  I began the unpacking and laundrying while J did this...

 Talk about who got the short end of the stick - ME!  And as one of my girls on FB noted, he even has a remote in each had while he sleeps!  That is our kitty on his lap and one of our puppies under his feet!  Who do you think is loved?!

And that was about the jist (if you can call it that) of our vacation.  It was way fun, despite being sick, which hasn't quite left me yet and deterred me from a couple days at the gym this week and one day of boot camp, although I did go back and totally felt it the next day!  Still have a cough that doesn't want to go away, but other than that, back to normal. 

So to finish, I can't express how proud I am of my Mom and her achievement.  I said to J that hopefully one day I will get to take her to the conference and let her see me up on the stage receiving the same awards!

Have a great weekend folks and talk soon!