Cory, Keaton and I got up very early Tuesday morning to hit the road to Las Vegas. We made a quick pit stop in St. George to pick up Jimmy John sandwiches and get Kaiden. We had a 1:00 p.m. game Vegas time, so we didn't stay in St. George very long. Gpa gave us each an envelope of walking around money which was super sweet of him. Plus, he filled up the car with gas and bought lunch too.
Keaton was more excited about the fact that his cousin was able to come along, than for the actual basketball tourney. He misses him so much when they don't get to see each other very often. We got to the Las Vegas Convention Center an hour early, but we didn't know where we were going or what the procedure would be so we played it safe.
Keaton played pretty well and so did Colton. We played a team Hawaii and they ended up winning the tournament in our division. We were talking to some of the parents after the game and was surprised to hear how much cheaper it was for their whole team to come to Vegas than to go to the Maui tournament last week. Crazy!!
Luckily, we only had one game today. We left and went to check into the hotel which was the Westin. Cory is a preferred member and so we got a nice upgraded room on the top floor. It was a really nice hotel and casino. I loved the Starbucks in the lobby that was open 24 hours a day.
We decided to do our own thing for dinner that night, so we walked across the street to Bastista's. Cory has been there several times over the years when he used to come down to Comdex Conferences. I've been there a couple of times. They boys each got a steak and pasta with ice cream and their yummy hot cocoa. Cory got a new chicken dish and I tried a shrimp pasta dish which was delicious.
The accordian player came over and played "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for the boys, which neither one of them very well.
We walked back to the hotel and the kids played in the room for a little while.
And we took photos of the view out our fabulous window!
The boys wanted to go swimming, so I took them down to the pool. It was a hopping place to be with people lined up for pool side snacks and drinks.
It was smokin' hot outside, even at 8:00 p.m.
The boys loved the salt water pool and swam for about an hour. They mostly had the pool to themselves and then another couple of boys came and they played water gun fights together.
I was thirsty, so I went over to get a ginger ale from the bar. He was super nice and gave it to me for free. Cory came down when it turned dusk and drank the rest of it. It had a funky flavor to me.
Jacek stayed home with Asia for us, but was a little miffed to see how nice the hotel was and how we never stayed in that nice of hotels with him in Vegas. We can laugh now at some of the shady places we stayed in during his Vegas tournament days, but I agree they were not like this at all. We went to bed fairly early because we had to get up to play at 9:30 the next morning.
The beds were tiny, but I slept okay until Kaiden woke up in the middle of night puking. Poor dude. The first round went all over the comforter and then I caught the second round in a towel. He didn't even remember doing it the next morning. We think he drank too much at dinner and it didn't settle well. He was fine though and we carried on.
The boys and I went down to have breakfast. We all had the buffet and it was pretty good. My favorite was the oatmeal and toast. They origianlly charged Keaton the adult price, but kindly changed it to the kid's price when I told them he was only 11.
Our first game was brutal as it was on one of the full court floors. It was a tough game.
We had a couple of hours to get some lunch and then come back for the afternoon game.
Keaton played well during this game, but they didn't keep stats like the other games. We lost the third game.
We decided to go to the M & M World and Cory dropped us off by the MGM hotel. The boys loved going on all the different levels and we had a photo booth picture taken.
The picked out their treasures and then started walking to the Planet Hollywood restaurant to meet Cory and the team for dinner. We thought it was a half of a mile away, which was doable in the 111 degree Vegas heat. We got to where we thought we were going, up stairs and through people, but it ended up being the casino, not the restaurant. Keaton was a trooper, even though his knee was hurting some. We found Cory and then walked another mile at least to Caesar's Palace and then the restaurant. We walked in right as everyone was ordering food. I sat at the Burgess table and the boys loved hanging out with the other boys. It was their favorite part of the trip.
I ordered this yummy avocado dish with chips and a watermelon feta salad. It was refreshing and cool after our jaunt to find the restaurant. I enjoyed talking to Coach Burgess's wife too.
We had to walk back to our hotel and to make it more enjoyable, I wanted a treat. At first, we saw the Sprinkles cupcake shop. But then I saw the Ghiradelli ice cream shop and decided to go there.
Kadien ordered a vanilla shake, Keaton a hot fudge sundae with mint ice cream and I ordered a beach sundae with hot fudge and caramel. I couldn't eat all of mine, but it was yummy.
We found Cory under the High Roller ferris wheel and finished walking back to the hotel. We went to bed earlish again because we had one final game at 9:30 a.m.
We got up and had breakfast again and headed over to the Convention Center. We played our guts out in the final game and we were ahead by a lot most of time, but we just couldn't finish it off. Keaton was the MVP though with 21 points, 15 rebounds and 1 steal. He played amazing!!!
The best part for Keaton was that Kaiden was able to come up to SLC with us. We stopped and got him some more clothes and then we got dinner at In and Out. Keaton got a nice black eye from the tournament and he was so proud. All in all- a great first Vegas tournament for Keaton and UBC.
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