We Survived!

Hubby and I survived the birthday "surprise" in which more than a dozen kids and grandkids descended on Vegas for hubby's belated birthday celebration.  Among the highlights...

• Five people missed their flights to get here, three due to weather and two because they showed up at the airport ten minutes before their flight was scheduled to leave(!).  Three were able to reschedule and two missed the entire weekend due to weather delays.
• Hubby and I cooked a ton of food for everyone which saved a lot of money over paying for everyone to eat out three meals a day.  We did take the whole group out once for a very reasonably priced buffet which everyone enjoyed.  I washed a metric crap-ton of dishes!
• It was wonderful getting four of the five kids and several grandkids together so they could all bond.  They haven't all been together as a group for years!
• It was a bonus that we live in a tourist destination so everyone was entertained by just heading out to see what was happening in the tourist areas (Las Vegas Strip, Fremont Experience, Hoover Dam, etc).  The younger people were out every night, the older people were happy to get to bed at a reasonable hour after a full day of being out and about.
• Hubby and I ARE NOT used to being on our feet for 12-15 hours a day!  We were beat at the end of each day (hubby is 75 so he was probably way more tired than I was!).
• It was interesting to hear a range of social and political opinions--from way left liberal to way right conservative and everything in between.  Fortunately political discussions were few and far between.  Among the popular topics of discussion were gardening, menopause (me and his daughters who are all close in age), financial planning for all of our later years, kids these days (speaking of the grandkids), previous reunions, etc.
• I was really impressed with one grandson who is 19, very intelligent and really well spoken at such a young age.  His girlfriend was equally interesting to talk to and had perfect manners.  My faith in today's youth has been restored!
• It was interesting to see all of the kids who hadn't been together in years pick up like they had all been together last week, not more than a decade ago.
• We saved a lot of money by not only cooking meals but by baking a copious amount of desserts and by buying a huge box of different kinds of snacks that the kids could have which kept them from spending money at the store or fast food places.
• Overall everyone had a great time and we are looking forward to doing our next reunion on a cruise ship!