Celebrating Ellie with a Little Trip to See Taylor Swift!

Once  upon a time...about 18-years-ago... a sweet little baby was born!   She was happy, easy-going, and delighted her parents and four older siblings from day one.   

She's had a bit of a rough road in life, starting with seizures that started when she was in kindergarten (and continue today), having a million side effects to most of the anti-seizure medications we tried, being in first grade when our world was turned upside down with Spencer,  experiencing some social isolation from the girls at church through elementary school, and then moving 4 times while she was in high school (a lot of it during COVID).    This girl has definitely been through the wringer a bit....

BUT, I have to say, she is also a girl that has  not just weathered any storm she's faced, but in the midst of them, she's learned a kindness, empathy, resiliency, and depth well beyond her years. 

We are proud of her and will miss her when she heads off to BYU-Idaho this fall!  

So, how did we celebrate 18-years of Ellie making our lives a little brighter?   

We drove to Las Vegas and took her to her very first concert!  

We planned to take off the morning after her birthday, but woke up to 6ish inches of new snow.  {Yes, it's the end of March and still snowing every other day.} 

The snow delayed us a few hours, but eventually we got out...barely beating the snow squall warning that popped up on our phones basically right as we were leaving.   The trip to Las Vegas was pretty long with slow moving traffic due to the snow at first, traffic outside of Saint George, then annoying construction that took forever on the stretch between Saint George and Vegas.  Worst of all was the  terrible traffic and parking within Las Vegas.  We were really glad we were arriving a day early, because we would have been quite late if we were catching the Friday night show.  

We spent the rest of the evening finding food, finding our way to the stadium from our hotel, and picking up our Taylor Swift merch that a friend had stood in line for hours to buy for us.  

The next day, we donned our Taylor Swift merch and set out to explore the Strip...something we'd never done before!    It was fun to see the "Walmart versions" of so many cool places and we enjoyed the conversation starter that our t-shirts were all day.  We had a lot of entertaining conversations with people who would normally never talk to us, but were drawn to ask about the concert. 

We knew that Las Vegas is referred to as Sin City, but we were a little shocked by the indoor smoking, the number of bare butts we saw, the in-your-face signs for prostitutes, and overall debauchery that was on full display there on a busy Saturday morning.   Ultimately we decided that Las Vegas must have been what Lehi saw in his vision when he referred to the "great and spacious buildings".  

On the bright side, we found some GREAT food!   This ice cream store called Cereal Killerz was once featured on Shark Tank and was a fun, original concept and quite tasty!  We would definitely go back again sometime and I just noticed they have a SLC location, so maybe sooner, rather than later.    

Thankfully I had a lactose pill with me, so I didn't spend the rest of the day running to the bathroom...

This sign made us laugh...

We also took a ride on the High Roller Ferris Wheel , which is currently the 2nd highest Ferris wheel in the world.   

We totally enjoyed the birds' eye view of the city and the surrounding area.

Dinner was at a French restaurant called, Mon Ami Gabi, which was pretty much out of this world.  The waiter claimed that Taylor Swift had eaten there in a private room earlier in the day and ordered the trout with a side of brussels sprouts.   We weren't quite sure if we believed him, but after tasting the food, we were at least convinced that it was good enough that Taylor COULD have eaten there and been happy!  {Note to any Virginia friends that might be reading this...I just noticed that there's also a location in Reston.   I highly recommend going there for a date night sometime.}

The service was excellent, the food delicious for all of us, and the  salmon I ordered was among the best salmon I've ever had. 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to put on our sparkles and bling for the concert!   I was wearing more make-up than I had since about 1988 and I thought my sequined sweater was quite fun, but we were definitely VERY conservative in our dress compared to many of the concert-goers!   

Ellie and Emma had chosen different Taylor Swift Eras for all of our outfits...

but don't ask me what they were.   I just thought it was fun to be there and feel like a teenager again for a few hours. 

The concert was a  super fun 3-1/2 hours of going through Taylor's different Eras...

I knew a lot of her songs (thanks to the 5 teens that have lived in my house over the years), but I found that I liked most of them....even the ones I didn't know.   

I was worried about feeling overwhelmed by the loud music and crowds...

but all in all, we all had a great time....

singing and dancing along...

 

And I think our birthday girl had the most fun of all!   She did a lot of shrieking along with her singing and it was fun to see her so animated! 

 

 We didn't get back to our hotel until almost midnight, so we crashed hard that night, then woke up the next day to head home.  We took a quick stop at the temple on the way out, but the grounds were closed, so this shot out the car window was as close as we got!

The trip home was filled with construction, bad traffic, and spots with treacherous weather...so it took us a few hours longer to get home than it should have, but we made it.  

It was a fun weekend together celebrating our Ellie girl and I'd have to say we all (Glen and I included) like Taylor Swift more than we did before.    Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate, Ellie!  

WE LOVE YOU, ELLIE!   HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!