First the Cons of my Vegas Trip:
- Apparently Vegas doesn't think that Diet Dr Pepper is the greatest beverage ever so it was impossible for me to find one. I had to settle for Diet Pepsi and that just sucked. Oh how I heart you DDP!
- I only won $40 instead of the million I was hoping for. I so wanted to come back and give my notice at work and tell them to suck it but $40 doesn't really allow me that luxury. One day my little pretties!
- I missed Poppa like crazy! I am one of those wives that just prefers to be with her husband at all times. I'm more relaxed around him, feel safer, and just usually have a better time overall. I really want to go back with just him.
I won't go through a play by play but just highlight some of my favorite parts, which is kind of hard to do as I loved so much about the trip. You may be wondering what the purpose of the MeetUp was. Well that's none of your business. Kidding. It was to focus on us as Moms and learn more about community building, goals and purpose of what we've chosen to do with Macaroni Kid, some etiquette, Twitter 101, Advertising, PR, some legal stuff, and over all bond with other Publishing Moms.
I met my Sister In Law out there, she's a PM (Publishing Mom for Macaroni) in Ohio. It's been a year since we've seen each other and well that's too long to go without seeing someone you love so much! I'm married to her brother and she and I were roommates for nearly 4 years back when Poppa and I were dating. We've never done a trip just she and I especially without the hubby and kids so this was a treat for both of us.
Our schedules were a great combination of work and play. The mornings were spent in seminars and meetings listening to some amazing speakers like author Lisa Quinn who wrote the awesome book Life's Too Short To Fold Fitted Sheets. If you have not had the chance to read this book you must, it's eye opening, hilarious, and sends perfection out the window!
Some of us PM's are also blogging mommas and a few there are blogging gals that I worship stalk follow. There's Chief from Hiding From the Kids, Supah from Supahmommy, my sis, Bree Bees, and then myself. All 3 of these awesome gals helped me see that Macaroni Kid was for me and so I'm so thankful to them. But I had no idea how much they loved me. I mean from the moment we got there Supah was all like "OMG it's Shayna from Texas Monkey" and then Chief shrills like a little girl and jumps up and down and runs over to hug me and I'm all like settle down little fans, let's not piddle ourselves, there's plenty of time and me to go around to get your fill. I mean every break we had they were like, "OH please have lunch with us, we need to pick your brain and learn from you and bow down to you. Please take your picture with us!" So being the loving celebrity that I am I of course spent every waking moment with them when really all I wanted to do was just take a nap, but hey this is why we do it right, to make others happy, make their dreams come true. Who knew being so loved was so tiresome. I even signed their autograph book and didn't charge. Oh you should have seen their eyes light up, it was like Christmas morning. Bless their little hearts. Small Disclaimer - By they I really mean me and by me I really mean them. :) Yeah I kind of heart them!
Left To Right: Chief, Bree, Me, Supah (notice how big I'm cheesin?)
The awesome Headquarters and founders of Macaroni Kid really pulled out all of the stops for us this weekend. Our resort and accommodations were top notch, to the belly rub downs to laying out by the pool, you get your fix of relaxation. WHAT?! Your resorts don't rub down your belly? Oh you are so missing out.
One night they took us to Simon restaurant at The Palms and can I just talk about this for a bit. I'm a girl from Texas ya'll and here we're raised to have a love affair with food so there's not much that can still impress me. But either I just don't get out much or this chef's main goal is to blow your socks off, either way the food was to die for.
While there we had the pleasure of tasting wines and the maker and owner of the wine we were enjoying came into our room to speak to us with this beautiful thick Italian accent. We couldn't understand a word he was saying but no one wanted him to stop. Oh and yeah I won a bottle of wine that he signed for me. He had a little hard time with the spelling of my name and so it reads Shwawynana. So guess who had the nick name of Shwawynana the rest of the weekend?! :)
After dinner a few of us took a cab while a few others piled into Chief's rental car and headed to the strip. We were suppose to meet at Excalibur but apparently driving a rental in an unknown city with a car that fits 4 but has 5 wine filled women with the top down makes you get a little lost. So after waiting on the curb for an hour we finally took a cab to them, much easier that way.
Bree waiting patiently.
We were at the Belliagio so of course we had to go out and see the dancing waterfalls and it was beautiful!
Here are some more shots from the strip.
For one of our luncheons the great folks from Lego came and did a community building luncheon and had us build with a small set of Lego's. We may or may not have known at the beginning what to build but at the end were to share a story about our little master pieces. I totally sucked big time at this. But it was fun.
This was mine, see my bow on top of my little person's head. :) Oh great now I want that cookie in the background!
Supah didn't suck, she was good at it and so proud of herself too. This picture captures her in her proud moment with her stop light creation and Chief's look on her face in the background is priceless!
Love It!
Lego Luncheon
The last night we had a bowling party, drinks, food, and lots of laughs. Again to say this weekend rocked is an understatement! I came back so energized, refreshed, motivated, and excited to make Macaroni Kid Dallas the best kid site this city has! I can't wait for next year's meetup in Miami FL and know that if it's anything like this year then I'm in for a treat.
Me and Nicki (one of the founders)
Supah and Eric (one of the founders) and her flying pig, again, she's such the overachiever!
No I'm not jealous. :)
My bowling team. (Why am I the only one with a drink in my hand?! Hey the more I drank the better I got!)
Me and Supah (See I told you she was constantly wanting her pic taken with me)
And because I have no shame, I'll do a quick plug for Macaroni Kid, if you think your city would benefit from this service and want a real work from home job with no contract and working with the most awesome women and support then shoot me an email at shaynam@macaronikid.com and I can go over any questions you may have.
Happy Hump Day Ya'll