Death to Trixie

Saturday morning, we got up and went swimming again. We requested a late check out of 1 pm. We got breakfast at Seattle's Best Coffee in the bottom of the hotel. Will and I split a Caramel Cream Javakula (hold the coffee). It was delicious! The girl was a little confused at first, but substituted milk for the coffee with DELICIOUS results. Their scones are also quite a treat.

Teah loved her last swim in the pool. She looked stunning in a little Hawaiian print halter tankini. What can I say - my little girl is a babe!

We checked out at 1 and then treated ourselves to sundaes at the hotel ice cream parlor. I had to wait my turn - the six of us bought two HUGE sundaes to share. I had been sneezing since we arrived in Las Vegas, but Saturday morning, my sneezes turned into a full-on cold. I didn't want to get anyone else sick! Will didn't mind sharing with me. What a guy!

From there, Winnie and Scott went back to check out the Strip one more time, while the rest of us headed off to my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle's house for lunch. It was a pretty long drive out to Henderson, but the house was worth it! Henderson is south of Las Vegas, and opposite of the direction we needed to go. The house was recently remodeled and the results are amazing. We couldn't stay long, since it was going to be a very long drive back to Salt Lake City. We left, after a delicious lunch of cold salads and fried chicken, around 3:30.

We had just found our way out of the Valley on the home side, when I got a call from Winnie - she and Scott had been in a car accident, on the Strip, right outside of the Bellagio, and could we please come back and see them? Winnie was scared, but both were OK. We agreed, and turned the car around about 4:00. By the time we got back to the Las Vegas city limits, Winnie called again and said we didn't really need to come. However, by that time we could already see the city and Ma was desperate to check on her baby, so we went. The car was a complete loss. In the picture at the top, you can see the Jeep that hit their Matrix. (Remember the Matrix? Her name is Trixie.) Anyhow, the Jeep driver is a gentleman with diabetes. Apparently, he went into a diabetic coma. Winnie and Scott were stopped at a light in front of the Bellagio fountain, behind another car. The Jeep never even touched his brakes. Scott thinks he might have blacked out when they got hit, because he doesn't remember bouncing around on the steering wheel. Their trunk crumpled with the impact, but the force wasn't great enough in the front to deploy their airbags. The sand around the Jeep is absorbing his anti-freeze, among other things. His radiator must have cracked?

Apparently, there were two casualties - Trixie, the beloved Matrix, and the bottom half of a bikini. It fell out of a bag and was somewhere in the bottom of the (unopenable, crushed, but now window-free) trunk where they couldn't find it. So sad! We were just so glad that Winnie and Scott were OK. What a blessing!

We left them around 5:30 and headed for home. After we got through the Las Vegas traffic, it was straight and smooth sailing for home...but it would definitely take us a while to get there! We stopped once for gas and some food. Teah was a real trooper, and finally fell asleep around 10 pm. We rolled into the driveway at 12:30 am Sunday morning. I put Teah in bed, Will and David took the rental car back, and we all asleep by about 1:15 am. (Oh, and Winnie and Scott got home just fine in a rental car.)

What a day!