Viva Las Vegas

A long, long time ago, the Paul Stoker family lived in Las Vegas. I remember the sadness I felt as I entered the city held prisoner by the desert, crying for help with the flashing signs, "Slots! Circus Circus buffet 3.99!, Tattoos!, Pay Day loans!" It was all that I was afraid it would be, but surprisingly, it was also wonderfully more.  A few years later I cried buckets of tears driving away from some of the dearest friends of my life.  I don't find myself driving through Las Vegas much now that I live in GA. Well, that's a lie, I drove through last
Dec. while trying to fly from ATL to SLC via LAX during a winter storm, but that's another story.

Nevada. Brown.

Beautiful

But brown.

Georgia. Green

But now Las Vegas is home to my son and his wife, not just any son, one of the sons that was born there. How's that for serendipity? Friday was his dental school white coat ceremony, so I got myself back to Vegas for a couple of days.

The fun started right away. Clarissa picked me up and we headed to the temple (one of the only places in Las Vegas with flowers.)

 I remember some of my friends growing flowers many years ago, but they told heroic tales of digging up the caliche soil and replacing it with fertile soil that they had purchased and imported.  They then dedicated their life to hydrating new living things, and if they didn't forget to water, and the planets aligned, a flower or two could be found beautifying their yard. But mostly the landscape looks like this:

Anyway, I loved being in the Las Vegas temple because it was just being built when we lived there. It was especially nice to be in the House of the Lord with my sweet daughter-in-law. After the temple fun we picked Aaron up from his school for lunch.  Guess where we ate? You know it, "In-N-Out." I'd actually been thinking about "In-N-Out" burgers since I drove by one in CA last December, so it was high time, and my hamburger was delicious, and these two were cute as heck.

Then Aaron showed us around his digs. His school is actually right next to the hospital where Nathan was born...awww.We saw the room where Aaron lived and learned 5 days a week during his first year of dental school. Now that he's in his second year they let them out in public.  He'll be cleaning teeth and taking impressions and doing whatever the professors and upper-classmen and pretty much everyone else tells him to.

Friday night we watched BYU beat Houston on TV with some other dental students and their families. I wasn't quite adjusted to pacific time and fell seriously asleep at the end of third quarter. I was told later that there were crying children in the room with us, but my sleep had been undisturbed.

Saturday was the big day. The ceremony didn't start until 3:00 pm, so Clarissa and I explored the nearby shopping options which proved to be excellent: JoAnn's, Steinmart, TJ Maxx, and a nice, gigantic DSW all in the same shopping center. Then it was on with the show. The white coat ceremony is a proud-mother-moment to be sure, but it's not graduation. It's a ceremony that says, "You're still in school and with a lot of hard work we're pretty sure you're going to make it."

 I didn't attend my son Nathan's white coat a couple years ago. He said it wasn't a big deal and didn't expect me to go. I had no drivers at home, and it would have been very hard to leave the kids, so I took him at his word. I felt bad missing it, though, and that motivated me to not miss this one. Sorry Nathan. Congratulations Aaron. I love you both.

Afterwards, Clarissa's family, Aaron, Clarissa and I ate some very good pizza and had a lovely visit. I got to spend a little time with Aaron before our early bedtime (he took me to the airport at 4:30 am the next day) and was reminded of what a blessing he is to me. I love their little family and look forward to meeting Miss Lucy in October. XOXOX