Love Love...and Vegas

Las Vegas and The Beatles. Two things I love, and two things I was able to share with Owen this weekend. Both things always bring me back to my mom who left me with such fond memories of both Vegas and the Beatles.

I started visiting Vegas at a very young age. My mom was an amazing bowler with a beautiful maroon ball with silver swirls. Her team would find themselves in Vegas tournaments often and her being a single mother meant I got to come along for the ride. I remember so vividly some of our adventures while we were there. It's so weird to remember the Vegas of the 80's and to see it now. Things have changed so much.

My love for The Beatles came from my mom as well. She was obsessed back in her day! My favorite memory is on our long drives, she had a tape called "Beatles Love Songs". It had a brown cover with The Beatles faces in tan. It's crazy how clearly I remember it. She would play it all the time, which is why by age 6 I knew every word to practically every Beatles song. When I got older I found her collection of Beatles albums and played them non stop on my Holly Hobbie record player.

Last year I had both world collide when I saw LOVE, the Cirque De Soleil show at the Mirage. It was amazing, I couldn't put it into words. The soundtrack to the show blew me away. My first thought was of my mom and how I HAVE to bring her to Vegas to see this.

A year has passed since my last visit. I was never able to share the experience with my mom unfortunately. She had passed away four months later. I know she would have loved it though.

Not too long ago I received an email with a great hotel and show package for the Mirage. I couldn't pass it up and decided that Jake and I would take Owen. Jake has already seen the show and doesn't share the same love for the Beatles as me (he almost fell asleep during the show! How dare he!) So I booked the package and couldn't wait to share this experience with Owen.

I thought the whole Vegas experience would be a little overwhelming for him, but he handled it like a pro. He was a party animal, staying up past midnight and sleeping past 10am. I know, I'm a bad parent, but hey, he was in Vegas!

I couldn't wait for him to see the show. We had tickets to the 9:30 late show, I was so worried he wouldn't be able to keep his eyes open. Throughout the show I kept taking a peek at him. His eyes were just so huge, taking everything in. I thought to myself what a bittersweet moment this was. The one person I would have loved to be there at that moment was gone. I could imagine my mom sitting there, tapping her foot to the music, enjoying the show. It made me so angry, thinking how much she would have loved this. Then I turn to see Owen sitting next to me, this perfect little guy who I love so much, enjoying every minute of the show. For a moment I truly felt like my mom was with us.

When the show was done, he turned to me and said "That was the awsomest thing ever mommy...can we go again tomorrow?"

We kept him busy the next day, going the the lion habitat at the Mirage, going to Circus Circus to play the carnival games. I can't even count how many times he asked if we could go see LOVE again. I would say I caved when I called to see if there were more tickets available, but like Owen, I could see the show over and over. Luckily there were, and at 7pm we were sitting in the theater again watching LOVE. He was really into it this time, knowing what songs were coming on next, telling me where to look and what to look for. He knew when the performance was coming to an end, and leaned over to whisper..."Can we come again tommorrow?"

He was very dissapointed to know we were leaving on Sunday. I promised him we would come back someday, and I promised him when we did come back we would see the show every night we were there.

All the way home Owen, wearing his new Yellow Submarine shirt, listened to The Beatles songs on my Ipod while he reminiced about the show.

I am proud to present to you, Owen Oliver Greene...Third generation Beatles Fan.









On our way back home, we made a pit stop in Baker to visit the best beef jerky store ever!