Happy Early Birthday Aunt Carol

I can't believe my Aunt Carol is really going to be 70 in October. She still seems young as ever, and after last weekend in Vegas, 70 is just a number!! She is a rock star and even went "clubbing" with us to a swanky hip hop lounge!!

Aunt Carol has been through the wringer this year, but you would never know it. She has battled diabetes since she was 10 or 12 and has done perfect. She does all of the right things and takes perfect care of herself, but after time your kidneys can only take a beating for so long. So she found out last year she would need a kidney transplant. Her sister-in-law was a match and the transplant was supposed to take place last Septemberish. While waiting and doing all of the testing, they discovered she needed a double bi-pass heart surgery. It was devastating news, but in true Aunt Carol fashion she wanted to get on with the surgery so she could get ready for the transplant. But then had to start kidney dialysis, which she hoped to avoid. But she never looked on the downside, she always looks up!! Surgery when great and she had an awesome recovery. But of course, it has a hitch. She developed antibodies and her donor was no longer a match. So she has to continue with dialysis 3 days a week until she gets a match. This is so much for one person to take, but if anyone can do it, it is Aunt Carol.

My Aunt Carol has always been very supportive of my brother and me and our whole family. She is like a second mom to my mom (she is Grandma Rosie's sister so really my great aunt). She has always been at all of our life events and was always the loudest one in the stands at our sports events yelling "way to be, way to be, way to be". So when my mom asked if I would go to Vegas to celebrate in October the only answer was yes! I would not have missed it.  Aunt Carol loves Celine Dion and we thought it would be fun to celebrate and see her show! Another hitch of course, Celine does not play in October. So we had about 3 weeks to plan this trip and it all worked out that we could go last weekend.

It was my Aunt Carol, her daughter Leisa, her grand-daughters Kristen and Katie, my mom, me, our cousin Carol Ann and Aunt Charlotte and her friend drove from Phoenix. We all stayed in a huge suite at the Mandalay Bay, so it was one big slumber party. We lounged on the lazy river, went to the Celine Dion show and had VIP passes to the Ghostbar at The Palms. It was a memorable trip and certainly no better way to celebrate Aunt Carol.  

This was my first time leaving the girls for a night, but they did great staying with Geoff, so now we have to make it an annual event :o)  We had a great time and can't wait until the next time we are all together.

We even played a bit of Wheel of Fortune (this was my grandma's favorite slot machine) and Aunt Carol won 75 bucks! She did not play on the "house" like Grandmas would have, but cashed out and headed home for the night!