A wILd WeEkEnD!

I planned a weekend of skiing, laughing, eating, and gambling with friends in Ruidoso this past weekend for Joey's 40th. It was WiLd from the get-go. After a storm on Wednesday that left Ruidoso snowy and icy, I was a little nervous about the travel. See, Randa and I were traveling alone from our own homes to meet up early Friday and cook dinner, get a cake, and plan a birthday party for when the rest got there. She assured me, though, that all was fine. It was going to clear up. I should quit worrying. So...I did that, but I don't think she took her OWN advice!

By Thursday afternoon, we were both freaking out. The storm had NOT passed, only increased. We were on the Ski Apache website watching the roads go from fair driving conditions to severe driving conditions and the to closed roads. UGH! I wanted to cry. I was SSOO looking foward to the weekend, needed the break, AND the house was non-refundable. All day Randa kept saying the SAME thing. It's going to clear up. Don't worry. It'll be fine. So, again, I started to settle down. THEN Randa got freaked out. UGH!!

It ended up being fine, but Randa didn't make it. Her road had closed, so she made other plans. As soon as she did, her road was fine. Joey decided I should just wait on everybody else since Randa wasn't going, so I did.

We all headed up Friday afternoon. The roads were fine, didn't even need chains to get up the mountain to the house, and it was SO beautiful with all the snow. The full moon was SO bright that night, it lit up the mountain behind the balcony of the house.

After we all got there, we just headed to dinner, had some margaritas, and then back to the house for a little visiting and TV before bed.

The next morning when I woke up to make breakfast, I decided I could make breakfast with this view anytime, anywhere, with a view like this:

and good friends to eat it like this:


After breakfast, the guys took the little sleds we found back behind the house and decided to do a little sledding, since Joey decided not to go skiing without Randa. They had a great time, and from what I understand, stayed true to form and acted like a bunch of 5th graders after I left to shower.

When they were done, they dress and headed to the casino.

We girls took our time, got dressed, and headed to Casa Decor, after I rigged a tri-pod and put the camera on self-timer to get the same picture of the girls I had taken of the boys.


After we finished at Casa Decor, we headed out to the Inn to meet the guys, have lunch, and gamble a little. The snow and the frozen lake were just beautiful!

After lunch, we did a little gambling. I wanted to get a picture of Joey at the poker table, since that is "his thing", but you aren't allowed to photograph inside the casino. But I NEEDED this picture from this trip, so I told Chris and Cecy I was going to do it anyway. Nevermind that Chris is a federal agent and was totally freaking out that I was going to do it! Cecy kept telling him I could go in stealth mode and nobody would ever know. He was still going on and on, and finally I said, Chris, I already GOT the picture! He said, You did? Really? hehe
Ok. It's not a great one, but hey!, I was stealth; he was sitting in a bad spot; AND I couldn't use a flash. hehe Just call me Stealth Steph.

So the girls were tired of the casino, and the boys were not. We left them there and did some shopping. Then we all met back at the house for what I THOUGHT was going to be a rest period before we went to dinner. Then all of a sudden, I realize I'm sitting in the living room .... with JUST the guys. When I go looking for the girls, they are in their respective rooms "changing their shirt." What they were REALLY doing was changing CLOTHES and primping their hair and make-up. UGH?!! Seriously? We can't take a break from it for ONE meal, ONE day? UGh!!! As I try to explain I didn't GET that gene, that Randa got it all, that I just didn't WANT to be .. to be ... well, whatever that is!! I don't WANT to primp. I don't WANT to change clothes every five minutes. I just want to be comfortable, laugh, have fun. Oh, FORGET IT!

Off I go to change clothes. I even got Lisa to do my eye makeup. AND I pulled out the shoes. The girls made me do it. And Shawn LOVED them!
and they made me WiLd!! hehe

We went to dinner and Win Place or Show for a while. The bad was awful, just awful, but we had a great time. When we got back to the house, I was still feeling a little wIlD, so I kept my shoes on. hehe


Sunday morning when we got up, Doe a Deer was poking around our backyard. She was so close, Joey decided to see if he could feed her by hand. She never would come quite that close, but she did come REALLY close. We all went inside to get ready for our day, and when we came back out, we realized that she had gone and gotten her friends. They got so comfortable, they DID eat from our hands.
So fun! The kids would have LOVED it!

After check out and Starbucks, we headed to the casino for one more stint. Joey had won enough that he wanted to give everybody $50 and so we would sit with him at a three card poker table, no excuses. We agreed. But when we GOT to the casino, there was not three-card poker until noon. Shawn had to leave at noon to be at work by three, so we just headed to the craps table. I had never played craps and was TOTALLY confused. The longer I stood there, the more the dealers talked, the more I watched, the more I got. I LOVED it!! I spent the next four hours standing there, joking with the dealers, and losing my Joey's winnings.

It was a great weekend, and we're already planning the next one..with or without kids. As Lisa said when she walked in our beautiful weekend home, "Every birthday, everybody!" YAY!