The trip was a little over 24 hours, which is almost how long it took to write this post.

Jesse (my brother), Bethany (my sister in law) and I started the trip as all good road trips should. At Carls Jr.

Here is Jesse, driving.
After only an hour, we had assumed road trip positions. Jesse driving, Bethany napping, me .... wiggling my toes, drinking a large soda, and filming the two of them.



I saw a strange cloud that looked like PacMan eating an S. I took it as a sign of ............. something.
And this is what it looked like out the window.
We stopped at Jack in the Box so I could buy a kids toy and also, pee. Jesse bought another large soda and did not pee. Jesse is a CAMEL.
This is also what it looked like outside the window.
We received word on the way up that our other cousin Julie had had her baby, a girl named Ella Katherine. I'm certain, with our genetics, they're not exaggerating at all when they say she's beautiful.

Just as we were about to get off at the exit to Cousin Liz's house, we discovered that it was detoured. We had to go way around, and Jesse's car's GPS system said "recalculating" so many times that she (American English Jill) started to sound really annoyed with us.

Once we got there, we wasted no time in diving into dinner. Headfirst. Well, no, fingers first. Head second.

Here is my cousin Bekah, Jesse and and my cousin Jordan.
Bethany. (So cute!)
This is Enrique Jr ("Ki-que"), my Cousin Liz's son. (Also so cute!)
Lets just clarify right now that while asking "Why is Jordan doing that?" might be a very natural question to ask, it's also quite futile. "Because she is" is about all you're going to get. That said, here is Bethany and Jordan, letting her eyes be mirrors to everyone elses' soul.
Jesse opened the wine while my cousin Kimberly expresses all of our collective impatience. Boooooooooooooooze!
Kimmie is very good at pretending she doesn't see you setting up the shot and then moving something in the way at the last minute. (Enrique Sr, Liz's husband, looks on.)
Here is my cousin Liz holding Ki-que, while he flirts with Bethany.
Interesting fact. Jordan is the fastest text messenger IN. THE. WORLD.
Bekah laughs. A lot.
Jordan. Because she is.
It is impossible to be around Jordan for more than five minutes without some of her faces catching on, as Jesse demonstrates.
Ha. Finally. Totally worth the effort.
Now here is Jordan and Kimmie dancing. You might think that I'm a lame-o would can't figure out how to rotate the video, but in fact, they are dancing on the walls, Fred Astaire style. They're awesome like that.

We drove into town to drink tall drinks and sing karaoke. Bekah and I lead vocal exercises.
Here is video of the drive. You might begin to wonder what the connection between my cousins and the finger up the nose pose is, but really it's a locational thing. Vegas' dusty air makes your nose run, and then the dry heat freezes-dries it instantly, creating the perfect storm of booger.

Nobody is more surprised that I'm in Vegas than myself.My cousins introduced me to the game of Take-Pictures-Under-The-Stall-Doors. I caught on quickly.
This shot of Kimmie is my favorite.
But when I tried to take a picture of Jordan, I got this. Apparently she can levitate, and she never told any of us.
I tried to get a shot of Bekah, but then realized, hey, that's not Bekah. And maybe I'd better run now.

Much fun was had, the drinks were tall, and the karaoke patrons were very tolerant. We called ourselves Jesus Rodriquez and the Sweaty Boxes. We might go on tour.
On the way home, we discovered that six people fit a limo perfectly, and took it as a sign that we should always ride in them.
Liz and Enrique graciously put us up for the night, and Jordan I took the downstairs couches so we could giggle and whisper like 12 year old.
But being three AM, we dropped off pretty quickly.

This is Jordan when she first wakes up. I'd show you what I looked like, but I want to be kind to your eyes.
My cousin Tilla, who'd had to work the night before, joined us. She is so adorable, it's almost painful to look at her directly.
Since Jesse, Bethany and I all didn't think to bring swimsuits, we made a quick detour to Ross. I found a pretty cute suit and wrap, and some shoes that just needed to belong to me. They have bows on the toes. Picture soon.
I offered Bethany five bucks to get what was essentially the bikini version of this. (Picture here.) To her credit, she declined.

Liz and Enrique got a room at the Bellagio, so we could all use the pool there.
Here are Tilla and Ki-que.And Bekah and Christian (her son).This is Allie, Liz's daughter. I want to eat her.
Even the clouds knew that this was a momentous day, this aligning of some much McIlhenney in one place.
Speaking of the weather, this is my Uncle Art. He said that he cast a spell on the weather for us. I suppose this could be a sign that he's crazy, but *shrug* it was a lovely thought and a lovely day, so I choose to believe him. Always act as if things that should be true, are.
Our waiter must have wanted us to have a lovely time, he brought us each our drinks two at a time. Sometimes, it ain't so bad to be alive.