Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Our Osmond Weekend!

Eric and I are still on a high from our amazing 5 days in Vegas!  After much preparation, we flew in last Thursday with tickets in hand to see the Osmond Brothers (Merrill, Jay, and Jimmy) during their 3-night run at The Orleans Hotel.  What we didn't plan on was a series of fortuitous events that made this trip even more incredible.

Throughout our stay we kept running into the brothers--Merrill and Jay at different times in the elevator, Jimmy asking for directions to the movie theater and at the pool. Their big brother, Alan, was even at the show on the first night.  We got some wonderful pictures and even more great memories.

We also had the good fortune to be the only 2 last minute guests at a post-show reception on Saturday night, where we sat at Table 1, which made us the first table to get to take some photo booth pictures with the brothers.  I got to be first of everyone in the room!

It was fun, relaxing, musical, and exciting.  We spent part of Friday at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas, most of Saturday was spent by the pool (we even rented a cabana for the day,) and on Sunday I got the best 80 minute massage ever.

Ready for some pictures?  Here we go! (Click on them to see full-sized versions.)


Friday morning we were on our way to the Mob Museum when who walks through the hotel door? Jimmy Osmond.  I asked if we could get a picture with him and he was happy to oblige.  His 12 year old daughter took the photos.  




I definitely recommend the Mob Museum as an interesting place to visit at least once.  Probably not for kids under 15, since there are some graphic pictures.  But it is very well done with exhibits on 3 floors of the old courthouse and lots of interactive presentations.

Friday afternoon--I'm upstairs resting when Eric calls me to let me know that Merrill and Jay Osmond are right downstairs by the gift shop.  I swooped down there as fast as I could, but Jay had already gone.  Merrill, however, was on his way up to his room.  Eric asked him if we could ride up with him and, luckily, no one else got on during the entire trip.  We had a good chat, and Merrill even asked Eric,"How do you keep your beard so neat?" An incredibly nice, soft-spoken man.

Still Friday, and brother Alan Osmond, who suffers from MS, was in the audience.  The brothers invited Alan down for a quick song and everyone was thrilled to see him.  His motto is "I may have MS, but MS does not have me."


After the show we went and talked with Alan and Eric got a 3rd Osmond photo for the day!
We hung around the theater "just in case" we could round out our record for the day and, sure enough, Jay Osmond came out and we were able to stop him for a picture.
Saturday, finally we get to enjoy the sunshine at the pool! 

Eric in his Mob Museum t-shirt.  He even rented a cabana for us for the day, which was really nice.

My cute hubby. :-)

View from our cabana on Saturday.  Our room was somewhere on the 19th floor on the left.  A gorgeous day!
Saturday night, waiting for the show to begin.  We were in the 2nd row, center, for Friday and Saturday, and the 1st row off to the right on Sunday night. All of our seats were pretty great!
My 2 best shots in the photo booth at the post show reception.  Those guys are troopers!  They had to sit in that thing for 2 hours and take 3 pictures with each of the 130 people.  They were true gentlemen.  A lot of modern entertainers could take some cues from these guys.

A little silly and a little serious, and a lot of fun.
OK, so some of the pictures didn't turn out so great, because we had to push the button in the photo booth ourselves.  It a took a while for us to get it.  At least the big photos turned out good!



Once the brothers left for the evening, the photo booth was available for anyone who wanted to use it, so we did!

I love my hubby! We have so much fun together.
Sunday was a little more low-key.  More pool time, my massage, and some rest.  We made use of the hotel gym each morning too.  The Sunday night show was, again, superb and just tons of fun.

There were things we planned for the trip and tons of lucky events that we didn't plan, and we can't wait to go back and do it again next year!