Thursday morning we were going to put Kennedy on the bus for school and head to Vegas for the World Archery Shoot. I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day when she came in and gently put her hand on my arm and said to me " Mom you might not want to wear that to Vegas today. Ive been there and know how people dress there. They dress like hipsters" and she also told me I needed to be careful because there are a lot of drunk people and drug addicts there.
We loaded her on the school bus and were off for a 7 hour drive.
When we got there it was crazy. The place was PACKED. We stayed at South Point hotel where the shoot was also. I would say a good amount of people stayed there. The lobby was full of people and archery equipment. The whole place was decorated up and even our room keys had archery stuff on them. Every elevator door was decorated.
We dropped our stuff in the room and headed down to sign in for the shoot.
This is ONE shooting arena. This is where the pros were shooting at. There were 3,000 people signed up to shoot this even from all over the world.
After we got signed in and our gift bags we headed into the vendor area. It was so full of people and all archery stuff!
We took a picture in front of the horse for Kennedy.
Our friends live in Willams Az and drove up for the night to go to dinner with us. It was so great to see John and KC! We have missed them! We had an absolute blast at dinner.
I had asked some lady to take a picture for us and she asked me to take one for them. Dad and John photo bombed the group and the ladies dont look too sad about it..
That was the night we stayed up the latest. Im not a big drinker or gambler so Vegas only holds so much excitement for me. Plus I had to shoot at 730 the next morning.
I was the very first out of our group to shoot. I was a little nervous. I was on target 107. 4 people shoot on each target. 2 on the top. 2 on the bottom. Then half way through your rounds you switch from top to bottom.
This was the group I shot with.. and keep in mind this is only half the arena. There is another whole huge group directly behind us.
I learned some very cool things on this line...
First off the guy I shot next to was from Fresno California and was there with a group called Break the Barriers. Its a support group for disabled veterans. He learned about the program through the VFW. You can see some of the shooters above in red shirts and one or two in wheel chairs. They brought about 20 shooters with them. The guy next to me had only been shooting 3 months. All their equipment, bow, arrows, shooting fees, hotel stays.. everything was donated and covered. He was loving the program because he said it made him as a Veteran feel valued and important. They had one guy with them that was completely blind. Im talking walking stick and dark sunglasses blind. AND HE WAS SHOOTING! I has no idea they made equipment for blind people to shoot archery! It blew my mind. They place a sensor behind his target and there is another sensor on his bow. When the target and bow line up there is a small beep and he knows hes on target and can shoot. I wish I could have seen him shoot and get a picture but he was shooting at the same time as me clear down the line.
I have been averaging (before Vegas) from 282-285. My first round in Vegas I shot a 279. I was disappointed but looking to improve the next 2 days.
Vegas is hard. I didnt get it when people would say that. How can it be tough? I mean we spend MONTHS shooting the same target and practicing. Its the same thing as we do at home so in theory we should be shooting the same. BUT there is one thing they dont tell you about.. the pressure. Wholly crap your nerves get to you. The funny part about it is everyone is so nice. Its not like you're shooting next to jerks. The nerves even got to Chris and I didnt think it was physically possible!
After I finished shooting Todd and Chris shot at the 1030 line in a different arena than I was shooting in.
Todd in red and Andy ward to his left in orange from our club
Amanda Ward in grey and Brandon Zundel in camo from our group shooting at the same time as Todd and Chris
Chris was supposed to be shooting closer to Todd but they moved his target assigment. So he was on one side of the arena and Todd was on the other. But they were directly across from each other so we could turn around and watch one and turn back and watch the other.
The boys arena on Chris's side
and Todds side
Next was mom and dad shooting at 12 in the same arena as me but on the other side. Moms in the white and Dads in the grey shirt with green lettering. After Todd and Chris shot we ran to Steak N Shake in the hotel for lunch/breakfast and then came and watched the 2nd half of Mom and Dads shoot.
Another one of the arenas. There were 4 in total plus a practice arena
That night we were in bed pretty early. Chris and Todd had to shoot at 730 am that next morning.
The second day you shoot in the same line with the same people.
Chris's release broke half way throught the 2nd days shoot and he had to try and make it work for the last few rounds. When it broke he shot a 0 and was pretty upset about it. He was able to finish out the rounds and we went and bought him a new release.
Then mom and dad shot at 10 am so we watched them.
A big blizzard was hitting back home. K and Tammy kept us updated with pictures. They were headed out for breakfast.
They had planned to go to the movies after breakfast but the weather sucked so bad they came home and made pop corn and treats and cuddled while they watched Netflix movies. Poor kid had it so rough while we were gone hahaha! Im just so glad we had Grandma Tammy and Grandpa Steve to take care of her while we were gone. She had so much fun!
I shot the 3pm line that day. I was a little disappointed I shot a 278. Which really isnt bad at all. I just couldn't settle down and relax.
We went to the practice range for Chris to sight in with his new release and the pros were having a World Cup shoot off on the arena behind us
After all the shooting that day I had placed 824th out of 1069 archery in my class. I was in the 24th flight. Each flight had 35 people and I believe I was number 24 out of 35.
We went out to Freemont Street that night. Janas knee was hurting so she stayed back in the hotel.
Our obligatory Freemont Street selfie
I can now say Ive been to Freemont street and thats good enough for me ha! Im really just a small town girl who likes open spaces. So craziness packed in there with half naked people and weirdos all over just really isnt my deal. We did stop for some awesome Philly cheese steak sandwiches for dinner there though.
We had to watch the boards that night because they were posting the times you shot that next morning for the finals. FINALLY about 10pm they posted the lines and I got the 8am line and Chris and Todd the 1030. Mom was with me at 8 am but in a different arena and Dad was at 1030 in a different arena than Todd and Chris.
Mom and I met out front for a picture. She was in flight 27 and I was in flight 24.
I was great going into the shoot that morning until it became shooting time! Then the nerves kicked in again. I was shooting with a nice lady from Minnesota, a guy from Nova Scotia, and guy from Virgina. We had people from France shooting right next to us. That weekend Id heard French, some form of Chinese, Dutch, Spanish and German. It truly was a WORLD event.
I ended up shooting the same score again of 278. I was pretty bummed but glad that I stayed consistent. I placed 20th in our flight when it was all said and done. I cant complain thought I started the flight in 24th place and moved up to 20th.
I took my bow back to the room as Chris and Todd were getting ready to shoot. I didnt care it was 10am I got a drink! My nerves were shot, I was frustrated with myself and was all tense. I felt much better after that and a cheese pretzel ha!
I went to watch Chris, Todd and my parents shoot.
Chris shot his best with a 283. Todd shot his worst. Mom shot her best and Dad shot his worst score. Im telling ya Vegas messes with your mind!
Mom ended up placing 5th in her flight and won $80. I placed 20th out of 35 in my flight. Dad placed 34th out of 35 in his flight. Todd and Chris were in the same flight and Todd placed 27th out of 35 and Chris placed 12th out of 35. It was quite a learning experience but it was so much fun! Definitely something I want to do again next year. I will just be more prepared now!
After we got done shooting for they day we *could* have left by noon if we wanted to but our hotel rooms were paid for that night, our kid had a baby sitter and there was supposed to be a horrible snow storm coming in. We decided that we would just stay in Vegas and wait out the storm. It was supposed to be done by 3 that next morning. The ones who left Vegas that night were in a blizzard and it took them about 10 hours to get home. We went to the Bass Pro store. Neither Chris or I had been to one before. It was pretty much like Cabelas.
They did have a waterfall with ducks in it thought.
and as mom said "a real life mermaid"
Dad got 'lost' in the casino and we had to wait while Todd tried to track him down.
So we hung out in the furniture section
We went back to the casino and gambled for a min. After I spent $20 I got a milk shake and we headed back to the room to watch tv. It was nice to just relax.
We headed up to go bowling but open bowl had just ended so we went to the arcade where we had heard they had a great air hockey table.. but the table was down :(
We played guitar hero instead
Chris is pretty good at it!
I did kick his butt in skeet ball though
We kept it a short night since we were leaving about 445 the next morning. As we were leaving Vegas it was raining but the DOT cameras showed there was snow not far ahead. Todd Jana Chris and I were in one truck and Mom and Dad were in their truck and left with us.
We had heavy snow from about just outside St George until Nephi.
This was I-15 in Kanarraville
and this was about 30 miles before Filmore
It wouldnt have been so bad but the roads were so slick and so snowpacked. We were in 4 wheel drive until we hit Nephi. It took us 9 hours to get home....
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