Most of this coming a little delayed as we spent Sunday night driving home from Vegas after a full day of classes and then most of the time since busy or asleep. However, our Vegas trip was absolutely fantastic.

CombatCon is an amazing experience every year. A weekend long convention dedicated to all things combative and combative arts? Evan and I haven’t stopped attending since we started and it’s always so much fun. This year, being behind the registration desk and getting to volunteer in a community that has been so welcoming and so enjoyable was an awesome addition to the convention. I loved getting to meet tons of new people, hear stories about classes and tournaments, problem solve wildly unexpected issues, and even pick up new skills from conversations alone. While I was at the desk, Kai, Mikey, and Cody enjoyed specialized training from the Personal Defense Experience pathway – a specifically structured schedule of classes culminating in an aggressive self-defense test utilizing skills learned throughout the weekend. The boys learned how to grapple, fight with flashlights and improvised weapons, analyze the danger of a situation,and more. Evan meanwhile specialized in nothing specific besides having his own adventure. I loved hearing about the wild variety of classes he took. A favorite class we got to take together educated us through practice sparring on the actual uses of weapons from fantasy shows and settings.

The whole of the Con was a fantastic experience and around it we enjoyed several more adventures in Vegas. We went to celebrity chef restaurants (Guy Fieri and Buddy Valastro), saw the Bellagio gardens, attended Excalibur’s Tournament of Kings, and enjoyed a lot of time just exploring the strip. The boys also got to ride the New York, New York roller coaster and see the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Though food poisoning and previous injuries provided some downs to our ups, we all had a fantastic trip. I’m looking forward to heading back to volunteer again next year.

After our 12 hour drive home after a day full of classes, we immediately got back in the car with my mom to drive to Casper, Wyoming for Kai and Beau’s one year anniversary. While they were off celebrating, we hung out in coffee shops and played mini golf with my mom. Honestly, getting to catch up with her, and later my dad, was one of the best parts of the last couple days.

Aside from all this, we are still hard at work on apartment and job hunting. Here’s to hoping the place we toured today might be the right one???