LIFE SPRINGS ETERNAL ON A GAUDY NEON STREET

We always knew there was a four year clock counting down our time in Las Vegas, and in August that time ran out. I may have been fighting back tears the first time we drove over the Hoover Dam to our new home in the ugliest place I'd ever seen, but fours years of really happy memories in a place will make it hard to say goodbye to, whether you think it's pretty there or not.

To the rest of the world it's Sin City, but to me it's the place where I became a mother. It's the place where my daughter learned to roll over, to sit up, to walk in to my arms. It's the place where Ryan would let me sleep, and sit in the dark, rocking our baby girl. It's the place where we always knew we'd get Friday afternoons to spend as a family, no matter how busy Ryan was in school. It's the place where we'd gorge on pretzel sticks at our favorite restaurant, and the place with Thai Spicy Basil Pork to die for. It's the place where we'd walk in the mountains, hand in hand, or swinging a laughing Charlotte between us. It's the place where we made accomplishments, where we bettered ourselves and met that handful of people who bettered us. It's the place where I miscarried the baby that I wanted so much, and was comforted by friends I didn't even know I had. It's the place where Charlotte scribbled on the walls, and the place where she learned how to scrub walls clean. It's the place where we set up a home, and where we were happy. 

On our last day in town we left our empty shell of a house, closed the garage for the last time and drove towards the lights of the city. Four years in Las Vegas and we thought it was about time we stayed in one of the hotels on the Strip. And, thanks to the incredibly loud toilets in our suite, Las Vegas is now also the place where Charlotte developed a phobia of public toilets. 

Walking through our eerie empty house was a sweet reminder that, with the exception of my hairdresser and the Thai Spicy Basil, the things that made me the happiest were coming with me, and we get to fall in love with a new place and be happy there too. So we're leaving Las Vegas but, unlike Cheryl Crow, I'm not at all opposed to going back.