Olympia Expo 2014 - A Vegas Quest
Let me begin by saying that this will be an extremely long post. I will try to not be as wordy as I usually am ._. But a lot happens when you go to Vegas for a weekend, ha!So this weekend I went to the 50th annual Olympia Expo in Las Vegas! I was invited by Quest Nutrition to work their booth for the expo all of Friday and Saturday. How could I say no?! I flew out Thursday and returned on Sunday. The entire trip was busy, exhausting, and fast-paced but at the same time, it was adventurous, amazingly fun, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was surrounded by amazing company and great friends.On Thursday, we had a group meeting where we received our shirts and other apparel (check out that fancy fanny pack) to be worn during the expo. We also met the other quest team members and introduced ourselves. So...many...team members! Quest was ranked the 2nd fasted growing private company in the US by Inc 5000, and this is no joke! There were 60-80 ish members; it was great. I got to finally meet other Instagrammers that I've been in contact with for so long, some as long as 2 years like Crystal! :) It was great to see Sarah, Crystal, Josie, Tony, and Nicolette. Again, I wouldn't have been able to meet them if it weren't for Quest inviting me. I feel so privileged.
After the meeting, we all ate at Burger Bistro in the hotel, which was called Westgate Hotel aka Las Vegas Hotel. After dinner we were all soo tired and jet lagged and went to bed.The next day, we had to be at the expo by 7:30 for the first meeting. Crystal and I were roommates and we sprung out of bed with excitement. Super amped. In the meeting room, there were fancy life-sized quest bars :DDD If only edible version existed. We took soo many pictures before heading downstairs for work at 9 am. 
The day was hectic but fun. The booth was huge, energized, and organized. It looked chaotic from the outside I bet. I got to see frandsssss and followers come visit at the booth. Couldn't wait until the twins Paul and Joe stopped by! I also got to meet Kyla finally. And I met @timbahwolffff again!
When the day was over, Tony, Crystal, Nicolette, the twins, and I freshened up and headed out to dinner! We met in the hotel for SUSHI! Then we took a taxi over to Caesar's Palace. At that hotel there's an amazing dessert restaurant called Serendipity 3. We smashed some dessert there. It was soo hard to choose Sundaes. We kind of all shared and snagged some from each other. There was a frozen hot chocolate, a mint chocolate sundae, a "lookie lookie gimme cookie" sundae, and a fried oreo sundae. I liked the oreo sundae the best. It had fried oreos, cookies and cream ice cream, hot fudge, and a marshmallow topping. Hnggggg.
Normally, I don't indulge in foods like this. Not because I don't let myself, but because I feel guilt. Even if I try to, I still feel soo much guilt and can only manage to eat a little. But I was completely okay. The friends around me made me forget any fear. It was so enjoyable and we just goofed off for an hour or so there. I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as we did there. It was so nice to be around friends that totally get me. It's weird because I felt closer to them upon first meeting them than I do to most of my real life friendships. Just the interactions we've had through social media were enough to bring us together.After we finished there, we got up and explored the casino of Caesar's Palace for a bit. I lost $10 in a slot machine in about 12 seconds... So I was done with that, ha. Then we headed to the hotel for the night.
The next day, Crystal and I woke up with less energy than the previous day, ha! But we were still excited to work again. We went to find COFFEE asap at the gas station across the street.
We had our meeting, then began another rapid-paced day at the expo! The first day, I worked the booth by talking to customers most of the day. I had lost my voice by the end of the day, so I decided to work mainly by restocking on Saturday. Less talking involved :p I still managed to meet so many amazing and unique people. I loved seeing kids who love Quest! I also got to goof off at the photobooth with Nicolette and Mel aka the owner of Sweet Spreads!! I also spent time distributing extra 'goodies' to people. The VIP section had all sorts of food made with quest products. There were extra cheddar crackers and salt pretzels that were made using quest chips, so we portioned them out for expo-goers to try.
We had to work much longer this day since the booth had to be disassembled at the end. Some people were there as late as 9-10 pm... I tried to help as much as possible but around 7:20 I felt so tired + delirious + hungry. It was hard to stop for food and water during the day so most of us felt so goofy (see: picture of Jill, Tony, and I playing with a Quest Apparel mannequin arm). At this point I felt unproductive so we went back to the room to refresh and grab food. Crystal, Tony, the twins, and I met at the hotel café for food. They had build-your-own omelettes I was obsessed with.
Nicolette wasn't at dinner because her husband flew in on Saturday. He bought a different hotel, so she ate with him. After dinner, Crystal went to bed because she had an early flight Sunday. The rest of us met up with them at the Wynn Hotel. We thought there was going to be a concert at the XS club there, but it turns out it was at the Encore hotel. After 2 hours of trying to locate the rest of the group, we gave up shortly after midnight and had our own fun. Honestly, it was so much more fun than we would have had in the club. We stopped by this coffee shop and, once again, had DESSERTS :DDD They were so good. I also bought coffee with Tony. Probably the only people in the city of Vegas drinking coffee at midnight. Our desserts were a magic cookie bar (like a square cookie with coconut on it too. This was my fave), a chocolate stuffed chocolate éclair (not pictured bc it looks like doodoo), a sugar free coconut mango mousse, and a lemon tart with goldddddd on it. We kept joking it looked like egg yolks #yolkporn.
Once again, we were laughing hysterically and having so much fun. I vlogged the weekend for a youtube video, so we took some hilarious videos in this coffee shop. One included part of a series we decided to dub "Nicolette eating things off of things" that always has to include a quest bar. We assembled some éclair, mango coconut mousse, magic cookie bar, a strawberry cheesecake quest bar, and the golden "yolk" that she ate with no hands. Champ. The customers sitting next to us must've thought we were drugged up so bad. It was hilarious for no reason.After enjoying our time, we roamed the casino a bit. And we observed the pretty lobby of the Wynn hotel. We also observed many many hilarious people as we people watched in the lobby. The best was selfie girl. Not exaggerating, she spent 5-8 minutes trying to find the perfect lighting... She stomped around and walked in circles to find the best place. Soo shameless. We want to follow her so bad. Some of the hashtags we decided she'd need are #itakeselfiesforaliving #selfieharderthanme #allnatural #gotitonthefirstshot #brodoyouevenselfie #candidshot #selfiebcidgaf #baecaughtmetakingaselfie #thehighertheanglethehigherthelikes 
Afterwards, we were all so tired and decided to part ways... It's hard saying goodbye to such instant friends. The next day I slept as long as possible before checkout. I made one last stop to say bye to Nicolette again, then flew home. I got in at 10 pm and crashed so hard in my bed. Thankfully Jesse was able to pick me up and drive me home from the airport.This was without a doubt one of my top two weekends, with Arnold Expo 2014 being the other. The common factor? Great friends and company. I feel so fortunate to have made so many close relationships with people through Instagram and social media. I never could have anticipated the happiness, amazing opportunities, and genuine relationships I've made in the last 2 years. I wish I could better express how amazing this was. I spent the weekend working for a company I passionately love, meeting all sorts of new people, in Vegas, with friends I'd never get to meet otherwise. What. Is. Life. In the words of Tom Bilyeu and the overall Quest Nutrition belief, always ask first what you can bring to the table and provide for others before expecting any outcome for yourself; that part will come in time. I've always believed this, and I think this is why I love and respect Quest so much. Their beliefs line up 100% with mine. They constantly amaze me and I am excited to see what the future holds for them. I am so honored to be a part of the Quest family, and I hope I can experience weekends like this again in the future.
