ACM's red carpet style

      ViVa LaS vEgAs

I kept going to the wrong door one time we had to run away because we thought they were going to open the door.




                                                          Linds and I at Treasure Island

                                                                         George Strait

                                                 The gf of the drummer for Kellie Pickler

                                                 The crowd waiting for Kellie Pickler

         The ACMS

                         Linds and I safe from that jerk from the "academy" see story below

If you thought Shawn Johnson had a stalker you should have seen this guy he was a total creep. On his shirt there was a picture of the two of them.

                      You know you are in vegas when there are slot machines in the airport

For those of you that don't know what the ACM's are they are the American Country Music Awards. I had the opportunity of attending them. They were held in Vegas this year I had so much fun! Here is the story of how I go the opportunity to go: I was in New York with Katelin. I got in about 12:30 AM and was exhausted. At about 9 AM my dad called my cell phone I had no idea why he was calling me so I figured I would call him later. But then he called Katelin's phone too. We both looked at each other thinking something bad had happened because of what we recently went through with my cousins being killed. I told Katelin she better answer it. When she answered my dad said, "I need to talk to Jena in a paniced voice." I got on the phone and he said, "Jena, you won a trip you only have 10 mins to call back. " I was so confused first I was exhausted and second I didn't know he had entered me into a contest. I called radio station and said you called my name on the radio. Of course they didn't pronounce it right but my dad knew it was me. I guess I was on the radio not knowing what I had won, I was put on hold to give them my address and everything else. The guy was like, "Are you excited?" I was like "Ya I am so excited!" By this time I knew what I had won and was in shock. I won a trip for 2 to the ACM's this included airfare, hotel stay, tickets to the show, tickets to the special show for George Strait, and more. I decided to take my friend Lindsay that I used to work with at America First. We had a lot of fun!

At the airport in SLC both Lindsay and I got our bags checked. Either of us have had our bags checked. They took a bottle of perfume away from me it was 3.2 oz so just barely over the guy was really a jerk about it. All the other trips I have gone on they haven't taken it away lame. You will never guess what Lindsay had in her bag....scissors! She works at a school and brought the bag she uses for school. She was so embarrassed but luckily she got another guy that was cool about it and let her go. Don't you think they would take the scissors away versus .2 over the amount allowed? We flew in on Saturday and checked into MGM (that is where all the events were, so it was nice we stayed at the same hotel). Upon checking in the guy checking us in didn't believe it was me. He was looking at my driver's license and seriously didn't think it was me. I mean come on yes I know I have blonde hair in my picture and now I have brown hair but I still look like Jena. He just kept saying this is not you. He made me sign my name, I don't know what I would have done if my signature changed since I was 16. Once I verified my signature he let me check in. He said how old were you in this picture? I was 16 well you look like you are 60 now what kind of compliment is that oh wait it isn't!

Later that night Linds and I went to Fremont Street there were free concerts going on. Linds wanted to see Kellie Pickler so we made our way there. We got on a double decker bus not knowing it would take us an hour to get where we wanted to go. Fremont street is a pretty cool place as long as you stayed inside of it and don't venture off ,then it can get pretty scary. As part of the trip we were given lanyards that were supposed to get us into a roped off area for the concerts. We spent 30 mins talking to all of the security guards and no one knew what we were talking about. They kept saying you need a wrist band but I didn't know where the freak to get a wristband. Our last attempt we were asking a guys if he knew he was a total jerk and said I work for the academy and I don't recognize this so no you aren't getting in, do you know the number of your contact person? I called the lady and of course she didn't answer. I was super frustrated because we were promised something and didn't get it. Well the jerk walked away and the security guard told us to go hurry before he sees you and he let us into the area we were trying to get to. He said, "You owe me big time." What do I owe him I will never see him again. We got into the pit right by the stage we were so close it was awesome it was even better because we really weren't supposed to be where we were at. We ended up meeting the gf of the drummer for Kellie's band. We hung out with her, she was so hilarious it was a great time! After the concert we met the drummer, he was pretty sweet we could have met Kellie but the gf doesn't like Kellie so she didn't want to see her. So that was kind of a bummer! Anyways we got a great story out of it. It took us 2 hours to get back to the hotel on the bus and there was this old man playing the piano. I was so annoyed of him he seriously was playing so loud trying to get tips, lets just say he didn't get any tips from me.

Sunday morning we got to go to a special event where we met Lon Healton he is the radio host and manager of Country Music Countdown in Nashville. He knows alot about the country music business and shared stories with us. We also met Tim Nichols he is a songwriter for the stars some of his songs have been picked up by Tim McGraw "Live Like You Were Dying", and other ones but I can't remember all of them. It was cool to meet him because he told us the stories behind all of the songs he has written. The last group we met were Kate & Kacey Coppolla they are identical twins who are super cute. They are new to the business their cd comes out April 27 you can check them out at Big Machine Records (the same record comany Taylor Swift is on.) I think they are going to be it was so great to meet them. I like feeling like a celerbrity people look at you like how did you get to meet them or how did you get into that event?

Sunday night we were getting ready for the award show we had to be in our seats by 430 PM I know crazy early. We were getting ready and then Linds cut her leg pretty bad (she is going to be super embarrased about this but oh well it is a funny story.) Neither of us had bandaids where are your moms when you really need them? I went and asked the cleaning lady if she had any and she looked at me like I was crazy. She told me to call housekeeping they didn't have any either. I ran down to the gift shop, I was looking at boxes of bandaids and a guy said, "there are little packages of 4" and I said "umm, I am going to need a lot more then that." He looked at me puzzled and I said, "My friend cut her leg." His only reponse was "Oh" to say in the least I didn't need to explain any more. We made it to the show in time our seats were that great by we got to see as stars were coming in. It was such a fun night the show was amazing it was weird to think I am here while everyone else was watching it on tv. After the show we went to the all-star jams it was a huge party where the stars performed it was more relaxed then the award show it was pretty cool.

Monday morning we got to sleep in which was nice we didn't have anything planned until later that night. We went and walked the strip stopped at a few of the hotels. Linds and I went into  The Ventian and decided to gamble a little. Until this point I hadnt been carded yet... Some guy came up to me and said, "Hello." I said hello back it was really odd he just stared at me. I said, "Do you need to see my id?" "Well, are you 21?" "Yes, I am 21." Then he just walked away from me he didn't even look at my id. As we walked away another security guard followed us as we walked to the map of the hotel and just sat there. He didn't even say anything to us he just acted like he was headed that way, but I knew he wasn't. After that we headed back to our hotel it was pretty hot and we were getting tired you do so much walking there. 

Monday afternoon we got ready to go to George Strait and good news no more cuts! We got floor seats to George Strait it was pretty cool we had a great time. Before the show began Linds and I decided to stay out in the lobby to see if we could see any stars because we hadn't seen any yet. It was weird because we were staying in the same hotel as all of them but didn't see any of them. We saw some people we thought were stars just the way they acted and sure enough they were. The couple next to us told us who they were. One of them was Keith Anderson he is a new artist. We also saw Taylor Swift's band twice down by the elevators, but too bad we didn't see Taylor that would have been so awesome! 

We had a great time and were ready to come home Lindsay really missed her husband Eric. Overall it was a great trip I just wish the company was more organized. Linds you know what I am talking about.....