Viva Las Vegas!

Summer always means summer vacations for me. I can usually picture myself sitting on the beach somewhere, enjoying a good book. Oh, wait, maybe that was the "before baby summer vacation." My views on vacations have changed a bit since my sweet babies entered my life. Gone are the days of peace and quiet and sleeping late! Hello busy days of running after toddlers and juggling nap schedules while trying to actually have fun on vacation. This year, we opted to try Las Vegas for our vacation. I know, it's not our normal sedate vacation destination, and certainly not somewhere that Brent and I would just pick to visit. Brent's brother and sister both live in Vegas with their families. Both Matts are in the Air Force and are stationed there. Brent's brother(Uncle Matt) has lived in Vegas for over four years and Amy(Brent's sister) has been there two years. We hadn't ever made it out for a visit, so a family trip to Vegas was in order. Of course we flew. I can't even imagine the torture that a 20+ hour trip would be. My kids are great travellers, but there IS a limit. Maura loved her plane ride and was very easy to entertain on the four hour plane trip. My energetic little girl stayed glued to that seat and belted down for the entire trip. I was so proud of her! I took wrapped "presents"( small toys) and let her unwrap one an hour and it kept her so busy that she barely noticed how long we were on the plane

My sweet Tristan had a little harder trip. He just couldn't figure out why we wouldn't let him get down and wonder away. Brent rocked him and he fell asleep for awhile, but we had a crying baby in front of us and a persistent cougher caddy corner to us, and he woke up frequently. I was so glad to have my strong husband there with me. He held Tristan for almost the entire trip. I would have been exhausted! FINALLY there and waiting for the rental car. Don't let that angelic face fool you! She was flipping and flopping all over those couches to let off some of that excess energy from the plane ride. It didn't end well, however. Her head abruptly met the end of a couch and we had hysterical crying.

Ahh, travelling. We finally arrived at Amy's house and settled in before heading over to Matt and Brenda's house for dinner and swimming. It was great to relax in their awesome pool and to give the kids something to think about other than the fact that it was 9:00 Vegas time(12 am our time!) We kept them up to ensure that we wouldn't have any 2 am wake ups! Maura loved the pool and turned into a little fish while we were out in Vegas. I think she may be swimming on her own by the end of the summer.

The next morning, the kids did wake up bright and early. Tristan slept until 7am, which is a miracle. We were still up way earlier than anyone else in the house, so we walked to a nearby park. I can hardly believe how nice the neighborhood parks are in this part of Vegas. I'm so jealous! Maura loved riding her dino. Tristan loved the dino baby too.

I was so glad to be on vacation with my wonderful hubby!! He made the trip so much easier by helping with early morning wake ups. Tristan woke up between 5:30 and 6 am the rest of the time we were there. Brent and I switched off on waking up with him and we each got to sleep a bit. Chuck and Sherran came and got the kids one morning and watched them overnight one night too, so we did actually get some sleep on this vacation. Thanks guys! You don't know how much that meant to us!
Tristan's favorite activity on this wonderful playground? Digging in the wood chips, of course. "Maura, are you in there??"

My little dino all ready to hatch!  My sweet kids, enjoying the beach(sandbox).
That same day, we decided to go ahead and take the kids down to the Vegas strip. We knew that the crowds would probably be bad over the holiday weekend, so we figured we'd better go down on Thursday and try to beat them. We took the kids to the Mirage, where they have Siegfried and Roy's white tigers and lions. It was the kid's first time to see Nan and Poppa on this vacation, and they were so happy to get to see them. Maura loved hanging out with her Nan and waiting to see the dolphins.

My sweet niece, Ava. I love this baby girl so much!! She's such a sweetie! We've not really had much of a chance to get to know her because our visits are always so short, but we really were able to spend some great time with her on this trip. We loved playing with her and she really looked up to Maura.

 Our family enjoying the dolphin show at the Mirage. Ava, Sherran and Chuck in front of the dolphin tank.  They were so happy to have all their kids and grandkids together at once in Vegas.

They had a baby dolphin at the Mirage and I just loved watching her. She was so cute and so smart. I could have stayed and watched the dolphins swim and play all day, but the kids were restless and we moved on

Maura was into the lions. I mean, WAY into the lions. We had a hard time peeling her off of this lion statue at the entrance! Maura, Ava and Nan wishing at the Wishing Tree.

Our first glimpses of the animals. Can you see how excited Maura is? She could hardly contain herself!

 I have never before seen a white lion. They were beautiful! Maura even got to ride a tiger!

Then we got to SEE the tiger. He was just on the other side of the chain link fence, literally only three feet from us. I've never been this close to a tiger, and I'm not really sure he liked being so close to us. He paced back and forth and occasionally turned to the crowd to spray. You should have seen those tourists scatter. Hilarious! Of course, that's the main thing Maura remembers from the experience. She kept talking about the tiger peeing. GREAT!

Maura impersonated the white tiger while in the gift shop. "And I'll take that one too, Poppa!"

Brent and Chuck couldn't wait for a taste of In and Out Burger, so we made a stop there for lunch. Tristan got his very first taste of milkshake and he liked it...a LOT.

We ended up the day with a trip to a park for the Las Vegas Jubillee, an Independence Day celebration. It was a bit crowded and we were tired, so we enjoyed the crowd for a bit, got some balloons, and headed home after a long, but fun day. Much more to come...tomorrow!