So...Vegas

I have to hurry up and get my posts done! School starts next week and I'm afraid that if I don't get all our summer vacation posts done by then, I never will!

By now I think we've established that when I'm having a really good time, I don't really take pictures. Enter Vegas. I had a blast (we all did) so I'm short on pictures. Which is sad for those of you who were anxiously waiting to see every detail of our vacation but it will help me keep this post in check so I'm going to call it a win (although, don't fret, there are still a lot of pictures).

Vegas can be summed up like this:
1. Family, family, family. I had good intentions of seeing friends while we were out there but my parents and sisters are pretty much the best people I know (aside from Justin, of course) so I got caught up in the fun of hanging with them every day and I didn't call a single friend. I don't even feel bad about it either! (**Though, dear Vegas friends, don't take it personally. I still love you.)

2. Water. Basically your 4 S's: swimming pools, splash parks, slip 'n' slides, and sprinklers. This occupied the majority of our time.

3. Clayton's birthday. I'll do a whole post about that a different time (hopefully soon).

4. Lizards. Oh, we caught them. Yes we did.

5. Bikes. A pretty fair amount of bike riding occurred. Which was impressive given that it was eighty bajillion degrees outside.

And now - the photos:
Day 1: caught a lizard.

Lizard catching was on all the kids 'Vegas to do' lists. They were pretty excited to start catching them right away.

My parents love bikes. Especially my dad. He likes to buy them and fix them up (he has a couple really cool vintage ones). He bought this BMX bike off of Craigslist and then had Clayton help him restore it. Clayton loved working on this project with Opa.

 Just Sammie. Eating a banana. In Vegas.

All the kids LOVED my parent's dogs. Josie showed Georgie her love by sharing taggie (which, if you know Jo, is huge).

 Building a volcano with Opa.

My kids were always so worn out at the end of the day. Found Noah asleep like this. I'm not sure how this stuff happens.

Josie getting her nails done by Aunt Ash. Lucky little lady, there was no shortage of people ready to paint her nails.

Water fun (despite how it may seem, Sammie loved having Opa squirt her right in the face with the hose).

 Slippin' and slidin' in the backyard in your underwear. Nothing better.

 Aunt Nish was throwing kids left and right down that slip and slide. Clearly they loved it.

 But sometimes, an adult just wants to slip and slide too.

This one of Sam slays me (probably because I'm remembering how much she loved it - to everyone else it's just a weird picture of someone's baby).

 My cute nephew Max in his 'ready' position.

 And sometimes, you just gotta be naked.

While in Vegas, we spent a weekend visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Ely. While we were there Vegas had a crazy violent storm. It knocked a tree onto my parents house, breaking their porch overhang and smashing a part of their roof. Thankfully no one was hurt and the house was only minimally damaged. Here's Sam and Liam watching Opa assess the damage.

Ready for a swim. My kids have been taking swim lessons for years but have never really become great swimmer. Until this summer. Constant exposure to a pool is such a great thing. My kids learned more in a month than they have in years. They came a looooong way this summer. I am so proud of them!

 Dancing in the kitchen.

 Backfloat!

 Sweet, innocent face #1:

 Sweet, innocent face #2:

 Ahhh, this is more like it:

 Left unattended, these two are very sneaky.

 This is Josie's new "cheese" face. Not sure why she thinks it's cute, but we're going with it right now.

So that's all I have of Vegas (minus the bday pics, which I'll post soon). Ash, Nish, and I did spend a lovely sister's weekend in Cali, and I'll add those pictures to this post if I ever get them (cough, cough, Anisha, cough, cough).

We had a wonderful, adventure filled, busy month in Vegas. I hope we can do it again next summer (perhaps earlier in the summer though, when it's not mind meltingly hot).