A long flight across the Pacific Ocean + a week vacation in Las Vegas = our summer vacation

Liesl took her first ever cross-Pacific flight to the mainland a few weeks ago when the three of us went to Las Vegas to visit family over the Independence Day holiday. Pete’s parents and sister flew to Las Vegas from Wisconsin, and they, along with my parents and sister’s family (who all live in Vegas), enjoyed some fun-filled family time!

This was the first time that Liesl had met Aunt Katie (both of them!), Uncle Paul, and cousins Audrey and Beau. Liesl really enjoyed watching the older kids, and tried to “hang” with them as best she could. She’s still enough littler than them to need constant supervision, but did really well being with them for the most part.

As you can see, Liesl bonded with her big cousin, Audrey.

“Liesl, here’s what you really need to know.”

“Cousins are friends for life, and they give great hugs.”

“It’s important to always have pretty nails.”

“Wait, what are you doing over there? We were having a conversation, you know.”

“I’m sad. My friend left.”

To celebrate my mom’s birthday, we had a family cookout at Katie’s house so the kids could run around outside and play in the water while the adults chit chatted with each other while the food was barbequing. It was 100+ degrees outside, so the water felt amazingly refreshing to the kiddos!

We even had time to hit up the links and play some golf while we were there.

Paul was scratching his head the whole round, wondering “How does she hit the ball straight every single time?”

And above all else, we spent lots of time together as a family, and enjoyed being together in one place.

Look at Pete in the background, mimicking Liesl… Classic!

For my last night in Las Vegas, Katie and I kidnapped my mom and treated her to a surprise Shania Twain concert at Caeser’s Palace! It was a great concert, and a super fun thing to do for Girls’ Night.