Vegas Vacation

It's been close to a week since we returned from Las Vegas and I think I may have finally made a little time to share our trip on the blog.

Let me just say that the trip as a whole was wonderful! 9 days of uninterrupted fun with my whole family was incredible!

We drove for 4 of the 9 days and made the best of our time in the car. Each boy had a backpack of things to do, we had snacks, a dvd player, and even a surprise bag for when times got tough. Marshall never missed a nap, not even on driving days--wahoo :).

A snack to go along with Mickey Mouse.

Napping in the car. This is how he preferred it :).

Leaving our house at 5am 7/21.

The other 5 days were spent in Las Vegas at The Grandview resort (where we scored quite the deal for the week). Our room was on the 11th floor and we had an awesome view of the activity pool (kiddie pool). There were 4 other pools on the property as well and several hot tubs, which all 3 boys loved for short periods of time.

We spent our days swimming, playing at an awesome local park, bowling, mini-golfing, napping, riding scooters, feeding the pigeons, and even checking out The Strip one morning. Since we had a full kitchen, we stopped at the grocery store the first day and made all of our own meals at the resort. We were also able to do most of our laundry in our room too!

We drove down The Strip one night and here a just 2 of the pictures I took.

Free 3D movie at M&Ms world.

I will now let you enjoy the pictures and I will finish up with last minute packing for our next trip. We leave for Stoney Creek Campground in about 2 hours. Brady and Logan are already on their way.

Happy 30th

This past Friday was Peter's 30th birthday!!
It feels good now that he finally joined me in the land of the 30-somethings :).

Since I threw him a surprise birthday party 2 years ago, and since it was a holiday weekend, we decided to celebrate at home this year.

On Friday morning, Brady and Logan went with me to pick up a special breakfast for Daddy to eat in bed. Then, I picked up Brady from school early (at 11am), picked up Logan from school, and we all headed up to Peter's work for lunch.
We even packed a special birthday cupcake and birthday ice cream.

After lunch, Brady and Logan worked hard on making some birthday cards while Marshall napped.
For dinner we had hobos (a family favorite) and Oreo pie. We also gave Peter a few small gifts.

All in all, it was a small party for a big birthday!!
Thanks to everyone who sent birthday cards, gifts, and Facebook messages. Peter really appreciated them all!

A simple blog post for an extraordinary man. Peter, you mean the world to me and I love you very much!!

Swimming

A photographer I am not.
That is why I usually let my talented brother-in-law take pictures of my kids for me. He has an amazing camera and knows how to use it correctly.

With that said, I did try my best to capture a bit of what swimming lessons has been like for Brady and Logan so far.

Let me warn you that the pictures are dark and a little fuzzy.
Enjoy anyways.

Brady is the one standing just behind (or to the left of, the pink spot in the water).


Logan and Daddy throwing the rubber ducky.

Brady, swimming, with his instructor.

Logan and Daddy.

Fishing

Peter learned to fish when he was young and he's always wanted to teach his boys to fish too.
So, for Brady's birthday this year, he received a Toy Story fishing pole from his Nana and Papa.

During Peter's vacation from work this week, we headed up to Auntie Laura and Uncle Darron's house to fish off of their new dock.
Brady enjoyed fishing with his cousins, Morgan and Dylan, while Logan enjoyed going for a paddle boat ride with Auntie Laura and Raegan.

Brady proudly caught 2 fish, with Daddy's help.
Enjoy the pictures.

Getting ready

Logan and Raegan ready for a boat ride.

Coming back from the ride.

Happy fisherman.

First fish ever!! Brady was so proud.

Look at that catch!

Brady had a blast and we're hoping we can get back out again before the summer's up.

Brady's Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

The day before we left for Florida, Peter had an opportunity to go along with Brady's preschool class to the apple orchard.

Here are some pictures of the fun!! Enjoy.

Brady's First Day of Preschool

Today was the big day!

The time came this morning for Brady to start preschool and enter the world of education. As much as I wanted to keep him at home, and as often as the idea of homeschooling sounded appealing, I knew this was the best choice to make. I do not believe that preschool can be accomplished through home school, since the major purpose of preschool is to work on socialization skills. I also believe that home-schooled children miss out on too many important learning experiences. Anyways, public schools will be the option for us and we are excited to say so! Let me also say that I think a lot of great things come out of private, Christian schools, but not everything about them is great either--namely including the great cost.

This morning started out in Ginn family tradition. Growing up, we always had warm cinnamon rolls with our entire family on the first day of school. We also had our "first day of school" pictures taken in the driveway (unless it was raining, or we got too old to allow this).

Here's Brady enjoying his warm cinnamon roll (cut up to decrease stickiness, of course).

After breakfast, we headed out to the driveway to continue in the Ginn family tradition of driveway photos.

All 4 of us then headed over to the Instructional Services Center, which is one of 4 locations where the Wee Tigers Preschool program is held. This location is luckily only about a mile from our house. Brady is in the 4 year old class that meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9-11:30 AM.

Walking in the door with Daddy

Standing by the front door.

Standing by his locker. Can you see his name?


Saying goodbye to Mommy.

Brady walked into the class like a champion (no tears at all--and none for us either, surprisingly enough).

At 11:30, Logan and I returned to find a very happy and proud little 4 year old Brady. He had lots of stories to tell about his first day. Some of the highlights included: a story about a frog going to school, painting with flowers, eating Nilla wafers, playing outside on the playground, a funny song about peanut butter with a dance, and writing his name on his self-portrait.

Needless to say, Brady is very excited to go back to school on Friday!

The final Ginn family tradition carried out today included a small, first day of school gift. Brady's first, first-day-of-school gift was his very first umbrella. Now if we could just get some rain, so he could try it out!

And to round out the perfect first day of school, Brady will be eating some yummy pizza for dinner tonight!

I am also trying to remind myself that next year will be so much harder--when he actually steps onto the bus!