Summer vacation

Way back in June, we took our first family road trip since Amanda joined us.  Interesting note:  since Amanda's adoption isn't finalized yet, we couldn't take her out of state without first notifying our adoption agency.  It's not really hard to get permission, though.  We decided to drive down to Vegas to see my brother and his family.  Actually, Wayne had a business trip down there, and we decided to turn it into a family vacation instead.  How can you not when you have a "free" room at the Palazzo?  Here are some pictures of our room:

And here's the view out our window of the pools--there were at least 7 of them down there, and they were more or less deserted, so it was easy to claim your own pool.  I'm guessing that they are busier on the weekends.

Amanda wasn't really up for swimming yet, so we visited with my sister in law and her cute baby.  Amanda loves her sweet little cousin Aria!  Babies are a bit of a novelty at the Las Vegas hotels.  We had Japanese tourists trying to take our pictures because of Amanda and Aria.  That was a little weird.

The Palazzo is the sister hotel of the Venetian.  They're connected by a big indoor mall that is Italian themed. We enjoyed wandering through the stores and eating pasta and gelato at the restaurants.  We also took the gondola ride on the canal.  For some of us, that's as close to Venice as we will ever come.  So, we enjoyed it all, especially getting to spend a couple of days with Brandon and Jacqueline and Aria!