Happy 4th of July!

We made it to TEXAS...home sweet home! We were packed tight in the Tahoe but it all worked really well...the pups were much happier out of their kennels and in the AC and Riley did AWESOME! We only stopped once for all of us to eat and that was it. She played, napped, and was enamoured with watching the puppies...I was expecting that she would do well in the car, but never imagined it would have been as easy as it was!

Jason's aunt and uncle, Lance and Barbara, came down from Atlanta to visit us as well and they arrived shortly around when we did. We all went to an AWESOME Mexican food restaurant, Tamale King, and had a great dinner.

We learned in the process of waiting for our table that Riley likes beer...the picture says it all! Are we bad parents? We didn't let her have the beer and she was not happy about that, but she was quickly soothed with the binkie!

Today we sat out on the dock this morning and it was so relaxing...this is our view from the house and this is such a peaceful place. It's as if you are able to truly take a sabbatical from your everyday life...I love the lake!

Riley swam today and had lots of fun riding the waves. She also got to take her first boat ride and wear her life jacket. The life jacket was extremely effective as Jason tested it out and she floated perfectly, but it looked so uncomfortable for her. She, however, did not seem to mind it! We went on a boat ride to tube and the lake was rather choppy as it was a little windy and there were boats galore and even with all the bumpiness of the boat Riley managed to take a nap through all of it...hilarious!

Here are some pics of the tubing adventures...I hadn't tubed in 2 years since last summer tubing was off limits since I was preggo! I had a lot of fun, but I had to bail on my own terms because I realized early into my adventure that my bathing suit bottoms were slightly too big and if I didn't have them in my hand when I went off the tube there was a great chance I would come up without them...that would not have been good!

Jason's family arrived today after a long day of traveling with car troubles, but we're glad they made it safely! We had a great meal to celebrate the 4th...brisket, potato salad, coleslaw crunch, and Jason's famous beans...for dessert we had homemade vanilla ice cream with some very yummy chocolate cake! We watched some fireworks tonight, but are actually having our big 4th celebration tomorrow night at The Hanlon's house...that should be fun!

Riley played hard today and napped in the most random of circumstances...while on a walk this morning and on a choppy boat ride! Needless to say she was wiped out this evening and went to bed rather early! She loves the lake though and I hope that she grows up with as fond of memories as I have of growing up going to the lake! Grammie even got her hands on a jumperoo so she had several good hours of jumping today as well!

We hope you all had a great 4th of July...this is a bittersweet holiday for us because as we celebrate those who have served our country and those that are currently serving our country we are also dealing with the fact that Jason leaves in a few weeks to deploy to "the desert" so we are soaking up every minute of time as a family.