South Carolina with the Foscarini's

Tony and I were lucky enough to be invited to South Carolina by the Foscarini's. We stayed in a condo right on the Marina in Hilton Head, it was so Beautiful, hot & humid :) We were lucky enough to stay for a full week too. It was so incredibly relaxing, especially needed for Tony who has been working hard at 3 jobs. It was so good to get to spend some quality time with Tony's parents (who unfortunately had to leave early due to not feeling well.) and siblings, Doug, Nick and his wife Nikki. We love all of them and had such a good time especially because we don't get to see them very much. We lounged at the beach, went to the pool, kayaked next to dolphins, rented bikes and cruised around, ate good food, and had a blast doing it all with family! We are so sorry you had to leave early George and Judi and hope you are feeling at least a little better George. You were both missed! Thanks for all the fun and wonderful memories. We even went to Savannah on our way to the airport with Nick and Nikki who were kind enough to give us a ride to the airport, thanks! Only great things to say about both Hilton head and Savannah, hope to return :)

I posted a lot of videos because there were to many cute ones:

4th of July!!

We went up the lift at Sundance in the afternoon. Beautiful!

Carrie Underwood

Stadium of Fire

Freedom Gala

This post is long over due! Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. I love what it means and that we can be a Free people! It really is such an amazing blessing we have! We have our tradition of going to the Freedom Award Gala and of course Stadium of Fire. This year Carrie Underwood was the entrainment, I didn't know to much about her, but I love her now! It was a really good show :) And of course a great Firework show after! River went to Stadium of Fire last year so he has already attended 2. He did pretty good, but got a little antsy at times. Overall, it was a wonderful 4th!

Summer Days

Relaxing after getting a little too much sun

Playing in Nana's garden

Anything wet, River is there!

He usually ends up naked! He looks like he is in the Garden of Eden

Visiting one of our favorite spots

I love the beautiful Mountains we are surrounded by

The cutest boy around :)

Here are some of the things we have been up to this Summer. As you can see getting wet and being outside is a lot of what we have been up to. We were lucky enough to be able to go to the pool with Tony yesterday after he got off work! It was fun to all be together and being able to do something "summery". I am truly grateful for all my many blessings, the best of those blessings being my wonderful, handsome, hard working hubby, & of course my adorable, funny, delightful little boy! How lucky can one girl get :) I hope your Summer is going great too!

I am Woman hear me Roar!

As women there is a lot put on our shoulders! We are expected (either by the world or our own moral compass) to be beautiful, skinny and firm, powerful but soft, career driven, child bearing (without turning into whales), amazing cooks and home keepers, teachers to our children, organized, creative, fun, charitable, devoted wives, missionaries (to our children and others), the best at our church callings, steering our husbands in the right direction, etc...etc...etc...(feel free to add to this list!)
We really are amazing..us women! Here is the thing, of course you can not be all of these things to everyone or yourself. So, here is my question to all of you amazing women...How do you find the balance?? How do you take care of everyone else without leaving yourself in the dust? (Or vise -versa) I have found myself having a hard time finding this so called balance. Does it exist? Can we really be all that we put on ourselves? Sometimes it leaves my mind racing at night of all the things I am lacking or could do so much better! I truly want to be better in so many ways, but sometimes just end up feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. I know all of us women do this to ourselves, so again I ask what has helped you find your balance in this crazy world??!!

Baby Contest!

I love this pic! The look on his face makes me laugh!

River is always getting hurt...here is his fat lip

Playing with a new friend before the baby contest

Our handsome little guy :)

Some of River's biggest fans!

These are pics of him during judging, He clapped...

..& Smiled!

3rd Place Winner!!

All the Winners
(we are 3rd from left)

3rd Place Winners

River and his medal :)

His favorite part was the Balloon

His prize and Metal

Ok...I'm starting to feel like a pageant Mom...Sorry, I will stop now! :)

I decided to enter River into a baby contest just for the fun of it. I never thought he was going to win...but he did, he took 3rd place in his age group!! He looked so cute in his Red, White, and Blue! He was totally hamming it up for the judges too...all smiles and even a few claps :) My Parents and Chelan came along and we all had a good time. He won a bag of goodies, a metal, and the chance to be in two parades! We were so proud of him :)
It was my Mom's birthday recently so we went to lunch at Mac Grill to celebrate. River was sitting in his high chair eating pieces of bread I was giving him. I saw out of the corner of my eye him take my Mom's fork and started using the fork to eat the bread! I hadn't taught him this! We all just kind of looked at him in amazement...he just smiled and laughed. It was really cute!

Using a fork for the first time! Yay!

What we have been up to...

Playing in the rain

Playing Golf

Watching Softball where I used to play :)

Beautiful Bridal Veil and playing in the run off

Doesn't this pic look like those pics of "big foot" haha!

Just chillin...we like to do this

Grandpa's Birthday Party @ Tucanos

Just out of reach playing golf

Walking to Bridal Veil, River discovered his shadow!

Well these are just a few of the thing that we have been up to lately. We are absolutely loving that Summer is finally here :) I hope that all of you are enjoying your Summer as well. Something that is really cute that River is doing now is..dancing! He is a dance machine and it is incredible cute!! I don't know where on earth he got some of his crazy moves :) We were at lunch today with Grandpa and he just started dancing in the restaurant, super cute. I want to take River to the pool, does anyone want to come with me? I would prefer not to go alone :)