Hello Texas!

Last week, Riley and I got to take a little trip down to Texas to visit our friends Kerri, Cory and Audrey. Kerri and I have been besties from the age of 5, each others maid/matron of honor and we had our daughters 5 days apart. Needless to say, Audrey and Riley are destined to be BFFs too.

It's been about a year since Riley and Audrey last saw each other and it's been a very very long time since I have been down to Dallas, so it was definitely time for a visit. It was so great to see our two little girls playing together and Riley had a fantastic time with all of Audrey's toys.

We also enjoyed some time outside at the park and playing in the backyard pool. Lucky for us, they were having a little bit of cold front while we were there which in Texas during the summer that means high 80's-low 90's. The girls had a great time swinging, swimming and finger painting with pudding paints. Riley didn't quite get the painting thing and Miss Audrey decided that the pudding was too good to waste on the paper, too cute!

We had some really great girl time which included some fabulous Texas shopping...good thing I only came with one suitcase, Kris would really have been in trouble if I had more space to pack. Little Miss loves to get in on the shopping action too!

In true best friend fashion, our girls sported matching outfits. Kerri bought them these adorable bubbles. Despite our best efforts, our two toddlers didn't stay put long enough for the perfect picture, so we settle for ones with both in the frame.

They also got these cute matching dresses from Gigi

We had such a fabulous time with our wonderful friends and can't wait to see them again soon!

Southfork

This past week, we extended our weekend by a couple of days and took a mini family vacay down to Southfork Colorado. Our friends from Oklahoma, the Rice family, have 3 beautiful cabins that sit right on the Rio Grande river and they invited us to join them for their Colorado vacation. It was so beautiful down there and the perfect spot to fish, hike and just relax with family.

We loved getting to spend some time with Uncle Ry and Auntie Kelly before their big move to Alaska that's coming early next month, we're going to miss them so much!

Riley absolultely loved having some her most favorite people there with her 24 hours a day and she woke up each morning asking for "Bop", her name for Popdaddy.

Riley and her Uncle Ry

Auntie Kelly (or Yelly as Riley calls her) and Riley

Riley indulgining in one of her fav activities with Susie
Checking out a waterfall with Gigi

Riley has become an expert at walking in the past month and got lots of practice on some rough but beautiful terrain this weekend. It's getting tough to keep up with her!

Riley loved every second being up in the mountains. She became a big fan of fishing and made her sign for "fish" when we got out our poles and of course when she saw an actual fish. Which we did even manage to catch a few and that really made her day.

If you look really hard you can see a fish in my hand, the only one I managed to catch...we threw him back.

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday we spent the day up in Loveland for a 4th of July celebration with our family. My Aunt and Uncle have a house on Lake Loveland and we had a great time at their annual celebration.



Riley had her own special area set up with baby pool and an adorable beach chair. She had a great time splashing in the little pool and hamming it up for her fans.

She also loved getting to spend time with her cousin Madeline and adored the attention that she got from all of Madeline's friends. She surrounded herself with these older girls as much as she possibly could throughout the day.

She also enjoyed the Bocce balls and didn't really care that there other people playing a game with these balls.

Enjoying a couple of her fave things, the Love Sac and Bocce Ball...

Although the very un-4th of July weather tried to keep us inside, the clouds parted and the rain stopped so that we could get out on the water for Riley's first boat ride, she obviously loved it. It actually wasn't as bad as it looks in the picture. It was really poor timing that the weather cleared right about nap time, so she started off a little cranky but the boat actually put her to sleep. Too bad she missed Uncle Ry and cousin Nick's sweet wake boarding.

We were so excited for the great fireworks display over the lake and couldn't wait for little Miss to see them for the first time. She managed to stay awake just long enough and loved watching the show! She kept saying "bang" in response to the sound each time they fired one off.