Happy 4th of July!

We decided to pack up Miss Riley and spend our 4th of July in the mountains this year.  Our friends, the Wilbourns and the Shoemakes are escaping the Texas heat with a Colorado vacation so we met them up at their Frisco cabin for some celebrating.  We are always excited to see our friends and Riley was so excited to get to see her friend Audrey.  She's only been talking about this visit from the moment I told her about it more than a month ago.  I realized after I had told her about that it might be best to withhold this kind of information until a little bit closer to the actual event, trying to explain time to a toddler is an exercise in futility.

We got up the hill just in time to head off to the Frisco 4th of July parade.  I loved attending that parade as a kid and I was excited to take Riley.  It took her no time at all to get into the spirit of the day and she particularly loved that there was candy, beads and popsicles thrown to the kids along the street.  By the time the parade had ended, she had worn herself out and her cute white 4th of July sweatshirt had spots of Startburst drool, Otterpop juice and some mac 'n cheese.   It was a success!

Kerri and I attempting to get a picture with our girls, neither of them was having it

Riley with her hard fought OtterPop

Daddy had to give her a little help in eating her prize

After a little nap, Riley was rested and ready for her 2nd round of fun.  She and her buddy Audrey spent the afternoon digging in the dirt and having a great time. 

Only a true friend will feed you raisins while you lounge on the couch...

It would not be the 4th of July without Gigi's homemade ice cream and both girls excitedly took a break from their dirt bath to help lick the dasher.  It started off as a fairly civilized taste

and quickly errupted into an all out ice cream frenzy....

I'm pretty sure that they both enjoyed the treat!

Riley got to view her first fireworks display on Friday night at the Nichols downtown condo and was not a big fan.  Her intial reaction to the sound and lights was a horrified expression followed by "I don't want to see the fireworks, I want to go to bed!".  She did come around to watching them for a little while but really preferred to see the show through the window as opposed to out on the balcony.  When the show was over she was emphatic " We never, never, see the fireworks again!".  So, when the opportunity arose to watch the fireworks over Frisco Bay, Riley Roo preferred a different kind of show...Finding Nemo with her buddy Audrey.

We spent that night with Gigi and Popdaddy at a Breckenridge condo and spent just a little bit more time in Frisco this morning before making a the long drive back down.  Holiday back out of the mountains was not fun, but it was totally worth it, we had so much fun!  Plus, Roo kept us entertained with her singing the whole way back.   Happy 4th!

A Visit from Aunt Judi

There was more than one reason that Riley was excited to see me when I got back from my Santa Fe trip.  We had Aunt Judi with us! She came with us back from Santa Fe to stay the weekend before heading back to Oklahoma.  Riley loves to talk about her Aunt Judi and Uncle John in Oklahoma and has pretend phone conversations with them on a very regular basis.  She also loves that Judi sends her very own mail in the form of cute cards and animal postcards.  Since we haven't been back to Oklahoma recently, it's been a while since we have seen Aunt Judi and Riley was really excited to have her here.

She could not wait to take her to one of her very favorite places, the zoo.

Riley even braved the carousel and once again, she felt like the stationary polar bear was the most trustworthy to ride.

Being that Riley LOVES ice cream as does her Aunt Judi, she made sure that we took a break for a treat. She had decided well in advance of our day at the zoo that when she went with Aunt Judi she was going to have a chocolate ice cream, so it was pretty important that we make that happen.

2 ice cream lovin' girls!

Posing with Popdaddy and Daddy, she was good as long as they didn't try to swipe her cone

Checking out the hippos with Gigi

Since we had pretty much abandoned all of the dad's on Father's Day, we decided that Sunday would be a re-do of that special day for Popdaddy, Kris and Uncle Mike too.  We spent the playing in the pool and hanging out with our family.  Riley could not have been happier to have the entire McGuffee family there for the day too as they are easily some of her favorite people. The only person we were sad to have missing from our little celebration was Uncle John, who unexpectedly had to stay back in Oklahoma. He did however send Riley some special treats that she had been asking for, "yummy bears" (aka gummy bears) and "nim nims" (aka M&Ms).

Riley has always loved water and the pool is no exception.  She has a new swim vest that we are using to help give her some independence in the water as she learns to swim, she absolutely loves it.  She was working so hard to swim around the pool on her own and she was thrilled to have an audience watching and encouraging her new found skills.

All of the extra encouragement she was getting helped give her the confidence to start jumping in from the side again. 

Thanks so much for coming to visit Aunt Judi, we had a great time and we can't wait till you come again!