our big fat family vacation!

This year for our family vacation, we went big! Everyone came along (us, Nick, Juju, Tonya & Stephen, Darrah, Ryan, Luciana) and we rented a house in the Richland Chambers Lake area to just hang the heck out. There was lots of fishing, swimming, drinking, indulgent eating, shnoozing on the couch, bug swatting, corn-hole playing... everything a family trip should be!

The house that we stayed at was AWESOME. We had more than enough bedrooms and bathrooms for everyone, including 2 "guest" houses, a pool room (the highlight of Sadie's trip), a pier to fish off of, a backyard patio to play on, big squishy couches, TWO fridges... it was just lovely. Here are a few pictures from our trip! (I took alot of video but more than what could fit on YouTube - just a mental note for myself!)

The first full day was just spent hanging out, playing on the pier... and fishing with sticks!

There were spiderwebs EVERYWHERE ;P

Miss Darrah!

The second day of our trip, we went swimming out in the lake. Which meant renting the seemingly ONLY boat near by and driving 4 minutes both ways to swim underneath the main bridge (so we wouldn't die of heat stroke!). It was a really fun day, but I got absolutely zero pictures. (When there's a dozen of you on an old shitty boat, pictures are the last thing on your mind!)

The next day, all the boys and Tonya went fishing while the girls stayed at home and watched movies. It was such a lovely day! (And the boys + Tonya were TIIIRED when they got back, haha)

Ryan caught the biggest one!!! :)

Again, they were TIIIRRREDDD :)

And here are some other randos!

Corn-hole that Stephen made (to regulation sizes, of course!) We all had a blast playing... and got some funny video. :D

There was a clothes line!

My last ditch effort to get pictures of everyone before we left, haha.

Other fun memories, not photographed:

- Eating all the yummy food! Tonya's enchiladas, Richard cooking all the fish that was caught, homemade breakfast treats, cocktails galore and bougie healthy food... I mean!

- Emily watching "Mermaids" with me (and freaking out at the climax, haha)

- Emily watching all the terrifying murder mystery shows, honestly. But everyone else seemed to be into it!

- Working out with Tonya! We made it happen on vacation!

- The kids not complaining ONCE about not having their "screens" (iDevices, XBox, etc.). I think when it's just NOT an option, they settle in very easily. It was so reassuring!

- Juju and Sadie being "bed fellers" (and Sadie subsequently suckering her grandmother into downloading Minecraft on Juju's iPad...!)

- Taking naps and reading outside in the afternoon...

- Ryan's birthday celebration! (Which I guess included getting unreasonably sunburned, despite all the sunblock he put on... is he allergic?! Lol...)

- S'mores with DARK CHOCOLATE TURTLES instead of just plain chocolate...!!!

- The fun/strange retro TV channels available, haha.

And, of course, we're already thinking of next year. We just have such a fun time together! :)

our 2nd anniversary :)

This year for our anniversary, we went to dinner at Toulouse, one of our favorite restaurants in Dallas.   Everything from the food, the service, the ambiance and atmosphere, it just feels like a mini-vacation. We can easily sit for 2 hours just eating, chatting, watching people on the Katy Trail... sometimes I think about going there more often, but it's just such a lovely place that makes our special occasions that much more wonderful. I would just hate to overdo it!

This time around, we got escargot, mussels and beignets! All things I've never had before! And to pair it off with some lovely drinks (I got some Miraval and R even got a pear martini... or two!), it was just HEAVENLY.

I liked this picture too much in this filter, too, so here it is again! ;P

Terrible food pictures of our snails and dessert. (The beignets were paired with this coffee mousse-type treat that was SO GOOD. I don't like coffee at ALL and this shit was amazing!)

After lingering as long as possible, we went down to Steel City Pops to finally try their famous treats (second dessert!). They were so tasty to eat while walking up and down Greenville Avenue. It was such a beautiful way to end a beautiful evening with my sweet amazing husband.

Happy 2 years, sweet man. I love you so much!

richard is 12 (forever ago!)

I've been historically late on birthday posts this year, but hey - they make it up eventually! Our sweet little man turned 12 this year, and for our exclusive birthday date we went to the Sea Life Aquarium in Grapevine (here's when we went to the Dallas aquarium 2 years ago for this 10th birthday - he was so little!). He just loves those aquariums! Afterwards, we went to Steak & Shake (like a couple years ago, too!) and stopped by GameStop to get him some goodies. It was a blast! I had such a wonderful time chatting with him and hearing him talk (and vent!) about all kinds of things, and he was so generous with this thanks when it was all over. HE IS THE SWEETEST LITTLE MAN.

Trying to decide what to buy... and he loved the sea lions! :D


But he eventually settled on his new best friend, "Fat Shark." :P

Sliders and a shake at Steak & Shake!!

4th on the hill

Our last 4th of July on the Hill... (sans Meghan, who had to work!)

Snackie-poos galore! 

Scrabble while Richard and Stephen went to go get fireworks :D

 

Look at that board! Sauteed?! Acute?! (Courtesy of R3!)

Passing time until dinner...

Pulled pork and tilapia tacos! With mango rice! (And dessert? A huge half-baked chocolate chip cookie covered in ice-cream... which melted into the most gluttonous soup!)

Emily's way of showing affection: sharing YouTube videos, ha!

R3's primary enteratinment: rolling through the entire house on that ottoman (who needs a pool!)

 Waiting for the show to start...

Not here, but on my hard-drive is a 16 minute video of our adorable fireworks show. Happy 4th of July!

emily lately :)

I just had to do a little bit about Emily lately. She is so adorable! Going through an epic awkward phase, killing it at puns (her and her siblings' latest obsession), drawing & Instagramming like crazy, refusing to wear anything that isn't sweatpants, and sharing a ton of YouTube videos with her dad. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BB.

Wearing a darling shirt (c/o Stephen!) for pool time because God forbid you just wear your amazing swimsuit for swimming. ;)

Blue hair don't care! I never thought this would happen!

And her Instagram? SO CUUUTE.

father's day!

Oh, just your usual DMX concert for Father's Day! When I saw he was coming into town, I HAD to get tickets for my sweet honey as his gift from me. Even though the concert was a week before the actual day, we just did 2 Father's Day surprises! For actual Father's Day, "the kids" surprised Richard with dumb funny cards and tickets for ALL 6 OF US to go see Finding Dory at Alamo Drafthouse (our first movie that ALL 6 OF US went to at one time!). Meghan also took him to see X-Men! So it was a very full few days for our amazing sweetie pie - which he deserved! (What he, nor any of us, didn't deserve is the AC going out at our house on Saturday night before Father's Day - PHEW! That would explain the lack of theater for the kids' surprises because we were all miserable and nowhere near photogenic, lol.) But some pictures/video from DMX, ahoy!

Not pictured: 

- Waiting 3 hours for DMX to actually perform.

- Getting to Gas Monkey Live at 8pm, standing for 2 hours, then rushing to the front of the venue when everyone was finally allowed forward (I GOTS US A GOOD SPOT).

- The Real Housewives of DMX standing in front of us - Snapping, 'Gramming, and texting boys for drugs?! (It was kind of amazing.)