2nd Half of July....

I blogged about the first half of July in my last post so here goes the second half. Our anniversary is July 14th and my birthday is July 28th (I think Derrick planned that well) :) We wanted to take a mini vacation as we hadn't really done anything fun this whole summer so we planned a trip to Austin. It ended up being Austin because my brother's company, Texas Precious Metals, hit a huge milestone in their company and they had invited us on their celebration dinner cruise on Lake Austin. That was happening Saturday night so a couple of days before, we drove up to Boyd to spend a day with Derrick's family and get Rhyder settled in to stay a couple of days with the grandparents. On Friday, we drove back down to Austin to our hotel on the river. We wanted to see the bat emergence at Congress Street Bridge (which ended up being pretty incredible) but we got there early so we drove down to the Texas State Capital and parked for 21 minutes (according to the parking meter). We did a quick run through of the capital building, which is just amazingly beautiful. After all that, we joined Jason and his girlfriend, Hali, and his business partner, Tarek, at Moonshines which is a nice and yummy restaurant in downtown Austin. We shut the place down sitting around talking and enjoying a nice evening on the patio. 

So proud to be a Texan!

There was way more to do and read than we expected like this Civil War Memorial....the quarter and dime we put in the parking meter for a whole 21 minutes wasn't enough! 

Beautiful rotunda looking straight up in the entrance to the capital building. Focusing on the Lone Star! Whoop! 

The House of Representatives Chamber...I was imagining a room full of rowdy and passionate people in lieu of the recent SB5 abortion bill 

No photo can do this bat emergence justice. Its the world's largest urban bat colony....1.5 million bats emerge every night creating clouds of black in the sky. Crazy!

Saturday morning, we slept late!!! Whoa....no baby monitor, no worrying about feeding the baby, no noise...just a really cold window unit A/C, lots of covers and pillows, and no worries about the clock....aaahhhh! Yep, we slept late on our vacation. We were planning on going to Barton Springs that day but when we finally got up it was overcast and had rained HARD the night before so we weren't sure if the weather would cooperate, so instead, we decided to head down Congress to get the best burger in the world at Hopdoddy's and then go the Bob Bullock State of Texas History Museum. I think I mentioned in my last post that we like museums :) 

I had been there years ago, but it was fun again. We watched the Spirit of Texas movie and perused the 3 floors throughout the afternoon. Then it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for that night's dinner cruise on Lake Austin. 

We went back by the capital on the way to the museum...I think this picture is awesome

You think Texans are proud of the Lone Star? :) 

Problem with traveling as a pair is you never have anyone to take your picture! 

 The dinner cruise was very nice. My brother, Jason, and his business partner, Tarek, have done amazing things with the company in the short time that it has existed. I'd like to post some numbers, but I'll refrain as that's their business, but let's just say that Texas Precious Metals has become a HUGE player in the bullion industry in a very short period of time. If you or anyone you know invests in gold or silver, you really should check out purchasing it from TexMetals. The company has my true and honest endorsement. They are genuine guys from Texas doing the business correctly and in an honest manner...something you can't always get in the bullion industry. www.TexMetals.com

I love lakes and I love sunsets...the combination = perfect!

My brother and Hali

Tarek and his beautiful family minus little Marianna and Sebastian...if he looks familiar, its because he was on the Apprentice :)

There were 27 people on the boat...but I never got a good group pic. Sad day. They have a lot to be proud of!

The cruise ended at 9:30 so Derrick took me on a date to Amy's Ice Cream...we just love bein' together

On Sunday, we drove back north to Hillsboro to meet the Ratliffs and swap off the sweet kid. It was my first time away from Rhyder overnight so I was happy to snuggle him again. There is just something special about that warm baby skin and cute gummy grins. My mom had given me a pile of birthday gifts so when we got home, I enjoyed my new patio chairs compliments of Derrick and his mom and opened my gifts from my parents. What a great birthday weekend!

Apparently, while we were gone, my kid was learning how to be a rancher, a farmer, and a cowboy!  "So God made a Farmer." 

How blessed we are!

OMG How cute is that. 

Whoa! Big version of my little toy tractor!

I've got this!

Or...maybe not. Help Pappy! This steering wheel is as big as I am!

Memories forever...the Ratliffs 30 year old horse, Smoky, who was Derrick's childhood horse and roping buddy.
A picture speaks a thousand words...

First Half of July...

July has been a fast, full, and fun month...so many life changes and life accomplishments all packed into July of 2013. I think this post is going to be about the first half of July and then I'll follow up with the recent events.

Rhyder turned 8 months:
Every month I have taken his pic in this little snuggabunny bed to track his progress so at 12 months I can go back and put all the pics together to see how much he's grown. I think he just gets cuter and cuter every month. :) At 8 months, he's starting to not appreciate so much being set down to play alone. He likes interaction and likes to be held. We've experienced a couple little temper tantrums that will have to be nipped in the bud very soon. However, most of the time, he's all grins. He all of a sudden decided he hates carrots, after he's eaten them like a champ for a couple of months. He likes all things sweet..like his momma and grandma! His favorite toys are a couple I found at a garage sale...a little walker that sings some songs he loves and a little toy that has 4 pop ups that he likes to close and have me open over and over. He definitely loves Baby Einstein DVDs...how crazy it is to watch him totally ignore a regular TV show and then zone in on Baby Einstein...I guess they knew what they were doing when they created these shows for lil ones! He is right on the verge of crawling. He can scoot and twist and roll over and get places he wants to go...and any day he's gonna hop up on all fours and be off. He had his 5th haircut....yes, 5th! But he still has no teeth at all...I guess all the energy in his head is going to his scalp rather than his gums cuz his hair grows like crazy!

The 4th of July:
This year, the 4th was on a Thursday which worked out pretty well for us. Derrick came home on Wednesday night and then we were able to enjoy most of the rest of the weekend minus me working on Friday. On Thursday, we wanted to do a patriotic activity that we could work into Rhyder's nap schedule and we found out that the George Bush Museum on Texas A&M's campus had free admission all day so off we went. It had been years since either of us had been to the museum so it was like seeing it all for the first time. We enjoy museums and learning and relearning so we had a great time. That night, all the fireworks displays were after Rhyder's bedtime so Derrick and I crawled out on our roof to the tippy top and watched 3 different displays going on at the same time. Thank you, Lord, for the country we live in and that we can proactively celebrate our freedoms once a year together!

The museum was decked out in red, white, and blue for July 4th! 

Rhyder considering the wise words of President Bush :)

We have high aspirations for this little guy :-) 

We took a walk in the gardens to President Bush's family's gravesite...only one buried there now is their little daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia when she was 4.  

I took my bridal pics under this pavilion behind the museum...crazy to now be holding my son here 6 years later.  

Happy 4th of July everyone!

We got to write thank you notes to our troops overseas!

And we topped off the trip with patriotic colored slushes from Sonic :) Yes, I ordered blue coconut on purpose to compliment Derrick's cherry :)

  I had to be in Shiner on Sunday for my 10 year high school class reunion and we decided to turn the trip that direction into a bigger trip so we left Saturday morning to join my uncle and aunt at their lake house on Lake Gonzales. It was Rhyder's first time in a boat and on the lake, and we knew he loved swimming so figured it'd be a blast. Between staying up super late and talking like we always do with them and enjoying the wind in our hair on a fast boat ride down the lake, it was a super fun overnight trip.

He was SO excited to be at the lake :)

Ready to go, Mom! 

Pretty darn fun! Just wait, buddy, til Uncle Doug can teach you to waterski and pull you all over the place on a tube! 

He wasn't quite sure about the major wind as we zipped through the water...didn't really know which way to turn his head to breathe best ha!

can't beat this...relaxing in the shade of a big river tree

This bumblebee was made for me!

So fun playing blocks with Aunt Laura!

We celebrated being married 6 years:
Thanks to our dear friends, the Maders, we had a night out on the town to celebrate our 6 year anniversary without the little man. Rhyder got to go play with Karis, Kelsie, and Rilyn, and we headed out to one of our classic favorite restaurants in downtown Bryan, Cafe Capri. We debated going to a movie, but now its kind of a weird thing because when you have a limited amount of time to be out and about without a baby, a movie seems like a waste of that time. You can't talk to each other...you just sit and the time flies by...so we decided to head out to Lake Bryan for a country music concert and some quality time together. The evening was perfect. Food was delicious. Sunset was gorgeous. Weather was perfect. The only thing that went wrong was observing a girl tripping on the stairs of the deck and literally breaking her leg. We saw her stumble and thought she'd hop right up looking embarrassed, but instead she stayed down there. We looked over the railing as we were sitting right next to it and saw a very pokey, pointy object against the inside of her skin on her shin...yep, it was her bone. Ick!! Poor thing..I caught her eye and mouthed "are you ok?" to which she responded "no...." and ducked her head. She was in so much pain and had to wait forever for the EMS to arrive. The only awkwardly funny outcome of that is the band continued to play throughout this whole time and then when the fire department EMS arrived, the band finished their song and then without missing a beat broke into "The Fireman" by George Strait. It definitely earned some awkward chuckles...everyone wanted to laugh but didn't want to disrespect the girl who was about to throw up because she was in so much pain!
We had a wonderful evening. I am so blessed to call Derrick Wade Ratliff my husband. He and I are the best of friends. I know that for so many marriage is a difficult thing, but oftentimes we look at each other and ask "why is that?" We feel like if you treat your spouse as the best friend that he is and live life generally unselfishly while not taking yourself too seriously, its really not that hard. We love our life and we're grateful for the 5 years we had as just the two of us and now the infinity years we will have with a kid/kids! Isn't Rhyder just stinkin' adorable in this top pic?

This is why I love Lake Bryan! 

Enjoying the deck overlooking the lake listening to some good ol country music

I have more to talk about regarding July. We had one HUGE change in our lives that I will discuss next posting. (no, Rhyder is not getting a sibling). But for now, its Sunday night and its 11:30 so that only means one thing. Monday morning is tomorrow and that means back to reality...