Girls' Weekend!

One of our family friends was getting married in Wisconsin. My mom, sister, and I decided we should go for a short little vacation. Our friend, Melissa, who is also friends with the bride, decided to go with us too. The wedding was on August 15th, so we decided to fly out Saturday, and head back home on Tuesday. We were so excited about the trip, we love getting to hang out with the Learman family! We planned to fly into Chicago and then drive to Peshtigo, since all the flights that went into Milwaukee had stops and we would have been flying all day long.

We had such a wonderful time! The flight to Chicago was wonderful, and Lily was perfect. She was content the entire time on the plane, and the woman in front of me even commented that she didn't know there was a baby behind her. Can't get any better than that! Everything went so smoothly that day...we got put to the front of security, we took off relatively quickly, we got our bags in 5 mins, the rental bus picked us up right away, and we got the rental car easily. Even the drive to Peshtigo was pretty smooth. We hit a bit of traffic and stopped a few times, but we made it there in good time.

That night we were invited to the rehearsal dinner. We had a fun night drinking and eating with such fun people. And you can't beat getting a large alcoholic drink for $3.00!! yay woo-woos! Then we headed back to the hotel room to hang out with our friends, the Enters, and we stayed up a bit later than we should have talking and playing with the kids.

Sunday we got up, went and got breakfast, and then headed back to go to the wedding. The wedding was so beautiful. Apart from Lily bumping her head on the pew and her screaming as I carried her out of the church, we had a wonderful time :) The reception was wonderful as well. Lily had a lot of fun running around and even doing a bit of dancing.

Monday morning we got up and headed to the gift opening party. We got to visit with everyone, and the kids got to go and play on the school's play ground. Lily's favorite part was the slide...the even started going down head first! Guess she's a bit of a dare-devil!

The rest of the day we hung out with the Learman's. We went out to dinner, and then we drove up to the UP of Michigan and went out to a light house on Lake Michigan. It was so beautiful, and a wonderful way to end our vacation.

The next morning we got up and drove back to Chicago for our flight. I wish I could say Lily was a good as she was on the way up, but she wasn't. She has been so off her schedule, and the flight was right during her nap time. She did fall asleep for a bit on the plane, but she was pretty fussy the rest of the flight. I know I wasn't the only one who was very happy to be home.

Below are some pictures from our trip. I can't believe all the places our little girl has been. She is quite the traveler!

on the enterprise bus!

first taste of ketchup--she liked to dip the fries in it...

then suck the ketchup off the fry

she then decided it was easier just to drink it straight from the cup!

Lily and some of the Learman grandkids

Lily introducing her boyfriend, Andrew, to Yo Gabba Gabba

Ashlee and Sarah

Lily posing at the Learman's

Olivia, Mom, Lily, and William outside the Learman's

Car pictures!! Melissa and William

Mom and Ashlee (love mom's face in the mirror)

Lily!

At the lighthouse...it was cold...we had to borrow sweatshirts

(yes, it was August)

Mom and Lily on the pier

Lily didn't sleep well in the hotel crib, so she's in the big bed...she slept in this morning

Lily's New Obsession

Starting back in June, Lily has started getting obsessed with putting things on by herself. This first started with her putting on David's and my dad's shoes...the easiest to get on. She would be so proud of herself for getting them on, and then she would decide to walk around the house with them on. The following 2 pics are from Father's Day (I know...forever ago), but she had a good time dancing in her grandpy's shoes.

Then after church one day, she found my pumps I had worn earlier that morning. She decided they looked really good on her, and that Suri was not the only toddler who could pull off heels. I think this is one of my favorite pictures.

Lily does not only try to put on shoes, but she tries to put on any pair of pants or shorts that she finds.

And now for one of her FAVORITE things....her galoshes. The first time she wore them, she wasn't even sure she could walk in them (Ashlee had to hold her hands and walk her around the room!). But now she puts them on practically every time she sees them. It doesn't matter if they are on the right feet or not, she is very proud to be wearing them. Now my problem is she will probably outgrow them soon, so I better have another pair ready for her.

Road Trip

David and I decided to take a family vacation to the mountains of North Carolina to visit his grandpa and his wife. This is a trip we have wanted to take for a while. David hasn't seen them since 2003, and I hadn't since the year before. We were able to plan our trip so we would be able to go to David's family reunion in Alabama on the way home.

We set off on Tuesday afternoon after David got off work. We drove until we got to Mobile, AL. We attempted to stop a couple of times, but all of the hotels were booked. We ended up a few hours away almost to Montgomery. To put it in perspective...we stopped in Mobile at 11:00 and I don't think we found a hotel room until 1:30 or so. Lily was awake when we hit Mobile, but she was asleep by the time we got to the hotel. She was back awake when we got to the room, but she did not want to go back to sleep. David and I got into bed, and expected Lily to go to sleep soon...we were WRONG! She did not want to go to bed in the pack n play, so I picked her up to go to bed in the bed with us. This ended up waking her up even more. She played with David most of the night, and she kept giving him lots and lots of kisses. David let me get some sleep because I was going to drive in the morning, and he can sleep in the car pretty easily. So Lily stayed up all night, but as soon as we got in the car this happened!



That's right, she fell fast asleep. How nice was that for her! At least it gave us some quiet time in the car. She ended up sleeping until we stopped for lunch where she got her first happy meal. She loved the chicken nuggets, and they worked so well for her eating in the car.

We got to David's grandpa's house Wednesday evening, and we spent the evening hanging out on their patio and then had dinner. The next day we went to the Cherokee reservation. There they had a bear park where you can feed the bears they have. It was so neat. The bears were hilarious, they begged for food so much.

Then for $3 you could go and feed baby bears. It was so funny, we fed them lucky charms and some little bear food. When we first went in the room one of the bears swatted the food cup out of my hand. Thankfully it hit the cup or I would have been in trouble. Here are a couple of pictures of us feeding the bears.

The next day David and his grandpa went to play golf. David had so much fun playing on the course he played so many times when he was younger (even though it has changed quite a bit). Marilyn, Lily, and I went down to town and did a little bit of shopping. It was so nice to have a relaxing day.

Later that night, we went into town by ourselves and ate dinner and did a bit of shopping. Here is a picture of the storm that came in that night.

We has such a wonderful time in the mountains. Despite all the driving, it was such a relaxing trip. We can't wait to go back and visit Maggie Valley again. It is neat for me to spend time where David spent such a large part of his childhood.

Here is one final picture of Warren, Marilyn, and Lily on our last night there.

World's Worst Blogger

I feel like such a terrible blogger. It's not hard to put up a new post, but for some reason I have been putting it off for at least a month. In this time we have done so many fun things, and I can't believe I haven't posted any of it. So bear with me. I'm going to go back in time and blog about the exciting and fun things our family has done since my last post. My goal is to get everything done by tomorrow...we will see how this goes :)

One Busy Summer...

Well we have been quite busy over the past month. I believe we have had something to do almost every weekend. This is something I'm not complaining about because I would much rather be around people then sit at home watching life go by, but it has made blogging a bit tough. Since I have a bit of time today, I figured I would give an update of what the Rickabaughs have been up to...sorry if this entry is a bit long, but I have lots to update on.

First I just wanted to put a cute picture of Lily up. She loves these glasses that came with a Yo Gabba Gabba toy, and I finally was able to get a picture with her wearing them. This picture makes me laugh everytime I see it. I think this really captures her personality.

David went to Tulsa for 4 days a few weeks ago, so one of the days I went down to Friendswood to hang out with my family. We went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Kelly's. I know, I'm an old person, but I love home cooking. For those of you who have never been to Kelly's, I believe the full name is Kelly's Country Cookin' and it is usually busiest at 5:00pm mostly with those who draw Social Security. I figured it was time for Lily to be properlly introduced to this restaurant. So the picture below is her enjoying their wonderful mashed potatoes. I think she ate my serving plus some of my dads...needless to say there were potatoes EVERYWHERE!!


I also went down to Friendswood last week, to help my family pack up some of my grandmother's house. We currently have her house on the market, so we have been trying to fix it up so hopefully it will sell faster. In order for my mom and I to get lots of work done, Lily had to be entertained. I ended up bringing my portable dvd player with episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba. I wasn't sure how she would take to it, but she LOVED it! Right after it started playing she laid down on the ground to watch the show. (below is the picture) I am constantly amazed at how grown up Lily is becoming.

At the end of June, David and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Thanks to some wonderful friends, we were able to go out to eat baby free! We had a wonderful dinner at the Melting Pot, and we got about 2 peaceful hours to ourselves. I can't believe 4 years have already passed, and it's crazier to me that we have been together for a total of 8 years! In such a short amount of time we have had so many wonderful things happen to us, and I am looking forward to seeing what else the future has in store for us.


The weekend after our anniversary, we traveled to Austin to celebrate my sister's best friend, Molly's wedding. My mom and Ashlee had gone there earlier in the week, so my dad, David, Lily, and I headed there Friday night. Ashlee was the maid of honor in the wedding, and she asked me to do her hair for the wedding. I had previously done her hair for another of her friend's wedding, but all I did for that was straighten it and pull part of it up. This time she wanted curly hair! For those who don't know my sister, she has the thickest hair I have ever seen...I swear her pony tail is like 2 in in diameter. I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do, but after an hour of curling her hair, I think I got it to look very pretty.

The next few pictures are from the wedding. We had such a great time. Lily enjoyed dancing the most! She loved running around the dance floor. Oh! and we learned how much of a ham our daughter really is...she was out dancing with her Auntie, and one of the photographers took a picture of her. She immediately stoped dancing, turned around, and posed for the camera. Then 2 of the photographers and one videographer were standing in a group. Lily walked over right into the center of the group and posed for them to take her picture! Oh Lordy, we are in trouble...I think this girl is going to be a handful.

On our way back from Austin, we stopped by to visit my grandmother. Lily decided to play peek-a-boo with her. This time she played by putting her head on the ground and then popping up. It was hilarious, and my grandmother loved it. She even went over and gave her great-grandmother a kiss which made her day! I was so glad we were able to go by and spend some time with her.

Now to the 4th of July weekend. This time of year is always busy for us, as my mom's parents birthdays are on the 3rd and the 4th. Usually we celebrate on the 4th, but this year we got together on the 3rd.

After we celebrated at my grandparent's house, Ashlee, David, and I went down to Galveston for the Kris Allen concert. Thankfully due to Alex and his rain, the outdoor concert was moved indoors with air conditioning. This made the concert much more bearable than the David Cook concert last year.

On the 4th we headed to the Red, Hot, and Blue festival in the Woodlands. We had such a great time, even though it was a teeny bit warm out. We had planned to stay for the fireworks, and even had a prime spot on top of a parking garage, but at around 8 we decided to go home. Lily and the two of us were hot and tired, and I didn't think we could last another hour/hour and a half.

Finally, on the 5th, we headed down to Friendswood to watch the 4th of July parade. Due to the 4th falling on a sunday, the parade was moved to Monday. We had a fun time at the parade. Lily really wasn't into watching the parade until the horses came by...which she called pup pup...I guess they kind of look like a big dog :)

Lily watch YGG at the parade before it starts

A picture Lily took of herself

After the parade we headed over to Stevenson park to enjoy the 4th festivities. We have fun at the park, but it was so much smaller than previous years. I'm not sure if this was because it was on a Monday, but I didn't mind not having to fight crowds. My mom bought Lily some very cute bows, and Lily even got to play a duck pond game. We did enjoy it a bit better than the event in the Woodlands though, becuase the events for the kids were free. They had games, jumpy inflatable things, and she even got a bear balloon animal.

We had such a wonderful weekend, but boy were we tired afterwards. Lily was so tired, I swear she fell asleep after 5 minutes in the car! We hope everyone else had a wonderful 4th of July!

That's all we've been up to so far. I will hopefully be a bit more on top of my blogging over the next couple of weeks.

Socks!

The other night, I had Lily's pjs on the couch...a top, pants, and some socks. She quickly saw the socks and grabbed them. Then she attempted to put them on! I was amazed she knew where they went. I quickly grabbed the flip and took some footage of the event.