Happy Birthday Daddy!

This year I was really on my game and ended up being able to give Anthony a pretty good birthday, if I do say so myself!  I knew he deserved something special, since he really works SO hard and never does anything for himself.


He had been talking about a basketball goal for years, but I could never find one that was reasonably priced that went IN the ground. I do not like the way the portable ones looked, so I said if we ever got one that it HAD to be in-ground.  Well, Wal-Mart came through and I was able to find one in my budget and had it shipped to Mom and Tom's house for safekeeping!


The idea was for me to pick it up on the way home from work and then surprise him with it later on Friday evening once Papa D and the family got into town.  I was hoping that we could get it installed that weekend, but it turned out to be a lot more work than we thought!  We kinda stalled on the installation part, but I think he was super happy to just know he had one finally!

The look on his face when I opened my trunk :)

The rest of the weekend turned out great too.  We had some friends and family over for a good old fashioned seafood boil.  The weather was beautiful and Papa D manned the seafood boil and Mom got him an awesome tiramisu cake.  We spent the night outside having a great time!

Nolan was SO proud of himself that he was able to shuck the corn all by himself.  It totally gives me the heebie jeebies to do it, so I was all for it!  I have bad memories of worms from an experience one time and it is something I cannot stand to do!

The Crew

My beautiful Sissy!

Anthony LOVES tiramisu, and this one did not disappoint!  The boys, however, were so disappointed that it looked like chocolate but tasted like coffee - ha!  I don't really recall what happened to all of the cake, but the only thing I DO remember is not really having any left over :)

Always there to help blow out the candles!

One of the sweetest moments I want to remember is Gie playing the guitar while Nolan sang Daddy Happy Birthday - so sweet and I hope Anthony enjoyed his special day!  Special day for a very special guy :)  WE LOVE YOU DADDY!



I Just Love This View

My evening walks around the neighborhood are one of my favorite parts about our house here.  The views are just stunning, and I find myself looking forward to just being outside and out in the open.  My route varies, but most times my walk is about 1-1.5 miles, and I enjoy every second of it!


Here is just one example of the gorgeous view of my favorite route.

This is a pond at the edge of a hole on the golf course...the sun always sets directly above it and it's so pretty!

Here is another shot of this same spot, just later in the year!

Fourth of July, 2018!

Since the 4th was on a Wednesday this year (boo), we just stayed at home and had easy plans.  We took Nolan and Kaleb to the movies earlier in the day to see Incredibles 2, and then just cooked out at the house!

Ready to Rock and Roll (and eat popcorn!)

Not sure why these are fuzzy, but they were too cute not to post!

We still had an awesome fireworks show, but unfortunately, my pictures just don't do it justice!  This year, we had fireworks (like legit BIG fireworks) going off around us in basically a 360 degree view.  We kept running to different sides of the house to see them - ha!

Wearing his fireworks t-shirt from school, and absolutely delighted over the cupcake that he and Gie made - since he finally got to eat it! :)