Another family weekend at Brasada

We headed back to Brasada on Saturday morning to enjoy more family fun.  This weekend Marvin, Connie and two of their grand daughter's (Anna & Kaylie) joined us.  The girls had an awesome time.  Of course we did smores in the evening and watched some more pretty amazing sunsets.

Horseback Riding

Every summer we are lucky enough to get a chance to go horseback riding on Flash and Cody with our cousin Raquel.  She is awesome with the girls, lets them brush the horses, gallop with the horses and even feed them carrots after.  The bonus this year was that Macy got to go along with us too. Lily truly looks forward to it now every summer.  The bonus is picking blackberries after!

Prineville Reservoir

Jeff, Roxane, Roslyn and Raquel were nice enough to bring their boat and take us all over to Prineville Reservoir for a day to enjoy fishing, boating and tubing.  The girls caught about a million crappie, which we kept and made into fish tacos.  The tubing was excellent.  And despite the 74 degree water temperature we all still jumped in to cool off.  Yes, everyone was out of the boat in the water together.  It was a day of great family fun!

Lily loved to catch the crappie and reel them in, but was not about to get them off the hook

Fun times tubing with Raquel and Roslyn

Yes, fisher girls do wear bows!

Chris ready with water gun!

Raquel, Lily and Macy

The whole fam dam - Jeff, Roslyn, Chris, Roxane, Ahren, Macy, Raquel and Lily

Unpacking is over rated... let's have a family weekend instead

There is nothing like having guests to make you get your house in order fast.  Yes, on Thursday a whole house full of people (12 total) arrived to help us christen the new home.  That meant getting beds put together, made, unpacking, having the kitchen ready, having food, etc.  Thank goodness for Costco and lots and lots of Amazon deliveries.

And what a family weekend it was.  Ahren, Macy & Cole.  Jeff, Roxane, Roslyn and Raquel.  Venita & Dave.  And even Grandma Norma.  We had great food, great fun and even got more unpacking done.  Uncle Dave did some landscaping for us.  We went to Prineville Reservoir for the day to tube and fish as well.  We enjoyed 2 nights at the camp fire roasting marshmallows and morning walks as a big family every morning as well.  I personally felt so fortunate to have such great family (and friends that might as well be family).  And Lily was in heaven!  She even headed back to the Salem with Ahren, Macy and Cole for two days all by herself.

Lily, Venita & Macy

Venita, Ahren, Kim, Macy, Lily & Raquel

Yes this is the view from our patio

Roxane, Roslyn, Jeff & Raquel

Lily & Macy

Macy, Ahren, Lily, Kim, Venita, Roslyn, Raquel & Roxane

Good times!

Lily & Raquel getting their smores on

Roslyn, Roxane, Raquel, Jeff, Venita, Lily, Kim, Ahren & Macy

Family times!  Roslyn, Macy, Lily, Cole, Ahren, Chris and Raquel

Panoramic views from our patio at sunset

Uncle Dave & Aunt Venita

Panoramic views from the Brasada clubhouse

Macy & Lily

Firepit (perfect for smores) at the Brasada owners clubhouse

Sunset views while roasting marshmallows

Our first guests to Brasada

Lily's cousins Hunter, Tanner and MaKayla joined us for the day to try out our pools, water slides and to enjoy some all around great family time.  The kids had an incredible day and the sunset at the end of the day was amazing.

(Left to Right):  MaKayla, Hunter, Tanner & Lily)

Sunset from our patio... Wowza!

We have a new home - in Oregon! And its move in week...and family week... and everything in between

And what an amazing home it is.  Chris successfully drove the uhaul with Uncle Marvin.  Kim and Lily successfully flew in and pick up a borrow truck from Uncle Jeff.  Movers helped unpack and then it was work, work... play, play... work, work... play, play for the next week.  But I'm happy to report we are done and had an incredible week.  It has been a humbling week.  A fun week.  And an incredibly rewarding week.  We adore the new home and our new community Brasada.  The amenities are top notch.  The views of the mountains are amazing.  And our house turned out perfect!

Brasada amenities, two outdoor pools, water slides, hot tubs and indoor pools too...

Grandma Norma's first sushi adventure... and she loved it

Lily found the sushi restaurant for us and boy was it ever a surprising success.  She loved it!

Florida to Maryland to Oregon

After returning Rut to her family, we spent one more night around Baltimore airport waiting to fly out on Monday.  The girls enjoyed the hotel, swimming and having more ice cream.  Then we had enough time to hit Annapolis and the mall before flying out.  Dani's mom was very excited to see her when we arrived

Our last few days in Florida

Our last few days in Florida were spent at the beach and at Disney Springs in Orlando.  The water was so clear at Barefoot Beach that the girls could use their snorkel masks to see clear to the bottom.  It was a treat and definitely felt like we were in the Caribbean.  Disney Springs was warm, but we had a great time shopping around before heading back on the 18 hour drive back to Maryland.  The girls were great for the two days driving home, but were definitely ready to get out of the car!

Fourth of July

Unfortunately Chris had to take off on Fourth of July to go back to get the truck loaded for his big cross country uhaul adventure.  In the meantime, the girls and I had a great time enjoying the fireworks on Bonita Beach.  There was nothing formal, but man did a lot of independent folks have some amazing fireworks all along the beach.  Plus you could see all the city fireworks from Sanibel to Ft. Myers Beach and clear down to Naples.  The rain cleared just in time for us to get front row parking and a great seat on the beach.  The girls were a little scared by how close the fireworks seemed but it made it extra special and they were kept safe and far away from the crazy birds lighting off the fireworks.  What a fun evening.