Ryder's First Lakehouse Vacation

As you may recall, we have spent the past few years celebrating the Fourth of July at Priest Lake, but this time we needed to stay in town for my dear friend Jillian's wedding, so we only made one trek over to Idaho and our personal little slice of paradise this summer. But it was so fun to take Ryder to the family lake house for the first time!

I was pretty anxious about taking him on a six hour car ride, but my little angel traveled like a champ, and can now boast that he has been to four different states during his first four months of life. Well done, my boy.

I realize all these posts about our summer vacations may be getting old, but we had a very busy August, and I promise this will be the last one. Sadly, our first magical summer with baby Ryder is coming to a close and it's back to life in the real world.

But we sure did go out with a bang!

I loved my peaceful mornings on the dock with Ryder.

Lounging on the dock looks a little different with an infant who is too young for sunscreen... blanket fort!

Patrick and Addie LOVED playing with Ryder, and he got to know them so well!

Of course our trips to the lake are never complete without some Tailgate Toss on the dock!

Ryder's second boat ride!

The weather is always perfect at Priest Lake.

Baby Ryder's dockside view.

Ryder wasn't as trilled with the cool lake water as he was with the warm ocean in Hawaii, but we made sure he experienced the water nonetheless.

Unfortunately the little bugger was going through a growth spurt and absolutely refused to nap the entire week, except for this one afternoon with Daddy. He also woke up every two hours every single night to eat, which made for a tiring trip for me...

Out to dinner at Cavanaugh's, chillin' with Uncle Mark.

I had to get a pic of all the guys... three generations of Always!

And Ryder with his buddies for the week -- Patrick and Addie.

"No Grandpa Russ, please don't make me go home!"

Our own little slice of paradise.

And that draws another summer at the lake to a close. I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend filled with food, family and fun. I can hardly believe that it's almost fall... our amazing first summer with Ryder was filled with so many adventures and memories. 

Even though I'm feeling a little melancholy about autumn's approach, I'm so glad that we were able to take Ryder on so many rad trips this summer, and that he was such an adaptable little guy on each and every one. I feel so confident going forward, helping him to experience all of the adventures we still have in store for him. And of course there is the silver lining of the end of summer... It's football season! Our little Seahawk is going to love it.

See you soon, my friends!