a little r&r

Lake weekends are truly the best!  Mr. H and I took a friend to the lake and had such a fun and restful time.  Sometimes after being so busy it's nice to get away from it and be still.

While I did have to edit pictures most of Saturday I still had a great time.  It's just what I needed.  I have been getting stressed with work...it's our busy time of year so it's normal. 

Here's a little recap of what we did...

• -slept in (at least I did.  Mr. H wakes up at before 7 am most mornings!!)
• -ate yummy food
• -played skip bo
• -cooked out
• -made s'mores
• -sat outside
• -went out to breakfast
• -made homemade vanilla ice cream
• -lounged inside
• -enjoyed the view
• -had fun with Mr. H, our friend Mel and Mr.H's brother and his girlfriend

We're so blessed to be able to drive 3.5 hours to escape at the lake house and enjoy time with family and friends.  I'm going to try to hold onto this idea of being relaxed so I don't stress myself out.  

I hope YOU had a relaxing weekend too!

p.s. I never showed you my purchases from last weekend.  I still want to show you my great deals and my new brown boots to see if you approve.

Happy MONDAY!

4th of july in pictures!

Last week flew by!  I was so lucky to have Wednesday-Friday off of work so we had a long week/weekend at the lake.  It was so nice to get away for several days, have time with family, relax, and spend time with family.  

Here's a recap of my July 4th holiday with Mr. H's family:

• good food
• homemade ice cream
• 4th of July decorations
• watched fire works
• family time
• slept in
• boat rides
• watched everyone do water sports (I only tube...I'm lame.)
• paddle board
• played games
• lounged
• watched Act of Valor
• enjoyed the lakeside view

handmade sign my sister made, whimsical occasions

Me and Carri enjoying the boat ride

Jonathan wake surfing

Carri wake surfing

Mr. H wake surfing.  It took him a few tries, but he got up and was awesome!

Mr. H and Sarabeth being silly siblings.

Me and Mr. H

Yummy burgers for our July 4th cookout.

Homemade ice cream in the making!

This is homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream.  This was actually made in an electric mixer.  We made vanilla in the old fashion ice cream maker shown above.  This ice cream was soooooo amazing!!

I'm slaving away in the kitchen making guacamole.

Mr. H and I after our yummy July 4th dinner!

Big Mr. H, Jonathan and Mr. H all relaxing after a big cookout.

Sarabeth and I

We do it big for July 4th.  Who doesn't love patriotic decorations!

This dog is the most loved dog by this family EVER!  Emmie is the luckiest dog and she doesn't even know it.  She's not suppose to be eating people food, but Jonathan gave her a few licks of the vanilla ice cream.

She knows she looks good.

We had a beautiful lakeside view of the fireworks.

Mr. H had patriotic music playing and it makes the firework show so much better.  Love them!

How did YOU spend your July 4th?

Another successful July 4th weekend.  I'm so not ready to start real life again.  It's always hard to come back to reality after a few days off.  

The only thing that will get me through today will be seeing Mr. H when I get home and watching the Bachelorette!!!!

Have a LOVELY Monday!

a little r&r

Weekends are my favorite!  Mr. H and I had a wonderful, fun, relaxing weekend at the lake by ourselves.  Usually, Mr. H's parents and siblings are there too, but this weekend it was just us, which was a nice change.  We love spending time with everyone, but after a busy week it was great to just spend time together along.

Mr. H took me on a boat ride around the lake.  It was a gorgeous day and I had a change to get a little sun (obviously I put sunscreen on since my skin is so precious!).  

Okay, this was my favorite part of the weekend....except spending it with Mr. H of course!  We made homemade ice cream.  We used a Cuisinart ice cream maker to make our yummy ice cream.  Mr. H made this before and he knew which recipe to use...this is why I love him!!

Here's all you need...

• 1-1/2 cups whole milk
• 1-1/8 cups granulated sugar
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1-1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Here's the instructions...

In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Turn the machine on; pour the mixture into freezer bowl, and let mix until thickened, about 20 to 25 minutes. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving.

BUT we had to come up with Plan B because we couldn't find the insert.  Mr. H had a brilliant idea to use spatchulas to churn the mixture.  Guess what??  It worked!!!!  Mr. H and I made a great team and both had the end result of yummy ice cream in mind.

We added mini chocolate chips to the vanilla and we could barely wait for it to harden up in the freezer before we go into it.

There is honestly nothing better than homemade ice cream!  It was totally worth holding the spatchulas for 25 minutes...or watching Mr. H hold the spatchulas.  Wishing I was eating some right now!

Mr. H and I played a couple games of Skip Bo and ping pong.  I made sure not to beat Mr. H too much!

~photo by Mr. H~ (this is his contribution to my blog)

Dinner was amazing!  Mr. H grilled out steaks for us and we had baked potatoes with fresh green beans.  

Sunday we tried paddle boarding again.  The water wasn't very choppy, but it was windy.  I was nervous to try it again, but excited at the same time.  I just paddled around the cove, but it was really hard turning around because I was going against the wind.  I'm just glad I didn't fall off!  

Mr. H is more of a pro at it than me.  When he was done, he said it wasn't as bad as he though.  I think he just said that because he wanted to be tough.  I thought it was pretty challenging.  Ha.

I feel rejuvenated and rested.  I'm so thankful that I got to spend a fun weekend away with my best friend.  Mr. H made my weekend super fun.  It's always sad leaving, but we'll be back for July 4th weekend for another fun time with the family.  (oh and more homemade ice cream!!!)

Tonight is another episode of the Bachelorette and I'm pretty excited!  Mr. H is out of town for the night for work (which makes me sad), but I'll spend the evening with some good girl friends eating dinner and watching the Bachelorette.  Good times ahead tonight!!

Here's to a good MONDAY!