Insta - Lately

Here are just a few pictures I thought I'd share from Instagram lately. If you don't already follow me, you can follow me by going here, I'm amyrs81.

Lots of flags for the 4th down by the arch. St. Louis has a great fair every year for the 4th of July with spectacular fire works.

I got Jackson a new patriotic binkie over the weekend so I put him in his patriotic jammies that night and snapped a picture!

Monday, having breakfast at Jack in the Box while we got an oil change in our car! I came prepared with lots of cars to keep him occupied. We also went for a walk while we waited. Glad I brought the stroller along as well!

Bathtime!

Jackson playing in his pool Monday morning!

Jackson and I built a huge lego tower in Nursery Class last Tuesday night at church.

Last Friday driving home from work. Yay for the weekend!

I'm linking up here:

Five on Friday!

Once again, I'm linking up with the fine ladies above for 5 on Friday!

1.) I shared this photo earlier in the week, but I just love it so much that I'm going to share again! :-)

2.) For those of you who are photography enthusiasts like I am, I read this post yesterday and I am excited to try out these settings for shooting fireworks this 4th of July!!

3.) I just adore this patio found here on Meg's Blog. I would love to have a patio like this someday! It looks so fun and festive. So cute!!

4.) For those of you with little ones still in diapers, here is a coupon for $1.50 off Huggies Little Swimmers. Just click on the picture below. :-)

5.) Say a few prayers for our family this weekend as we have the memorial service for my husband's father, who passed away earlier this month. We leave tonight for Kansas City, and we'll have the memorial service there tomorrow morning.

Throw-back Thursday - 5th Grade School Photo

Welcome to the Throw-back Thursday Link-Up!


<a href="http://www.asmithstory.com/search/label/Throw-back%20Thursdays"><img src="http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd296/AmyRS81/Throw-backThursdaysLink-UpButton_zpse60f6ee6.jpg" alt="button" width="250" height="250" /></a>

Ugh, this is probably one of my most embarrassing photos. It was 5th grade and for whatever reason I wore this hat in my school picture. Ha! Too funny!

( Sorry for the poor quality. This is a picture of a picture, so thats why there's a bit of a glare.)

So now its your turn to link up and share a throwback picture or story of your own. 

Sprinkler Fun

First I want to say a big thank you to everyone who linked up yesterday in our Vacation Dreaming Link-Up. It was so fun to read all about your favorite vacations and get ideas for our next vacation. :-)

Now onto today's post. 

This past Friday night, we got the sprinkler out and let Jackson play in it for a little while. He loved it and had so much fun. We will definitely be doing this again.

After playing in the sprinkler for quite a while, he headed over to the playground. He climbs up all by himself now and will slide down all by himself too. He's getting so big! He's very into cars/trucks right now, so he made this face from seeing a car/truck drive past our house. Ha!

I absolutely adore this picture!  

I've tried on several occasions to take this same shot unsuccessfully. Jake always catches Jackson after he slides down the slide and then throws him up in the air. It seems I never have the settings right on my camera and it always turns out blurry. This time I was thrilled to have caught it just right. ☺

 

I'm linking up here:

and here:

Vacation Dreaming Link-Up

Today, Holly and I are hosting a "Vacation Dreaming" link-up! We hope you'll all join us and share your favorite vacation destination, your favorite vacation memory, where you are planning your summer vacation this year, or what your dream vacation would be.

<a href="http://www.asmithstory.com/"><img src="http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd296/AmyRS81/VacationsDreamingLink-UpButton_zps86f0644e.jpg" alt="button" width="250" height="250" /></a>     In Aug. we are taking our first family vacation with Jackson, to Gulf Shores, AL. I can't wait! (Only 6 more weeks away, but who's counting?) I absolutely love to travel, and I've been on several great trips, but I would have to say my favorite was our honeymoon in Maui, HI.    Last year we went to Mackinac Island for our 5 year anniversary (you can read all about that trip here.) and it was a toss up between that and Hawaii. Hawaii was just such a once in a lifetime trip that it beat out Mackinac Island by a smidge.   We had such an amazing time in Hawaii. It was our first trip together as a married couple, which made it even that much more exciting! We left on the Sunday after our wedding and came home the following Friday night.   After landing in Maui, we picked up our Mustang convertible rental car, and headed across the island to our hotel.

  We stayed at the Royal Lahaina Resort in Kaanapali, Maui.

  We had a partial ocean view from our room that was amazing. There's nothing like falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

  The hotel had a very nice pool and beach.

 

  We tried to see as much as we could while we were in Maui. We drove the long and winding Road to Hana which was probably my favorite part of the trip. There were breathtaking waterfalls, beautiful rainforests, black sand beaches and gorgeous flowers.

These next two pictures are from the Seven Sacred Pools, just past Hana. A definite must see if ever in Maui!

  We took a ferry over to the island of Lanai so Jake could golf there. It was a beautiful golf course right on the ocean.

  We took a helicopter tour of Maui.

  We went snorkeling. (The sea turtles were my favorite.)

  We also went to a fabulous Luau!

  We did some shopping and site seeing.

  We had yummy drinks on our balcony.

  And we watched many beautiful sunsets.

 

  It was so sad to leave...

  But, hopefully we'll get to go back someday.   So now its your turn. I can't wait to read all about your favorite vacation!! I hope to get some great ideas for next years summer vacation.