The summer weekends are dwindling down, so we have crammed in as much waterside activities as we possibly can! Paddle boarding, swimming pool, floating the river, and boating…..and we’ve taken our baby along with us because she is such a little adventurous trooper!

My parents have these inflatable paddle boards, so we met them at Quinn’s Pond right along the Boise River. It’s a popular spot because there’s a little beach sand area, three ponds for kayaking or paddle boarding, lots of grass and park area, and a snow cone truck in the parking lot. It’s right off of the Boise Greenbelt directly across from some great bars and restaurants with outdoor patios. In the summertime in Boise, it’s the place to be. ☺️

We’ve been having a heat wave in this part of Idaho, so we kept Brynnley in the shade under umbrellas. We took turns with my parents taking out the paddle boards two at a time – first I went out with my dad, then with my husband. It was such a hot sunny day, the cool pond felt refreshing and was pretty crowded! The water is calm and you aren’t fighting a current or waves, so standing on the paddle board is very easy here. The last (and only other) time I paddle boarded was with Zeb on our honeymoon in the bay of the Caribbean. The constant tide and waves made standing up a lot more challenging. This time was a piece of cake. Zeb took out a fishing pole on the board with him one time but we didn’t see any fish in the water.

Poor Brynnley girl was pretty hot so we called it a day early.

There’s not much else to this bucket list item! So I’ll go back to a little old school style blogging like back in the day for a bit 🙂 Today I did some online shopping for our outfits for a fall family photo shoot later this month. I am having way too much fun dressing Brynnley up every day like she’s my little doll, and I feel like the outfits are getting so much better now that she’s a little bigger. During her newborn months, I preferred just to leave her in cozy onesies but now we are venturing out into cargo pants, skorts, denim overalls and soon she can even where cable knits for pumpkin season!

Brynnley sat in her little kitchen seat to watch me make a recipe that’s not new to Strong Like My Coffee – peanut butter oatmeal energy bites.

One of my family friends who reads this blog, Johnna, will also appreciate this creation because I still refer to it by the name they introduced to us as……..”Cat Balls.” The story goes that they made a batch of these yummy snacks the day their cat was neutered and that has always stuck in my head when I make them. It makes me chuckle when I tell my husband I’m making him a batch of cat balls to take on his trip with him, but they are so delicious and perfect to grab in the morning with my coffee before I feed Brynnley!

After I hit “publish” on this post, my husband is making me watch YouTube videos with him on how to cut men’s hair 😁 In the four years we’ve been together, he has let me give him three haircuts. Not for my lack of offering. He’s very picky and insists on paying a barber but I’ve lobbied to save $30ish a month. Personally I don’t think I’ve ever done a terrible job with his cuts. He’s definitely had worse results from an actual salon before. But he’s annoyed that I’ve never actually looked up any tips or examples on how to cut hair so tonight he has queued up some YouTube tutorials to watch as homework.

Lastly, I have already crossed off Bucket List item #10 but I’m going to wait to blog about it until I get some of the professional photos back, if that gives you any hints 😉 Until then, I realized I should spend some time updating my “about me” page and side panel photos. It’s been well over 6 years since I added those and they are definitely outdated by now!