Good morning! Hopefully you’re checking in today after a relaxing weekend. This was our first weekend at home in six weeks without any visitors or travel plans and Ryan and I were psyched to go with the flow and catch our breaths a bit.
That meant plenty of time on the lake! Ryan and I both had to work on Friday but managed to break away a bit early and took the boat out on Lake Norman for an early evening swim with Sadie.
(Pic from Instagram on Friday night – Can you tell Sadie is slowly learning to embrace the bump? She still tries to sit on top of it and has dive bombed me on the couch at time or two with complete disregard to my growing belly, but I’ll chalk our little belly bump pic up to a small victory!)
I cannot tell you how nice it has been to live near the water during my final months of pregnancy. Nothing feels better to me right now than floating in the lake, so any free time Ryan and I have seems to be dedicated to boating and floating. It’s fabulous, especially since my lower back/glute pain continues to significantly effect my ability to do much else, including walking.
On Friday night, once we were done on the water, we stopped by Publix on our way home to grab sushi (California roll for me) and ice cream and rented Despicable Me on Red Box since neither of us had ever seen it before. We were motivated to check it out because I think the previews for the new Minions movie look hilarious, and figured I should watch the prequel beforehand. It was a relaxing evening and we were in bed before 10:30 p.m. which was perfect.
Saturday
Saturday ended up being a great day! After breakfast, Ryan and I hung out around the house until around 10:30 a.m. when we decided to beat some of the crowds on the lake and head out.
We made it about an hour before clouds rolled in and some rain hit, but it passed quickly and I enjoyed reading my book and drifting in and out of sleep.
And then the fun started! Brittany and I texted earlier in the morning and talked about meeting up on the lake to hang out and right around noon, we heard someone yelling our names across the water.
Hellooooo!
Brittany and David took their pontoon out with two friends who were staying with them for the weekend and the six of us (plus Sadie) spent the afternoon floating on noodles and enjoying the holiday together! Brittany and David are the best and we always have so much fun with them!
We tied our boats together and Sadie made herself quite welcome on their pontoon…
Um, that’s not your boat, Sadie.
The next three hours on the water were a blast but it was soon time to head home for a shower before an evening BBQ at Brittany and David’s house.
I threw my gray “baby bump photo top” on over my navy maxi dress and had Ryan snap a quick 35-week baby bump photo before we left.
That ended up being the last picture I took on the Fourth of July! I missed capturing any firework photos and didn’t photograph the delicious burgers David made for everyone to enjoy or the roaring bonfire the guys put together around 10 p.m., but the rest of our holiday was fantastic!
See ya later this afternoon for a quick Sunday recap! Have a great Monday!
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Sounds like a fun 4th of July! I’m wishing I lived near water!
Looks like y’all had a fabulous weekend. I wish we lived by a lake. Your evenings and weekends on the lake look like a blast! I hope your pain in your hip/glute gets better.
thank you — me too!! i have plans to see a different physical therapist who works mostly with pregnant women this thursday, so i am REALLY hoping that helps!
So jealous of all your fun time spent on the lake, but I am glad you had such a nice and relaxing weekend. We spent the weekend renovating our kitchen. Not exactly relaxing.
Sounds like the perfect Fourth of July! Glad to hear you had a fun and relaxing time….I love Despicable Me! One of my favorite movies!
looks like a fun weekend! we spent lots of time on a lake near st louis called innsbrook – i took william out on a kayak for the first time!
Sounds like a great 4th! Your post about boating makes me wanting to go boating now!
Jealous of your close proximity to the lake, and that photo of you and Sadie is adorable. Sounds like an awesome weekend!
Sounds like a perfect weekend! Glad Sadie is finally starting to recognize the bump! Poor girl has no idea what is coming! 🙂
I’ll be spending the majority of my summer in the pool hopefully! It’s the most comfy place for the pregnant lady! 🙂
water + pregnancy = heaven!
Sounds the perfect weekend! Nice and relaxing. The lake looks beautiful!
Sounds like a perfect weekend and just what you needed! I was at a lake this weekend as well, and we took my dog to the water for the first time. She was so scared to get in, until I started swimming away and then she dove in after me and tried to bring me in to safety. It was so adorable! She even pulled in the other dogs who were swimming when they got too far from shore. I guess we have a water dog on our hands 🙂
aw, that’s too cute!!!! what a good little rescue dog!
Looks like a fun weekend!! I went to my grandparents lake on Saturday and the water was FREEZING! I couldn’t even dip my feet in haha. It was still beautiful and very relaxing just sitting on the boat/dock. Glad you had a great 4th! 🙂
What a fun, relaxing weekend! Sadie is just too cute.
sounds like a perfect weekend! I love days on the lake!
Ha, Sadie/baby bump picture is ADORABLE! Your 4th reminds me of all the fun I had back in the day on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. So much fun being about to just relax and recharge on the lake. Now we’re in the mountains, which can be completely relaxing, but via hiking or paddle boarding in our of our many reservoirs. Just a totally different experience. Glad you had such a great time!
looks like a blast spent out on the lake! 🙂
What a fun weekend in the sun! I wish I could go on a boat!
What a fun weekend! I LOVE the picture with you and Sadie! So cute 🙂
Sounds like a great weekend on the lake!! Sadie is so cute and looks like she is getting in the hang of her “big sister” role!
Sounds like an awesome Fourth! It rained up here too a bit in the afternoon, but cleared out for a lovely afternoon and evening fireworks and BBQ 🙂
Hi Julie! I bet it’s nice to hop in the lake when you need to cool off. Not to mention the breeze while riding on the boat. I didn’t take very many pictures over the holiday either, even though we had a little BBQ at our place. Just didn’t want to ruin the moment. 🙂 Happy Monday!
I really miss living by water! I basically grew up on the Mississippi river and since I’ve moved, I am really missing it. Looks like you guys had a great weekend–mine was filled with baseball and fireworks!
That looks like so much fun! I made Mimi’s Sugar Cookies to bring to a friend’s house for a barbeque. They were a BIG hit! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
So happy to hear this!! Thank you for letting me know. 🙂
Sounds like a great holiday!
Looked like so much fun! Heads up, there’s a Despicable Me 2 as well 🙂 I can’t wait for the minion movie. Love those little guys
Hey no shame in not taking many pics! You were having too much fun to worry about that 😉 Love that Sadie commandeered the other boat, what a hambone!
How did you like Despicable Me?! My mom and I caught it on ABC Family one night because we never saw it either. Both of us LOVED it. I think Pixar movies are better than regular movies these days!
Sounds like a great and relaxing weekend! I was in Butte, MT and it was HOT! But the good news was that it cooled off enough to enjoy the fireworks while sitting on top of the RV. Perfect view! 😉
That picture of you and Sadie is so cute!! Glad you had a fun Fourth!
I can only imagine how much fun it would be to hang out with Brittany!! I was actually in Charlotte a few weeks back and she gave me an awesome restaurant recommendation! (Oh, and I also love Charlotte more and more the more I go there!)
Looks like it was a fun holiday weekend!!
OMG, that pic of you and Sadie. I’m going to try to recreate it with my Stella! Love it!
Reading and boating soudns fab. I just finished The Husband’s Secret! Oh my gosh, so good!!!
Loved that book! So glad you enjoyed it, too!
Glad you were able to get some quality time on the water!
What a fantastic sounding weekend! Love it. I live in MN, land of a bazillion lakes, and so whenever you talk about going out on the boat I think about Ryan having to tow it to the lake to a boat launch (backing up with a trailer seems so daunting to me). And now that I see the dock I just realized, do you have a permanent or rented dock space so that you don’t have to keep towing the boat with you every time you go out? I’m curious, because one of my bffs has been debating on whether or not to pay to dock her boat for easy access, or if they’ll just keep doing like they do, and launch it every time. It seems like the pluses for docking would be instant and easy access to go out, spontaneously. And the cons (for MN, because of the plethora of lakes every 5 feet), would be that you’d be paying for a boat slip/dock space at one lake, while maybe using it on a whole bunch of lakes, thereby overpaying. Thoughts? I kind of like the idea of spontaneity and the permanent slip. Just gas it up and go!
Looks like you had a great weekend, and I have to be perfectly honest, I am super jealous you are able to go to such a beautiful lake so often!
Unfortunately we don’t have many gorgeous lakes near us, but we did spend time by the next best alternative of a body of water: an apartment pool. Haha 🙂
Sounds lovely! Sometimes a little r&r is just what you need. Glad you had a good 4th!
I love your weekend updates! Julie- you just seem so happy. That is incredibly encouraging to me. I know you have never suffered from an eating disorder, but as someone who is currently recovering, I look up to you so much. Through you and your blog, I can see people really are capable of just living a simply and healthy life where they truly are happy. I admire you Julie, and I am thankful for the day I came across your blog.
On a much lighter note: have a wonderful rest of your Monday! <3
Sounds like you had a great weekend! Living near the water is amazing isn’t it? 🙂
Haha I love that Sadie made herself at home on their boat!
Julie you look absolutely stunning for 35 weeks! I was always as big as a house:) Enjoy these last few weeks!