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Our new house has a backyard that we’ve always dreamed about. One where our kids can run straight outside from the living space to play, one that has a kitchen window that overlooks it and one that is flat, spacious and green for as much outside time as possible. While we still have some work to do back there, and it will likely take us a good five years to complete everything, right now, it’s perfect. Perfectly perfect.

Our kids play outside a lot. But, as much as they love to run and kick the soccer ball and have the Slip N’ Slide set up, one of their favorite things to do outside is downtime activities, like coloring, reading, or getting out their doll house furniture and critters to play on a blanket.

While our backyard is surrounded by trees (big trees!), it’s mostly open and during the high of the afternoon, there can be a lack of shade for playing. My kids are Northwest natives, after all, and prefer their sunshine with a bit of shade.

When Rio Beach offered to send me one of their Total Sun Block Umbrellas (Rio Brand, $70) I knew that it would be a hit for our family, not just for our backyard play sessions or for shady lunch breaks in the shade, but also for the countless adventures we go on as we check items off of our Bellingham Bucket List.

Here’s what I love about it already:

• It’s easy to put up… even by myself and with three excited kids underfoot. You just take it out of the bag, pop it open, and screw it into the ground. Done. Seriously, if I can do it, you can.
• It’s big enough to provide some good shade, but not so big that you feel like you have a tent.
• Everything fits into an easy to carry bag and it’s pretty light for hauling on adventures. You could easily keep it in your car for the summer and not even worry about it taking up too much space.
• The sun coverage is serious business. It blocks 99.8 percent of UVA and UVB rays and is recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation.
• It’s breathable. We’ve had umbrellas like this in the past when the kids were younger, babies in particular, and they were awesome, except that on the inside of the umbrella, it was terribly stuffy. Breathable panels? Check!

The team at Rio Beach was kind enough to send us an umbrella to try out and to offer as a giveaway to bellingFAM readers. Please note that this giveaway is for LOCAL PICK-UP IN BELLINGHAM ONLY. Or, for our Seattle-area readers, I can bring it to you the week of August 1, if you happen to win. I have the actual giveaway umbrella with me, so it’s not shipping directly from the company, like most giveaway. I promise not to hug you when we meet to hand it over. Really. (Maybe.)

To enter to win a RIO BEACH TOTAL SUN BLOCK 7′ UMBRELLA, please click the Rafflecopter link below:

// This giveaway has ended. Please click the Rafflecopter link below to see the winner. //

bellingFAM giveaway for a Rio Beach Umbrella

(If you’ve never used Rafflecopter before, I promise that it’s easy and the BEST and safest way to enter a giveaway on a blog, as well as for me to run a giveaways on bellingFAM. No registration necessary. All of your information provided is kept private. U.S. residents only, please.)

Giveaway provided by the team at Rio Beach.
No other compensation was provided for this post.
All opinions are our own.