Summer of Potty Training

Because this is the summer of potty training (which is going excellent, I might add), we have seen a lot of Nathan is underwear. He mostly runs around in his underwear all day. Most days he starts out full dressed but after one or two times using the potty he resorts to taking off the rest of his clothes. And if this makes him want to use the potty (and be totally trained by the end of summer), then it's fine by me. The hilarious thing is that this kid is always running around and recently has found a favorite hobby of jumping off the couch or chair into the lovesac. And he really launches. So he's become our underwear super hero jumper. And to make things even better sometimes he gives us a little pose before he jumps. Love it!

One More Summer Hurrah

We did one final summer adventure (actually one of our only two trips this summer). And it all started with a blessing in disguise. I drove with the kids to Arizona to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dick. We were planning on me taking the Suburban. It gets a little better gas mileage than the van, and with gas guzzlers like ours every little bit counts. Two days before we were supposed to leave the air conditioning went completely out on the Suburban. Since I was driving through the dessert in the dead of summer we changed plans and I took the van. No one ever likes when something goes wrong on their car, but we were lucky with this one. I made it to Casa Grande with no problems (and we drove through three intense rain storms, which were kind of fun). The very next day Dad called and told me that the Suburban had broken down on him. He knew what the problem was right away was able to get it fixed with no trouble the next day (his boss let him use the company truck for the night). If I had taken the Suburban, however, it probably would have broken down somewhere along the way leaving me stranded with 4 kiddos in the dessert. Plus, then I would have had to have it towed and taken it to a shop to get it fixed (which always costs at least three times more). So who would have guessed a broken air conditioner would have really ended up being a blessing in disguise. Anyway, we had a great time in AZ: mostly swimming....because really what else can you do when it's 110 degrees outside. Megan learned how to swim under water and Nathan went from clinging on to me for dear life in the pool, to jumping off the edge with floaties on and wanting to do it over and over and over again. He was like a little fish by the time we left. We also got some dental work done while we were there - just cleanings and check-ups and such. Nathan got in the chair, but he would only let Grandpa look - there would be no touching. Grandpa said things looked fine. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which was super cute. After 4 days there I drove to Murrieta, CA to visit the Sorensen clan. We had lots of water fun there too. We went to Wild Rivers. Caelan and Ben wanted to go on any slide they could. I mostly hung out in the Kiddie areas with Nathan and Megan (I'm a little too big and pregnant to go down water slides). They all loved it. Nathan started out the day a little grumpy, and he didn't want to go down the slides (even the little ones), but he had tons of fun in the wave pool (floating around with his life jacket) and in all the sprinkler areas. We also took a trip to the beach. Caelan was way out in the waves finding good ones to boogie board in on. It was making me a little nervous, but she was totally comfortable. We played in the water and sand and later had a fire and roasted hot dogs and yummy banana treats. Nathan thought he was one of the hundreds of sand crabs that we caught - he was rolling all over in the sand. Grandpa Sorensen made an awesome fort with the kids which was able to withstand most of the waves that came up on it. The kids played in the slip-n-slide in the front yard one day and went swimming in a neighbors pool another day. The kids stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen on Saturday while Dad and I went to a friends wedding. They got to go to the baptism of Kyra's good friend, Katherine.