Catching up from Camping plus Potty Training Trials

Ok so last week we went camping...we got home on Friday so, here is a bit of an update on what I've been up to during that time.

On Saturday morning we got up and hit the road. I think we were rolling by 7am. We stopped at a rest stop and got the kids dressed and in dry diapers. Brian and I swapped seats and we were off again. By lunch time we arrived at the campsite and started to pitch our tent. Man that thing was a monster. 9x17 feet. Don't get me wrong I LOVED having the space but it is definitely a 2-3 man job to set it up. the best feature of the tent is that it has a hinged door on one side - a total life saver when you are toting a baby around. By the time we got set up and unloaded we were dying hot and so we immediatly got changed into shorts. Don't really remember much more of the first day other than hanging at the campsite...oh, and we went swimming too. Abby's first time in the pool! She loved it...her brother wasn't so sure (never has been).

We hung out on the lawn after dinner and had a grand ol' time...The only bummer was that we didn't have a campfire...you need to use a fire pit at these sites and ours didn't fit...plus it was too windy anyway.
The next morning we all got up and had breakfast...Jake getting ready to head out of the tent in his jammies with his shades on because "a sun's too bite 'or my eyes, Mommy"
At this point my days pretty much start to run together. On Monday (day 3 into our trip) I got the wonderful surprise of starting my period for the first time in 3 1/2 years...Joy. I was not able to go swimming from that point on but that meant I had someone to be sure to get pics!

By the last day we were in the pool Jake let us float him by himself...as long as he didn't know you had completely let go.
Jake had the 2nd ice cream cone in his lifetime thus far and really enjoyed it.
One of the days after getting out of the pool we had lunch and then kids decided they wanted to run around on the lawn through the sprinklers...it was a lot of fun and quite nostalgic to watch them.
Another day Grandpa took Jake and Eve out on his boat...they really loved it and did not want to get off when we docked...until we got to the sno-cone stand.Guess what color Jake picked?
Another evening Brian and I took Jake and Abby to the miniature golf course so Brian could teach Jake how to play golf (Jake had been saying for days "Daddy teach me play golf" it was adorable). Jake even had his own club that we brought with us (I bought it for him shortly after we found out we were having a boy).
I cant remember if he is trying to 'read the putt' or yell at the ball in this picture...he was so darned cute when the ball didn't go in he would say "no, no, no" and then go pick up the ball, set it about 3 inches from the hole and hit it in. I think its funny he didn't do what I expected him to do and just put it in the hole with his hands. While Jacob did not win the day, he did beat Brian on at least one hole.
One of the days we tried to keep up with giving Abby the opportunity to try 'solid' food and for the first time she actually ate it! Not only that but look at that bib! That is at the end of her meal and she was eating sweet potato...that tongue thrust reflex is finally gone! Now we all eat 'real' food at meals!
Another cute one of Abby - She napped in her playpen in the shade and she kept her legs pulled up until she was very deeply asleep - it was rather adorable.I think it was on Wednesday that I went hunting for a geocache up at Dry Falls in Sun Lakes State Park. It was a wonderful hike and climb. See that tiny dark spot near the center of the photo just to the right of the large cliff? that was where we headed to. More than I was expecting to do but so very glad I did it. My friend Krista came with me (she is my sister-in-law's sister and comes camping with the family every year). She took some pics of me that I need to get that I will post at another time. But basically we hiked to a lava tube and crawled through it into a collapsed lava bubble. We climbed up and out of that to stand on top for a spectacular view and then looked for the cache. We did not find it but found the only place it possibly could have been. I have not yet checked the geocaching website to see if it was removed intentionally or not. I left a note in the spot and we headed on back.On Thursday we went to Dry Falls as is a tradition with us. It is a massive dry waterfall and I reccomend ya'll go check out the history sometime, it is amazing.While we were there I found a geocache. Actually I should say Brian found it. It was the first thing he saw and we kept looking because it was so inconspicuous. But after we came back to it and looked closer at it we realized it was a microcache, not a standard geocache. We logged our names and put it back. Spoiler pic to follow so don't look if you are ever gonna search for this one.See that bolt looking thing? that was it. when pulled out there was a capsule on the end that contained a small scroll of paper.
One morning the kids were restless - I brought Abby to bed with us. Shortly thereafter Jake woke up so I put him in bed too...I curled up on the end of the bed with his blanket. It was not too bad and I think I even dozed back off for a while.
Thursday evening we packed up as much as we could and on Friday morning we got up and totally broke camp and headed out. Per tradition we stopped in the nearest town and filled the gas tank and had McDonalds breakfast. Driving back home was harder on us. Brian and I were very tired. He drove the first bit and I napped for a bit until I noticed he had his window down in an effort to stay awake. I tried to talk to him to keep him engaged until we stopped at the Thorp Antique and fruit stand, again per tradition. We wandered the antique mall (I saw a pair of hand cards for 20bucks. I would have been all over them if I didn't already have a pair...I should have bought them for my friend Andrew though now that I think about it. Oh well). Then we walked around the fruit stand part of the place and I picked up some apple butter. Jake was allowed to pick his own snack and much to our surprise he walked right past the many flavors of kettle corn and went straight for the apples. He ate more than half of it too. I took over driving from there. I stopped at a rest stop about 20 miles down the road to feed Abby and change diapers and then we hit the highway again. Thank goodness for iPod's man. It was a really long drive home and it was overcast or raining most of the way.
I think once we were home we pretty much crashed. I know at one point I took a shower and while I did that Brian unloaded the van (I was thrilled!) I pretty much igorned putting anything away for several days though. I did get through the laundry and I worked here and there at putting stuff away.
From the day we got home we put Abby in her crib in Jake's room and she has been sleeping there ever since. I have only had to get up in the middle of the night once to settle her back down. Now we work on getting her to go down at a scheduled bed time.
On Saturday we went to Eldon's 5th Birthday party. It was a lot of fun (even if it meant eating yet more BBQ). Here is the birthday boy with his favorite gift (grandma and grandpa always nail it)
That's a fishing pole in case you can't tell from the pic. He was just elated and thankfully there was not only a lake stocked with rainbow trout in the park but Walmart was across the street so they were able to get him a fishing liscense as soon as he was done opening his gifts.
There was a HUGE playground too and Jake had a ball on that.
How's that for a goofy look? So we have been settled in and Jake has been really liking his sister a lot lately and one night he decided that he really needed to be the one to feed her......until she reached up and grabbed his hair - then he was done with her. So I took over from there. He has been just loving sharing a room with her too. When I bring him to bed he says "need Abby" it is so cute.
The other major undertaking we have been trying since being home (well, since Monday) is we are potty training. We just went straight to underwear in the hopes that he will be more inclined to notice than if he is in a pull up. We did potty sits every 1/2 hour the first day and didn't manage to make it in the potty once. Day two was pretty much the same except by dinner time when he started to go he would say "oh no!" so he is starting to recognize what is going on (instead of making a puddle and ignoring it). Yesterday he went in the potty once on one of our hourly potty sits and then not at all again until after his nap (when he was wearing a pull up - come on people there is only so much laundry I can handle and I am already majorly handicapped in that area). We had one accident after dinner and then moved to a diaper and jammies. Today is Grandpa day, so we'll see how he does - I think I'll send him in pull ups just in case. Between him and the cat I am so tired of cleaning up pee I can't even stand it although Jake is better than the cat at this point (for some reason she gets her front half in the catbox but not her back half). Jake has been telling me his potty hurts him and when he gets up his little thighs have some serious red marks on them so I do believe him. He will try out the potty at Grandpa's today and if he isn't bothered by it we'll get him one of those (ours is a 10 yr old hand me down).
Well this post is long enough. Until next time folks.