August trip to Gatlinburg, TN

Going back a few weeks we went out to Gatlinburg, TN for our summer family trip.  It was about a 10 hour drive, and then another hour to get through the crazy traffic in Gatlinburg, who knew!  We drove to Gatlinburg August 4th and returned August 10th.  The new car was great and the kids did really well for the drive.  Gatlinburg and it's sister city Pigeon Forge is nestled at the entrance of the Smokey Mountains National Park.  It was beautiful!  We drove around the park a little but we had a lot of rain the week we were there.

Who knew Gatlinburg has one of the nation's best aquariums!  It wasn't a huge aquarium but it was amazing.  Instead of walking along a wall of tanks to see different fish they had a huge tank and when you went downstairs you stood on a moving walkway and it moved you in the tank in tubes.

 

 The sharks and fish swam all around you.

Here comes the shark!

Here is another tube we waited in to get to the penguins.

They had a tank of HUGE spider crabs that were amazing to watch.

It was an amazing place to visit and really see fish, sharks, crabs and even mermaids under the water.  We didn't get the picture but there were a few mermaids swimming in the stingray exhibit.  Rachel loved it!

After the aquarium we walked along Gatlinburg, which is full of little shops of every kind.  It was so much fun to see and sample it all!

We went to Dollywood's Water Park but we didn't get any pictures because we were having so much fun.  The kids loved the wave pool and the lazy river.  Aaron even tried some big water and tube slides.

Next to Gatlinburg is Pigeon Forge.  That is where Dollywood is and we also attended a Lumberjack Feud there.  It was a lot of fun in a Midevil Times type arena.  Pigeon Forge also has a ton of go-cart and amusement park places.  We went to one park and had a blast.  Andrew was too small to ride on anything so we had to keep him busy watching.

 

 We all did mini golf at the park.

Anson and especially Aaron can't get enough go-carts.

Rachel even tried go-carts for the first time.

Rachel loved the other rides more like the truck train and spinning ride.

Here is Rick as the ever willing partner to take the kids on all the courses.

We had a great time in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.  It was nice to have time to spend time just as us.  We all got some much need quality time with each other.

Ugh to Potty Training

So my least part of parenting thus far is potty training.  I've never been very successful at it whether that is my fault or the fault of my kids.  It usually takes months, and a couple cases a year, to complete.  I've tried a range of books, rewards, and ages to accomplish this but it comes down to my kids are stubborn enough to only do it when they want to.

So in getting to that age with Andrew I again started a new approach and started it earlier in age.  He has been able to hold it for hours on end and on our last trip to TN he held it through 2-3 cups of juice or water for over 5 hours.  I knew the problem for him would be the BM.  He has been able to hold that since he was an infant for days on end.  We've tried diet adjustments, mineral oil, and laxative in order to get him routine.  Finally around 2 he decided it wasn't such a big deal.  So I muscled up and decided to do it as soon as the boys were in school but Rachel wasn't.  Rachel's preschool is on the other side of town and I was worried about commuting while potty training. 

Well it went as horribly as I thought.  Andrew can hold everything, and hold it, and hold it!  We had 2 days of just him and me working on potty training.  The first day he had to go BM but wouldn't so he couldn't take a nap.  He finally conked out on the pot at the end of the day. 

Yep, I'm really showing pictures because of all the yuck I've had to deal with the last couple weeks I needed a good laugh.

So after holding BM for 4 days we finally worked it out in a traumatizing experience.  Afterward he refused to even sit on the potty.  Andrew is big in to play fighting, swords, lightsabors, guns, etc.  So in one of our down times I was sword fighting with him when I started thinking if we called it a shooter and had a big brother shoot if he would go for that.  So Aaron volunteered to "shoot" standing up in the big potty with Cheerios and wouldn't you know it when I told Andrew it was his turn to shoot he got up there and did it.  Everyone cheered and I laughed the rest of the night.  Who would have guessed calling it a shooter and putting Cheerios in the potty would make a difference. 

So for the last week and a half we've had the most success with a big brother, usually Aaron, invites Andrew to go "shooting" and it's all good.  We're still working with him initiating it but he has amazing bladder control and can hold it until I take him. 

BM we have not come close to mastering.  I'll follow him around for days and he just holds it until I miss him for a couple minutes and he goes in his underwear.  He promptly tells me he's "bombed" but it is after the fact.  SO we have a ways to go but we're trying.  I hate potty training and all that goes with it but I was hoping that if I do it earlier I don't run into the terrible 2's and 3's attitude that I have had such a hard time with.  We've been homebound for most of the time just in case but we'll get there; it's only been 1 1/2 weeks.  I look at the bigger kids and they were all a pain to potty train but they all eventually do it so I just need patience and a lot of Clorox wipes.

Anson and Aaron start school

This summer has been great but after we returned from our trip to the Smokey Mountains we were ready for school to begin.  Anson is in 2nd grade and Aaron is in 1st grade so they are both gone all day.  This will be such a change especially because Rachel is also starting PreK tomorrow.  

Here is Aaron ready to go.

 Here is Anson, not wanting to take another picture but willing with a smirk.

They are both such cute boys and we will really miss them while they are at school but oh the fun things they will learn.  I'm glad we live so close to the school so I can be part of so much.

Talks and scriptures in Primary

So our kids have the opportunity a couple times of year to give talks or read scriptures in front of their Primary, that is 20 or so kids their age at church.  Aaron had the opportunity to read the scripture last month.  Anson has the opportunity to give a talk on having good friends help you choose the right today.  Aaron had a hard time practicing the week of his scripture, he just couldn't be pulled away from playing.  SO he had the consequence of reading the scripture all the way to church.  Our church is 15-20 minutes away so one can read a few verses many times in that amount of time.  By the time we arrived he was very fluent with his scripture and did a great job in front of his peers. 

So how will Anson do?  Is he going to practice before church or many times on the way to church?  He's talking about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and those are tricky names to rattle off in front of people.  I'm sure he'll CTR, choose the right, and practice and do a great job today.

from Anson:
It is a little long.

from Mom:
But I know you can do it!

from Anson:
I know I can do it too.

from Mom:
kiss on your cheek

This is a real dialogue Anson wrote on this blog. :)

The new ride!

So we've said goodbye to our first family car and a big hello to our new van.  We were hopeful that our Grand Caravan would stick with us for a few more years but this year has been expensive on repairs, one of which was a transmission line.  The transmission would be going in the next year or two and with a few long driving trips coming up we decided to make the change now instead of breaking down in the mountains in the middle of who knows where. 

We were thrilled to get a new Honda Odyssey.   The kids especially love the new DVD.  We took it on our first trip we just returned from to Gatlinburg, TN and it worked great.  Here are the cooperating kids hanging out the window.

4th of July

The past 4 years Rick has been in charge of our church's 4th of July picnic.  It has been a great activity for the ward to look forward to every year.  Each year, no matter the heat, more and more people have shown up.  This year even with Chicago's HOT summer we had about 130 people there. 

(It was about 115 outside.) 

We invited our Grandpa Somers to join us this year as Grandma was traveling.  He was a great extra hand as Rick was busy keeping everything going.

 

Bishop Kosiek wanted to have a kite flying activity and even in the heat it was fun to see the wind could get them high.

Rachel, in the blue skirt, was flying one of the Bishop's kites since ours was broken.

 

Way to go Rick!  Another successful picnic!

Anson and Aaron play Tee-ball

This spring/summer the boys signed up for tee-ball, Rick's heart flipped a beat.  Because of the boys being 6 months apart they were in different leagues.  Anson was in coached pitched and Aaron was in tee-ball, huge differences between the two.  Aaron was the oldest on his team and loved going to everything from practices to games.  Because every kid hit off a tee the games were looooonnggg. 

Anson on the other hand was one of the smallest and it made it very difficult to pitch the ball in his tiny strike zone.  For Anson's league each kid was pitched 6 balls and there were no strikes.  They just had to hit one or they were out, so it was pretty hard for Anson.  At the beginning of the season both boys were going strong and I bounced between them in practices and games.  About half way through Anson was discouraged and it was a long last half of the season.  I heard him once say he like baseball and his favorite position was on the bench.  But had an excellent coach, who spent half of each practice helping him and the other half with him doing a drill right by his side. 

 
Amazingly we had 8 of the 10 games at the same time at the same complex so we could go from one game to the next depending on who was playing or at bat or just stand between the two fields and watch both. It really helped not having 2 practices and 1 game for each boy at different times during the week. 

It was a busy season but when the season was over it was bitter sweet.  Aaron loved every minute of his team and even Anson was disappointed his team didn't continue on in their playoffs. Go Mud Hens (Aaron) and Cubs (Anson)!