Shark Reef Trip

Wow! I think it's been two months since I've been able to get to my blog! I hope I can get caught up this summer (finally). The second event of the year was on January 10th. Zach's Cub Scout Group ended up taking a trip down to the Shark Reef at the Mandalay Bay. It had been a while since we had been down there, so I decided to load up the kids and join them.

Here are William and Caleb, who started out in the stroller, but didn't stay there the whole time, of course. That would have been too easy!


Here are the kids trying to touch the sting rays:


Here they are posing for mom (not one good shot, surprise, surprise):


Kaitlyn and Caleb:


Caleb was in quite the good mood (maybe it's because he was able to be out of the stroller) and put on quite a funny show:


Kaitlyn even got in on the "posing," just not with quite the same attitude as Caleb:


Zach wanted this picture pretty badly. He thought it was pretty funny. One of the things I love about my kids getting older is their sense of humor. They understand things a lot more and the light bulb goes on a lot more. It's fun to watch.


Here's a picture of all of Zach's scout group. Thanks to the leaders and everyone who helped make this a great activity! Thanks for helping me with my "extras" also.


Lastly, here are a few pictures of some of the ocean life we saw. It's really hard to photograph them because the glass is really thick, it's dark, and the light from the flash reflects off the glass. Kaitlyn didn't care, however, and took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of the better ones:

25 Random Things...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Ok. So it's been a while (ok, a long while) since I last posted. Between then and now, my likfe has gotten a little complicated. I was called to teach Seminary at the beginning of February and while it's an awesome experience that I wouldn't trade, I have had to put a few things on the back burner, like blogging. I'm hoping to get back on track and work in a few here and there now that I'm getting more used to the schedule. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.

Anyway, back to the blog. My last post ended on 12/31/08 and this post is going to cover the events of 1/1/09. It was a day I set aside to potty train William. It had to be done and I wanted it to be before school started back up again. So I read a book about how to do it without failing and set out to get started. We started by going down to the Forum shops at Caesar's Palace to FAO Schwartz. Why, you ask? Good question. I wanted an "Emma" doll that was talked about in the book that will go to the bathroom if fed water. Of course it was a fancy doll that was only at fancy stores. I decided to make it an outing (somewhat) and I headed down with the kids. We did find the doll and everyone played on the floor piano (like on "Big") and here's a few shots of the kids by the fountains and looking at the fish. Sorry for the poor quality - it was from my phone, since I forgot the camera.


We headed home and I got out the salty foods, water, and M&Ms to start our potty training experience. To make a very long story short, we spent a few hours potty training Emma (what the book says to do), and then lots more hours "practicing" going potty and trying to actually catch a time when he would have to go. We had a "get rid of diapers" ceremony and have not used them since (except pull-ups at night). I wish it had gone as smoothly as it sounds like it should, but we did end up cleaning up accidents for probably two full days and even some times after that. The first two days I thought he would never get it since he only went to the bathroom on the floor (with the exception of one lucky #2 experience in the toilet on the first day), but eventually he figured it out. Thank goodness. Now he is doing great and I am so glad it's over! Good job William!!