July Journaling

Yes! I think I am officially the last blogger on blogspot to post their 4th of July activities.

The 4th was great. We went to a parade...

...enjoyed a BBQ and swimming with friends.... saw the fireworks... (First time braving the fireworks since having kids--we usually wimp out and go to bed early)I don't think this picture above does it justice, but Cole wore his Spiderman costume with his Batman cape and Buzz Lightyear "helmet" for the show. Killing 3 superheroes with 1 stone. He spent most of the time staying warm under his red blanket, so luckily for us, no one really saw his awesome attire.

At the beginning of July I was catching up on The Pioneer Woman blog. My sister had mentioned to me some recipes she had tried, so I went to check things out. I got side-tracked at started reading the photography section and came across this "Snap out of it" post. The author named "Miz Booshay" wrote it; Does anyone know her relation to the PW? Please share, if you do. But nonetheless... I was really touched by Miz Booshay's wisdom and think that anyone with picture-taking issues should read that link... it was really sweet.

I emailed Miz Booshay's post to Tyler and asked him to help create memories for our kids of their mother by taking the camera from me occasionally. He willingly accepted the challenge to help me "Snap out of it." So on Sunday the 5th, Tyler "surprised" me by telling me to color coordinate with the kids, grab my camera and tripod. Hmmm... whatever could he be up to? We went over to this barn I drive by all the time and love.... maybe it's the Texan in me that can't get enough of the bright red barn.
Tyler got the kids (and me!) to laugh for the camera as he had Cole's Optimus Prime figurine dancing on his head with one hand while snapping pictures with the other. Talk about coordination! We were just clicking away having a good time. When I got home I noticed we didn't vary up our background or clothes at all. I guess I was so enamored with the red barn that I didn't think to try out anything new. Oh well. Everyday is a learning experience with our camera.

The next day (6th) we said goodbye to diapers and onesies and officially potty trained Annie. She was a champ! The first few days she got an M&M each time she went on the potty. But after a little while, I realized that she was wetting a few drops in her underwear and then running to the potty to finish the job. So then we changed our focus on rewarding her for dry pants. I moved the M&M cup from the bathroom cupboard to the kitchen cupboard, and throughout the day I would ask her, "Are you all dry?" Annie would then check herself out, and if still dry, she'd get candy. It worked GREAT! I was so excited. After a few days, she'd run into the kitchen and say, "ALL DRY" (in a language that probably only I could understand), pull down her pants, get her M&M, and then run to the potty. It was awesome!
Some of the techniques we used were really childish; it was nice to use them on a 21 month old who falls for the "tricks" like, "Oh Annie! Your baby needs to go potty!" when Annie was dancing around doing the potty dance. Cole looked at me like I was an idiot as I was telling Annie that, (probably because he's 3.5 and knows that dolls don't go potty), but it worked great for Annie.

During that week or so of potty training, Annie had some kind of learning explosion. She was on fire! Our favorite new words are her colors--yed, anshhh, yeh-yo, geen, bew, & bown...thank you, M&Ms. She started putting small words together to ask questions, and even has a favorite joke:
Annie: "Knock Knock"
Waits until someone replies: "Who's there?"
Annie: "Chooch"
Chooch Who?
Whitney tried to teach her the real line "Ahh! Look out for the train!" But instead Annie likes to say, "AHHHHHH!! Choo Choo!"

July 24-25th my dad and his kids came up for a visit. I think they saw 90% of Nor Cal in about 48 hours. I'm still in awe at the things we were able to see in their short visit.

Aside from the typical wharf activities, we tried something new--the maritime museum down there. The kids really enjoyed being on the boats for some hands-on learning.

We walked around the wharf and the "bush man" scared the girls so bad. I wish I could have gotten a picture of their reaction to him; it was classic! The next day we traveled up to the Jelly Belly Factory and then went over to Travis Air Force base and saw some planes up close. The kids had a great time going in a few of them and playing pretend. Then we finished off the day at the big pool in our area.We were so happy to have visitors and hope we get to see everyone again soon!

On Monday the 27th, Tyler got last minute tickets to a Giants game after work. Well, by the time we picked up the babysitter, got on the train, sat on a delayed train and more, we made it for the bottom of the 8th inning. Nothing was going right until we watched the rookie pitcher, Tim Lincecum (photo from: chrisoleary.com)hit a career high of 15 strikeouts in one game. And let me tell you, those 6 minutes we saw were awesome. :) Oh, the best part was hearing Tyler's pager go off while sitting in traffic hitching a ride home with Tyler's buddies. What, Tyler? You're on call right now? Thankfully Tyler's friends were able to drop him off at the hospital and then they took me home. It was just one of those nights where I felt like, "Why do we even try to be social?!"

Tyler has had some spare time on this rotation he's on right now. So one day he took Whitney in to the city to try and see Wicked. Unfortunately they didn't get same-day tickets like my sister and I did. After their second attempt, he decided that while he was there at the box office he'd just go ahead and buy tickets for September while his parents are in town. We will have to post again after they go for real!

We have really enjoyed having Tyler around so much. On the random days that he has off, he has taken the kids for me and my sister so we can go shopping and have a break. Since he can only legally fit 5 kids in the car, Heidi & I will take her little Andrew with us. Man, it is such a difference going shopping with only 1 kid instead of 6!! I can't thank Tyler enough for so willingly giving us a break. How could you not have fun when daddy is in charge and you get to make forts and wear swimsuits with boots on?
I guess I better enjoy this while it lasts because we're expecting Tyler's rotations from November through June to not be so kind to us. July was great though; no complaints here!