Karate, Swimming Lessons, and Potty Training!!

Second post for the day so keep reading on past this one - trying to catch up! Teylor has been wanting to do karate since this spring but the class was full and they weren't taking any new students until July. He started on July 6th and has LOVED every minute of it! He was able to get his white belt the first night he started which made him SOOO excited. He had to wear the belt for 24 hours even to bed and he wouldn't move it for nothing! He goes two days a week for an hour and he is learning lots of things and practices every chance he gets!
He is testing for his white belt with one of his sensi(instructors)!

Getting his white belt

He finally received his Gi last Thursday and he is very proud of it!

He also started swimming lessons 2weeks ago and he starts another session again tonight! He has lessons everyday for 30 minutes. He loves the water but gets nervous in deeper water so we thought we would put him in lessons to get him comfortable with the water and learn how to swim!

Teylor jumping off the diving board in 13ft - I was really surprised that he jumped off it even with his teacher right there!

On the last day of his first session they got to have a fun day!

Going across the lily pads!

The potty extravaganza begins.....So we had tried to potty train Parkar about a month ago and he didn't really want to have anything to do with the potty chair - it took FOREVER for us to get him just to sit on it! So I know your not supposed to force him so I gave it a little break. I decided 2 weeks ago I was going to try it again. We went to Wal-mart and he got to pick out some underwear! The next day we stayed home all day and attempted it. I would take him in there every 30minutes and have him sit on potty chair for 15minutes (he would never go) and as soon as walked down the hall or into another room he would pee in his pants (thank goodness for wood floors!). I was about to give up in the evening and was convincing myself he still wasn't ready and I told myself to take him back in there one more time and he finally went pee in the potty chair!! He has gone every since - I can't believe that it was so hard for him to just sit on it and we did it all day and it took just one time for him to pee in it and he's gone ever since. It took Teylor one day but for about a month we had to ask him all the time if he had to go and at least a couple weeks to get the pooping thing down - Parkar pooped in his pants once and has always told us every time he has to go. He's had two accidents at night after we started so I put him in diapers for 4nights and then he told me he didn't want to wear diapers anymore and so far he hasn't had any accidents during the day or night!! He learned so well and we are proud of him -but a little sad that he's "a big boy" now!


Last week we went to Rapid to go watch my nephew play baseball and go the festival in the park in Spearfish. We took the boys through Storybook Island and then let them play in the little creek in the park. Getting our feet wet really helped with the heat!

That catches us back up to today and the fun starts all over in about an hour with swimming lessons and karate!!! At least it was all within the same month this time :)

4th of July weekend

We will just start at the beginning of July!! We celebrated my birthday July 1 by going out to lunch - I had a great time. The next day July 2nd Cam's brother Ryan and his family came up to Gillette to spend the 4th with us! After they got here we went on a little trip! We started out by going to Devils Tower and walking around it. The kids enjoyed taking little books along the trail looking for things so they could get Junior Ranger Badges! It was very hot but we had a great time together!

The Whole Clan - Us, Ryan's Family, and P and Sydney

The Kids working on their Park Ranger Books

Junior Ranger Parkar!

Junior Ranger Teylor

We continued on our journey and drove to Spearfish, South Dakota. When we arrived there we stopped by the Spearfish park -which is a huge park and very pretty! We ate lunch and then went to the Spearfish Fish Hatchery. The kids all had a blast feeding the fish and watching them jump out of the water for the food. We don't have any pictures from there because after we got to Spearfish Parkar threw up and was not feeling good so I stayed in the car and let him take a nap - so we just caught the last few minutes of the fish hatchery.

After we left Spearfish we drove to Sturgis where we stayed the night. My Auntie Bev and Uncle Gary have another house outside of Sturgis that they let us stay at. She took us out there and showed us how to run everything and then we headed back to town to go to dinner. On our way back Ryan and I had a great time giving Jenn heck - she is city girl from Denver and was having a little bit of a hard time with it being pitch black and actually being able to see the stars and nothing else!! We all had fun staying out at the "Ponderosa"! The next morning we got up early and headed to Rapid City. We started out at Fort Hays and had all you can eat pancakes for 99cents! We toured around Fort Hays after breakfast and the kids got to do some fun little activities.

Here they were able to make a rope to old fashioned way!

After they made the rope they went and got to shuck corn the old fashioned way.

After we left Fort Hays we went to Cosmo's Mystery Area and we all had quite the experience!!

Kendra and Teylor trying on the hats

Cameron standing straight up

Teylor was getting a scared because he couldn't walk by

himself without the "magnetic force" pushing him up against

the wall!!

Cameron flying without holding onto anything!

The Cosmo Mystery Area was really fun. After that we drove to Keystone and walked through the downtown. We ate lunch and went to the old fashioned taffy shop where the kids were able to see how they make the taffy and get a bag of taffy to eat! After that we drove back home.

We drove by Mt. Rushmore and thought this was a neat picture!

Hoobie was WORN OUT!!

The next day was the 4th of July!! We went to church and then went and did festivities! We went to the parade first and the kids all got a TON of candy and a few little toys.
All the kids waiting for the parade to start!

After the parade we went to the hot dog feed and ate hot dogs!! Cam's brother Preston was playing mud volleyball - they needed an extra player so Ryan filled in and played! They ended up playing my nephews team for the championship and won!!

Getting ready to watch the fireworks - it was pretty chilly that night which is a little bit unusual for the 4th - but we still had fun!!

The next day we went around to the few houses, schools, and some buildings where Cameron and his family had grown up. We stopped by a park so the "big kids" could play for a little bit. After that we went swimming at the rec center all afternoon.

That night Cameron made me a cake and we had cake and ice cream to celebrate my birthday!!

We had bought fireworks to shoot off and we thougth since the 4th was so busy and we were up late we would light them off on Monday night the 5th - well just as we started to go find a place to light them off it started raining! We ended up still doing it but it was a little chilly again but the kids were able to do the sparklers!

And that wraps up the weekend - we had such a fun time with them and look forward to them coming (hopefully with more of the siblings) next Fourth of JULY!!!