The Zoo, The 4th of July, and Potty Training, OH MY!

Well, our computer is really acting up. Actually it's not acting at all, I think it's really dying.

Beck is right here and my brain is mush. I went to Book Club last night and well, I didn't get to bed too early. Oh, how I love Book Club! These women are beyond wonderful. I love them all.

We went out of town for the weekend and got back late Tuesday night. I was without the internet for FOUR days. FOUR DAYS. Sad, but true. Somehow I survived. Then, I come home to our poor little computer. Blogging may be a bit sporadic for awhile (if it wasn't already)!

On Saturday, we went to Hogle Zoo. We haven't been since 2005. It was fun, but HOT. As in over 100 degrees HOT! The bird show was awesome... that's another story. My favorites were the tigers and the baby lemurs. My kids were troopers. We really felt like we were melting.

Here they are at the "water ball thingy" at the entrance:

Kaia on the carousel:

Zoe on the carousel:

Beck and me on the carousel (he did NOT want to ride on one of the "horses"):

Gabe is almost as tall as a male gorilla.... hmm... just think about that one.

My little monkeys:

Our 4th of July trip home was fantastic and HOT. Yes, HOT is the theme for July and well, I don't do HOT very well. Gabe was with cousins already (and for some reason didn't want a new 4th of July outfit, why not?), but here's
Zoe, Kaia, and Beck going to the morning carnival:

Zoe and cousin Kyden doing the "knock each other off the inflated pedestal with inflated club thingys". Zoe had so much fun with Kyden.
She's talked about him non-stop since we got home.

Zeke just landed at the bottom of a HUGE slide. YIKES!

Kaia climbing up to the HUGE slide:

Look out below!! This slide was HUGE, I'm telling you!

Beck got to go in a giant bubble machine. This really was quite ingenious and I thought it was the hit of the carnival. SO COOL!! Go Salina! :) It's hard to tell from the picture, but Beck is inside a giant bubble!

Zoe with my dear cousin, Nicky. She made a bunch of the cutest flower clips and hair bows for my girls. Zoe tried all of them on at once.
It looked like a crazy shower cap.

Nicky is so sweet! We have so many good memories growing up together. We had fun hanging out with her family this year. Rod, Barbara, Ryan, Aubrey, Randy, Rusty, Maxine, and a plethora of little ones and not-so-little ones... it was a great day. My cousins ROCK and I'm not just saying they are cool... they really ROCK. Seriously, we're just sitting there and next thing I know, full on band playing "Plush" from Stone Temple Pilots. This was the 4th of July, I was in heaven. By the way, Ryan, Randy, Rusty: you guys seriously can sing and play! Zeke was also loving life, because he just happened to bring his guitar and Rusty was teaching him everything he could.

It was the best! Other than my stomach. You know every blog post includes some dumb ailment of mine. I sound like I'm 80. It stinks! But hey, my dear Aunt Barbara said, "You've gotta try some Kefir!" And just like her, she didn't just say it, but she went and got me some and more to take home. It's like an extra concentrated probiotic yogurt. She said it has really helped her. I'm looking forward to having it help me. I came home and found some in the good old organic section at Smith's of course. :)

And just a side note, last Wednesday, the morning ritual of trying to see if today was the day Beck wants to go potty was successful! The morning turned into the afternoon which turned into evening and well, we were potty-training all through the weekend. It was crazy, of course, but that's how we do things around here.

We're on day 9 (counting 4 days of vacation) and things are going rather well. I've reached another milestone in my life. I have been buying diapers for OVER 14 YEARS, PEOPLE!!! But not any more...wow. That's got to help the budget a bit.

Beck is so proud.
My Mom only has one bathroom...yeah.
He especially loved when he got to pee on a tree outside!

This picture is worth a THOUSAND words (and DOLLARS!) :) Woo hoo!