Hurray! Hope is potty trained (mostly)

Okay, so we started potty training a few months ago and it only lasted about 1 1/2 weeks.  She was doing pretty well and then I guess the excitement wore off and she didn't care.
So I decided to wait for all of the vacations and camping to get over before I tried again.
We started Tuesday when the kids went back to school.  She made it to the potty about as many times as she had accidents.  Wednesday, she only had 1 accident. She even told me when she needed to go.
Today, she woke up, told me potty-she went- and then asked for panties.  She doesn't like pull ups. I don't know why. I make her sleep in them just in case she doesn' t. make it through the night.  She usually makes it through  the night but I don't want to take chances.
She hasn't had any accidents and even went number two.
She has been the easiest of all of my children.

Way to go Hope!!!

Paige made it through girls camp

This is a long time in coming. Girls camp was in June!!
Paige is a fourth year and they went on a 10 mile back pack hike. We tried to make her pack as light as possible but still have all of the essentials.They ran into snow where they were supposed to set up camp and so they had to hike farther to get out of it.  She said that she didn't think that she would make it, she was exhausted. She made it through. And I'm sure it will be a great memory for her in the future.
She loved the rest of girls camp and was glad to be home after a long 5 days.

Hope rides a trike

We pulled the trike out of the shed and shoed Hope how to make it work.  Of course she doesn't pedal yet, just pushes with her feet.  She learned how to steer quicker than I thought she would. She love riding down the street but coming back up is hard.  She will go about 200 feet and them climb off, point to the bike and say,"mom" and head back to the house to wait for me and the bike to catch up so she can do it again.

Summer fun

These are fun drinks that I make for the 24th of July

 We got together with family for a BBQ and fire works---in the rain.  But it was still a blast.

 Hope actually held a sparkler.

 My niece Kristi, sitting on the ground, just got into Allen. The guy sitting next to her.

 Grandma, trying to stay dry.

We spent 3 days camping at Strawberry reservoir. The kids were so excited to go fishing that they couldn't wait, so we rented a boat in the heat of the day and went fishing. Loren caught one.
We watched squirrels, chipmunks, and ground squirrels play around our camp ground. Hope feed them crackers.
One night we fished from shore and Parker and Ethan found that if they just dropped the end of their pole into the water, crawfish would climb on to them.  We caught dozens of those. However, we don't eat them so they went right back into the lake.

Summer catch up

We celebrated my parents 50th Anniversary at Mill Hollow.  My father worked there during the summer for many years.  I believe that all of my siblings including myself spent a week or more there while growing up.

                                                  The grand and great grand kids.

                                                            Deer in the meadows

                                                          Party for Mom and Dad

                                               The stream that is normally low and shallow

                                                                 Mom and Dad

                                                                         Hiking

                                            Dad telling us about the trees and how the grow

                                                       Me, Braden and Chris

It was fun getting together with the whole family. We hiked, played games, roasted marsh mellows, had had a party for the happy couple.