Isaac

I am very happy to say that in the last 2 days, Isaac has pooped twice on his little potty! What is even more amazing is that while we have tried before we moved to get him started on potty training and he showed true fear at the idea, we have not actually said much to him, so this sudden leap forward is pretty much all his own doing! I have to say I am surprised he is actually pooping first; Eden was the opposite. So, we will have to see if we can continue encouraging this new progress! And, what is more is that EmmaLee has been watching the proceedings very closely and has since sat on the potty a couple of times herself, so with all luck, maybe, just maybe we can get all of them out of diapers in the next month or so! That would be the first time in nearly 7 years I won't have a kid in diapers!

Vacation

This is a week late, but better late than never! Last weekend we were finally able to go on a little vacation for the summer. For those who don't know, my brother moved to Idaho earlier this year, so we went up and stayed with him in Rexburg. We spent a day at Yellowstone, and a day going to Bear World and seeing the Tetons, and we watched the fabulous BYU vs Oklahoma game, and just chilling with my brother and his family. It was a ton of fun!! Yellowstone was amazing! We saw some wildlife, including some elk, otters, deer, and Buffalo. In fact, we saw a buffalo up close and personal! We were driving on the main road, and we had actually just passed the big clearing where most of the buffalo are. We were into more wooded area, and for those who haven't been, most of Yellowstone's woods are very, very thick. You can't see very far into them because the trees are so dense! Anyway, all of the sudden, Rob let out a start and was slamming on the breaks and swerving into the other lane, which luckily nobody was on at the time. I had been looking down at my camera on my lap, so I didn't know at first what was going on, but as I looked up, a huge buffalo had just emerged out of the woods at a run and then stopped dead in front of us! Our tires were squealing and smoking, but luckily because Rob has such quick reflexes, we didn't hit the buffalo! For the 5 seconds right after as we were staring at the buffalo and it stared back, I saw dust actually coming off his back! It was crazy! I'm sure it would have creamed the van if we had hit the poor beast, and I did think briefly how weird it would sound to have to call in another claim on the van, this time from hitting a buffalo. First, our car is by a flaming one, then we hit a buffalo! No normal or typical claims for us! But, luckily we didn't hit him, so we slowly went around him and kept going! It took us about a half an hour before our heart rates went back to normal! It was so funny too, because right after it happened, Eden calls up from the back, "Now I know why we wear our seat belts!" (Yes, we were all in our seat belts, but Eden asks all the time why she has to wear hers; glad the buffalo could give such a great demonstration for us!) The day after Yellowstone we went with my brother and his family to Bear World, which is in Rexburg, and it was a ton of fun! The park has real bears as well as a variety of other wild life, and you drive your car through the park, so they are literally right outside your window! It was really amazing to be so close to all those animals! We had one that walked out into the road right in front of us, where he lazily sat down, blocking most of the road, and then just looked at us! It was funny! After you drive through the animals, there is a main building that has a gift shop, and then right outside they have a little carnival, mostly just for smaller kids, that is free with admission, so the kids all had a blast riding on the rides! Plus, they have a petting zoo that was really fun! They had deer, including a baby deer, that let you walk right up to them and pet them! I have always wanted to pet a baby deer, and it was a lot of fun actually getting to do that! The baby deer enjoyed chewing on my shoelace as well! So, that was a really fun place to visit! Most of the rest of the time we spent just hanging out and having a good time with my brother and his family. I will have to post pictures as soon as I can actually find my camera cable so I can download them! Thanks Nick and Kimberly, Caleb and McKell for letting us stay with you and have such a great time!!