Labor Day at the Lake 2012

We headed back up to my parent's cabin in Northern Minnesota for one more week at the end of August.  We left on Sunday, Aug. 26th (which also happened to be Erik's 30th birthday!!) :) to head North.  We got up there just in time for a late dinner and then unpacked and headed to bed.  It was just the four of us when we got there since my parents were back at work.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had awesome weather.  It was just the four of us on those four days as well.  Our days mostly consisted of getting up, going running, having some breakfast, heading down to the beach to play and hang out for a while, eating some lunch, heading back to the beach for a little bit more play time, taking an afternoon nap (the kids napped, I actually read a book!) :), heading back to the beach for more play time, having dinner, and then hanging out in the cabin until bed time.  It was so nice up there for it being so late in August.  Last year when we were up there at this time, we had a couple nice days, but the rest were cooler, and rainy.  The neighbors that live up there all the time said this was one of the nicest "end of Augusts" that they could remember in a long time.  

Thursday evening my parents and brother arrived at the cabin.  They had left after they got off work.  Friday morning the kids were very excited when they got up because Grandma, Grandpa, and Ben had arrived! :)  Friday morning we were invited to the neighbor's for coffee and rolls, so we went over there and enjoyed talking to everyone.  Friday afternoon we enjoyed more time at the beach and even got in some water skiing.  Saturday morning Erik, Ben, and I had to run 16 miles (in preparation for the Chicago Marathon at the beginning of October).  The kids hung out with Grandma and Grandpa all morning while we accomplished this small task, :) and after we made it back, and had spent some time recuperating, we enjoyed another beautiful day at the beach and water skiing.  Sunday was another great day, and our last "full" day with everyone there, so we enjoyed one last ski and boat ride in the evening.  Kyler also had been asking and asking to go fishing, so Sunday evening, after we finished skiing, Grandpa and Ben took Kyler out fishing.  I don't think he caught anything, but he had a great time!  Norah was extremely mad that she was not able to go fishing (since that's what Kyler was doing!) :), something about a 1 year old with a fishing pole just doesn't quite work so well. :)  So, my mom and I had to take her out on a paddle boat ride just so she could go in the "boat" too. :)  We also had a quick bonfire before bedtime!  Monday (Labor Day) we enjoyed our annual "breakfast at the pot" at the neighbor's.  Like I said on the 4th of July post, I always love this meal as we cook eggs and bacon over the open fire, and have LOTS of other yummy fruit, potatoes, coffee cakes, and cinnamon rolls.  After breakfast it's time to go to work-well, I watched Kyler and Norah, but everyone else went to work. :)  We had to take both boats out, take the dock, and get everything packed away.  After this happened, my parents and Ben headed back home, and the four of us enjoyed one last evening at the cabin.  Tuesday morning we got up, packed up the truck, and headed home!  It's always kind of sad to leave this time since everything is put away, and we know we won't get to enjoy the beach again until next summer.  But, time moves on, and we had another great week at the lake!  Here are some of our pictures from our trip!

Kyler pushing the cement mixer 

 Norah loving the water :)

 Lots of dumping and pouring

Kyler dug this huge hole! 

 Reading some books!

Paddle boat ride! 

Kyler and daddy dug a "mini lake" :) 

Norah "helping" :) 

Norah decided she LOVED to wear her life jacket this time :) 

Taking a ride on the big tube 

Kyler having fun 

More baths in the sink! 

Norah hanging with Grandpa 

Norah loved pushing the wheel barrow on the dock and hearing the noise it made :) 

Kyler could do this all day every day :) 

Helping Grandpa clean the boat

Ready to go fishing!

Off they go!

Norah decided she needed to wear everyone's life jacket :)

Kyler and Uncle Ben 

Our family on the last boat ride!  Looks a little different then last year! 

Enjoying the campfire!

 Last day on the beach!

Pretty Girl!

Norah loved throwing rocks in the water

Hanging out on the paddle boat :)

Norah's 18 Month Pictures

We decided to take some 18 month pictures of Norah up at the lake in Minnesota.  She wasn't really into having her picture taken, but I think we got some that turned out okay. :)  Take a look!

Potty Training

We had kind of been putting off potty training because Kyler really was not interested at all.  You would ask him if he wanted to sit on the potty and most of the time he would tell you "no".  He has sat on the potty a few times here and there, but nothing consistent.  He would tell us when he was going potty in his diaper and after he went poop, but still didn't want to go sit on the potty.  Early in the summer, we had gone to sign Kyler up for preschool; however, he was put on the waiting list.  We hadn't heard anything all summer, so we didn't really push potty training.  Well, about the middle of August we got a call saying that Kyler made it into preschool!  Which meant we needed a quick course in potty training!  We actually had a little extra time, as we were headed back to Minnesota for the first week of preschool, so we would have a little extra time to work on it up there. :)  So, the 2nd to last week in August, we put Kyler in underwear one day and told him to let us know if he had to go potty.  I also made a sticker chart and said that every time he went potty in the potty, he could put a sticker on his chart, and when the chart was full, he got to open a train he had been wanting.  I really had no method to my "potty training", but I thought we would give this a try. :)  It started off pretty good, but once Kyler realized he could put stickers on his chart, he would go potty and then two minutes later, he would ask to go potty again, because he wanted to put a sticker on his chart.  I was a little nervous that he would keep wanting to do this and would never learn to go potty when he needed to.  So, we then decided to head outside to play, I thought this would help him keep his mind off of wanting to just put stickers on his chart. :)  We kept telling him to "tell us if you have to go potty".  I don't really think we had any accidents in the morning.  Kyler wore a diaper for his nap, and then put underwear on again when he got up.  I think we had one, maybe two accidents later in the afternoon/evening, but that was all.  We did the same thing the next day, and I believe we had a poop accident that day.  We continued for a third day, and he was really doing pretty well, having no real accidents, but constantly being reminded to "tell mommy and daddy if you have to go potty".  Then on about day 4, we headed to Minnesota, so Kyler wore a diaper in the car, simply because we were in the car for 8 hours and didn't know how it would go.  When we got to Minnesota, we continued the same method.  Kyler was in underwear, we kept reminding him to tell us if he had to go potty, (just not as often as before), and he still wore a diaper at nap and night time.  He did so well!  I think he only had 1 or 2 accidents when we were in Minnesota.  Kyler wore a diaper on the way back from Minnesota, again, just because of how long we were in the car and the fact that we'd only been doing potty training for 1-2 weeks.  After we got home, Kyler had an accident the next day, (I think just because he was so tired from traveling), went to preschool on Thursday (we came home on Tuesday), and has really only had 1 or 2 other accidents since!  (And we got back from Minnesota the Tuesday after Labor Day!)  He has been out and gone lots of different places.  We still do remind him sometimes, make him go before we leave the house, or ask if he needs to go if he hasn't gone in a LONG time, but overall, he tells us when he has to go, and is doing great!!  I really think he knew how to do it, but just needed a little practice.  It's so nice to have one kid out of diapers!  The funny thing is, since Kyler sits on the potty, Norah thinks she also needs to sit on the potty too....I think she could also be potty trained within the next few months too. :)

Sitting on the potty :)

2012 Iowa State Fair

We headed down to Des Moines for our annual trip to the Iowa State Fair on August 16th.  The morning was cool, and was still kind of chilly when we got there, but then the sun came out and it was a perfect day to be there-not too hot and not too cold!  Ben had never been to the State Fair, so he decided to join us for the day!  Here's what we saw/did while we were there!

First stop was the birthing building.  This is always fun as you can see all of the baby animals and even some chickens and ducks being hatched!!

Ready for the day!

Checking out the baby sheep

Baby ducks

Next up was lunch!  We always eat lunch at the Iowa Pork Producers tent.  They have great sandwiches and you get a great lunch for what you pay!

Ben and Kyler eating lunch :)

Next up was the Ag building where we saw all of the different things people had grown, as well as the butter sculptures.  This year there was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gabby Douglas (from the Olympics), and of course the butter cow.

The 2012 Butter Cow

Then we went to check out the animal barns.  The kids loved seeing all the different animals, including the BIG Bull and the BIG Boar.  Kyler said his favorite animal was the horses.  We even got to watch a horse getting its "shoes" cleaned and ready for show!

The BIG Bull

One of the horses

A horse getting a bath...they were huge!

Some of the sheep :)

One of the big boars

We then went to walk through the Varied Industries Building and look at all of the booths and try to have Norah take a little nap. :)  Kyler stayed awake and was able to get a couple of tattoos. :)

Showing off his tattoos

After the Varied Industries Building, we got a phone call saying that Lauren was on her way to the fair to meet up with us for a while!!  We were so excited to see Lauren, we hadn't seen her in a couple of weeks!  After Lauren got there, we went to check out all the pictures and crafts people had made, and then we headed over to the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.  I think this is so cool that the kids are able to see how the farm economy works, as well as participate in something at the fair.  Here are our own "little hans" at the farm. :)

Norah's ready to go!

 Planting their seeds in the ground...

Norah with her carrot she harvested :)

Kyler driving his tractor to market :)

Norah driving her tractor :)

After Little Hands on the Farm, we walked over to the main road to sit down and hang out for a minute.  Ben enjoyed some chocolate-dipped cookie dough on a stick, and Lauren had some homemade ice cream.  We then decided it was about time for dinner.  We had to have dinner at the Cattleman's Beef Quarters-another fair favorite.  (I had to have a hot beef sunday!) :)  After dinner we said good-bye to Lauren, and then headed back to the car to go home.  We forgot to get a picture of all of us at the fair, but we had a great day and can't wait to go back again next year!