Minus the toilet seat

So today we are starting to work on Joseph going poops without his toilet seat. He came to let me know he needed to go poop, so I took him to the bathroom. I have been warning him the past couple of days of our plans for today. He got very upset and started to cry. He earned a nap for that action. I then told him that he had 2 options: I would help him get on the toilet without his seat or he could get the seat himself and climb on if he wanted to use it. I left him in the bathroom thinking about it. I just went back to the bathroom and asked what he had decided.

Mommy: "Joseph what did you decide to do?"
Joseph: "Option 3."
Mommy: "There is no option 3."
Joseph: "Yes there is. You put me on the toilet with my seat."

I can tell this is going to be exciting. :P

New words...

"bread", "apple juice", "peaz (please)"

Joe's latest project

Looking for gnomes in all the wrong places...

My parents went with my brothers to Washington before he leaves for Iraq. They left on Thursday evening. I decided to take the girls to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. We decided to look for the 13 gnomes that are hidden throughout the museum. We only found 8 of the 13, but that is an improvement over the previous time.


They have changed the activity center. The kids loved it. We spent a good amount of time in there.

They almost didn't charge me for the girls. I have to bring up the fact that they are not on our family pass. It would have saved me $8, but I wanted to be honest. There have been a few other times that they didn't charge me for the kids and I have had to let them know.

The kids on our favorite picture taking spot...the protoceratops.

One of the gnomes hidden on the giant sea turtle. I guess they move the figurines on occasion. The paintings will always be there and I think that we found all of them.

Samuel likes the large dinosaur puzzle slots. He gets angry if you try to pull him away, especially when you try to take one from his hand.

Company party

This year Joe's company had their company party at the Hogle Zoo instead of Lagoon. It was closer and a lot of fun. Joe won a prize.


Do not feed the animals. Joseph and his hippo smile.


Joseph at the giraffe area. It was warm outside, so it was nice to get in a shaded area.


Samuel in his stroller. He seemed to have a good time, but he wanted out to walk.


Us on the carousel. Spinning makes Joe sick, so I went on with the boys. Neither of them wanted to get on an actual animal that went up and down.


We got to see lots of animals and the boys enjoyed themselves, Joseph probably more so than Samuel.

I am glad that Joe's company opted out of having it at Lagoon. We got to ride the train, eat some fajitas.

New words

"how are you?" (sounds more like howru)
"bite"

Pics

We had a big box for packing and the boys loved playing inside of it. I can't remember how long they were inside, but they played and played.

The cousins sharing some blueberries. Joseph's cheeks are stuffed to the brim with blueberries. At least he shared. :)

Nathan decided that Samuel needed some helping stuffing berries in his mouth, so he was happy to oblige.

All the Rankin male grandkids together for a family photo. We couldn't let them do it on their own, so here are the tired mommies doing some crowd control.

Our cute little nephew Christopher. It was great to meet him before he leaves for London.