Potty Central

A potty training update for those interested....those not interested...oh well, I'm sharing anyways.

Eli has been at it for almost 3 weeks now, and is virtually accident free. If I'm being completely honest, I would tell you about the few several many accidents he had at the beach, but doesn't everyone pee in the ocean or on the beach? OK, so maybe you don't poop your pants and then pee them 5 minutes after Mommy just cleaned up the poop....but we're just going to chalk that up to too much going on too soon. If the boy is close to home or at home, he is pretty close to perfect. Since getting back from the beach on Sunday, he's only had one accident (and it was at his friend's house...sorry LA!). He quickly settled back into his routine and got right back on track using the potty.

We are very proud of you, Eli. And we just love your big boy underwear!

This is officially my last post this month which means it is time for July's picture link. Enjoy...there are a lot!
(and i actually just added a few more from my sissy, Theresa's camera. they were too good to not share!)

Back to Wrap-Up

Alrighty...I'm back. Don't know how far I'll get since I have spent 2 hours of Eli's nap time tutoring students. He'll likely be up any minute.

Picking up where I left off: Thursday, my sister, Lindsey and her man, Matt B., were able to join us from Atlanta. Even Daddy surprised us by arriving early afternoon...he was able to sneak away from work. (My hubby has been working incredibly hard and long hours this last month on a very important case. I'm so proud of him, but at the same time, I can't wait to have him back when this case is finished.) It was another beautiful day at the beach.

Eli got all geared up and decided that he needed his old pair of sunglasses (that I'd brought for Asher...) back to act as goggles in the water. Funny kid! It was also a perfect day for sleeping on the beach.

I love his froggy legs & the surfer dude look.

That evening, we had the wonderfully talented, Michael Johnston come down and take some pictures of our family as we aren't often all in the same place at the same time these days. It was a perfect July evening to have photos taken. I cannot WAIT to see how the pictures came out. We have never had professional pictures taken of Eli, (...why would we? I have a camera glued to my face, right? I take OK pics, but I'm definitely NOT a professional!...) so I'm super excited to see the ones of him and our family. And I honestly have to admit that it was a bittersweet event as they were our first family pictures that Kelly isn't in. I know she was there with us in spirit, but still...

Ok...on to more of our week and happier thoughts...

What an adorable grin!

Friday, the boys got some time to swim before Daddy had to head back to Tallahassee the next morning for more work.

We are happy that Daddy was willing to drive back and forth all weekend long. He made the 1 1/2+ hour drive several times throughout the week/weekend so he could spend as much time with us as he could despite his case heating up.

Friday was also the day that the Uncle Ricky's parents drove up from Oldsmar, and his sister and hubby came over from Pensacola.

With family living on opposite sides of the country, you are all willing to drive to a central location to spend time with loved ones. It was a lot of fun having everyone at the beach for the weekend. Everyone wants some of that awesome Asher love.

It was a perfect weekend with only one spell of bad weather in the entire week hitting Saturday morning...but the rain cleared up in time for another delightful afternoon on the beach. Typical scenes from the weekend would include:

tanning, reading, cornhole-ing...

...the men-folk in the water identifying (rather than solving) all the world's problems...

...and those finding a haven in the shade.

All the while, Eli is making trips back and forth from his hole to the ocean with his watering can.

The Lotspeiches brought along their sea kayaks. The water was definitely calm enough Saturday afternoon and evening to take them out. Those interested got a chance to paddle around and even fish (with no luck. boo!) Eli, of course, was enthralled by the kayaks. He waited and waited for his turn. As soon as one group got back in, Eli grabbed his inner tube and climbed on in. He was a natural...figured out exactly what to do with the paddle after watching the first two while they were out.

Can't you see the way he handled the paddle with authority and confidence? Later, Mr. Lotspeich, or "Mr. Rick" (or even just plain Rick) as Eli called him, took Eli out for an official ride. Thank you very much, Mr. Rick. Eli fell in love with the kayaks!

For our final evening, we decided to try a shrimp boil, and it was quite the spread. Deeee-licous!

Sunday was our final day in paradise. We planned to stay all day and soak all the sun and fun that we could before going our separate ways and heading back to reality.* On our drive back to town, we managed to twist my dad's arm into stopping for dinner at Angelo's...a favorite for sure. We all gorged on freshly caught seafood and some of the best hush puppies I've ever had! Mmmm!

Monday was supposed to be departure day for our Denver family, but after several LONG delays at a teeny tiny Tallahassee airport with nothing to do and fear of getting stuck in Dallas with a 2 month old baby, Theresa, Ricky, and Asher decided to stay the night and try again in the morning. Susanna decided to try, and got a solo seat on a jam-packed flight from Dallas to Denver with a stand-by list 15+ people long. Despite the horrible situation, at least we got another night with them. In the morning, we walked to the neighborhood coffee shop,

got some more Asher love,

and then made our way back to the airport...one more time. This time, it was only an hour delay, and they made it safely home.

It was truly spectacular to have this time at the beach as a family despite all of our busy schedules and living across the country from one another. We are blessed to all love each other, and we honestly adore spending time together. (No, we are not perfect, and yes we have plenty of drama too...after all, we are a family of all girls.)

We also couldn't help but terribly miss our sweet sister, Kelly, all week long. We took a moment Saturday evening to spread some of her ashes at one of her favorite places in all the world. It is always so hard to admit that she is really gone and that she is never coming back, and spreading her ashes is such a tangible reminder of the truth. We know that she is forever with us, but just not in the way we wish she was.

It will be a while before we are all together again. Looking forward to it already!

*sorry for no group Snyder family picture...we only took one...& it was incomplete...& sadly, i'm too vain to post it, i looked horrible! here's hoping MJ got some good shots to commemorate the entire group being present.

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

The title would accurately describe the first half of our week at the beach. Due to the massive quantity of pictures as well as stories to share, I'm going to break the week-long recap into two posts.

After a crazy busy Monday, Eli and I picked up Aunt Kristi and headed down to St. George. We left a little later than expected, but had we left earlier, we wouldn't have been treated to this amazing sunset as we drove across the bridge.

It was so great to see my sisters Susanna and Theresa along with T's hubby Ricky and of course... baby Asher. They got in from Denver that afternoon and my parents picked them up from the airport and kept on going straight to the beach. L.A. and her two sweet girls, Mabry and Briley, had also come down that evening to spend a few days with our family. Mabry & Eli are buds, so Eli was thrilled to have a playmate for a few days.

Now, these two friends know how to push each others' buttons. I won't lie...L.A. and I spent quite a bit of our time refereeing the two toddlers. Fortunately, they got along more often than not.

Toddlers, Play-Doh, and the beach....a TRIFECTA!

Off on adventure up and over the dunes.

So proud of themselves for evading our eyes for a bit and then making it back. Just don't rat us out for "letting" them climb on the dunes...a big no-no due to beach erosion!

Not like you can tell from the pictures thus far, but there were other people there besides these two....see?

Isn't he just precious???
Eli adores Asher...and we're still perfecting the being gentle all the time part.

We really did have a lot of rugrats with Eli, Asher, Mabry, and Briley. Too cute!

Mabes lovin' on Asher.

Eli's turn to love on the babies.

L.A. seeing what it would be like with twins.

Don't you just want to eat him up?

Day 2 on the beach had the kids spending a lot of time in the water in their respective inner tubes. Eli fell in love with swimming in an inner tube. The water was very calm all week long which was perfect for the kiddos to swim in.

Snacks on the beach are the best! Some how they just taste so much better and are incredibly satisfying.

Check out this beach baby ready for action:

After two incredibly fun filled days, the Hanlon girls headed back to T-Town. We are so glad they got to come visit with us. Eli loved having Mabry around to fight with play with.

Mabry left with what looked like a black eye, but thank goodness it was just marker...and washable marker at that.

When Eli woke up from his nap, he was sad that Mabry had left...so we introduced him to a new game. UNO! He loved it! It is the perfect game for one mastering his colors and numbers. Identifying numbers is one of Eli's newest skills this month, and what a great game to reinforce it. Since he can't hold his cards yet, we play "face up."

He honestly wins more than loses...now, we do help him with the rules such as to what to do when he doesn't have a card that works. My favorite is when he tries to put down a card he knows doesn't match or more than one at a time, "I cheating," he says with a huge smile...knowing full well he's doing something wrong.

Chilling out with Uncle Ricky while waiting for dinner after another fun afternoon on the beach.

Check out his "shiner." He busted in the outside shower while rinsing off all the sand and salt.

This was the night for "Daddy's Famous Chicky Bone." We named it when we were little, if you couldn't guess. We are all suckers for Daddy's grilling, and his chicken is tops. Of course it is best paired with "Namom's Potato Salad." My grandmother's potato salad is truly potato salad perfection....I've never had a better one. The recipe was passed on to my mommy who has passed it down to us....only I finally wrote it down. I'm a girl who loves to follow a recipe!

The grilling team

Unwinding after dinner and a fantastic day. We had record low temperatures during the early part of the week, and in July, that means glorious weather. Did you see Eli's big boy underwear peeking out of his shorts above? And we were glad that our cousin, Jessica, stopped by a couple evenings for some Asher and Snyder family love! She even brought a right-tasty pear cobbler. Mmmmmm!

To top it off, we had yet another beautiful sunset. We were honestly blessed by one of these each and every night.

God is good...
...all the time!

Check back tomorrow (hopefully) for the second half of our week.

What a Weekend

I had many intentions of blogging late last week, but that, clearly, didn't happen. Oh well.

For those eager to know how Eli's been doing potty training: I'd say he's doing great!

Can you tell he's proud of his first completed chart?

After that first day, he's only had 3 accidents since. He is pretty much day trained at this point...he even did fine on his road trip this weekend (more on this later...) We have been braving public a lot with underwear, and only 1 of the accidents was while we were out and about. You better believe that we are thrilled and extremely proud of the little dude. (And I have to say that toddlers in boxer briefs is my new favorite thing! TOO CUTE!....no picture of it just yet...you'll have to stay tuned!)

Ever since Eli and I got back from our trip to Denver, we have been trying to come up with a fun weekend/day trip for the WHOLE family. I had been told about a park in Albany, Georgia called Chehaw that was a MUST if you have a child who loves trains. Eli loves a lot of things, and trains are indeed right on up there. The park includes a zoo, a playground, lots of trails, and a train ride around the park. It sure sounded like fun and we had an open day, so off we went to Albany. Of course, with a potty training toddler in the back, the 1 and a half hour car ride quickly turned into 2 hours with several stops for, "I have to go!" breaks. We tried the whole-- You're a boy. You can pee on the side of the road--thing with not a lot of success. Eli seems to get a little stage fright and was unsure how to pee standing up. After a couple of unsuccessful stops on the way there and back, he finally got the hang of it on the drive home. The backroads between here and there are not very populated and there are few places to stop. We learned our lesson....travel with potty!

So, we pull into the park and we are just too excited about the day ahead when we see the little sign posted in the window of the booth where you pay your entrance fee: TRAIN DOWN FOR REPAIRS. Are you kidding me? We drove all this way because of the train and you don't have a train!?! We tried desperately to hide our disappointment and to stay excited for Eli. Afterall, we had driven all this way, Eli was excited for the animals too, and we might as well check it all out.

We checked out the stinky farm animals first

Looks like Eli has the same "span" as a Peregrine Falcon!
See, he was still having fun. Mommy and Daddy just needed to get over the NO train factor.

After walking through the reptile house and seeing the farm animals, I was not feeling much better. We see this stuff at the Jr. Museum in Tallahassee...why did we drive all this way for NO TRAIN? Can you tell I was bitter? And then we walked out to see NO red wolf (we have those at the Jr. Museum, so nothing lost...) and on to the Alligator Outpost. We soon see a decent size alligator sunning itself as we walk out. Pretty cool. Then we spot a HUGE gator to our left, and as Eli and Daddy are walking out farther to find the other couple dozen gators, I pause to capture a few of these guys with my camera.

All of a sudden, SNAP! The big gator (we later learned is named, "Charlie") snapped his jaws shut and slapped his head against the water, making me jump. Nearly simultaneously the alligator hanging out directly below us underneath the boardwalk 1-2 feet over the water starts growling loudly enough to vibrate the boardwalk. We honestly thought there was a motorboat approaching it was so loud and low. "Charlie," the big one, starts growling back. OK, I pretty much wanted to pee my pants at this point. My toes are literally curled up on top of my shoes and I won't take another step further; in fact, I'm walking backwards away from the swamp. Amidst my whimpers, I beg Matt to bring Eli back and tell him we shouldn't be out here. And all of the other alligators are swimming (one even jumped) around while these two growled it out. I was freaking! And just as quickly as it began, all was calm again. My anxious heart and mind decided it was safe and that we should go out and see more.

And I'm so glad we did! As Matt said best, It made the entire trip worth it. There were about 26 alligators that we saw swimming around. Oh yeah, Eli loved it too. We could have stayed out there longer, but decided to head on in to see the rest of the zoo...though already quite satisfied with the trip.

It really was a great zoo. We saw all kinds of animals:

rhinos, zebras, ostriches, monkeys, cheetahs, tortoises, bears, and more.

Overall it was a small zoo, but very fun animals to see.

By this time, we were getting hungry, and we didn't plan ahead very well with a packed lunch. We honestly didn't know what the set up would be and if food was allowed (it was...). Oh well. Eli was losing interest and tiring out about the same time our hunger hit, so we hit the road. Glad we went, but we will definitely find out if the train is running the next time BEFORE we make the drive.

Sunday was also full of fun. Eli had been bugging asking Daddy about planting a garden the past week. Daddy told Eli that he would have to ask Mommy if it was ok. "Is it ok if we plant a garden, Mommy?" How can you say no to that perfect little question and his adorable little face? Of course! Off they went to pick out some summer fruits and veggies that will hopefully not shrivel up in Florida's late summer heat. Even if they do....they had fun getting dirty, digging, and planting together!

the proud gardners

And here is what they planted:

tomatoes, cucumbers, and 2 kinds of watermelon

Eli thinks we'll have things to eat today...time for a lesson on patience and growth. We also made attempts to keep the bunnies and deer out by putting a wire fence around it...we haven't had luck growing things in our yard before...flowers, veggies, herbs, even trees because all of our friendly neighborhood critters like to come and nibble them. That's ok...the boys had a really fun time making it, and I've always wanted a vegetable garden. Now I've got one!

As I'm typing, my family that lives in Denver is landing at the Tallahassee airport. My dad is picking them up and heading straight to St. George Island for the week. Eli and I are almost all packed and will pick up Aunt Kristi after she gets off of work and head down. The rest of the family, including Matt, will join us later in the week after putting some hours in at their jobs. (Love being a teacher in the summer!!!) We will all be together! Very exciting and rare these days. It is baby Asher's first trip to the beach (and his first trip on an airplane!) I'll not be blogging while we're gone...but I'm sure to have lots of pictures after a week filled with family and fun in the sun at heavenly St. George. Until then....
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