Fall Colors

A Camping We Will Go

Attia recently came up with a list of things that she wants to do, and she frequently reminds us of this during dinner.

1. Go Camping
2. Go to the Circus
3. Go to the Beach (so she can wear her sandals in the sand)

 Last weekend we decided to check something off of the list. Camping! As you can imagine, Attia was super excited.

We decided to make the trip part of the adventure, so we loaded up the tandem and the bike trailer and hauled all of our gear out to the "primitive" campsites at Woodridge Park on the southwest side of Clinton Lake. It was a bit of a haul, and Attia thought she saw plenty of good spots to camp along the way - mostly people's yards - and she was sure to point out each and every one. Lucky for me, being on the tandem the work load wasn't exactly split 50/50. Thanks honey! :-)

When we made it to the lake and down the trail to our campsite Attia was ready to get to work. She immediately wanted to start collecting sticks for the fire, set up the tent, and go for a nature walk. (She has gotten lots of ideas from her favorite cartoons.)

Our little activity director, ready to go

Checking out our part of the trail

After resting up a bit we got started on our little activity director's list.

But before we even got the tent set up we had our first wildlife encounter (I mean other than all the cows, horses, and sheep we saw on the ride out). Some rustling in the grass turned out to be a little turtle. We brought him over to the blanket for a minute, but he was pretty quick to make his escape. 

 After we said good-bye to the turtle, we got to work and ended up with a nice little campsite.

And we even managed to get a family picture with the camera dangling from a tree branch.

After dinner we took a little nature walk, and explored the trail from our campsite. On the way out we found fresh deer tracks, which Attia thought was pretty awesome. 

On the way back she was a little more focused on being the leader. :-)

When we got back to our campsite Attia got to stay up past her bedtime to make a special treat. Something else she had learned about from her cartoons - S'mores! She thought they were Delicious!

 In the morning we woke up to find our cooler and the remains of our treats strewn along the trail. I guess we forgot to put our food up high! Whoops! Must have been a tasty treat for a pesky raccoon.

Not long after getting up, Attia insisted on nature walk #2. We just did a short little one since mom and dad were going to have to ride back in just a couple of hours. 

Dad and Atti found some pretty little flowers for a pretty little girl.

When we got back from our walk we cooked up a breakfast of camp doughnuts and eggs. Yum!

After a little cleaning and packing we were loaded up and ready to make the trip back.

I would say our first family camping trip was definitely a success. Attia is already making plans for our next one. :-)

Everybody Poops

Here's a post that I wrote most of back in November...

     It's official - our little girl is a big girl. She has reached the milestone that we have been waiting for... no more diapers! And we couldn't be happier! 

     It actually happened about two months ago now, [which reffered to the beginning of October] and when it finally happened it was fast. We had introduced a baby potty when she was a year and a half, and while it was intriguing at first, she quickly lost interest. So we went about potty training pretty casually. I figured when she was ready we would know. 

     Throughout the next year she occasionally went pee pee on the big potty using a little kid seat, but only when prompted and not with much consistency. We got some big girl underwear and tried wearing those with liners. Pretty cool, but not enough to make any difference. 

     Then suddenly, the last week of September (at 2 1/2), she started making all of her poopies in the potty. By the end of the week we decided to try big girl underwear again and she suddenly started making all of her pee pees in the potty also! Even when we were out and about! (And even at bike races when she had to use a port-a-potty or, um, go outside.) 

     And it was just like that! No more diapers. No more plastic liners. Big girl underwear all the time. And in the two months since then she has only had two accidents during the day and one at night! Go Attia!

And P.S. - In the one and half months since that was written we have had no more accidents! Yay!

Happy New Year

Goodbye 2013...

Hello 2014!

All in all, 2013 ended up being a pretty good year for us. Job changes, bikes races, and a growing little girl. Lots of things I would love to tell you about. 

Maybe this year I'll try to be a little better about blogging. Hey - maybe I'll even fill you in on last year! 

We'll see :-)

Happy New Year!