A trip to the barn

My mom has her own horse, Maya, which she boards with another horse, Sailor, and 2 burrows named Chachi and Sarah. She helps take care of them all, as the owner of the barn, Dave is in his upper 70's (I think!). She lives about a mile away so she and the kids make the trip over to feed and visit often.

This weekend we tagged along and I was so proud to see how well Chase handles the animals, feeds them and knows his way around the barn. Once my mom opened the big red doors, he marched right in saying hi to all of the animals, acting like he owned the place. Apparently this has been a progression over the last few months, with him getting more confident and comfortable around the animals...no suprise there, they are HUGE!

Both kids bee-lined for the treat bucket to get the animals a snack but Mom had Chase help feed the horses first. He went right to it, like he does this every day (Ok, so he does do this every few weekends!)

A Little help from Grandma to get the feed in Maya's bucketSay hi to Chachi and Sarah...they liked the camera :o)


Addy liked petting Sarah, the smaller of the two burrows...they have alot in common, you know...being little and all

Here's my big boy helping Mom brush Sailor and Maya (they have their "sunglasses" on to help keep the bugs out of their eyes and ears) Sailor is the one closest, Maya is the smaller one behind my Mom)

I have to add the next 2 pictures, Addy was so cute...she was trying to feed a snack to one of the animals...look at her squatting offering out the treat:

And then see how far away she was...it was hilarious. So sweet!

A trip to the firehouse and police station

My Dad is a Lo. Co. Firefighter, so I always thought I was "too cool" to go to the open houses they hold at the firehouse. :o) (on a side-note, in elementary school I'd always be pissed off on the day they'd bring the firetruck over to the school, b/c my Dad could never be there...they sent the volunteer staff over...that was a bummer) Bruce's dad, Mike, is a retired DC Detective, and now he works over in South Riding at the Safety Center. They were having an open house on Saturday AM, and Mike thought the kids would enjoy it, so we decided to take a ride over.

We couldn't get over the turnout they had! I guess kids DO love firetrucks and all that jazz! They had a moon-bounce, Kid ID Station, you could go through the trucks, ambulances and police station. It was a fun little trip for the kids!

We got to meet a K-9 named Mr. B...he sniffs out bombs and had the softest ears. Here are the kids checking him out

and then Chase finally got the nerve up to pet himAddy loves trying on hats! She'll try them on but never wants to keep them on...it was pretty windy so she couldn't keep her hat on straight.
Chase getting to snoop around...he is so nosey!

And last but not least...Miss Addy putting out the vibe.

Chase and his "baby"

Saturday morning Chase came downstairs carrying his "mingy" (blankie) as usual. The slight difference is that he had it balled up and brought it to breakfast with him. If someone was talking he'd shush us and say that the baby was sleeping.

This continued after breakfast when he went to lay down with "baby"...we have no idea where the wanting to have a baby thing came from, but it was so cute we just kind of rolled with it.

When Addy woke up I took Chase up and let him pick out a doll to swaddle in his blanket so he'd really have a baby to look after...he decided he had twins...a baseball teddy bear and (my sister is going to die...) my old Cabbage Patch doll that I was given when Carol was born (I was devastated and wanted a brother!)

Here are a few pictures of him laying down in his choo choo bed with his sleeping babies...he'd squeeze his eyes shut to pretend he was sleeping...he was so proud I couldn't get him to "sleep" for this picture

Needless to say, Chase decided after our photo shoot that having 2 little ones to watch after is ALOT...Chase has donated the teddy bear to Addy to look after and Chase is big brother to "baby" the cabbage patch doll. It's hilarious...he went everywhere with us this weekend...he gets plenty of hugs and kisses from everyone in the house, and Chase tried to let him take a bath last night...I had to be a party pooper and veto that one!

Why do we have a double stroller??? (Photo essay ahead!)

With this amazing weather, we've been trying to get out of the house as much as possible. Our old standby of hanging out at the pool all day long hasn't worked out the last 2 weekends since it's been a TAD too cool or breezy for our taste, poolside.

On Sunday we took a trip to Great Falls park...Bruce and I have talked about going there ever since we started dating...you know, 5 years ago, and we'd never made it there. When you don't have kids things like hangovers, TV and naps get in the way of the beautiful days on the weekends. What? That didn't happen to you? Crazy.

It was gorgeous out, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the park. We had to wait about 20 minutes in the line of cars paying to get in...seems like we weren't the only ones with that idea!

Chase wasn't cooperating with taking pictures, and poor Addy was strapped into the stroller most of the time, so she wouldn't fall down on the uneven trails, or you know, decide she was a rock climber. We had a great time and it was so pretty there. We checked out the map and there is a 2.5 mile trail walk that you can do to see all of the falls, we're planning on going back one Saturday AM without the kids to make the hike.

So...here's the picture that goes along with the title of this post. Chase very rarely cooperates anymore with being strapped in. It always is a struggle with him screaming and crying that he wants to walk...this time, we let him win. (don't judge me by my outfit...we were kind of flying by the seat of our pants that day...thanks)
Silly Addy...happy with her bag of goldfish...don't think about taking them away from her though!
Chase and I climbing down from some rocks...not wanting to have his picture taken...he liked climbing around though!
Finally...we got him to half-cooperate!

He points at everything
A pretty picture that Bruce took of the Falls

Potty Training Update

OK, so potty training is definitely a work in progress as expected!

Chase does great throughout the day and his attention span seems to fizzle towards dinner time and when we get home from work. I think it's too much of a distraction and he seems to have his accidents around that time.

The funniest thing??? He has all of these character undies, you know, Thomas the Train, etc...and they have the main picture across the butt...Chase INSISTS on wearing his underwear backwards so he can see the picture. So, he looks like he's wearing booty shorts or something...pretty cute with his little crinkle butt hanging out!

Also? Thank goodness we are potty training during the summer...because he walks around the house only in his underwear all day long ;o)

Please note the VELCRO light-up Thomas the Train shoes he is rocking...he won't give them up!

Look what time it is....

(Choo Choo Big Boy Pants)

Frannie, my mother in law, sent me this picture from her camera phone yesterday...looks like Chase decided yesterday was the day to jump into POTTY TRAINING!

He woke up extremely late...10am! He ususally wakes up at 7am on the dot and is my human alarm clock...not yesterday. When he finally got up, Frannie asked him if he needed to go potty, he said yes, he wanted to go on the potty, and marched right into the bathroom. He did ALL of his business (TMI, I know) and continued to do ALL of his business (my boy is VERY regular) :o) on the potty all day long, with the exception of 2 "tinkle" accidents.

I'm so proud, he's such a stinker!

We'll see how the weekend goes, he headed up to my parents for today and a sleep over, so he'll probably come home peeing on trees tomorrow, if my Dad has anything to do with it. :o)

a few beach pics

Ok, I just pulled 240 pictures off the camera from vacation...holy cow! If the kids would stay still for the 2 seconds that it takes to snap a picture, I'm sure my numbers would have been down a bit.

Gotta get back to work, but here's a few of my favorites

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This one Bruce took of us out on the beach for the first time...it took a while for the kids to get into it, but once they got the hang of the sand, Bruce and I were the happiest parents alive. Last year Chase hated the sand.

Chase being silly at the pool

Addy was such a little beach bum...look at her carrying around the football, one handed...it is literally half as big as she is!

Chase and Bruce on my Great Aunt and Uncle's Boat on a day trip up to Wilmington, NC. You will not see any happy Addy pictures on the boat, she hated the life jacket and was a hysterical MESS the whole time on the boat :o(My silly little girl...she put the goggles on herself.

I'm baaack!

We had a great time at the beach, but I think everyone is happy to be back home and getting into the swing of things again. 2 weeks is a LONG time to be away!

Tons of pictures to pull off my camera once I get to the bottom of the pile(s) at work!