Thursday, September 9, 2010

Potty, Pies, Monuments and Hot Springs

Good News! I have success to report on the potty training front! My "charge" hasn't had an accident with me at all this week! We started last Monday people, I'm thrilled! My "most favorite" form of motivation?! Dinosaur hat. Yep he saw me knitting one for my cousin's baby Dasch and looked like he might want one too. I said, "I bet if you go potty in the potty, I could work on a hat for you while you practice!" Sold! He seemed to like the idea and requested "Bronco's Colors." (Yes, I categorize that as just as bad as the brainwashed Wiens and Mack kids.) Here he is below helping me out with the hat. He held the yarn while he waited for something to happen!
This is what he NORMALLY looks like when he's not sitting on the potty!
And here is the final product! Modeled while we waited for Luke to meet us for our tour at the Olympic Training Center!

Now, Meet Alex! She's the one holding the baby. Alex is an Au Pair from Germany. She and I take our charges lots of places together since they're cousins, close in age, and love to hang out! Which is fantastic as Alex and I love to hang out as well!
Alex joined me on a long weekend adventure to Luke's parents house (yep Luke had to work on Labor Day Weekend) where we met my cousin Jenny! (Jenny was driving with one of her friends part way to school and Grand Junction was her stop to get off!) Here is Jenny holding a Dew-licious melon as well as a cantaloupe from the farmers market!
We went to Downtown Grand Junction and meandered up and down the street. Pictured above from L-R Alex, Neola, Jay, Jenny with the Bumper Buffalo. Yep, I definitely did some yarn shopping in Grand Junctions Fantastic yarn store "Tangle."
We made peach pie with some Palisade peaches! Yum! My first crust attempt of the day: Disaster. 2nd: Better, I followed the directions. That weekend we also hit up the Colorado National Monument,
Alex learned all about hunting from John, we played Wii hunting,
and all in all we got a LOT of relaxing in!

On our way home, Alex and I stopped at the worlds largest hot springs in Glenwood Springs!
I remembered seeing them on a Train Trip my mom, sister and I took east and have ALWAYS wanted to go back and visit! We did!
On the way back we encountered a "bit" of traffic. Lets just say tack two hours onto the 5 hour trip back.
Lucky for me Alex can drive a manual car! (I guess that's all they have in Germany.) I don't think she minded driving my car too much! Especially since it's German. This road trips official song: California Girls.
And just a Grandma G style teaser, this is something I'm working on right now. Can you guess?


5 comments:

Grandma G said...

First off... congrats on your potty training success!! Little boys aren't so easy sometimes. You certainly have the touch. And now you're all practiced up for when you have your own. ;) Don't wait too long (like 10 years!)... you'll make such a great mom! :)

I remember having a probably similar pie crust disaster one time. But only ONE TIME... after reading the directions, I didn't make THAT mistake again! ;)

Hmmm... I'll have to think about what you're making. Those squares say it must be something at least partially quilted. But other than that, I don't know.

BTW, my orange 'project' is FINALLY finished (after how many weeks? months?). If I could've sewed instead of all those extra hours I've spent on the lawn mower this year..... Anyway, I'll be blogging about it soon.

I'm so curious about your little "charge"! Is this a permanent (job) thing? Do tell us more!

The hat is adorable!

Katie said...

LOVE the dinosaur hat! Very cute.

Lee said...

Looks like you both are having an awesome time in Colorado. I lved there for about six month way back before I had even moved to Fresno and met Jill.

Here’s a fun day trip that I liked in Colorado Springs. Take Hwy 24 east to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (next to Florissant). After seeing the fossilized tree stumps and taking a nice hike (maybe a picnic too?), then head to Cripple Creek. I think I took Road 1 to Cripple Creek (didn’t stop, so don’t know if it is any fun for an old mining town).

From there I managed due what looks like a half circle south through Victor and then found and took a dirt road called Gold Camp Road (I think it was the original road from Colorado Springs to the Cripple Creek mines way back when). Gold Camp road zig-zagged around and ended up going down the hill into Colorado Springs from south of Pikes Peak. I think it was about a 9am to 4pm little day trip. I did this day trip in August way back in 2000 and still remember it being cool. The dirt road took awhile but was cool, I had a little Ford Ranger pickup.

The Bible study group I was in (Fort Collins) also took a trip down to Sante Fe for the first weekend of October and saw the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Albuquerque. If you can stay somewhere cheap or known someone, it is worth the drive too.

-Adam

Jenny said...

I ADORE the dinosaur hat.

Little Spouse in the Old House said...

The potty training- the dino hat- a girl of many talents!