HOORAY FOR BAUER!!!

He did it! He filled his first potty chart. I can't even tell you how excited I am! His first time going potty in the toilet was Wednesday, July 16th. Exactly two weeks later he finished his first chart. We were pretty slow to start but then I decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to go full-force. So I went to Harmons and got Bauer a potty watch. You can see it on his wrist in the picture. It is a timer and you can set it to go off every 30, 60, or 90 minutes. It will sing a little song and lights will flash and that means it's time to try going potty. It was quite the fight the first day or so because he didn't want to stop playing to go to the bathroom but he has done pretty well since then. For his first potty chart prize, he got his Incredible Hulk camera. He is so excited. He has taken a million pictures. Now if I could only get him to look through the lens, move his hand out of the way, and take the picture without moving, we would be good. Ha ha ha. I guess that's what happens when you give a camera to a two-year-old.

24th

We had another full day of fun for the 24th. I had to work but Brian and Bauer got up early and went downtown to watch the parade. After the parade they came and got me and we went to lunch. Then they went home and I went back to work for a few hours. I met them after work at Brian's Aunt Delores's house where they were swimming. Then we went to my parent's house for a BBQ and fireworks. Bauer loved the smoke bombs and the fireworks that made streamers fly out. He wasn't sure about the sparklers though.

RODEO

Last night Grandma and Grandpa Williams took us to the Days of '47 Rodeo. Bauer was so excited. He wouldn't stop talking about it. We went and had dinner at the Rio Grand Cafe and then went over to the rodeo. Suzzi wanted to buy Bauer a couple of souvenirs so they stopped to look before we went in. She ended up getting him a cowboy hat, a little truck, and a glow-in-the-dark necklace (which Bauer calls his "dark light"). The Rodeo was a blast! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking us and thanks Suzzi for the cool toys. And Happy Birthday Heidi!

WISH US LUCK...

The time has come to start potty training. On the 16th Kai (my mom) noticed Bauer stop and concentrate in the middle of playing with toys. She said "Bauer, do you need to go potty?" He of course said no but she took him in and sat him on the toilet. Sure enough - he pooped. YAY! That was his first time going potty in the toilet. We were all so excited. Since then, he has gone a couple more times. After the first two, Brian promised Bauer ice cream if he went again. Sure enough, on Friday he did. So on Saturday we went and got ice cream. Bauer chose cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears in it. The whole time he was eating it he kept telling us "cotton candy with gummy bears." So cute. So today we got a potty chart for Bauer. His first prize for filling up the potty chart is a Hulk digital camera. I know how this sounds for a two-year-old but Bauer has Hulk painted on is playroom wall and has loved Hulk ever since and he also absolutely loves to take pictures. He is always trying to take my camera. He will hold it up to his face and say "cheese." Anyways, it is what he picked and he is very excited. I hope he will be excited enough to potty train fast. So wish us luck because here we go...

WRIGHT FAMILY PARTY

When I was young, my mom's side of the family used to have parties frequently. Between birthday parties for 30 people and holidays, we had parties about every two weeks. As us grandchildren got older and started having our own families, we started having fewer and fewer parties with the extended family. This year Grandma decided to get the whole family together for a party so on the 12th we had a "reunion." We all got together at my Uncle Daryl's house and had a party where we had dinner and just visited. It was so much fun to see all of my cousins again and catch up on what is going on in everyone's life. So what is this picture about? Well, at the end of the party we played a game where everyone that wanted to tied a saltine cracker around their waist and got a piece of newspaper to roll up. The goal of the game was to hit everyone else's cracker with your newspaper and break it off. The last person with a saltine still attached wins. Bauer got to play too. He would hit at crackers and laugh but if someone tried to hit his cracker, he would grab his cracker in his hand and yell at you "don't hit my c'acker!" Needless to say, everyone thought it was cute so they wouldn't hit his cracker and he won the game. The winner got a prize - a box of crackers. He took his crackers around and offered them to everyone and then posed for his pictures. What a cute little stinker!

MORE FUN

We had another fun day yesterday. Bauer and I got up early and went to the Zoo with Kai, Tessa, Rae, Collin, Simon, Nolan, and Bella. We got there just after it opened so we would be there when it was cooler and wouldn't have to rush for Rae to get home in time for work. We took our time walking around and actually spent about 4 hours there. That's the longest any of us has stayed at the zoo but it was perfect because we weren't rushed at all. We saw everything we wanted and we stopped to take snack breaks and just enjoyed ourselves. The kids were all really good too which is quite impressive when you have 5 kids that are 5 and younger.
While we were at the Zoo Amanda called and invited us to go boating. So after we got home from the Zoo, Brian, me, Bauer, Chad, Amanda, Paislee, Will, and Jennica went boating at Utah lake. The lake was really rough so we didn't all wakeboard but Bauer and Paislee rode on Paislee's jeep together. They were so cute. They were loving it. The sad part though is that Paislee was in the jeep alone and somehow the rope wasn't tied to the boat so when we started going, she disconnected from us. Brian jumped in to grab the rope and make sure she didn't get away in the rough water. He tried to throw his hat and sunglasses into the boat as he jumped in but the wind caught them and they fell in the water. I jumped in after them but I wasn't fast enough to save the sunglasses. Dang! So we lost Brian's brand new sunglasses that he had only had for about a month. The whole episode was quite the eye-opener to me too. I always wondered how someone could drown when they were so close to a boat but now I understand. I was only in the water without a life jacket for a minute or two and I didn't even realize that I was tired but luckily Brian was in the water too and asked them to throw us a life jacket while they went to save Paislee. I got to the life jacket feeling like I was going to collapse. My legs were tired and hurting from trying to keep myself up in the water and I couldn't catch my breath. I am not sure if that was from the cold water or the adrenaline or if I was just panicking or what but I couldn't breathe. Honestly, if Brian hadn't been out there with me and if we hadn't gotten life jackets, I would have drowned while they were picking up Paislee. I am so glad Brian had the presence of mind to ask for that life jacket.

FUN FILLED 4TH

Up until the 3rd, we didn't have any plans for the 4th of July. We bought some pop-its for Bauer and that was about the extent of our planning. Well, on the 3rd my mom emailed me and said that Jana Rae was the only one in our family that had plans so if nobody was doing anything, maybe we could do something. My family never plans anything on the 4th because they do their celebration on the 24th so they leave the 4th open for us to go to the other side of the family. But this year nobody's other side of the family had planned anything. Brian got a tee time in the morning so I had him drop Bauer and me off at my mom's house and we went with my mom, Angela, and Collin to the Murray parade. After the parade we came back and got Rae and went swimming. Brian and Matt met us at the pool after they golfed and Brian got in with us but Matt wouldn't because he refuses to use public pools. After waking up early for golf and the parade and then going swimming we were all worn out so we took a nap. When we woke up everyone was hungry so we decided to go to Johnny Carino's for dinner, after which we decided to go see Hancock. When we got out of the movie it was just after 9:00 so we decided to go watch fireworks. We went over to the Riverton fireworks and watched from the golf course across the street. So after having no plans on Thursday night, we ended up going to a parade (or golfing in Brian's case), swimming, going to dinner, watching a movie, and watching a fireworks show. It was quite the busy day and we had lots of fun.