No More Diapers!

Maddie has been interested in the potty for several months now, but I have been lazy and not excited about potty training. I decided to wait until after our family vacation to actually do it. She has been going on the toilet on and off for a while, so I figured she was probably ready, and I was right! Last Monday we put her in panties and we haven't put a diaper on since. We even went and ran errands that first morning and she didn't even have an accident. Needless to say, she did great and is now officially potty trained. No more diapers at our house for the time being and I am totally enjoying it! Great Job little Miss Maddie!

Ayotte Family Vacation

This year we spent our Ayotte Family vacation in sunny Southern California. Everyone came except for Kim and Blair and they were very missed. We spent the first part of our trip in Oceanside. We pretty much spent most of the days at the beach. The kids could have played all day long in the sand and it was very relaxing.



We also had some fun times at the condo playing games or tennis and swimming. Tag and Maddie had so much fun with their cousins, Ada and Boston.

We spent one day at Laguna Beach, which is one of our most favorite beaches. We buried Tag in the sand and gave him a great beach bod! He loved it!

After Laguna, we headed to Anaheim to stay the next few days. We stayed at a great condo that was so close to Disneyland. We had a little balcony and could watch the Disney fireworks every night! It was great! When we weren't at Disneyland we were hanging at the pool. Here we are in the hot tub, I couldn't get my kids out of it!

After all the relaxing on the beach, we headed to Disneyland. Maddie loved all the characters. She would just run up to them and give them the biggest hugs. Tag, on the other hand, wasn't such a fan of them. But he had just as much fun going on most of the bigger rides with us. He went on Matahorn, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. We were so surprised that he was so brave and loved them!


My Mom and Claudia were awesome to take the kids when we went on the bigger rides. Here is Nana with the kiddos while we went on Matahorn. Look at those happy faces!


Here we all are with our glasses on for the Toy Story ride, which is one of our favorites!

Heres another crazy glasses shot, this time from Bug's Life. This really scared Maddie to death!


Maddie is sooo obsessed with Snow White, so she was thrilled to see her. She talked about it for days and kept saying, "No White." We also went to see Tinkerbell or as Maddie calls her "Pinkibell." I think seeing these two made her day! Oh, and let's not forget about Minnie. You can just tell she is beaming in this picture!



Heres a picture of all the girls. This was Jocelyn's first time to Disneyland!



It was one of the most fun vacations we have ever had! We are missing Disney and the Beach so bad already. We are also already missing our family! Thanks so much for such a fun vacation and we really missed you Kim and Blair!

Fishing in Alaska

I spent a week up in Alaska with his Dad, Grandpa, and Brother. We had a blast. Alaska is truly an untouched last frontier. From minute one, we fished our guts out. We started the week off fishing for King Salmon, hoping to land a big 60+lb fish. Grandpa caught the first, 43 inch, 40 lb fish and then it was the waiting game. I caught the next late in the day, small albeit, but caught. Carst caught one the next day and we were sick of trying to catch the Kings. So reds and Halibut was the focus.
We ended up bringing home just over 260 lbs of fresh, Alaska salmon and halibut. Saw a few black bear and went on a amazing float plane excursion. It was a trip of a lifetime and we all had a great time. Grandpa, at 84 kept up well and landed all the BIG ones. Thanks Dad for an awsome time.

My Week as a Single Mom

Cam was gone to Alaska for a week (but got stuck there for a couple extra days) so we went up north and spent some time with our families. For the first part, we went up to Bear Lake to camp with my family. Taggart had so much fun helping Poppy put up the tent and he even slept in it all by himself!


Tag had Maddie has so much fun playing on the air mattress in the tent; just look at those faces!

They also could not get enough of playing the with door on my parents' trailer.

We had so much fun getting shakes at La Buea's and playing at the Beach; the typical Bear Lake stuff.


We also had a lot of fun playing games, relaxing on the hammock, and Maddie discovered her love for puzzles, just like her Nana! Poppy taught Tag how to play WAR and he didn't want to stop.



It was great to be able to relax by the fire and roast marshmallows. Maddie was scared to death of the fire, maybe because Jocelyn fell into it the night before? Luckily she didn't get hurt much, but provided some entertainment for us!


Maddie with her Auntie McKelle. She loves her Auntie when she isn't teasing her! They had so much fun playing. Isn't this such a cute picture?

My Mom and I sitting by the fire. It was the most beautiful night. Bear Lake is such a beautiful place and I have a lot of great memories from there.

I even had a surprise visitor stop by. One of my best friends from High School happened to be traveling through and stopped by our camp. We had never seen each others' kids so it was fun to catch up. We stuffed everyone in the trailer and had fun hanging out.

Then for the later end of the week, we went to Farmington to spend some time with Grammy, Izzy, and Auntie Katrina. We spent a day at Lagoon, which is always a favorite when we go to Grammy's house. It was the hottest day ever, but the kids didn't mind and loved all the rides.




Their Grammy made them these cute cowboy outfits for the 24th of July and they looked so cute! We went over and rode the horse at Marda's house and the kids thought it was the greatest!




We also celebrated Isabelle's birthday while we were up there. Taggart showed off his muscles by breaking the pinata open and Maddie loved all of Izzy's presents. She didn't want to take this bike helmet off!



We were so glad to see Cam when he finally got home, but we did have a fun-filled week. We all came home exhausted, but it was well worth it! Thanks everyone for the fun week! Pictures from Cam's trip will be here soon.