Family Vacay 2015 - part 1

We took our annual Duesterhaus family vacation the first week of August. It was a crazy time with all the kiddos running around, but lots of fun!

We rented a house just outside of New Buffalo, MI. It was in Indiana, so we were on CST, but everything (including our rental agent) was on EST. Our phones would change from CST to EST depending on which section of the house you were in. So confusing!

I'm trying to get caught up on the blog, so here's the first batch of vacation pictures.

Matt picked up a few libations for the week

When you are so tired, you'll fall asleep anywhere

Playing out by the pool

Silly smiles

All the kids swimming in the baby pool

Matt the pool man

After pool snack time

Crazy looking clouds before the big storm

Trip to the Hesston Train Museum

Morgan rode on one train and this was how she looked the whole time

Avery just kept her hands over her ears the whole time

Potty training is exhausting

I've been putting off potty training the girls. But, I decided we just had to bite the bullet and do it. This past weekend, I took Friday off work and started on our 3-day potty training journey. Of course, it wouldn't be Avery and Morgan if they didn't respond in opposite ways to this big change.

I was armed with all the essentials... stickers, a chart with stars, jelly bean rewards, potties, tons of Dora underwear, paper towels! There were some accidents and lots of successes.

Morgan picked it up quickly and did surprisingly well. She loved getting the rewards and praise from us for making it to the bathroom.

Avery took the other route and just decided never go to the bathroom again. That girl has some major control! She hates making messes or being messy, so maybe she associates the potty with that.

Teaching their baby dolls to go on the potty

I was worried when I dropped them off at school on Monday, but they did better than I expected. I had put like 8 changes of clothes and underwear in their school bag and they both came home in the same clothes they went to school in! The teachers were impressed that the girls did so well, too! Avery still spent most of Monday not going to the bathroom. I think she made it until almost 3PM. But, yesterday, she made major progress and started actually going at regular intervals. When I picked the kids up, she ran up to me and screamed "I pee-peed on the potty 3 times today!" She was SO excited and SO proud of herself. It was adorable!

We also converted their beds to toddler beds so that if they need to get up to go to the bathroom at night, they could do it. Avery was super excited and said "I can put my own toes in and out of bed". Um, yeah, and the rest of you can go in there, too. The first night with the new beds, they didn't go to sleep until after 11PM. It was awful! They were jumping and running around and SO excited! They are getting more used to them now and hopefully will be back to their regular routine soon!

Elsa

We did lots of activities in the house while we were potty training last weekend. One was finger painting. Avery picked out a few colors that once she mixed them together, she realized looked like the color of Elsa's gloves in Frozen. Well, then she had to make her own "gloves" or "glubs" as she likes to say. Ha!

Random stuff

Every other week, the cleaning ladies come to our house. The girls are at school, so they don't actually see them cleaning. I'm not sure what they think happens while they are gone, but our conversations on the way to school on cleaning day are always a hoot! On Monday, both girls were very worried that the cleaning ladies would take their baby dolls out of the strollers. Avery wanted me to tell them to "leave the binky in her baby's mouth". Morgan was really worried about them trying on her shoes - "mommy, cleaning ladies wear my flip flops?" Um, no. I told her the cleaning ladies feet were too big for her flip flops. :) Sometimes when we get home and something is moved around, Avery will tell me "cleaning ladies do that". They get blamed for stuff a lot! Ha!

First day back to school after vacation - wearing their Stray Dog t-shirts

This girl is 2 going on 20 some days

The girls are very creative with how they play these days. For a few days in a row, they kept talking about "smoky" like it was some place they were going. But, they also knew that "smoky" was hard to see in. They would walk around saying "smoky-smoky-smoky". I have no idea where they came up with this... maybe they had some fire safety training at school or something. They were talking about the "beep beeps" aka the smoke alarms the other day as well. This is a video of when the girls were "driving" to "smoky" and they had to watch out for big black rocks. Morgan was driving and Avery was riding in the back. Avery told Morgan to "turn the wheel" when she saw the big black rocks.

Happy Birthday!!!

We celebrated Matt's birthday with a little "birthday party" at home. I picked the girls up early from school and we decorated the kitchen with some balloons and made some cookies. I told the girls to say "surprise" when we went to pick up Matt from the train. I usually just get him from the train and we go pick up the girls from school together, so they aren't normally in the car... hence, the "surprise" part.

So, when Matt got to the car, Morgan yelled "a-prise Daddy" and quickly followed it up with "can I have one of your cookies, Daddy?" And then Avery chimes in "surprise, Daddy" and "can I have one of your balloons, Daddy?" Um, there goes the surprise! Matt looked at me and said, "I guess there are cookies and balloons at home?" Ha!

Those two little stinkers crack me up!

Weekend with Daddy

While I was away in California, the girls had tons of fun with Daddy back at home!

He put them to work at Ms Shannon's house! I asked Avery if she had fun and she said she got sweaty and she hates being sweaty. Ha! That girl doesn't like to be messy and apparently doesn't like to get sweaty either. They also played dress-up and ran through the sprinkler in the backyard.

Here are a couple of videos Matt sent me while I was away. The first is Avery helping Morgan with a puzzle. Avery is playing the role of me in this video... it's funny. I will hand her pieces and say "where does this go?" Avery even makes Morgan say "please" to get the pieces. Ha! The second video is of Avery putting "make-up" on Morgan with (of all things) a band-aid. I guess she thought it looked similar to my make-up sponge. Then, when Avery is all done, Morgan says "pretty!" Oh, these girls!

Star Wars geeks get married!

My cousin Renee and her now husband Tony had quite the wedding in California a few weeks back. They are big Star Wars and Dr. Who fans, so that was highly incorporated into their wedding. From the music (mostly Disney tunes and Star Wars) to the readings (Calvin and Hobbes define love) to the reception and the sparkler/light saber send off, it was a fun night and a perfect expression of the two of them.

Erin and I flew out to LA and met up with my parents (who did a cross-country driving tour) for the weekend. The kiddos stayed home with the guys. We made it to the hotel Friday afternoon after a particularly scary shuttle ride. I'm not even kidding when I say the driver broke laws left and right and purposely scared the crap out of us riding in the van. At one point, he veered towards a tire in the road and narrowly missed it at the very last second. Then, he turned to me with a smile and said "I have to entertain myself somehow". Lucky me, I was riding in the front seat of the van.

We had a great time catching up with family members we don't get to see often and hearing stories about the ones that couldn't make it. My Dad's side of the family is pretty large and spread all over the US.

Renee's bouquet - made from family brooches

Family selfie - ha!

My Dad's Star Wars Vans

Photo booth fun

Erin dancing with our cousin's son Ticer

The bride and groom with the Duesterhaus'

Cutting the cake