SATURDAY
It was so fun to have Preston home for the first weekend in 3 weeks! We got spoiled with the long weekend too. Saturday we ran some "fun errands" as a family to get some play sand for Brayden's new donated raised sand box. It was on sale at Lowe's for $2.66/ 50lb bag! Awesome. Then we went to Walmart to pick out a training potty for Brayden. He loves lifting the lid and if I catch him working hard (if you know what I mean) then I'll ask if he wants to sit on his potty. He definitely understands because he walks to the bathroom and lifts the lid up and points at it, but he doesn't really want to use it yet. We tried sitting him on the big toilet after he had messed his diaper just while we wiped him, but he shook his head no at the first and didn't want to stay long. We're certainly not in a rush, but we felt strongly that we needed to have it around to at least introduce the idea. I would love to have him potty train early since I'll have another set of diapers to buy and change soon. But, all in good time.
After Brayden's nap we took him and Sadie to the Tom Brown park and thought we'd check out the dog park there. But, first we made a stop at the animal shelter just to let Brayden see the animals. He LOVED the cats! They were mostly uninterested in his little fingers poking in the cages, but he did get a couple cats to come over for rubs and they loved it almost as much as Brayden. He then found a cage with a bunch of mice and possibly other rodents, but I didn't look too well. Also loved it. People around him were laughing and smiling because he just stood there on his tippy toes so his fingers could be in the cage and laughed his cutest laugh every time a little mouse would sniff his finger or brush by them. This kid loves animals! The dog area was so fun at the beginning because Brayden was just going from cage to cage having the time of his life seeing all the different dogs, but then a worker took a dog out and barking exploded in the area, which made Brayden a little nervous. We took a cute little german shepherd puppy outside to a fenced area thinking Brayden would like to be with a little dog out there, but other than trying to pick the pup up to carry him to the water bowl, he wasn't very interested. I guess he gets his fix of dogs from Sadie. We might have to go back this week because we were told that there are 8 week old border collie puppies that are going to be available to see. I want to see them :D hehe. Anyway, I'm so long winded. . . sorry. We did make it to the dog park where Sadie got mauled by 6 bigger dogs who wanted to sniff her and check her out, she wet herself all over me when I picked her up and then right as she was starting to enjoy herself it started pouring. As in, we were soaked by the time we got to the car. Welcome to Florida. We'll be going back to the dog park to really try it out! Oh, and I can't forget that we stopped at Joann's to see their flannel sale for the weekend and picked up some fabric for burp cloths. So many friends are having babies! I have 6 people I'm going to make them for! Fun fun.
SUNDAY
It was a fairly usual Sunday. The nursery leaders reported that Brayden has gotten attached to a sister in our ward who runs a nursery every Tuesday night while I'm at Young Women's. She happened to be helping in nursery at church and evidently Sister Mauer couldn't hold any other child or Brayden would have a meltdown. Oh, my sweet little man. Hehe. We also got invited over to dinner that night and had the most amazing pancakes ever! I'm going to try the recipe soon. Thanks Tena!
MONDAY
We had plans to go to Wakulla Springs to swim with a few other people from the ward. Unfortunately everyone had retreated from the heat in to the gift shop by the time we got there except for one couple and the Holdaways who got there about the time we did. So, we didn't actually get to see any of them other than to say goodbye, but we had fun with the Hargrett's and Holdaways! Brayden dragged Kendal and Chris into the water with him while we changed into our suits and was fearless of the cold water! It was really surprisingly chili! But, he had a great time! I have a few pictures, but I still need to get used to my zoom lens for my nice camera because it won't take the pictures sometimes when I would try to. I don't know if that's because people were getting closer or what. I need to play around with it more. But, I got a couple decent ones :D
We had a great time! I wish we could have more days with Daddy around, but life is what it is. He's working hard and we're proud of him. I'm truly blessed with the most wonderful family!
Oh, and I must mention the best part of the Memorial Day was singing all the patriotic songs we could find on the iPod together on our way to the Springs. Good memories. We love America!
