Happy Fourth of July!

Can I just say - what a beautiful weekend!? I don't think we could have asked for better weather. My sister & family, parents, and friend Karen & family all came up for a long weekend at Twin Lakes Campground. Who could ask for a better situation to have that many people we love in one place at one time.

I intended to take Jackson to see them Friday afternoon. Much to my dismay, when I picked him up on Friday (at 12:15), he had not had a nap at daycare (AT ALL!). How in the world he stays up for so long at daycare and they don't feel the need to put him down for a nap regardless of whether or not he is acting tired is beyond me (but that's a different story for another post). Back to the weekend...

Jackson didn't make it to the campground on Friday. But, my sister and niece were able to come by on Friday before going to see my grandfather (Poppy) with my parents. Jackson and Grace are quite taken with each other now - very cute. Leslie brought some more clothes and toys (YEAH!). Friday evening, courtesy of my parents, Justin and I went down to the campground for a couple of hours to hang out. It was nice to see everyone. All the kids were precious! The company was wonderful.

Saturday, we (my parents, Justin, Jackson and I) ventured out after Jackson got up from his morning nap. Jackson enjoyed his first boat trip on the lake. He was very unhappy with the life jacket, but immediately fell asleep with me. My mom took over and eventually had both him and Grace sleeping with her. We appreciated the time in the lake while he slept! We woke him up about an hour and a half later to let him swim with us in the lake. He seemed to really enjoy it and didn't protest the life jacket on the ride back to the campground.

We have been sticklers about Jackson's schedule. He didn't seem to do too bad with the long day on Saturday. We didn't get back to the house until 9 and he went down for bed. He did not sleep any later in the morning, so it definitely can't be a regular occurence. But, he did fine. The next morning we decided to go back out there (Justin, Jackson, and I). We got up and got ready and headed out in time for Jackson to sleep in the car. He got about an hour of sleep in the car as we stopped here and there for breakfast, coffee, and some festive t-shirts at Walmart. Unfortunately, the boat ride didn't work out on Sunday. I don't know if it was the long day on Saturday, the short nap in the car, or what. But, he was tired and just wouldn't give up screaming. We let him go for 30 minutes before we decided they needed to take us back. Oh well! We tried. It was probably just too much after the long day from Saturday. We took him home where he proceeded to get right back to normal and have a fun day. Today, I hope to take him swimming after his nap (at the neighbor's house). Hopefully, he will enjoy that. I want him to get used to the water so we can plan fun trips in the future.

I am happy to say that I am on vacation all week long. I am so excited to spend the time with Jackson (and Justin too - although he isn't taking the whole week off). I have a plan of things to work on with Jackson this week:

1. Get better at self-feeding. Currently, he has little patience (wonder where he got that from!). I find if I just ignore him in the kitchen and just go about my business cleaning or something, that he won't expect me to do it for him.

2. Get better at nap time - really work on the routine so laying him down awake works. We are on day three of laying him down awake with no problem (fingers are crossed that this continues). He is so good at bedtime, hopefully, this won't be too hard to fix for naptime. Since he has been in daycare, this has been a hard one to work on since I don't get to put him down for naps very often during the week.

3. Introduce more table food. It's hard to do with him being in daycare. At night, sometimes it's just easier to feed him the baby food and be done when I have been at work all day and am trying to get everything ready for the evening and next day. This weekend, I have discovered that he loves eggos, eats eggs, LOVES my mom's pasta salad (including the cucumbers)...

So, that's my to do list for him. I also want to work more on his scrap book, get the house really good and clean, and hang up more of his pictures and other pictures in the house. I don't know if it's possible to get all of that done in one week especially considering how I have started the week. But, it's better to have lofty goals than none at all!! :) Also, I wanted to mention that we got good news this week. Justin's Grandmother is Cancer FREE!! She goes back for another check in September. But, it appears that God has answered our prayers and the chemo worked. It's about time for some good news in this family! YEAH!!

Too many pictures to post, so I will have to do it in two posts...