How clean are your teeth?

This morning Andrew had his first official trip to the dentist office. I tried taking him in January of last year, but he ended up throwing a fit so we just left. Now that he's 4 I decided it was time to try again. Mainly because I wasn't sure how good a job he was doing at brushing his teeth since he refuses to let me help. Needless to say I was slightly nervous about this visit because Andrew can be VERY finicky with his moods. At first he didn't want anything to do with it so I went first while Andrew watched. After my turn was over Andrew climbed up into my lap and actually let the dentist look in his mouth and at all of his teeth without any hesitation or complaints. Then much to my surprise he let me get up and allowed the hygienist to help him brush his teeth & floss!! The flossing amazed me most of all. If you had told me yesterday he would have willingly let her do that I would have called you a liar. That just goes to show that children will NEVER cease to amaze you with the things they will and won't do. Here are 2 pictures I managed to take while they were brushing Andrew's teeth.

Arkansas vacation part 2

Ok so now it's time for part two of our vacation. I must warn you that this post will probably be just as long as the last one was so I hope you're somewhere comfortable. We got back in to Searcy late on July 3 so our first full day there was the 4th of July. That evening we went to Harding University (a college there in town) to watch their fireworks display. Once there we discovered they had kind of a carnival set up for the kids. It was really very cute. Simple little games set up where they kids could win prizes & have fun before the fireworks.

Here is a picture of Andrew in the back of my Mom's Explorer while watching the fireworks. He really enjoyed them this year. He kept telling us that they were cheering for him.

The next day we spent the afternoon and evening with most of my family. Everyone came out to my parents house for a BBQ. It was great watching Andrew play with his cousins and also getting to visit with family that we haven't seen in almost a year. We finally got to meet the newest addition to our ever growing family. Little Miss Lydia was born in March and it was great to finally see her in person instead of in pictures. Unfortunately my cousin Matt and his wife Beth were not able to make it along with my other cousin Mike, his wife Leanne & their new baby Eden. I guess we'll just have to wait until next year to see them. I just love the picture below. We were trying to get a picture of Andrew with his cousins Caroline and Mary Evelyn when someone blew bubbles over their heads.

For those of you who don't know my family you should know that we tend to take lots of pictures, especially group pictures. This specific picture is of my Grandmother (Dad's mom) with 4 out of 5 great grandchildren. Baby Eden wasn't able to be there this summer, but hopefully we will be able to get a picture with all of the kids next year.

One night we went to an Arkansas Travelers baseball game. They are a minor league team in Little Rock. This was Andrew's first baseball game to see in person. Granted he didn't pay much attention to the game but all in all he seemed to have a good time. This is a picture of the field from where we were sitting. I hope that we can go to another game the next time we are in town.

Popcorn anyone? One thing I can safely say is that Andrew wanted to eat every single thing he laid his eyes on. I don't know how he didn't have a tummy ache later that night between the popcorn, nachos, cotton candy & soda. We finally had to cut him off because he kept saying he was still hungry when we all knew good and well there was no way he could be.

Below is Andrew hugging Shelly the team mascot. He really seemed to like her and was excited when I took him down to say hello & get a picture taken with her. I was a little surprised because in the past things like this have scared him some.

Now you should know the night of the game it was raining a little and insanely hot and humid. We were all soaked with sweat but I don't think anyone was quite as bad as Andrew. If you look at his hair you can see just how wet and matted down it was.

Well I guess that sums up the second week of our vacation. I'm sure I left out something, but right now I can't think of anything else. For those of you we were able to see it was great & we look forward to the next time we can visit. If we weren't able to see you I'm sorry. Hopefully next year we'll have a little more time to fit everyone it. I hope everyone is having a great summer!!

Arkansas vacation part 1

Our vacation started with 2 days in a car driving down to Arkansas. I have to say that this was probably the easiest drive we have had since Andrew was in infant. He did so well on his first long car ride since being potty trained & Adam and I were very proud of him. Once in AR we started things off at a fast pace and it pretty much stayed there until we left. With so many people to see and things to do it's hard to squeeze it all into 2 weeks. Probably the most exciting thing for Adam was taking Andrew fishing for the first time. The picture above was taken while we were walking to a catch & release area. I just love how it turned out.

This is a picture of Andrew's very first fish on the first day he went fishing. He ended up catching 3 total that day and they were ALL keepers. He was so excited it was all he talked about for the next few days.

What do you get when a 4yr old boy decides he wants to put sunscreen on himself? Take one look above and you will see. Andrew was in the back of the boat by Adam while we were out fishing on the White River and as you can see Adam wasn't paying close attention to him. Needless to say his little legs didn't get any sun that day.

One day we drove down to Blanchard Springs and went swimming. For those of you not from AR if you're ever in north central Arkansas you should try and go there. The main attraction is the underground caverns. We didn't tour them this time, but we're planning to next time we are down that way. I love this picture of him running up to say hello & shake water on me. He had a blast that day because the little swimming hole we were at wasn't very deep so Adam & I could always touch bottom which made Andrew feel more secure. The water was also crystal clear so you could see right down to the bottom & also all of the fish swimming around too.

There isn't anything special to say about this picture. We were at a local park cooking out with Adam's mom, sister & brother in law. Andrew had a lot of fun playing on the playground and chasing his Aunt Amy around. (Yes Adam's sister and I have the same name).

On July 3rd we went to Batesville, AR with Mike (Adam's step dad) & the company he works for. They had a cookout & reserved the go cart track and put put golf course for everyone to play on. It was a lot of fun despite how incredibly hot and humid it was. Andrew really enjoys "driving" the go carts although I don't think he could see over the steering wheel. They ended up taking 3 separate rides before Andrew grew tired of it.

Put put golf didn't last very long either. He did rather well for his first time, but I don't think it was exciting enough for him. We played 4 or 5 holes before he was distracted by kids on the playground. Oh well. Maybe we'll try again later on in the summer.

This final picture was taken later that same night in Batesville. We went to the local race track to watch the races & fireworks display they do every year. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay very long. We saw 2 heats when the lightning started to move in. Adam & I took Andrew to the truck before the rain started. While we were waiting to see what was going to happen they started shooting off the fireworks so we stood on the cab of the truck to see everything. About halfway through it stared to pour down rain so we watched the last half from inside the truck while waiting in line to leave. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see all of the races because Andrew LOVES race cars. If he sees a Nascar or Indy race on TV he will always ask to watch it. In case you're wondering what is coming out of his ears in this picture it's ear plugs. When the cars were doing warm up laps he complained about the noise so we got these for him. If only we had known 30min later we would be running to the truck. Oh well....

Well as you can see this post is very long & I'm only half way through our trip so I'll have to do another post. This week covered just about everything we did when we were up visiting with Adam's family. Next post I will show pictures and tell you about our adventures with my family. Andrew had so many firsts during these two weeks. I didn't realize how many until I sat down to blog and started sorting through everything in my head. No wonder the little guy was sooo tired and grouchy towards the end of our trip. Hopefully I will be able to finish posting about our vacation tomorrow, but I make no promises!!