I had taken some poppers and little fireworks down there for the kids and Camille had some sparklers so it turned into quite a little show!  The kids loved it!

 Sam is going through a rough phase.  He has figured out that it's OK to pee in the toilet, but he absolutely refuses to go # 2.     He is the most stubborn kid I've met. Camille has tried everything under the sun to get him potty trained. She has been infinitely patient, tried bribes, rewards, taking away the ipad, running around for days with nothing but a t shirt on, but he still won't go on the potty.  When I got there I tried to talk to him about it.  I mean he is a smart kid and is old enough to be able to communicate what he's feeling.  Camille had gone to the doctor so I was watching them and Sam says "I have to go poop!"  I was like "Hooray!  lets go!"  But he says NOOOOOOO  I'm scared!  I say "What are you afraid of Sam?"    He says "The Grinch!"  I tried really hard to not laugh!  I tried to get out of him what the Grinch had to do with going to the bathroom, but he wouldn't  talk about it. 

Well at this point ( he hadn't had a bm for about 10 days!) Camille took him to the doctor,  She said there is nothing wrong with Sam, that it is totally a mental problem.  He is afraid to go so he held it in and now he is super constipated.  She told Camille to give him some stool softeners.  So Camille tried that and it didn't do anything, so the doctor told them to give him an enema.  Oh boy that was not cool.  Kellen is really patient with him and got him to be calm enough to have it.  Even after that, things did not move along very well.  They told him to just go in his diaper...just to go! But he still was fighting it.  He was not feeling good at all, but then things finally started moving.  He said his tummy felt better.  I hope he will soon get over this fear or he will end up in the same boat again. Also, this whole experience has pushed Camille to the edge of insanity...seriously I don't blame her...you can only change so many diapers before you go over.  Stubborn little guy.  I love him to death and can't stand to see him hurting like that.

 Emily's got a thing for Roses food and can get out there and into it in 3.2 seconds.

 We made the yummiest ice cream one night.  It's not an easy ice cream to make..involves some cooking,  separating, and tempering.  It's worth it though!  We were about ready to give up on Camille's ice cream maker...it is tired and the way we had packed the ice around it was just too much for it.  Kellen came to the rescue and added the ice and salt after it was already turning.  Then it ran just fine.  We put raspberries in this batch and it was perfect.

One day we went to the Natural History museum there in Mesa.  It was really interesting and the kids loved it!

 They had some really cool dinosaur bones and lots of other things to learn about the earth.

 There was so much to see and do!  They had a room where the kids could do a bunch of activities that taught them more about dinosaurs.

 Then we went outside and panned for gold.  That was really neat cause the kids could actually find gold!  We scooped up some sand in these dishes and swished the sand around in the water and you could pick out little flecks of gold!  The gave us little baggies to put our gold in so we could take it home.  That was pretty cool. 

 "I found some grandma!"

Such a fun week with these kiddos!  I love being with them  Can't wait for their visit to Utah next week!