summer bucket list: an update
Holy crap... when did we get halfway through summer?! Actually, Matt + I are more than halfway through summer. Gulp. Matt goes back July 31st and I officially start August 11th, although fall sports (volleyball for me, cross country for him) start up August 4th. Good bye to any time I once had.Thankfully, we've been soaking up as much of summer as we can and have made sufficient progress on completing our bucket list. So, I thought I'd give you a little bit of an update on how our summer has been going. I've already talked about a few of our bucket list items, but there is plenty to catch you up on.
1. Feed the goats at Grant's Farm - check!
2. Ride the train at the St. Louis Zoo - check!
We went to the zoo last week. We've had amazing weather here in St. Louis - low humidity and highs in the mid-80s - so we took advantage of a late afternoon at the zoo to avoid the crowds and allow MacKenna to get her nap in. We spent a half hour waiting in line for the train, which ended up being pretty dull. But, we did get to see a ton of animals that we might not have seen had we not ridden it - since it was so late in the day, it was feeding time and a bunch of the animals were out, including a rare sight of a tiger - my personal favorite! Plus, a visit to the carousel - MacKenna's favorite!
3. Go to the Museum of Transportation - we haven't had a chance to go yet, but are planning on going with some of our friends next month.
4. Get a picture with Minnie Mouse (or any Disney character for that matter) at DisneyLand– check!
This was totally the best part of Disneyland! Not only did we get to see Minnie twice, but we were able to get pictures with a bunch of other characters too!
5. Go to a waterpark – check!
After our race in Branson a few weeks ago, we had free passes to White Water, so we spent a few hours there with MacKenna. It's not quite the best place for her since she doesn't do slides or fountains/waterfalls, but she does love the water.
We also went to the local "water park" a few days ago. We were worried because it cost us $12 to get in and figured MacKenna would freak out and only last 10 minutes. But, luckily, after forcing her down the slide with us a few times, she didn't want to do anything else! Hopefully this is the start of breaking her fear of slides.
6. Take a day trip to Springfield, Illinois – we will be needing to do this one pretty soon, before our schedules get too busy with school + sports!
7. Make pizza on the grill – check!
We've been keeping up our Friday night tradition of pizza + beer (root beer/soda for me) and have been including my parents too. Since they have a nice grill, a few weeks ago, we (well, Matt) fired it up and grilled pizza for dinner. It was absolutely delicious! In fact, that's dinner tonight too!
8. Potty train MacKenna – So, this isn't going quite as we had planned. I put her back in diapers full time last week because we are dealing with some "withholding" issues (aka - it hurts to poop so she tries to hold it in). We are hoping to get in to the doctor today to see if we can get things "moving" again. Until she is comfortable going Big Potty again, we will be in diapers. Hopefully, she will be potty trained by her birthday and I will at least get 2 months without a child in diapers...
9. Transition MacKenna to a big girl bed – check!
I don't have a picture of this yet, but we transitioned her crib to a toddler bed (with Magic Bumpers to keep her in) about 2 weeks ago and she is doing GREAT! We haven't had any issues with her getting up at naps or at night and she usually waits for us to come get her before she gets out of bed. At least I'm winning at something with this child!
10. Make popsicles with MacKenna – check!
Seven out of 10 ain't bad! Hopefully by the time September rolls around, we will have at least 2 of the remaining 3 completed! (I'm not holding my breath with the potty training thing...)