Three Things Thursday-Cleaning, Potty-ing-and Goodbye-ing

This week has already been eventful!

We got home from camping at the coast on Sunday, after stopping in the Redwoods for a little hike. We had never been, and all enjoyed it a bunch...except for the mosquitoes. I may or may not have been close to tears by the time we got back to the car-what is it about pregnant blood?

#1-Dealing with the cleanup after a camping trip requires about 4 times the amount of effort of a hotel trip. All the laundry is FINALLY washed, the sleeping bags and tent are all aired out, and I THINK all the camping stuff made it back into the correct totes, just to be all pulled out again next month.

Sometimes I wonder if it's really worth the amount of money we save, and think we might be better off at a resort for a weekend instead.

It is...worth it I mean.

My kids didn't watch a single movie, play a single video game or complain of boredom once while we were gone. Just good old fashioned playing in nature, getting dirty and being kids.

Sometimes I think I could live in the wilderness, in a tent-being all simple like that.

Then I remember that it gets cold, and there are bugs among other things, and I know that I absolutely could not.

#2-This little man is ready to be a big boy.

He is super excited about being potty trained and getting big boy underwear and saying bye bye to diapers.

I am also excited about it, just not about the process.

We decided to start this weekend since I am out of school for next week, and because we don't have any other trips or other distractions planned for the next little while. Wish me luck!

#3-See the two teenager-ish looking boys in this family pic in the Redwoods? The one next to Chad is my bro Tyler and the one in the glasses is my step son Zachary.

I brought Tyler back from Portland to hang out with Zachary while we were camping and hanging out around the house.

They left yesterday.

Bittersweet.

Bitter for obvious reasons-the kids love hanging all over them, we miss them, and having built in babysitters is no reason to complain...Ever!

Sweet-because if I had to listen to one more conversation about video games, farts, or brainless television programs, or walk in and see the state of the bathroom, (don't get me started on the bathroom sink), my head was going to explode!

Which would have just given them one more thing they would want to add to one of the millions of video games they want to invent someday.

As of September I will have 3 little boys...how am I going to survive the teenage years I ask you?

How?