After posting last week’s goofy national park pics, many of you commented that you looked forward to the day we included the kids in these shots. Well, wait no longer… It only took 18 mths for us to bring our son on his first national park trip. Much like the beginning of our first trip, this pose was quite normal. Here we are in Acadia National Park. The next summer we had a two and half year old and a 7 month old.

Click here for more pics which need no explanation!

Trekking out and about about with a toddler can be tricky enough, but running errands with a potty training toddler, her into everything ever curious, little sister and her energetic older brother is down right difficult. Those bathroom stalls were not meant for four people! But what do you do when your potty training toddler has to go and hasn’t learned how to hold it? This genius idea is courtesy of my dear friend Rebecca.

There’s a show on Disney which my kids really liked for awhile, but it just didn’t sit right with my husband and I. There’s nothing morally objectionable in it. It’s just a silly little cartoon. My concern lies with the fact that it seems to trivialize the word hero. Ever seen Higglytown Heroes? In each story the main characters find themselves in a situation which needs help from a higglytown hero (a local community person doing their job) It might be the locksmith, the veterinarian, or the barbershop owner.

Who would ever thought soccer cleats could be so cute? When I took my son to get his cleats at the beginning of the season, I thought those cleats were far cuter than any baby bootie I’ve ever seen. I’ve never been into bronzing the baby shoes, but I will be tucking these cleats away in a box to look at years from now when I complain of the big stinky cleats I find sitting in my doorway.

A recent dinner conversation resulted in one of those, “wow” moments for my husband and I as we listened to our four year old speak truths that truly made us rejoice. We had been talking about voting and my husband asked if my four year old son new what voting was… Son: Yea I do I learned it at school…it’s the government who makes all the rules Dad: Right… and we get to vote on who will make those rules

Ladies, I have truly enjoyed reading your comments about how your husbands rock. It was probably my most exciting blog week to date. I can’t tell you how much it brightened my day to read such uplifting words about your hubbies. I want to encourage all of you to tell your husbands why they rock. Today. Don’t assume they know. Don’t figure they don’t need to hear it. Don’t wait for them to tell you why you rock first.

We didn’t get to carving pumpkins this year. The kids each got to pick a pumpkin at our field trip to the petting farm, and while they were quite content with this size of their pumpkins, they weren’t exactly jack-o-lantern material. I am sure we’d have had to pay a trip to the ER if we attempted to carve such small pumpkins. I kept holding out for a trip to a “real” pumpkin patch, but it just wasn’t in the cards this year.

When we’d been married a little over a year when we set out on a cross country vacation to take in National Parks, a few new cities, time with family, and a visit with friends. Because we are scrapbook geeks or maybe just geeks, we decided it would be fun to pose in front of each national park sign. At first we posed like normal people, you know arm around each other all cute and coupley…

We may not always agree with Obama’s view on the roll of government but, regardless of where we stand politically, this truly is a huge and monumental milestone for our country. My husband was reading on BBC.com this morning and sent me an e-mail with some quotes and thoughts that I hadn’t fully considered. I thought they were worth sharing. " On 28 August 1963, Martin Luther King spoke of his dream for America, with the brooding statue of Abraham Lincoln offering the most glorious of pulpits.