Ligers Roar

Earlier this week Brodie and I drove up to Fayetteville to visit Cheyenne and her kids. We had a great time playing with them, thank you Chey. While we were up there we took the kids to a Big Cat Rescue. The place was huge and they had over 120 big cats there. All the kids were really excited about going, and they were not disappointed. They got to see Lions, Tigers, Ligers, Panthers, Bob Cats, a Coyote and a Bear.

This Lion was so funny sleeping, I had to watch him for a while to make sure that he was still breathing. He didn't care how loud the kids were, he wasn't waking up for anything These were my favorite, Ligers. They are absolutely massive, much larger than Lions

Brodie and Andy trying to wake up the lazy Lion

Brodie and Lilly, I think she would have just hugged Brodie the whole time we were there if Brodie had let her

All of the animals at this place looked very well taken care of, and almost all of them were sleeping

Crystal Mines

One of the really neat things about living in Hot Springs, is all the different stuff that you get to do. Since we have been here we have seen signs to "dig your own Crystals" or "Pan your own gold". Now that the weather has been so warm here, we are constantly looking for outdoor activities. So last week we went to a Crystal mine and dug our own Crystals. And for Brodie a day of digging in the dirt and collecting rocks was like heaven.

We weren't actually allowed in the mine, so they brought out the dirt from the mine and dumped it.

Joe cleaning off a rock to see if it's a crystal

You cant really tell here, but the mounds of dirt were really steep. So Brodie developed his own method of getting down

Some of our crystals before we soaked them in acid

Brodie dug this one up all by himself

All of our crystals after five days of soaking and cleaning

This one is Joe's favorite that he found

Brodie's crystal all cleaned up

Bribery

Now that Brodie is almost two and a half, he is definitely full of opinions. He knows exactly what he wants, how he likes things and when he is going to do these things. Sometimes this can be really handy, other times it makes my life a nightmare, because he is absolutely unwilling to bend. Joe and I get tired of fighting with him and eventually we turn to bribing him into doing what we want him to do. This was the case with potty training. At first we were sailing through the whole potty training process, and I was wondering why everyone dreaded potty training so much. After a week, Brodie was almost completely potty trained, and then it all came to a screeching halt. Brodie decided that he didn't like underwear and wanted to stay in diapers. He went on potty strike for about two weeks. Then one night Joe told Brodie that if he used the potty everyday for a week that we would buy him a truck. That was all it took, his first trip back to the potty was about two minutes after the deal was made. For the next week we watched Brodie pee-pee on the potty and then jump up and yell "truck, truck,truck". So here are some pictures of Brodie driving his new truck.

Although Brodie loves his truck, his favorite thing might be the huge box it came in. Joe cut and door and some windows in it, and Brodie has been using it as a play house

Here is a video of the first time Brodie got to drive his truck