Sick

This morning I woke up not feeling well. I had a hard time sitting upright and thought I was going to hurl most of the day. I had two kids and we watched tv all day. Sharon was able to take a few breaks from work to help me feed the kids. Larkin took a nice nap and Cooper played outside for a few minutes. All in all it was not bad with two kids. Cooper is at the age where he understands that I am not feeling well and wants to give me snuggles and kisses. Larkin is such a happy go lucky kiddo that she was totally fine just hanging in the house.
I am not sure if I have a flu bug or if the travels are catching up to me. I feel better now, I am sitting up but still a bit queasy. I hope the rest of the family doesn't get this illness.

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Swim Class

Cooper started Goldfish swim class last night. He goes in the water by himself and listens to the two instructors.



He did great and really enjoyed the class.



They did the back and front floats and he usually won't let us put him on his back but he let the teachers do it. Here he is getting ready for it.



The class wore him out because he was asleep by 8:30. We go two days a week until the middle of November.

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Orlando

We are having a great time with Nona. We went to the Audubon Society Thursday and then hit a park on the way home. There was a tortoise walking near the highway so Sharon picked it up and moved it to the water. Then she read that tortoises' don't swim so she moved it to the woods, with Cooper and another little boy following. The silly tortoise walked from that spot back to the water and Sharon is convinced he is now dead. Then she read that they are a protected species and she broke a bunch of laws for handling it in the first place. We were just trying to help it not get run over.


Last night we went to The Villages. This place is crazy, it is a huge development for retired persons and most drive golf carts all around. It is huge, we were lost trying to get to the restaurant. Cooper has enjoyed the golf carts in Nona's community so this place was over the top for him. He loved it, there were some that looked like old time cars, jeep ones, ones that looked like cars, and so many more. The streets were packed with them parked all over. They party it up all night, we enjoyed the music while we walked around and did a little shopping. We went to a toy store and found a die cast golf cart and Cooper sweet talked Nona into buying it. He loves it, holds it up when carts pass us and fell asleep with it last night. My mom was concerned he would be bored at this place and was elated that he had so much fun.
Today we went to the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Garden. We all got in for free thanks to reciprocity with the Oregon Zoo. We had a blast, they have a short train ride we took first, then we walked around and saw the animals. We ended our visit with the splash park they. Cooper had a blast with Mama. He got soaking wet, dried off and went for round number 2.






Lunch was awesome at an authentic German restaurant, we walked around the quaint town to the water and then headed home for the night.
Next up a flea market and dinner with friends.
p.s. The weather is perfect! Sunny and warm, 80s during the day; pleasant and cool at night in the 60s.


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Tag

Cooper played his first game of Tag today. He and a little girl were chasing each other at the OMSI cafe and she decided to change the game Tag. She told Cooper how to play and he got it right away. When Mateo was done in the bathroom, he joined in too. It's so fun to watch him play with other kids, they actually play with each other sometimes.


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Cooper and Teo

Cooper and Teo having a good
moment at the park today.



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Road Trip Pictures

We had an awesome road trip to Arizona, Nevada and home.  We left Saturday the 18th on a plane and arrived in Phoenix.  We rented a car and drove to Flagstaff through Sedona, AZ.  Sedona was beautiful and man, they drive fast in Arizona. 

We arrived in Flagstaff and went to pick up our new car from Bob, our friend's neighbor.  We visited for awhile and then left to return the rental car and continue our journey to Williams, AZ.  We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and started our journey to the Grand Canyon.  I am already in love with my new car, 2001 Honda CR-V.  We drove through the town of Williams which reminded us of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars.

 It was a beautiul day at the Grand Canyon.  We arrived and Cooper said, "I've never seen this place before."  We took a short hike, Cooper rode on Mama's shoulders most of the way and also stood in the shade.  We spent the majority of the day there and took a shuttle bus back to our car.  Cooper was obsessed with the Caboose near the hotel so we drove back to Williams to check out the Caboose.

On Monday morning we drove to Henderson/Las Vegas, NV.  It was a four trip and we drove through the Hoover Dam on the way.  We arrived in Henderson around 11:30 a.m. Sharon worked for a bit and Cooper and I ran some errands.  We had dinner with one of Sharon's managers and took Cooper to "his casino" (arcade) afterwards.  Wednesday morning we drove to Reno, what a boring drive.  We spent one night in Reno and drove home Thursday to Medford.  We decided to check out the Wildlife Safari near Roseburg because we have been talking about it for years.  It was really cool, the animals are roaming around on the grounds as you drive through.  They also have a gift shop, playground and animals to walk around and see.  Cooper loved it.

We love our new car!  We put 1,000 miles on our adventure and had no problems.  It rides really nicely and is roomy for our family. 

Road Trip

We are on the last days of our car adventure. We drove to Reno after getting a late start and arrived at 10 pm. This was our longest leg of the journey and Cooper did okay except for the arguing. He is a really great traveler, goes with the flow and usually doesn't complain. I've been commenting on what a great traveler he is and of course yesterday he had a rough time. He was not happy we were taking the freeway and wanted to walk around at every stop. He had a few fits and mainly watched Curious George on the portable DVD. He finally fell asleep at 9pm.

This afternoon we leave for home and are spending the night in Medford. It's about a five hour drive and I am dreading telling Cooper. I am going to take him to a park or the pool to get a lot of energy out before we leave.

We are having a fun workation but we all miss our doggie and the comforts of home.


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ABCs

Cooper singing the ABCs on the way to Reno.

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Fun day with Ruthie and the Kids

I have a great friend that lives in Henderson and I met up with her and her kids today. Ruthie and I used to work together and I last saw her when Cooper was six months old and her oldest daughter, Gali, was three. Cooper waited all day to see Gali and he liked her right away. The feeling was mutual, they had blast together.



I failed at getting some good pictures of them playing together. We went to a water park/playground and then went to dinner. Gali ended up calling Cooper, "my buddy".

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Great Things

Cooper is changing so fast right now. He can put on his underpants by himself 75% of the time, he is singing a lot, and coming up with his own ideas or ways to play.


The other day we were listening to the wheels on the bus song and he asked for his school bus toy and to play the song again. He was singing to the song and doing the actions with his toy. It's amazing the change; we used to listen and I would sing these songs to him at library story time when he was weeks old to one year. Now he can sing them so well. He is just starting to sing and I love it. I am trying to get it on video as much as I can.


This afternoon after quiet time he put a frisbee under the rug in his bedroom and we played monster trucks. We zoomed the trucks over the bump to each other. He came up with the idea. He made a sun out of rocks the other night while hanging with Mama and is doing really well with solo play.


Here is a picture shooting the fire hose at the neighborhood block party last weekend.





I took a picture of Cooper's birthday gift jams from Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Chikako.








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Then and Now

We compiled all the firetruck pictures we could find with Cooper driving.

May 2009




July 2009




September 2010





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Singing

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Good Day

We had a good day today. Sharon took Cooper this morning to get the truck window fixed so I took Larkin on some errands. Then we met Sharon and Cooper at the windshield repair shop and Larkin was super excited to see Cooper. We spent awhile there fixing the Lancer windshield so we can sell it, and then came home for lunch.
This afternoon I heard the neighbor boy outside so I called my neighbor to see if we could come over and play. We had a fun time there for about an hour or so. It was great, they have a nice play structure with a fast slide that all the kids enjoyed. They also have a fun swing that the kids tried out. Cooper loves Colby's house, especially his playroom, he was happy we played inside before we had to leave.
I am looking forward to a great weekend! Our neighborhood block party is tomorrow night and lots of family time.

Labor Day Weekend

We went camping at Panther Creek Campground in the Gifford Pinchot Forest this weekend.  It's just outside of Carson, WA and our friends Susan and Kerry joined us Sat-Mon. We unfortunately didn't take many pictures.  Here is the morning routine:

Our days consisted of throwing rocks in the creek, exploring the forest, sitting by the fire, riding our bikes, playing catch, cribbage and Sequence.
When we came home, Oma and Grandpa came into town for the night.  Cooper attached himself to Oma immediately and they read many stories together.

 We were sad to see them leave this morning, but they will be back in town on Saturday.

Fun with Larkin

Here are a few pictures of Cooper and Larkin at the park past week.










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World Forestry Center

I took Cooper to the World Foresty Center today, it was only $2 admission the first Wednesday of the month. It was fun to check out but we only lasted an hour. Cooper loved sitting in the tractor.



Upstairs they had a train, boat, jeep and crane basket that take you to different parts of the world. I wanted to watch the videos of each country but Cooper only wanted to drive the jeep. He picked up his friends Susan and Kerry in make believe land and we went to South Africa.
I am excited to come back to the museum when he is older, there is a lot of cool stuff there.
After that museum Cooper played on the train with some other kids before walking to the Children's Museum. It was packed there so we didn't stay very long. Cooper played with the train table, the ambulance and the water area.
Fun morning on this rainy Wednesday.

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Happenings

We had a hectic week last week with the wake and several dinners with the Atherly/Shirey clan. Cooper had a nap strike all last week and I think it caught up to him because he ended Saturday night and Sunday with a low grade fever. He is a pretty good sick kid, he was lethargic and mainly just wanted to be snuggled by his mommy and mama. By Monday he was 90% and Tuesday back to normal completely.
We visited our friends new baby boy. Cooper wasn't too sure of him at the hospital.






This was the closest he got. I think he was freaked out seeing E in the hospital bed and not able to move around much. He was also freaked because their older son, Cooper's friend, wasn't there.
He seems to be warming up to the baby, he doesn't like it when he cries but he does like to see his funny faces.
We signed Cooper up for swim classes this summer and they were supposed to start this week, m-f for 1/2 hour for 10 days. Monday I decided to reschedule them for the fall schedule. They start in mid October and are two nights a week for 10 days. It's more manageable for us and we both will be able to watch him swim. I'm also looking at a tumbling class for this fall. He loves climbing and trying the monkey bars so I think it will be fun for him.
We have one more camping trip planned for Labor Day at Panther Creek in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

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Garden

This year is the first time I started plants from seed. I didn't know what I was doing and planted the entire packet of zucchini, crooked neck, cucumber, eggplant, tomato and basil seeds. This spring my counters were overflowing with starts. I gave many away and cultivated the rest. I now have 11 tomato plants, 5 zucchini plats, two crooked neck plants, 2 eggplant and a lot of basil. Only 1 cucumber plant made it through the wet spring.
Cooper and I also planted sunflowers, string beans, and sugar snap peas from seed in the garden.
Our work paid off we are getting lots of zucchinis now, eggplant is flowering and there are many a green tomato. Cooper eats the peas daily and we just picked some green beans.








Basil









Eggplant









Squash heaven









Crooked neck









Zucchini









String beans









Green tomatos







Sunflowers (8 ft tall)

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Wake

We had Grandpa Don's wake yesterday to celebrate his life. We have been telling Cooper that Grandpa is in heaven with his Angel Grandpa (my dad). When we pulled into the funeral home Cooper spotted Grandpa's car and said "Grandpa's here." I said yes that is Grandpa's car but he won't be here. He gave Grandma a big hug and was really good during the one hour service. When we sat down he looked around and said, "I don't see Grandpa anywhere." I again explained that he is in heaven and not here in person, even going so far to say he doesn't have a body. I am not sure what he is comprehending of all this. I expect him to keep asking about Grandpa when we visit Grandma and I will keep saying he is in heaven with his Angel Grandpa.
It's hard to believe that Don won't be at the table for Sunday dinner anymore or whip us in a game of Hearts.


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In Loving Memory

Grandpa Don passed away in his sleep this morning. He has been in and out of the hospital for the last few months with a bad heart. We spent a long day with him and Grandma Lindsay on Thursday. Cooper played cars with Grandpa a lot. We are thankful he went peacefully in his sleep.
We love you Grandpa.






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