Cooper and Teo

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



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ABCs

Cooper singing the ABCs on the way to Reno.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Then and Now

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

May 2009




July 2009




September 2010





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Singing

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.










- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone