New Bed

We finally put Cooper's new bed together! We bought him a loft bed with a space underneath to play. We put it together before our vacation but were sent two of the same pieces so the bed part was put on hold. We finally finished it last night and bought a mattress from IKEA.
He likes it a lot but it is too high for him to climb in and out at night when he has to go potty. We decided to keep the mattress on the floor at night and then put it in the bed during the day so he can climb up and down and play on it. Last night, I woke up at 5:45 to let the puppy out and Cooper was sleeping in the dog bed and Riley was sleeping on Cooper's bed :) He picked out the green sheets (his favorite color right now).

Pictures from the weekend

We had a fun time on the beach and it was Luke's first time at the ocean. He had a blast playing with Riley and Cooper. He was exhausted by Sunday.

Ocean Shores, WA

We spent the weekend visiting Oma and Grandpa in Ocean Shores this weekend. The weather was pretty great, mostly sunny skies and warm. We went to the arcade Saturday and played miniature golf plus air hockey and of course the truck driving game. It was Cooper's first time at mini golf. He didn't want any help hitting the ball and had a good time after having a tantrum on the third hole.
We ate great food, spent some time at the beach and swam at the country club pool. It was a short visit and lots of fun!

The Beaver Dam

A few funny things

I wanted to document some of the things Cooper said during his birthday party. We had a great birthday party, the bouncy house was a huge success. However, Cooper was a bit overwhelmed throughout much of the party. He asked Janet if she would take him out front, "just the two of us where it is quiet." He wanted to snuggle with Mommy and/or Mama because "it is too loud." I thought we would have him open the presents after his friends left because he was overwhelmed but he didn't like that idea. He wanted to open the gifts while his friends were there so we did it while everyone was eating. He opened several gifts before the kids realized what was happening. He is very much a one-on-one kid, he doesn't like the group atmosphere. It is great to know this about him and maybe next year we will have a smaller gathering.
At the end of the party, when we were home, he looked at Sharon and I and said, "Mommy that was a pretty cool birthday party."

This week Cooper had a Nature Detectives Camp at a nearby preschool. This is an outdoor camp, M-F for four hours. My mom was still in town on Monday and Tuesday so we had some prime shopping time while Cooper was at camp. Wednesday he had a hard time in the beginning of camp because Nona left to go home and Mama was gone in the morning for work. He ended up having a good day, I called and spoke to him on the phone. We had his final day on Thursday because we are visiting Oma and Grandpa in Washington this weekend. Each morning Cooper informed me that he didn't want to go to camp, today was by far the worst of it. I brought him anyway and he seemed to enjoy himself. I think he enjoyed himself once he was there and it definitely wiped him out. They played some great games, made a treasure map and fairy houses, Cooper's was a small beaver dam.

Gifts from Japan

Cooper received some great gifts from Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Chikako. Lots of Cars2 stuff and some yummy treats for Sharon and I.

Cooper's 4th Birthday

What a day! We had Cooper's party yesterday, the 16th of July. We had a firetruck bouncy house and Janet set up a kiddie pool with hot tub water. It was a lot of fun, the kids had a blast bouncing all day. We did the pinata towards the end of the party and it was great to see the kids take a whack at it.

Camping

Our first camp trip of the year was the weekend of my birthday and Mother's Day, May 5-8th. We went to the coast with our group of friends and had an excellent time. Cooper played on the beach, rode his big boy bike, played with his aunties and the doggies.

We also took our annual Lake Almanor camping trip over the Fourth of July. This year we spent two weeks camping with Sharon's Dad and wife. We had a great time and Sharon's sister, Auntie Sonya flew up to spend four days with us. This trip is in Northern California, it's a 12-hour drive so it's great to spend a lot of time up there. The weather was awesome, 90s and sunny. We went to two parades and spent a lot of time at the lake and river. We went on Dick's fishing boat twice, once to check out the lake and once to fish. Sharon took a trip by herself to fish too. We brought home three trout, one rainbow trout. Cooper caught his first fish and learned to cast on this trip. He said, "Mama, fishing is a lot of fun."

We brought all our bikes and rode around the campground(s) and on the bike paths everyday. We picked Sonya up in Redding so we checked out the Sundial Bridge before we went back up to the mountains. One other thing we "picked up" on our trip is a puppy. We bought a chocolate lab and brought him home. He was eight weeks when we got him and he was an impulse. We couldn't resist, we all fell in love with him. We named him Luke and we all love him. He did great on the trip home but really thought the trailer was his home.

Sharon and her dad jammed on the 4th at the annual B-B-Q potluck at Dick and Betty's. They did a great job of entertaining the crowd with their music. We had a great time. I will post some more pictures of the parades and the jamming soon.