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.