Pumpkins

Today we finally got our pumpkins. We went to the Oregon Electric Railway Museum in Brooks, OR. They have a pumpkin trolley for the Halloween season. The trolley takes you one mile through the museum grounds to a small pumpkin patch where you get to pick out a pumpkin or two. All for $3/ per adult. Because of the rainy day we were the only ones on our trolley trip. It was great and perfect for us. Cooper loves trains and loved seeing all the old trains and tractors at the museum. He picked out a perfect little pumpkin too. We left with 3 pumpkins and Cooper gave the conductor a small tip. We are definitely going back in the spring when all the museums are open.

Socks

Sock 1 of 2 completed.

Favorite

I love catching Cooper in this position.




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Florida Pictures

We are back from Florida.  We had a great trip with a lot of activitiy.  Here are a few of my favorite moments.

Visit with Phyllis and Kate

Over Columbus Day weekend we had a fast and fun visit with my Aunt Phyllis and Cousin Kate from Chicago.  I showed them Mt Tabor on a beautiful day, we did a wine tour in McMinnville and they got to see me play the french horn in the Mt Hood Pops Orchestra.  It was a great visit and I am looking forward to seeing them this spring in Chicago.

Check out more photos at www.flickr.com/weeziebaby

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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