Family Fun

We may have found our new family sport--Disc Golf. We're taking advantage of still being able to contain the Coopster. Yes, that's right...he's still isn't walking but is very close. It's only a matter of time before we'll be chasing him all over the course. In the meantime, we're enjoying this last phase of "babyhood" as he enters toddlerhood. Here's a few pics of our new pastime. I can't wait to see what other sports we'll try to conquer as a family. Fun times!

Daddy and his caddy Teeing off

Who you calling a poser?

Rough hole

Coop's new favorite toy is the frisbee he's holding in these pics. He wouldn't give it up so we were down a "club". It is now also used to comfort him in the car when he's screaming. All we have to do is hand him his frisbee and he perks right up. Oh, the simple joys in life.

Snake Mountain Ranch

Coop, can you say primitive? That pretty much sums up your Grandpa Toby and Oma Lis' place. And that's no joke. It's been more than 2 weeks since we visited Snake Mountain Ranch but I wanted to post a little description about the place. They live on about 80 acres near Bisbee, AZ. Their house is a straw bale/adobe-like casita nestled in a mountain they have appropriately named Snake Mountain. To say they live "off the grid" is an understatement. This is their sanctuary away from the chaos that surrounds us and this is their home. And that is exactly what it feels like.

Lately, the camera seems to be monopolized by photos of YOU, so I failed to take any pics of the inside which truly is a work of art. It's basically one room with a small kitchen and a loft large enough for a bed. I spent much of my visit looking at all of their treasures and beautiful art. I've got to hand it to them; I don't know many people that could live so simply. Your Dad and I can't wait to visit when you're a little bit older. You will love to hunt for scorpions, rattlesnakes and ancient arrowheads. Your Grandpa knows where all of the arrowheads are (wink, wink). It's one of his many talents.

Swinging with Oma and with Dad

A belated bday celebration

Coop wasn't so sure about Gpa's bus

planting Coop's cactus

Ocotillo in bloom (view from the front yard)

I can't wait for the next visit to Snake Mountain Ranch. I have to admit it probably won't be during the hot summer months. Here's hoping for a very cool, wet summer for Grandpa and Oma.

Bug

Check out the Beast that tried to eat our little helpless baby! I'm still freaking out a bit. Last night after we put Coop to bed we heard a strange noise coming from the baby monitor. It was loud. So loud that we heard it over the tv. It sounded like Cooper was snoring. Not a sweet baby snore, but a passed out drunken sailor snore. It was loud enough that we thought we better go check on him. We tip-toed into the bedroom and a goo-gooed over our little guy like any sappy parents would do. Aw, look how preshush our widdle babeee is! Then, as we leaned in closer to his crib, THERE IT WAS..the Beast that you see below. It was crawling right next to Coop as he lay peacefully sound asleep. Mark tried to slide it out of the crib by covering it with a book. That didn't work and the Beast suddenly flew right towards the door and the light. Unfortunately, its path was intercepted by ME and my hair. I SCREAMED and did the OH MY GOD THERE'S A BUG STUCK IN MY HAIR dance which of course woke Coop up. He then started screaming frantically. Can you blame the poor kid? Who wouldn't scream if they were suddenly awakened by their mother doing some freaky dancing next to their crib? Mind you, I didn't do any of my signature dance moves that he has become accustomed to. This was definitely a new routine. The poor kid is probably going to have nightmares about this for years to come. Mark then shut the door and told us to stay put while he tried and finish off the Beast. As I rocked Coop back to sleep I could hear Mark in the other room. It sounded like he was wrestling a gorilla. There's was a lot of pounding and slamming going on. Finally, Coop was again sound asleep and Mark had slayed the Beast (insert dramatic movie score here). He even saved the remains. So what did I do with them you ask? What any first time Mother would do.... take a picture of it and blog about it. Notice I even took the time to pose it next to a Netlix envelope so that you'd be able to scale it to size. Am I a dork or what?
NOTE: No children were harmed in the making of this blog entry.

Tucson

Oh, how I LOVE the desert. We had a fabulous time in Tucson and enjoyed a little change of pace from our daily routine. Coop and I were able to play the whole time while Mark slaved away in class. We did get to play around a little bit with Dad in the evenings and luckily Mark got out of class early on Friday so we were able to drive south of Tucson to spend some time at Grandpa Toby on Oma Lis' place. I'll post pics from their place later--it's so cool it warrants it's own post. We picked a perfect time to visit the desert. Everything was in bloom and sunshine, sunshine, sunshine (did I mention the sunshine?). It's rained probably every day the past month in TN, so the sunshine was a great boost. Coop and I enjoyed playing around the resort and spending time with Grandpa, Oma and their cute dog Ishi. They spent a couple of days with us and showed us some of their favorite places; Tohono Chul Park, Degrazia and many yummy restaurants. Tohono Chul Park truly is a desert oasis and Degrazia is a must see! I decided that I could live in either place. The gardens are breathtaking. Who knew you could have such lushness in the middle of the desert? I truly felt at home while visiting both places. I guess that means I'm a desert rat. The only downside to the trip was discovering how hard it is to keep a little pale skinned boy from getting sun burned. Cooper now hates, hates, HATES sunblock due to the constant lubrication. I couldn't help but think I sounded just like my mother: "someday you'll thank me when you have beautiful skin without wrinkles and sun damage......do you want to look like George Hamilton when your 20?" Oh, how I wish I would have listened to my mother. The other obstacle was keeping Cooper happy in his car seat with so much driving around. The kid isn't a fan of car seats these days. Mark and I are used to suffering through it, but I didn't want to put Grandpa and Oma through that so we used the old shove a cracker in that kids mouth before he blows trick. Needless to say, our rental car looked like a cracker convention went amuck in the backseat. If only those poor mice from our car would have settled in our rental car instead. They'd still be alive today..............

Morning coffee on the veranda~that's fancy resort talk for patio :)

Awesome door at Degrazia

Grandpa Toby, Oma Lis and little Ishi (in Lis' bag) at Degrazia

Cuteness on a stump

Kids' garden at Tohono Chul Park

Cuteness in a Cabana

Coop LOVED the fountains

"swimming"

Enjoying breakfast on the deck overlooking the pool.

3 DEAD mice

I just had to share. Upon return from our trip to AZ, what do we find in the car nestled right next to Cooper's car seat? 3 poor little dead baby mice. While Mark was loading our baby arsenal into the car, I went to load Coop into his car seat and found their little bodies all curled together. I'm not a huge rodent fan (especially when you can't help but fear that they smeared the hantavirus all over our car and Cooper's car seat) but I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor little guys. It made me think...where did the come from? Did their momma bring them to our car from our yard as a safe haven? I imagined that was the case and just as she was running out to get them a nice meal, we showed up and hauled her babies 70 miles to Knoxville. At first they might have been excited about their first road trip to the big city but as the days went on without their Mommy or any sign of food (because I keep an immaculate car--yeah right) the trip became less and less fun. They finally curled up together and died in the seat belt buckle casing. Needless to say, a major disinfecting of the car is in order. In the meantime, wipes will have to do. I just have to make myself not think about what kind of mouse party was going on in the car before their demise. Our car now smells like ass!