Before the You Know What

I just wanted to share some pics from our visit to St. George, UT. We had a fun and relaxing visit and I'm so happy we decided to go so last minute (despite the repercussions ).

Here are the thoughts that come to mind when I think about our visit:
sprinkler time, grass, hose time, 4th of July parade in Hurricane, pancake breakfast in Virgin Town, farmer's market in Springdale, people watching in small town UT, petting zoo, pool time, playing pickle ball (love it), golfing, tearing gma and gpa's house apart (and them not caring), Simon the Cat(Piggy and Tess too), dirt, cruisin' in the golf cart, pedicures, good food, popsicles, taking time to watch MJ's memorial (Cooper was really broken up about the whole tragedy and insisted on watching), relaxation, spending time with family, on demand babysitters, and AMY AND MARK'S 1st DATE SINCE APRIL 18, 2008!!!

Piggies Storytime

Pickle Ball

Riveted :)

Cheese!

Thanks Gma and Gpa for a wonderful time and for making us feel right at home.

Love, Coop, Mark and Amous

Our Day

A little glimpse at our day yesterday:

• Drive 45 minutes from the cabin to the house to drop the doggies off. Targhee runs off and tries to get into our not so friendly neighbor's pool house. Contractors are ever so patiently waiting in our driveway for me to let them in. Already running late for Cooper's 15 month check up.
• Drive 45 minutes (and arrive late) to Coop's appt. Poor little guy get 2 shots and now realizes the jig is up. He's totally on to the nurses and immediately screams when they put him on the scale. Mom asks the normal questions that the doc has probably heard a million times. Coop's stats; Weight-21lbs 14oz./Length-31.5 inches/Head circumference 47cm (I bet you were dying to know about the size of Coop's cranium).
• Drive back to ground zero to check on the dogs. They hang out on our screened in porch at the house because I don't trust them to leave them alone at the cabin. Coop and I join them on the porch while the demolition continues inside. Coop tries to figure out why he can't go inside.
• Drive back to the cabin (dogs in tow) and start preparing for the evening routine. As dinner is cooking on the stove, Cooper and I play on the back deck.
• Cooper gets stung by a wasp on his ear. I grab him, put an alcohol swab on the bite (thank-God those were in the diaper bag), give him a squirt of Benadryl. Cooper screams bloody murder.
• Cooper's ear quickly swells about 3 times the size of his other ear. I take a deep breath, turn off stove and put dinner (still in the pot) in the sink~thinking to myself there's no way the dogs can reach this sink.
• Cooper and I drive to the Emergency Room. Side note-I'm very allergic to bees. I'm also freaking out about all the stuff Coop now has in his system: 2 immunizations, Tylenol as a fever reducer because of the shots, Benadryl and now WASP venom.
• We wait in the very crowded ER waiting room as Coop begins to feel the effects of the benadryl. He could care less about the drunk lady sitting next to us because he is now drunk too.
• We finally see a doc and I notice that pretty much all the swelling has gone down, Coop has no labored breathing and we just experienced our 1st (of probably many) trips to the ER because Mom has overreacted.
• Doc "humors" Mom and tells me he would have done the same thing. It's better to error on the side caution (blah, blah, blah). His way of trying to make me not feel like a overreacting mother.
• Coop and I finally make it back home. Coop is sacked out in my arms, dogs are sacked out on the floor and the dinner that was left in the sink is gone. I guess they figured it would have gone bad and didn't want it to go to waste. How very thoughtful of them. Turns out they could reach the sink. Who knew?

In a nutshell .....

Home is where the heart is right? That is what I keep telling myself. We've had quite a bit going on since my last post. We decided on June 29th to be very spontaneous. That hasn't happened much lately as we try to keep consistency for the little man but we decided a vacation would be good for all of us. Mark had 2 weeks off over the 4th of July holiday so we checked on last minute airfare and availability to kennel the dogs and flew out the next morning to Utah to visit my parents in St. George. We had an incredible 9 day vacation and awesome bonding time with Grandma and Grandpa. We even managed to survive the 100+ temperatures and desert heat (that still beats humidity as far as I'm concerned).

That's where everything takes a turn for the worse (or worst, I never know which is correct). Sometime during the course of our 9 day vacation, our washer hose snapped causing water to spew, gush, surge (you get the point) EVERYWHERE.

We were so anxious to come home after a long day of traveling and couldn't wait to let Cooper run around after being Cooped (no pun intended) up on a plane all day. Needless to say, Coop wasn't able to do any running around. His swim lessons sure could have come in handy.

Basically, we're looking at a complete remodel to the main floor and part of the basement. Our house is unlivable and it's been quite a nightmare trying to find pet friendly and kid friendly accommodations. Not a good combo. Most hotels that allow dogs aren't very suitable for little boys that like to touch and lick everything~ICK. Luckily, after 3 nights in icky pet friendy (translation: pee stained--not from our pets) hotels, our insurance put us up in a cabin for the next little while.

I've been commuting between the house and the cabin with Coop and the doggies dealing with cleanup crews, contractors, duct cleaners, flooring guys, dumpster deliveries. The hardest part is keeping consistency for Cooper. He is being such a trooper and so are the doggies. Oh, and did I mention Mark left yesterday to burn in FL? Hopefully he’ll be home next week.

I'll try to post construction updates and pics when I can. Mainly so we can look back on this one day and laugh (ha, ha) and so that we can show Coop what happens when you don't turn your water off or have anyone check on your home when you go on vacation.

Summertime Fun (cont.)

Guess whose been playing with Windows Movie Maker again? I'll give you a clue. Her name rhymes with ShmAMY or ShMOM. We have tons of video footage which means a whole lot of nothingness combined with a whole lot of cuteness. Yes, anyone who tries to capture things on film knows that the exciting stuff always happens before the video camera is on the scene. It never fails, you have the perfect "send it off to America's Funniest Home Videos" moment and then out comes the camera and NOTHING~insert sounds of crickets chirping~. Kids are very sneaky that way. I think its all a conspiracy to help prevent their mother from putting embarrassing footage on Blogger, Facebook, YouTUBE etc. because you know babies are well aware of the dangers of the world wide web. With that said, I've been playing around with Movie Maker and thought that I could edit, crop and even add music to spice things up a bit. I'm not so sure if it made things more interesting and exciting but at least I got some practice at editing. I don't think I'll be submitting anything into the Sundance Film Festival anytime soon. WARNING~enter video at your own risk. I decided to post this mainly for Coop's Grandparents who might not mind watching a slow moving video montage with some cuteness mixed in.


I also wanted to show off Coop's new wheels. We decided he needed a wagon to roll around our mountain on. As you can tell in the video, he didn't quite know what to think at first. I honestly think he had more fun with it inside pushing it around and banging it into the furniture. Hence, it has now become an outside toy. Side note: Truly, I think DAD wanted a new shiny red Radio Flyer wagon. He couldn't take it out of the box fast enough. Next thing you know, he's going to try and tell me that Coop's wagon needs a lift kit put on it.

Summertime Fun

Hello Summer! Lately, we've been enjoying showing Coop the ropes of summer and all that it has to offer. We've also tried our best to find ways to stay cool as the heat and humidity have kicked in big time. Not much to report as of late. Coop finished his swim lessons this week and passed with flying colors. It didn't take much to "pass" considering we just splashed around while singing nursery rhymes but a pass is a pass. Now how 'bout some pics............

What kid doesn't love Popsicles? An evening dip in the river

No Paparazzi!

Really Mom, enough with the pics

Fine...last one

Thanks for the Hawaiian duds Auntie Z! We hope all of our friends and family are enjoying their summer. We wish we could suck on popsicles, dip in the river, bbq and enjoy summertime fun with you all!

My Dad

Dear Dad,

Thanks for all that you do for me (and the doggies). We're so lucky to have you. I can't wait for all the fun adventures I have planned for us. There's lots of fun heading our way!!!

Father's Day 2008
Father's Day 2009

Hoppy Father's Day (Dad's Hops)

Love,

Cooper

Targhee & Kokanee

Walking

It's official, Cooper is now a Walk Star. He's been holding out on us for quite awhile, but the moment has finally arrived. He still crawls when he needs to get somewhere in a hurry. The kid definitely knows what walking is all about. I think a helmet might be in order. Yikes, watch out world...HERE COMES COOPER!!!!