Cooper 4 year pictures

We finally had Cooper's 4 year pictures taken. Some of them are good, some he looks ornery! I am amazed at how grown up he looks. Where did my little boy go????

I had planned on having a couple pictures taken with both of the kids, but Maylea would NOT cooperate. This one turned out good, but this is the ONLY one that we got!!!

Salina Water Park

We went to Salina earlier this week to meet up with my cousin and her girls. They live in Yellowstone National Park and don't make it back to Kansas very often. We met up for lunch and then went to the new aquatic center that they just opened up this year. The kids had a BLAST!!!

Here you can see how much they like the water before we even get in. As we were waiting for it to open the kids played in the fountain.

Cousin Lisa and her daughter Katelyn

Grandma and Maylea on the lazy river.Cooper and Aunt Judy

Keira and her grandma Kathy

We all had an enjoyable time playing in the water, floating on the lazy river, riding the slides, etc. I think we all slept well that night.

Dentist

I took Cooper to the dentist again. I wasn't going to take any pictures of him, but he was doing SUCH A GREAT JOB that I was so proud and couldn't help myself. The hygienist actually remembered Cooper from last year and even said, "what a difference a year makes." He wasn't awful last year, just squirmy.....this year he just laid there!!!!

I am beginning to realize I am not going to take any pictures of him in this outfit again!!!!! As I put a new post on it adds to the top. If you keep looking through the posts I have put on today Cooper is wearing this outfit every time.

Cooper's 4th birthday

I didn't do anything big for Cooper's birthday this year. Our summer has been so busy, and 4th of July weekend is always a crazy one anyway. Mom, dad, Luke and Cori met us at Gayle's, Joshua's mom, house after church. We grilled some burgers and dogs and enjoyed a lunch. I had invited the rest of the family to join us for cake and ice cream around 2.

Since June, Cooper had said he wanted a John Deere tractor birthday party. Once again, both grandma's came through and make some awesome birthday cakes for Cooper. I was able to fine some plates and napkins so he was able to have the theme he wanted.

This is grandma Sheri's cake.

Cooper actually took this picture of his sister while eating lunch.

Mommy and daddy gave Cooper a JD hat.

One of Cooper's favorite gifts: a remote control "monster" truck.

I think we play with our tractor daily!

Grandma Gayle couldn't find a tractor pan so she improvised with this sheet cake. Great job grandma!!!

I should have just added the next post to this entry b/c it was all the same day......

4th of July

We didn't do anything for the 4th this year. We had plans but it rained ALL DAY and we canceled them. Around 8 that night, the rain stopped and I was finally able to talk Josh into running to get just a few fireworks for Cooper to shoot off. We ended up with a couple bags full of them. The kids sat and watched while daddy played. (Yeah, Cooper is wearing the same outfit from the Colorado pictures)

Colorado Trip

Our family along with Luke's mother and step-dad took a trip out to Colorado. Keith's, step-dad, family has a house out there and we went for a long weekend. The main purpose of this trip was for the men to do some fishing. Us ladies filled our time with other things!!!!

On Friday mom, the kids, myself, Cori and Clarissia went down to Cripple Creek to walk around. Cooper wanted his picture taken with every statue we saw.

They were getting ready for a festival that started that night and these guys were making this "big sand castle" (what Cooper said) and it really got his attention.

They have train rides that you can take threw the mountains. We didn't take the trip b/c of time, but Cooper wanted his picture taken with "Thomas".

Some group was doing a feed the mules/donkey fundraiser. For $1 you got a zip lock bag of food and it lasted forever. Both of the kids and grandma had a good time feeding them.

Friday afternoon, Joshua broke away from the men so that we could take the kids to The North Pole. This is a child friendly amusement park at the base of Pikes Peak. Cooper had a great time and Maylea was even able to ride a few with her big brother.

Cooper in line for his first ride all by himself.

Cooper getting ready for his 1st roller coaster ride. Mommy asked if she could ride with him and he said, "no mommy, I am a big boy. I want to go by myself." He loved it!!!

We took a short break from the rides to feed the "baby deer". Maylea wanted nothing to do with them. I found this odd that she enjoyed feeding the donkeys, but not the deer....strange. You can see in a few of the pictures that she is pulling away (we are trying to force her hand).

Mommy snapped a picture of the girls while waiting for the boys to get off a ride.

Before we left we stopped for a little treat. I thought for sure Cooper was going to fall asleep while sitting on the park bench holding his icecream cone. We timed the day perfectly. Just as we were heading to the van it started to rain and then it POURED!!! We got out of there just in time.