8-Year Anniversary

It has been a wonderful 8 years of marriage.  It seems like time is passing so quickly, and it is, but when I look at the life we've built for ourselves it makes sense to me that it takes time.  We started this adventure quite some time before we got married, but I never could have imagined that after this long everything can still feel like work spent building something.  I guess that will never change, or at least I hope it never does.

We had a very nice evening this weekend as we celebrated our anniversary.  We got a small reprieve from Owen (which we broke to come home and swim with him; damn it, we do like him) and went out to a very nice and inspiring restaurant that a husband and wife duo just opened. 

It sounds cliché, but as time goes on, it just keeps getting better. As Owen gains independence, we're able to spend more quality time together and starting to rediscover how much we like each other.

Happy 5th Birthday

Our big 5-year old. My goodness how time does fly.

Owen is the funniest kid we know.  He makes friends with incredible ease.  He loves animals and bugs. He collects "treasures" (rocks, sticks, seeds) constantly, which we keep in a mason jar at the house.

He's determined, stubborn, curious, and adventurous. He jumps off the diving board of our pool; is anxious to take his new razor scooter to the skate park; and likes to come up with his own science experiments.

He absolutely loves cars and has moved on from Cars (Disney) to cars (Toyota, Maserati, Camero). He likes going with his dad to the car dealership to test drive cars. And he still can't get enough of watching race car crashes (hence the cake).

He is extra sweet when he wakes up in the morning and when getting ready for bed. He will still cuddle with his mom. When he draws pictures, it's usually of his family (mom, dad, Owen, Roland, and Nala).

We love him to pieces. Happy 5th Birthday, Little O.

Birthday Camping Trip

This year for his birthday, Owen decided he wanted to go camping and fishing instead of having a birthday party. We were more than happy to oblige.

We camped at Dead Horse State Park, which is outside of Cottonwood. It was a great campground-very quiet and a pretty landscape with lots of lizards and quails running through the campsite. We will definitely be back.

We had classic camping meals. A nice stew for dinner and pancakes and bacon for breakfast. And of course s'mores at night.

The campground had a couple lagoons for fishing. The water was getting warm so the fish were not really biting, but Owen still had a great time.

Bella caught the first fish of the trip. Can you tell how happy Owen was for her? No jealousy felt at all.

 Owen finally caught a little fish too (thank goodness!), and all was right in the world again.

There was a wonderful river close to the campsite which offered a nice reprieve from the heat. It was a perfect swimming spot. The kids and Roland loved splashing around. We let Roland off the leash for a bit and he was in heaven running through the water.

Owen found a snail in the river. The kids named him "Gary" and he hung out with us at our campsite. It was later decided that Gary probably liked the river more than our pool, so Owen and Bella took him back to his home so he could live.

When asked how the camping trip went, Owen gave it two thumbs up. He swam in a river, went fishing, cooked marshmallows over a fire, chased lizards, played for hours with his cousin, and hiked with his dog...really what more could a 5-year old ask for?

Brother from Another Mother

Last weekend, Owen had a play date with one of his closest preschool buddies. These two get along incredibly well. It helps that Little B is a very sweet little boy. The boys are really cute together and have taken to calling each other, "brother." When they say bye to each other, they say, "Good-bye brotha!" "See ya later, brotha!" It's adorable.

Owen was having an off day, so a couple meltdowns happened on this particular play date. So I did what any parent/preschool teacher would do to distract and I had them make playdoh.

Easter was still fresh on their minds so they played Easter Bunny and took turn hiding eggs around the house. This game was a hit.

(Great) Grandpa Cooper

Every year my grandfather and his buddies escape the snow of Montana and head some place warm to golf for a week. Fortunately, this year they decided to golf in the Phoenix area.

We were able to spend a couple nights together catching-up and introducing him to the deliciousness of garden burgers. We don't get to see my grandparents nearly enough, so it was wonderful getting to spend some time with just him.

Easter 2013

We had a very nice Easter this year. It was mellow, but nice.

Owen decorated the eggs on Saturday night. He wanted to paint them all by himself so needless to say, we had very faintly dyed eggs because he could not handle the anticipation of letting them soak in order to dye them bright colors.

 

The Easter Bunny hid a ton of eggs around the house this year.  The "bunny" went a little crazy because 1. in past years Owen absolutely loved searching for eggs and he found them very quickly and 2. Owen told us he knew the Easter Bunny was going to hide hundreds of eggs, and that he would even hide them in the car tires. So hide them in car tires he did. Fortunately, the dog only found three of the eggs.

Later, dressed in our Easter best, we headed down the street to a neighbor's house for a Easter party and egg hunt.

Turns out nice clothes don't last long on little boys, especially when a water balloon fight is involved.