Cole's Court of Honor

Cole advanced to the rank of "star" in the Boy Scout Program. We are VERY proud of Cole and all the hard work he has done to achieve this rank! He also earned 8 additional merit badges. Way to go!!!

Crazy California Trip

Last week our family went to Huntington Beach to visit Mark's parents and to spend time together as a family...

I have great memories of my childhood summers, going to the Jersey Shore and spending time with my family. Every year we would take a trip to New Jersey for a week and stay at my Aunt's condo. It was heavenly to sit on the beach all day and walk the boardwalk at night. Seeing my children love the beach as much as I did as a child warms my heart. I asked them several times if they would want to go to Disneyland or the beach and every single time they all said,"THE BEACH!"

So we left our home in Highland and headed for the California beach...



Our first day there Keri and I spent a perfect day at the beach together just soaking up the sun...



While we were soaking up the sun the boys went to an Angels game with Grampy and Dad.
There was a little bit of rivalry going on now that Cole is a Yankees fan. But they kept it a clean game...:)




Every day we took walks on the beach at night...



The kids learned how to ride the waves with a little help from Grampy...





We built sandcastles...



Took naps...



Ate at Rubys...



Found a starfish family...



Flew kites...





And caught crabs...




But during the last 10 minutes of the last day of our trip, Keri got stung by a stingray. We had to take her to lifeguard headquarters and they had her soak her foot in HOT water for over an hour...




That put us behind schedule driving back home. We hit all the traffic going from California to Vegas. Ugh!! We ended up driving all night. But it was so worth it to be able to experience California during the summer. Thanks Grammy and Grampy for some awesome memories and for letting us invade your home for a whole week. Hope we didn't remind you of "fish" too much. We love you!!!

P.S. The lizard never made it home. He escaped in our garage about a week before we left. He's probably in the field out back somewhere grateful he's free of the Cooper family, especially Mark and Carson.

4th of July

This summer is goin by so fast!! I finally have time to catch my breath and post...
The 4th of July was a blast. We went over to Aunt Celeste's house for a great dinner and then we went to the Bees game. It's turning out to be a family tradition. One I'm sure the boys will love every year, now that they consider themselves baseball players. Carson was so cute at the game. Within 1/2 hour of the game he knew all the players and their records. It made watching the game a little bit more fun for me.