Football Tournament in Mesquite

Football season is officially over. Last weekend our family took a trip over to Mesquite, NV for Carson's last few games. His team took 2nd place in his division. (Not bad considering they played against an "A" team.)GREAT JOB CARSON!






After the games were over we took a short detour over to Zions National Park. We have been wanting to go there for a few years now. Although you really can't experience Zions in 3 hours we gave it our best shot. I was amazed to see how beautiful it was this time of year. We will definitely go back soon...

Football and Cheerleading

Football games are now in full swing at our house. Keri cheers for the AF 7th grade teams and Carson plays for the 6th grade team. That means that Saturdays are consumed with football and cheerleading. Most of the time their games are back to back, which makes it sooooo much easier for me...
Here's a few pics from today...

1st Day of School

Well, it's hard to believe that school has started and September is already here...
Just a few pics to share...



Some of our favorites this year...
**Toms
**TI 84 Plus Calculators (Holy Cow?!?!?!)
**Mom's homemade breakfast the first day of school
**4 different schools
**Trips, trips, and more trips to Target, Office Depot, and WalMart
**Waking up early again (some days at 5:00am)
**Baseball, Football, and Cheerleading

She's Got It!

Hooray! Keri landed her standing backtuck today! She has landed it before but lost it for a little while. Now she has it again. We are so proud! Good job Keri!

Family Vacation

Last week our family got to go on a super-fabulous vacation to California. While we were there we went to Catalina Island, something we've wanted to do for a long time. the boat ride over was about 1 hour. Luckily we got seats on the upper deck so we could bask in the sun on the way there...

As soon as we got there everyone took off cayaking...

Then we got some super-yummy food at a local restaurant...

Then the kids wanted to go snorkeling at Lover's Cove...

Carson was the first one to get the hang of it. (Notice whose face is in the water already while the rest of them are just standing around talking...)

After a day at Catalina Island Mark and I took off to Laguna Beach. I love this beach...

The last few days we hung out at Bolsa Chica, which is less than 1 mile from Grammy and Grampy Cooper's house...


We couldn't leave without checking out Ruby's in Crystal Cove...

Thanks Grammy and Grampy for letting us camp out at your place. We had a blast! Our favorite memories were Carrie Underwood singing "How Great Thou Art", The Angels game, getting pedicures, flying the helicopter, "What About Bob", trying to maneuver through the US Open of surfing, tons of fun at Catalina Island, yummy pasta, too many fruit flies, sleeping in, collapsed air matresses, "the man cave", Ruby's at Seal Beach, Ruby's at Crystal Cove, "Dennis the Menace", Lover's Cove, Shaw's Cove, Laguna Beach, Bolsa Chica, and spending time with family...

Sweet Summertime...

This summer has been super busy for our family. It seems so hard to believe that during some of these times I have forgotten to bring my camera. UGH!
I just wanted to share all the sweet summer (and spring) moments we've had so far... Some of these pics were taken with my cell phone, some were given to me by awesome neighbors (Thanks Jaylee and Calli), and some the kids took themselves. And then there are the moments that flew by so fast there are no pictures to tell the story.

Hope you enjoy...

Keri's cheer team from Macs won 1st place again this year in Anaheim...

Keri earned the Freedom Falcon Award...

Carson earned the Great American Challenge...

Keri graduated from Elementary School and got to give a speech during the graduation ceremony...

Keri and Mary (her friend) won first place for their division at the Women of Steel 5K race...

Carson's baseball team got 1st place this year. (Something they waited a LONG time for)...

Cole played on the Cardinals baseball team...

Cole attended EFY at BYU in Provo and met some great friends...

Keri went to Girls Camp this year with the YW in our Ward. This was her first year!

More Girls Camp...

American Fork Cheer...

More AF Cheer...

4th of July Celebrations at the Bee's stadium...

Swimming at Aunt Jenny's pool...

Cole went on trek this year...("Together We Stand, Never Alone")

There's still a few weeks left of summer. Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in many more sweet moments. For now, I need to go clean my messy house. TTFN...

Theme Song

40 years? This is my new theme song for the next 40 years. Just thought I'd share...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Since it hurts to talk (after having surgery) I decided now would be a good time to get caught up on our blogging. Some of the next posts might not make a lot of sense because I'm still on drugs. But hopefully you can get a good laugh and see what we've been up to lately. Prepare yourself for a long marathon of Cooper Updates. Hope you enjoy! More posts to follow...

Cole's 15th Birthday!

On December 28th Cole turned 15! Holy Cow! Where has the time gone?!?!?!?!
We waited until Mark got off work and then celebrated with cake and candles and a Bon Jovi surprise!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE!!!

Our Christmas!

This year for Christmas it was just our little family. We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Celeste's house playing games and having fun. (Thanks Aunt Celeste! :+)But on Christmas Day it was just the 5 of us! This year we got to sleep in until 8:00am. How sweet it is to have older children who let you sleep past 4:00am. (How how I remember the days.) The whole morning was spent opening presents and enjoying each other's company.






And then the rest of the day was spent setting up all the technology...

Fun Times in Vegas

While we were in Vegas Grammy and Grampy took us to the Lion Exhibit at the MGM Grand and the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. The Shark Reef helps kids develop a sense of wonderment and responsibilty for the earth's Marine environment. I love the quote, "In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." Going to the aquarium helped us to understand how important the marine environment is here on earth.
Here are just a few pictures from there...




Yes, that really is Keri touching a stingray. It just so happens to be the same kind that stung her in California just a year and a half ago.