Easter Weekend and Such

The last few weeks have been fun, but crazy busy. Amongst all the goings-on, Cooper received several packages from far away family. Here he is in an outfit from Nana. The first shorts he has ever worn. Too cute. And the saying on the overalls is SO TRUE. The kid never stops.

Last weekend we had a last-minute opportunity to go rent a cabin near Helen, GA with a bunch of friends. They called us Friday morning (I think someone who was supposed to go dropped out), and we left Friday afternoon at 3:30. It was crazy to do something spontaneous like that with a little one, but I was glad for the break.

The "cabin" was a lot like the one we stayed in before, fully equipped with a ton of bedrooms; a hot tub; pool table; grill; and a fun pond just steps from the front door, with paddle boats, a fishing dock, and a canoe. The cabin even had satellite tv, so we were able to watch General Conference on tv, which beat the internet viewing we would have had at home. We went with 3 other families: 8 adults and 9 kids, the kids ranging in age from 7 to 6 months. It was a house full of crazy fun.

Here is Cooper on the shore of the pond with his friend Gwen, deciding whether he liked sitting on the grass. Pretty soon he not only liked sitting on it, but pulling up fistfulls and stuffing them in his mouth. This was the first time he got dirt under his fingernails.

Nathan had enjoyed a morning of fly fishing in some local rivers, and that afternoon showed the dads how to help the kids catch fish. He helped most of the big kids successfully catch a fish. They were all excited.

Here is Cooper "fishing" with his Dad for the first time.

Priceless.

We went into Helen Saturday afternoon for a round of mini-golf. Here's Cooper and his Dad excited about the game. Do I note a little sarcasm in Nathan's expression?

Even Mom got to enjoy the fun.

Sunday morning before Conference, we all hiked to Ruby Anna Falls. Our mountain vacation wouldn't have been complete without visiting a waterfall! (It's become a accidental tradition that we joke about since it seems every hike we go on is to a waterfall.) Cooper was more interested in the sticker on my shirt than the waterfall.

Father and son.

Um, hello! Dropping the baby--not funny.

It was too dirty to let Cooper crawl around on the boardwalk at the waterfall, so I was holding him up by his hands, and...voila! He started full on walking. This was a very exciting discovery for him.

Now he loves to walk around all the time, holding our fingers.

He is fast learning how to get into things. Here he is helping me do the dishes. Notice how he is sitting on his heels. This is his most common position now besides crawling. Rather than sit down all the way, he just sits back on his heels to play. This morning he crawled over to the toy bin in our tv room, pulled up to it, and sat back on his knees/heels, pulling the toys out. There is just no stopping this kid.

On another note, Coop has been sick all week full with fever, cough, congestion, puss in his eyes--the works. That has been rough on us all. The culprit--his top two front teeth are coming in. So the tooth total is fast approaching six. What a kid.