We didn't tell Cooper we'd be going to MeMaw and Poppy's house for Christmas until the day we were leaving. We left the Friday before Christmas in late afternoon. All I heard ALL DAY LONG was, "when are we going to Poppy's house? I want to go NOW. I want to see Poppy and ride on his golf cart." In the car, we weren't more than 10 minutes into our 5-7 hour drive when he said, "Can we be at Poppy's house YET?! Get me OUT of this carseat!! I want to see Poppy!" It was a loooooooong drive, to say the least.
Cooper and his Poppy
While visiting his Dad's, Nate and I took Cooper to a local park one day to play. The weather was nice, and Coop had a great time playing with us. He rode his first merry-go-round, a new addition to this park, and something you don't often see any more at playgrounds. He thought it was great!
Nate and I had a race with Coop on these little bouncy toys, and the rocket Nate chose was so small for him, and looked so funny, I just couldn't resist. Nate will have my hide when he finds I've posted this on here, but it's just too good not to share.
Cooper got to play with some of his step-cousins one day while MeMaw babysat them. Little Regan is such a cutie, and had fun playing with Cooper's boots.
On Saturday while Nate and his Dad went duck hunting, Michele and I took Cooper to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium, just down the road from their house. For some reason, I've NEVER been to this aquarium in 15 years of going to the Outer Banks. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G for such a small aquarium (small compared to Atlanta, Boston, Charleston), but amazing in it's own right, and SO CHEAP. We'll definitely be visiting again.
Here's our little hermit crab Cooper. Love it!
MeMaw and Coop outside with the sun glaring in their eyes.
Just inside the entrance, there's this beautiful waterfall that reminds me of Donut Falls in Utah. The camera flash went a little crazy, and Coop wouldn't pause for another shot, so this is all I got of it.
Yehaw--ride 'em Cooper!
The big tank was awesome with all the sharks, tarpon, striped bass, a big sea turtle, and so many other fish I'm sure I can't name them all. Coop liked watching for the sharks. We also made it in time to watch them feed the fish.
It was a feeding frenzy!
At one point Coop wanted to go back to the big tank, and he met another little boy about his age there. We were the only ones there at the time, and the two of them had a grand time running around full-speed, giggling and carrying on like little boys do. At one point Coop actually tackled the kid because (he said) they were playing football. My kid is such a BOY!
Measuring up...
Besides the hands-on exhibits where he got to touch horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, almost reach sting rays, and get his clothes and MeMaw all wet, this was his most FAVORITE thing at the aquarium...
Yes, that is the steering wheel to one of those penny smashing machines. He played on this longer than he had attention for any other exhibit. That's my Coop!
We had so much fun with MeMaw!!!
Sunday was beautiful, after being cold and rainy for a few days beforehand, so we went to Fort Macon beach with Poppy. I'd purchased a kite to fly, but Cooper wasn't interested. We tried to capture his attention with some fun "helicopter" things I'd found that you fling in the air using a big rubber band. We'v had these before and either lost/broken them, so I knew they'd be fun at the beach. Poppy had the most fun with them, I think. ;)
Cooper was as happy as ever just to play in the sand.
He enjoyed jumping on the edge of this sand drift, and collapsing it.
I asked Nate to take a picture of Cooper and I as proof that I was there too.
LOVE this!
After the beach, we visited historic Fort Macon. I could have spent all day there, but let the guys go at their own pace, which was rather quick. I took off Coop's boots to swap for shoes before we walked around the fort, and I could barely pull them off because they were PACKED FULL of sand. I mean FULL. What a kid. Thank you for having fun with us at the beach, Poppy!
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