Date Night

Nate and I had a great date night going to Spokane to see Keith Urban in concert. My mom came up from Boise to stay with the boys. We ate dinner at Winger's. Very romantic I know. The Winger's where we live has been closed for almost a year because of a fire. It sounded so good to both of us. After dinner we went to the Spokane Arena. We had great seats in row B. Unfortunately we were so close we had to stand most of the time. It was still fun. He sang on the main stage, a little stage directly in front of us for about 4 songs, and then they set up a table in the audience about 3 rows above where we were. So we jumped the seats and got closer. We were about 10 feet from him. It was awesome. A very late night out for us. We got home at about 1:15am. We would have loved to stay the night, but Nate had to work the next day. Thanks mom for watching the boys for us and Jean and Greg for an Awesome birthday gift. Love you all.


There he is! He was so sweaty, but very cute. He had a very nice rear end. :)

New York

I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a trip to New York with my mother-in-law, Nate's Aunt and Cousin. Nate took a week off to stay home with the boys. The boys thoroughly enjoyed it. They went fishing, Coop started pre-school, they went to the water park with friends, Nate attended playgroup with all the moms. went to discovery center and played the role as a stay at home parent. He did a great job. I thank him so much for letting me go, it was a lot of fun. Traveling was the hardest part, but I didn't sick flying.

Charlie's fish that he caught at Spring Valley. This trout is about as big as he is. Charlie caught eight fish with daddy's help.


Here is the fish Cooper caught. They went fishing two days in a row. Cooper caught 18 fish.

Day 1-I left the house at 4:30 am and made it to New York at 1:30am. It was the longest day ever. I survived though. My plane was rerouted and I ended up with an extra 6 hour layover. I only got about 4 hours of sleep this night before we got up to take hour tour.

The signs were HUGE!


Day 2-We went on a tour bus to see the sights of the city. It included a one hour cruise that went up close to The Statue the Liberty. It was amazing! We also got to go under the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. At the end of the cruise we went to the top of the rock and saw an amazing view of the city. We saw ground zero, the Trump Tower, walked in the World Financial Center, walked through part of Central Park, went to the Historic St. Paul's Chapel and much more.

Here we are on our Taxi Cruise. It was a fun little ride.

Here I am at the Top of the Rock with the Empire State Building in the background.


Day 3-We went to The Museum of Natural History. It was huge. We spent most of the day going through four floors of exhibits. We saw the space show in the Planetarium that was narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. After the exhibit Jean and I walked over to central park. We took a little bike taxi tour, but would not recommend it. It is much easier to walk and you get around almost just as fast. For dinner we went to Little Italy which was a lot of fun. We walked through China Town to get there. What a difference from China town and turning the corner to Little Italy. After dinner we went to the Empire State Building. There was a not a wait at all. It was an awesome view at night! I had to skip out on the Skyride because I am pregnant, but that was okay.


Here we are getting ripped off. The bike tour guy told us it would take about 40 minutes to walk to where we were going and it would have taken really about 5 minutes. Don't waste your money on these.

Dinner in Little Italy. It was so much fun!

Day 4 -Jean and I stood in line for three hours to see Whitney Houston. We got pictures with Cameron Matheson (he was on Dancing With the Stars and is on the soap opera All My Children). We had a great time surrounded by the 5K people. We met up with Aunt Sue and Tara at the MET in the afternoon. We saw the Naked Cowboy on the way back to the hotel. That was quite the sight. He was very creepy. That evening we went and saw the Broadway Show Wicked and ate at Joe's Steakhouse. It was Amazing! This was Cooper's first day of school, I was sad to miss it. He had a great time though.


There she is. She did really well and her interview with Diane and Robin was good. Her daughter even sang a song with her on stage.

The Naked Cowboy. I can't believe I got my picture taken with this man. CREEPY!


Here we are after the show. It was AWESOME!

Day 5-We made it on the Today Show, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty. The boat ride made me very ill. Ellis Island was one of my favorite parts as well as the Statue of Liberty. After dinner we went to the Seinfeld Comedy Club. We were hoping he would show up, but he didn't. He came in the Wednesday before we were there. Parts were funny, but it was a little nasty. The host bought Jean a cosmopolitan which was funny. I probably would have had more fun if I could have had a few drinks. The disadvantage of being pregnant, but that was okay.



The entryway to Ellis Island.

Day 6-I made it in the studio for Good Morning America. There were about 30 of us. I got my picture taken with Diane and Robin as well as Jason Bateman. It was fun to see them filming on TV and the whole process they go through to make the morning show happen. I also made it on TV again. That was fun. I didn't have tickets to get in the studio, but the security guy out front let me to the front of the line. We showed up the day before to see them, but they weren't filming because of the Whitney Houston show the day before. He said to come back the next day at 6:30am and I did and he led me to the front. It was awesome! Love GMA! We enjoyed the Wax Museum, enjoyed our Mexican lunch in Grand Central Station, going to the BODIES Museum, and seeing the Lion King on Broadway. We were on the aisle where all the characters came in, which was pretty cool to see.

Day 7 was our last day in NYC. I was very tired, it was hard for me to walk and keep up with all the girls as we went through the Subway. We walked central park and went to the zoo. I had to skip afternoon shopping because I was so tired, so I went back and took a nap for a couple hours. I felt much better.


Walking through the mall as they call it in Central Park. There were many sights in Central Park. We ate lunch at the Boathouse, overlooking the water. It was really pretty.


NYC Baby!

Day 8 I traveled home. I left the hotel at about 5:45am and made it home by 6:30pm. traveling home went much better than on the way there. Every flight got in early. I had a five hour layover in Boise, which was awesome. Mom and dad picked me up at the airport and mom even did all my laundry. What a mom! It was fun to see them and my grandpa. Love them all! Thanks for the great trip Jean, Aunt Sue and Tara. I was so excited to see my boys and very emotional.

Our Little Athlete

Cooper has been quite the little athlete this summer. He played in his second season of T-ball. He did very well and was able to play pretty much on his own this year with very little assistance. It was very nice to be able to sit back and watch. He was actively involved and had a great time.

Cooper running to first base. We love the open mouth expression as he runs. :)


Batter up.


Micro Soccer started last week. They started games before they had their first practice, so Cooper jumped right into real soccer. It was completely different from last years soccer where they just practiced. It took Cooper about 10 minutes to get into the game, but once he got in there and played he loved it. He scored a goal the first game, but it happened to be in the opponents goal. It was about 90 degrees out, which did not feel like soccer weather. The second game he scored a goal in the correct goal. He was so excited. He ran over and said, "Mom did you see me score that touchdown." It was pretty cute. Dad missed seeing it by about 5 minutes. Darn it. The third day of soccer was practice and Cooper participated, but kept saying he wanted to play in a real game. He has a great time out their on the field and he can burns lots of energy doing it.
They play four on four. This game can be very violent at times, but it is so much fun to watch.


Cooper warming up.

Nate's 10-Year Reunion

We had a great time at Nate's 10- year reunion. I drove down a few days before Nate so we could see my brother before he moved to California. Then Nate was going to fly down. Well, he ended up missing his flight and had to drive down. He said it took about five hours for him to cool down. He made it. We went to the dinner Friday evening. It was great to see everyone. We haven't seen most of them in 10 years. We stayed out until 2:30am. It was a very late night. Nanni and Boppi Owen watched the boys and we thank them so much for doing that. We picked the boys up the next morning.

On Saturday we went to the family picnic. The boys enjoyed playing in the jump house with all the other children. Cooper and Tyler (Eric and Jana's boy) had a great time playing with each other.

Enjoying lunch with friends Eric, Jana, and Tyler Danielson.

Jennifer, Albert, and Abby Ayala.

And here we are enjoying our meal. It was a fun weekend.

Expecting!

We have some very exciting news! Megan is expecting. The baby is due early February. The boys are excited to be big brothers. Everything is going well so far. She has been a little nauseated and tired. We are excited to meet this new little baby. We plan on finding out the sex and we will keep you all updated. :)

Glacier National Park

The boys and Megan went on a little adventure to Flathead Lake in Polson, Montana and then onto Glacier National Park for a week. We met up with some family. We had a very nice time. The boys loved the playgrounds in the RV parks. We stayed in a hotel the first night at Flathead Lake and then in a cabin near Glacier. We saw a ton of wildlife. We saw two black bears, a grizzly bear, a coyote, and about six mountain goats. We a boat ride one day and it only rained on us a little bit. :)

Swimming Lessons

The boys are enjoying swimming lessons so much. Cooper goes twice a week and Charlie goes once a week. Charlie is in the clown fish class where he has to have a parent with him. We sing a lot of songs in his class. He really enjoys it. Cooper is in the tadpole class and really enjoys it. He does the back float, the front float, blows bubbles, gets to be on his teachers back, hold on and go completely under the water. He is very comfortable in the water. They practice kicking with a big marshmallow stick. They get to jump in (both boys love this), and they have to get themselves out by hanging on the side and climbing the wall to get out. It was hard for Coop at first, but he can do it now. The teacher recommended that he moves up to the next level, which is Turtle. We are very proud of him. Cooper has 7 more lessons. Charlie goes for about 8 more weeks. He gets to go as many times as his brother, but only once a week. Swimming is so much fun!