La Trip to Texas

Okay, so these pictures are a little backwards, but you understand...

These are the infamous laptops. So many people coming together who are still in school/work/I don't know what, there were a lot of laptops. Kind of funny. After a visit to the River Walk, we found this really neat little plaza area with water spouts. I don't know if kids were allowed to play in it, but we started a whole slew of kids playing in it. :) Being a kid is so cool.

We went to Sea World, which I was afraid would be insane, but it ended up being awesome. We had plenty to do and the kids never seemed bored. They do however HATE roller coasters. I took them on this little one and they both were in tears after the first 10 seconds. All the other kids on the ride were trying to help them feel better, but to no avail. Josh was okay with the carousel, but Caleb, no way. So maybe, someday when they are older they will learn to love them. I for one was sad I couldn't go. But as Hannah said, it is my fault I got pregnant. :)

Watching the coolest show ever with a beluga whale and dolphins. Note Caleb's hair mixed with sunscreen, very cool. Sorry, I totally cut off Tyson's face.

On the boat on the River Walk. I think that might have been the highlight of the trip for me. The boys were happy and Tyson and I loved it too.

The Alamo.

My crazy handsome guy at the River Walk.

It was really nice to go to the temple with Mom and Dad Cooper and Cassie. Thank you Katie, Josh and Zach for watching the boys. It was really nice to not have to drive 3 1/2 hours to get to the temple. (Note in the pic you can see the tiny/not so tiny baby bump)

While Tyson was in San Diego presenting at a conference, we all went to North Padre Island. The beach was so neat! The seagulls were super friendly which the boys loved. Well, they actually weren't friendly until you had food, which Dad Cooper discovered and would put food on our heads and then suddenly we would be attacked by a swooping gull. That turkey of a father in law I have. :)

Caleb chased the gulls around for a good 15 minutes. He LOVED them and really wanted to hold one I think. I am so thankful they weren't too interested in him. :)

Josh got pretty close to this really pretty crane (at least I think that is what it is).

Gotta love these boys. I did love that Josh refused to take off his pajamas that morning.

Hannah took Josh surfing at this cool statue Mom Cooper found.

I think this was Josh's favorite part of the trip. At the hotel we stayed at in North Padre, there was this closet that Josh claimed as his office. He had the unplugged phone, pen and paper and his blanket. He was set. Caleb loved to try and get in, but it was closed to visitors most of the time. :)

Caleb sporting this random green hat and climbing up and down the stairs, his favorite activity of the trip. His least favorite thing: falling down the stairs. I was about to say drinking some of Mom Cooper's stop pain medicine, but he did like that. It took away any teething pain. :) That was my first experience calling poison control, luckily Mom Cooper did it for me.

Waiting at the airport to go to Grandma and Grandpa's. The boys did really well waiting and traveling, for which I am still very thankful.

Uncle Zach took this picture I think right after Josh pulled the filing cabinet on himself, right before we left for the ER. This picture is super cute.

The ER trip was the only unpleasant part of the trip and sadly it happened right before we left so I didn't give very good goodbyes. Josh got three stitches on his lip and I had to hold him down while they did it. It was a really good experience for me, to be brave and ask questions when I didn't have Tyson there to help me. (he stayed to pack and take care of Caleb) Mom Cooper and Zach were there which was awesome, but only one person could go back with Josh to get the stitches. Josh now says he wants the stitches back in, I think that he enjoyed the attention way too much. :)

It was a great trip and I am so glad we got to go. It was busy and wonderful and I wish I had taken more pictures!

Hershey, PA...our fifth honeymoon

This was after the freakiest roller coaster, it went up to 60 mph I think. I was barefoot, with my feet dangling, ahh! So cool!

What a hunk of chocolate I get to have with me everday. :)

Our hotel room (with the one green door-haha) was pretty big for not much money. Huzza!

These are flowers from Tyson from a few weeks ago, I just thought I would add them here because Tyson is so wonderful. Everyone should know how lucky I am.

So every year Tyson and I try to get away at least once by ourselves.

Summer '06: actual honeymoon

Summer '07: camping for our anniversary

Fall '07: Jamestown

Summer '09: Staunton, VA for our anniversary

Fall '10: Hershey, PA

Tyson has been to Hershey before, otherwise I would have never heard of it. So we have both been dying to go since we got married. We finally just decided go we must and it would be way more fun, at least in most ways, without the kids. This past weekend we went. I was terrified to leave the kids, afraid of everything that could go wrong, afraid they would be hopeless without me. I'm not very good about leaving my kids with other people. I kind of micro-manage everything the kids do and I like to do it my way. So it is hard for me to trust that other people can watch my kids just fine and it won't kill them to not have me around 24-7, in fact, they probably need it every once in awhile. So we left. Thank you Jordan (and Jake and Conner), Becca (and Trent, Ethnie and Leo), Cassie (and Seth and Tori), Kenni and Chris (and Zuri and Kelso), and Chanson (and your apple cider)!

We had a GREAT time, I LOVED it. I became the old Cami, the one that is fun and happy and crazy. We cracked jokes the whole time and it was so nice to be free for a little while. It was weird feeling "adrift" with no responsiblities, but nice for a few days. We went to a really neat resturaunt called the Hershey Pantry, I loved the food.

Hershey Park was SOOOO cool. I started crying after the first roller coaster because I realized that I extremely dislike roller coasters. Once my brother KJ only got me to go on a roller coaster with him by promising to get one of his friends to kiss me. Haha, but anyways...so Tyson got me to go on one more and then I was hooked. I became an adrenaline junky. I wanted to go on all the roller coasters from then on. Lucky for Tyson time and exhaustion didn't allow it. But everyone should go to Hershey at least once, it was seriously a blast. It was nice to get home to the kids, but after a few hours of their crankiness, I was ready to go away again. :) Thanks Hunny Bunches for taking me to the sweetest place on Earth!

Traveling

So I am currently 3 thousand miles away from my home and husband and missing it terribly. I am visiting Tyson's family, and then I fly to visit my family too, then fly back home. Wow, let me tell you, traveling with an 18 month old and being 5 months pregnant is not really my cup of tea. I have vowed to never travel with children by myself ever ever again. Josh was a real trooper and didn't yell and scream or anything, but he was so wiggly and so tired and sick of being cramped in small spaces or in large airports with so many wonderful things to see that I just wouldn't let him explore. Tyson prayed that people all around me would help me and be kind to me. And the Lord was listening because there were so many people that were so nice. There were others that were not so much. These two women in front of me kept turning around and glaring at me every time Josh moved or talked or anything. And one time he reached up and grabbed her seat and accidentally grabbed a couple strands of her hair and she screamed, no joke, and then the lady next to her turned around and glared at me with a look that said "Obviously you are a single mom or a very bad mom because you can't even control your child for a few hours." Man, if I didn't love my kid so much, I would have handed him up to them and said, "fine, you take care of him if you are such experts." But then I got to thinking that maybe they just forgot what it is like to be a kid and maybe they had just been to a funeral or something and they just weren't happy. So I am trying hard not to hold a permanant grudge. :)

But then there are other people like the lady that sat next to me that let Josh play with her back pack and eat half of her bag of cheetos. She told me she had 3 kids and knew what it was like. She made the whole ordeal so much better. I'm pretty sure she is an angel. Then this other guy kept pulling stuff out of his briefcase for Josh to play with. It was so nice. I just don't know if they could ever know how much that meant to me. I hope they are readily blessed with anything they ever need.

So when I finally got here, it was such a relief to have Tyson's family standing there right past security waiting for us. Josh is loving them and all the attention, I doubt he will like going back home. He does miss his Daddy though. He woke up this morning and looked around and said "Where Da?" I pretty much bawled. I miss Tyson so much. Some people think it is pathetic I get so sad being away from him for a few weeks, but to me it feels like a million years. I am just thankful Tyson's parents don't care that I call him 3 to 4 times a day on their phone and talk forever. It is kind of fun though, I feel like we are engaged again because that was how it was then since we were apart almost the whole time. I just still miss him like crazy and really don't like sleeping without him, it is so terribly lonely. I don't know how I did it for the first 21 years of my life.

But anyways, the traveling part is not so very fun, but I am glad I came and I love being here. The weather is so perfect and the food is great and I love watching Tyson's parents and how much they adore each other. It is fun especially since Tyson looks so much like his Dad and I watch his parents and think, "Tyson and I will look like that in 20 or so years" and I can't wait. I am excited to spend more time with them and excited to see my family and hang out with them. And I can't wait to be back home with my Hunny Bunches again.

The Utah Trip

So this past weekend we tra la la-ed to Utah land. Tyson's best friend, Andrew (I am his bestest friend, so it is okay) got married to a cute girl named Genna. We had quite a lot of fun, but there was not enough time to visit all the people we wanted to and not enough warmth to stay outside. It was really warm when we first got there and we got to go fly a Nemo kite with KJ and Courtney, Josh had a blast trying to run down the Rock Canyon bowl. It was so funny seeing him love the park that I loved as a kid too. True, I was not quite as young, but still, a lot of time has gone by. Josh loved KJ and Court and of course their dog, Sally. He conquered his fears of big dogs and let Sally lick his hand like every five seconds because he would run to the sliding glass door and just sit there waiting for her to come. He now runs around the house panting, pretending he is a dog. He creates enough of a mess to be one too. :)

I shall name a few of the adventures we got to experience in our five day travels:
-go to Kneader's (thanks to Susan). I love that place and have craved it every day since. Alas, we live in the Ozarks.
-Thanksgiving Point for the wedding dinner. Yummy food and the little boy Max that Josh ran around with, trying to trip waiters and almost succeeding on several occasions.
-Timpanogos Temple for the wedding. Beautiful. The sealer was so sweet and so soft spoken. I'm not sure which was my favorite part, the sealer telling them to kiss again or the old man behind us that kept practically yelling "I can't hear a darn thing that man is saying, can't he speak louder?"
-The gorgeous reception with Italian sodas, chocolate covered strawberries (one of which Josh ate all of, stem and everything), fun dancing and every good thing.
-The air plane ride with the 3 year old, Ethan, that sat in front of us and turned around to talk to Josh every few minutes. When everyone was deboarding, his mom carried him off and he yelled back to us "IT WAS NICE TO MEEEEEEET YOU!" I have never laughed so hard on a plane.
-Waking up every morning to animal crackers all over the floor and Josh calling someone else on my phone at 5 AM.
-Coldstone. I had mint ice cream with gummy bears, an absolute favorite.
-Too much traffic for my liking. When did Provo/Orem get so big?
-We got to drive an Escalade the whole time we were there. It was sweet. As Tyson says "Who cares if you make a wrong turn and look stupid? You are driving an Escalade!"

Anyways, we didn't take too many pictures, so I shall have to get some from Kage and Court. But Josh is crying now and wants to get out of his crib, surprise, surprise. Moral of the story: It was a great trip, nice to spend time with my brother and his wife, and really nice to have five complete days with Tyson.