Cooper Reunion in Washington, DC

Every 2 1/2 to 3 years Grants family has a reunion with his 4 siblings (and their families) and his parents.  This reunion was held in Washington, DC over Thanksgiving break.  It was a long drive to get there but we stopped at my parents house (just a little out of the way) to split up the trip and spend some extra time with them.  There house was a welcomed stop on the way there and on the way back.  I actually talked my mom into going after thanksgiving shopping with me on the way back and that is an experience I will never forget :)  Hanging out with my mom at 2 in the morning was so much fun!

My favorite part of the reunion by far was getting to go to the Washington, DC temple with everyone!  It was definitely a special place to get to be with family!

I found that I didn't take that many pictures with my camera while on the reunion cause I was just so busy keeping track of the kids.  A few of the ones I took are posted below.  Most of them are in museums and checking out the sites.  I don't know if Washington, DC is the best place to take little kids but it was still fun to see family.

 Coral, cousin Hannah, and Shelbie

 Fisher nd Shelbie

 Miles being goofy as usual!  This is one of the only pictures that I got with Miles in it cause he was hanging out with his older boy cousins, Tanner and Dalton, a lot of the time.

 Miles, cousin Jackson, and Fisher

 Shelbie above and Coral below in the Air and Space Museum

 We walked so much that the kids were begging to sit down just for a few minutes.

Fisher asleep in the stroller and Coral and Shelbie hanging out on a huge statue of Albert Einstein.

The whole family in front of The Capital Building.  Notice that Coral is actually asleep in the bottom of the stroller.

Christmas Card Photoshoot

I needed some pictures of the kids together for my Christmas card this year so I just took the kids to the back yard in early November.  I got pretty lucky and they all cooperated long enough, about 5 minutes, to get some cute pictures.  The one in the hammock of all of them is the one I put on the front of the card and then I put one of each of them individually on the back of the card.
I sure do love these crazy kids!

Happy Halloween!

Every year the kids get lucky and get to go trick or treating twice.  First to the church's Halloween activities and trunk or treat, and then trick or treating around our neighborhood.  This year I just took the oldest three around the neighborhood while Grant stayed home with Fisher and put him to bed.  Don't feel to bad for him cause he had plenty of candy and treats at the church party!

 In the above picture you will notice Fishers lack of a costume, however, that is not because I didn't get him one it was because he refused to where it!

 Fisher eating cookies and lollipops :)

I thought Miles looked pretty cool in his skeleton costume! 

Coral decided to change her costume and go as a princess when we went around our neighborhood.

Quiet...

Whenever it gets to quiet in the house I always wonder what trouble the kids are getting in to (especially the younger 2).  On this particular day I went looking for Fisher to see why he was so quiet and found him trying to do the leapster.  I thought it was so sweet that I had to get a picture.

PK Yonge Fall Carnival

Every year Miles and Shelbi's school has there fall carnival and off course we have to go.  I always get the kids a certain number of tickets and then they have to decide which booths they are going to do with their tickets cause they don't have enough to do all of them.  Shelbie and Coral decided to get their faces painted.  Shelbie went all out and they turned her into a dog :)

 Fisher did pretty well in the stroller most of the time.  All the kids used their tickets to climb the rock wall.  Coral got up a little, Shelbie made it about half way, and Miles made it all the way to the top a couple times.

Here's Shelbie and Coral in the tractor train.

Chilling with MaMa and Big Daddy

During the day Miles and Shelbie were at school so Coral and Fisher got to hang out with MaMa and Big Daddy by themselves.  Fishers favorite movie is Stuart Little so Big Daddy got to watch Stuart Little quite a few times.  I love this picture above cause Fisher was copying my dad - so cute!

 Below is Fisher and my dad both passed out!

 Coral loves, loves, loves MaMa!  MaMa must love her too cause Coral talked her into being a horse.

Oh that sweet face...

Much needed getaway!

It has been almost 3 years since Grant and I went on a getaway just the two of us, so with the help of my parents we were able to go in October.  My parents gave us a date that they could come and watch the kids a couple weeks before we left and then it was up to us to decide where we were going to go.  We couldn't decide until two days before we were to leave and we found a last minute 4 day cruise.  A cruise is always a nice choice because all the food and some entertainment is included.  It was so great to get away with my forever sweetheart and just relax and explore some of the Caribbean islands! 

We rented a scooter on both islands (Nassau and Freeport) and had the best time checking everything out.  We took our snorkel gear with us, pulled off at some remote beaches, and it felt like our won private island!

We rode over to The Atlantis Resort in Nassua and we got to walk around and check out there amazing resort!

Above is The Queens Staircase in Nassau and the top of this fort were you can look out over the whole island.

There were these cool caves that early inhabitants used to live in.

I couldn't resist siting in the giant shell chair :)