Summer 2008

Summer has passed us by without even realizing it. Things have been a bit busy here lately, but hopefully we can post photos a little more often. Cooper and I left Fiji at the end of June for a few months of time with the grandparents and for the arrival of his new baby sister. We have spent most of our time at Nana and Grampy's house playing in the hot sun.

On August 2nd Cooper's Uncle Ben and Auntie Sarah had a beautiful wedding in Park City, Utah. Cooper and I flew to Park City two weeks before his baby sister was due to arrive and spent a wonderful weekend with Ben, Sarah and our families. It was truly a gorgeous wedding and we are thrilled for them. Wedding photos to come, but here is a photo of them on their honeymoon.
Baby sister news in the next posting...

Toberua...I'm back...with my friends!

Last weekend we went back to Toberua Island with Cooper's best playmate, Cara and her family. Cooper, Cara and her brother ran wild for 3 days playing in the ocean, torturing the beach crabs, and tormenting the parrots. Quinn reckons it was the best weekend of Cooper's life! As you can see from the photos it looks like he had a good time.

Cooper and Cara playing in the ocean.

Cooper liked Cara's hat better than his own. Maybe this is what our little girl will look like.

Cooper and papa taking the kayak out for a ride.

Cooper and Cara torturing the poor beach and hermit crabs.

Best buddies walking to the parrot cage to see what other kind of mischief they could get into.

Jack and Koki, the parrots, at the top of the cage, grateful these two can't get in.

Cooper In Action

It has been over a month since we last posted anything. Sorry for the long stretch, but not a whole lot has been going on, other than Cooper and I are both growing bigger. Cooper has been caught in a few funny acts and outfits over the last few weeks. Here are some highlights...

Dressed for the many very rainy days we have had in Suva, lately.
Putting on mama's socks and construction site shoes is always good fun. Just looking kind of hip and cute.
I sprained my ankle last week and Cooper insisted on wearing the wraps. Quinn got him this great t-shirt in Bangkok.
Having two broken legs wasn't enough.

On one of the 3 days this month that it hasn't rained, we made to the beach for some Fiji fun. Hopefully, we will have another chance this holiday weekend and more photos will follow.

What Happened?

- Last week a gentleman I work with asked me what happened?
- The week before a friend of ours from Burma asked about my weight gain.
- My friends from home keep saying I'm not showing.
Hopefully, this photo will prove I am showing, I am gaining weight, and what happened is we're expecting another baby this August! As of now, I'm just over 5 months along. Cooper seems to be the only one not recognizing something is happening to my tummy. He still just thinks it has a belly button as you can see that's not quite all that's going on. It's not the greatest photo, but all I could do after work last night.

While in Australia we had an ultrasound and are thrilled to report we are having a baby GIRL! Here she is...

And of course, we can't post without a photo of Cooper. Here he is last night all ready for bed.

Cooper's Second Birthday Party

We had a mini celebration for Cooper's birthday in Australia, but the next weekend we had a few of his play friends over for a proper birthday party. Cooper had no idea what was going on while we were getting ready, but as soon as his buddies started arriving he was thrilled to have them there.

Even after we sung Happy Birthday, Cooper still didn't apear to understand the party was for him. He had a great time and really enjoyed the chocolate cupcake.

Canberra & 2 years old!

Luckily, Cooper didn't even realize it was his birthday or he might have been disappointed he spent it on a train headed for cold Canberra. It was probably in the lower 60's or so, but it felt really cold to us. We didn't even have socks or long pants. We ended up buying Cooper a pair, so at least he was warm.

Cooper's birthday was on Good Friday, which is a public holiday in Australia, so the capital was far from bustling. In fact, they get a 4 day weekend, as did we, for the Easter holiday. It took some work, but we finally found a restaurant suitable to have a mini birthday celebration. The actual party took place when we got home. Stay tuned for those photos!

Cooper was surprised to the sparkler in his banana split, which he thoroughly enjoyed!
Like Sydney, Canberra is full of really great parks. There is a large lake in the middle of town with a park and trails all the way around. We spent a lot of time around the lake chasing birds and enjoying the outside. Cooper loved running down the hill with papa.

Canberra is similar to Washington DC in that the parliament building, museums, and war memorials are all in alignment in the center of town. Here we are on top of the roof of the parliament building looking down towards the war memorial. That concludes our trip to Australia! From here we took the train back to Sydney and headed back to Fiji. Not a bad place to go home to, but we still weren't ready to leave.

Sydney: Part Two

We spent one morning wandering around the area called Circular Quay and the Opera House. If you look closely at the photo of Cooper with the bridge you can see the people climbing the the top of the bridge. Of course, we couldn't do that with a stroller, but it is a famous thing to do in Sydney.

The opera house is really pretty amazing. It would have been fun to do a tour of the inside, but two year olds are much more into running around outside, so that's what we did.

The Sydney Zoo was Cooper's first trip where he was actually into the animals and enjoyed running from animal to animal. We all thought the kangroos and koalas were cool, but everyone else there seemed to think they were just a normal thing to see everyday.

What a view these giraffes have! The giraffes were beautiful! You would think that would have been one of Cooper's favorite parts, but no, it was the large rat like Bilbos that he liked.