Alaska Vacation: the cruise ship

This past week, we took an Alaskan cruise vacation with Alan's folks and my folks.  All in all, I think it was a successful trip.  Prepare yourself for approximately 43 blog posts about the week.

First up, our ship.  We were on Holland America's Oosterdam ship, one in their line of "dam" ships.  Which makes me giggle.

This is the ship in port:

Our room:

A little couch-turned-bed for Cooper:

Our desk/crap collector:

Bathroom:

The hallway down to our room.  For the first several days, we looked for the balloons so we would know where to go.  We were on Deck 1 (of 10) in room 1007:

And two of my favorite parts about the ship.  The bell at the front (bow? port?  I don't know....):

And the rugs in all the elevators which kindly reminded us which day it was:

Catching up

One of Cooper's latest projects from school:

"Why doo I not hav a dog?"  Oof.  Let's talk about that later.  Like in 5-10 years.

Coop had his six-month check-up with the dentist.

He did a nice job sitting through the cleaning and x-rays.  Though Dr. Chris did tell us to go ahead and start saving for braces.  Greeeeaaaat.

Grandpa Cecil gave Cooper $20 for fireworks.  And we spent every last cent of it.

We had an ok time with the fireworks, except Cooper always forgets that he doesn't like loud noises.  So he spent part of the time in the house or with his ears covered.  He prefers smoke bombs and snakes (those ucky black tablets that you lights on fire to make them "grow").

Reading at the library:

Grandma Joan sent me a pineapple corer/slicer thing for my birthday.  This particular pineapple was a little mushy, so it didn't work perfectly, but Cooper loved drinking the pineapple juice straight from the fruit.

Trip to Lyons

Coop and I spent a couple of days last week in Lyons.  That week, every day set a record high temperature.  But Grandma Joan had thought of lots of things to do so we didn't die in the 105 degree heat.

First up, Grandma's neighbor has a trampoline in his shaded back yard.  We went there early one morning, and it wasn't too bad, temp wise.

They also had a sand pit to dig in:

Coop helped Grandma Joan make Meals on Wheels deliveries.  He got to carry the small bag of food, and he was in charge of ringing the doorbell.

We ate lunch at El Dee Grande.  Coop mostly like chips (and salt!) but he also ate most of my taco burger.

We went to the nursing home in town, which hosts an ice cream social on Friday afternoons.  Coop liked looking at their giant cage of birds:

He also collected a bunch of roly polys, both from Grandma's basement and from her yard.  He talked me into letting him take them home, so he poked holes in a box so they could breathe on the drive home.

 (They're all long dead.)


We sharpened pencils in the attendance pads at church.  (Coop tired quickly of this, so Mom and I finished the job while he explored the church balcony.)

Finally, Coop was entralled with this old school building that was damaged in the June tornado.  We drove by it multiple times.

Recent random photos

Coop's medal from his t-ball season:   

With his good friend (and fellow trouble-maker) Madeline at a Raintree sleepover:

Apparently, Miss Ann taught Cooper how to tie a shoe.  Crazy! 

Enthusiastically holding a bunny at the pet store:

With Zachary and Parker, pinning Michael to the floor: