New looks

Working at his desk with his lion towel/cape:

With spiky hair:

Wearing my swimsuit cover up:

Driving his jeep in his sports coat, top hat, and skeleton sun glasses:

Friends. And the Library.

Our friend Eleanor getting the royal treatment:

Coop and I went to the Lawrence indoor pool with Gus (Eleanor's big brother).  Coop managed to cross these lily pad things all by himself!

At a birthday party for Trinity (the girl with the red/white Mini Mouse shirt):

And Coop decided that he wanted his very own library card:

Success:

More Easter

The cousins decided they wanted to all ride together with Grandma and Grandpa.  That only lasted for one car ride.  Seems like a crazy back seat:

We took the kids to Michael's for an Easter craft project (with someone else in charge!):

They each made these cute hatching egg things:

To Chick-Fil-A for lunch:

And an Easter egg hunt in Kelly's backyard:

Loot!

Easter with the cousins

Coop and I met up with my family in Denver for Easter weekend.  Mom and Dad bought the grandkids all KU shirts (it was the night KU lost their tournament basketball game).  Vada opted to swing hers around like a rally flag.  Close enough.

Coop and Zoey played with modeling clay:

Coop sat really close to the really big tv:

We all went to Casa Bonita, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed:

And Coop found this Lennox truck in Kelly's neighborhood:

The rest of our Chicago pics

Coop enjoyed train rides, and he liked pretend driving this train car in the airport:

Skyline:

My favorite!  Giordano's deep dish pizza!

Entertaining ourselves in the hotel room with mini Lincoln logs:

Tom and Jerry:

And books:

Museum of Science and Industry

My plan to spend a day walking along the lake front, seeing Buckingham Fountain, and meandering through Millenium Park was scraped given the cold and wind.  So we headed down to the Museum of Science and Industry instead.  Much of it was a little old for Coop, but we ended up spending lots of hours there just playing with various exhibits.

 

Balls floating on air:

A big static ball:

A cable car:

Submarine (the U-505, a German sub captured during WWII):

The Swiss Jolly Ball, a giant contraption with a metal ball that rolls all around:

Coop pulled $30 out of his savings account to spend in Chicago.  We spent many hours in gift shops agonizing over what he wanted to buy.  At the Museum of Science and Industry, he picked a magic kit:

He was a little disappointed it didn't come with instructions for how to saw someone in half.  And he seemed sad that it wasn't actually "magic" -- the it all involved tricks and secrets.  Sweet kid.

The Aquarium

After the Field Museum, we walked next door fo the Shedd Aquarium:

Beluga whales:

We saw lots of great animals.  The jelly fish exhibit was my favorite.  Coop seemed most taken with this submarine that he could play in:

The Field Museum

Our primary reason for picking Chicago was to see Sue the T-Rex at the Field Museum, so we started there:

(Don't let the sun fool you.  It was 25 degrees and windy the whole time we were there.)

SUE!!!

And Coop was really interested in seeing the man-eating lions of Tsavo:

We also went through a special exhibit called The Underground, where we were the size of bugs roaming through the dirt.  Here's Coop sitting in a cicada shell:

Traveling to Chicago

Cooper and I had spring break at the same time, a week after Alan was off.  So he and I decided to take a quick trip to Chicago!

 

Loading up Stanley:

On the way to the airport, Coop decided he would keep a travel journal.  Here was the first entry, complete before we even hit I-35:

Translation:  "12:15  Monday afternoon.  Just left home.  Sunny day.  Blue sky.  Fresh grass. Pinkish white clouds.  Passing pretty church.  Passing train, not moving train.  Drive through McDonalds.  Nice outside."  His level of detail and interest in journaling petered out soon, but I thought this was an impressive start!

Entertaining ourselves at the airport:

I forgot to take a picture of our hotel, but Coop drew one for me:

It was right acress the street from the Wrigley Building: