Texas 2

Coop and Mary and I rode this cute little train around the park in downtown Fort Worth:

Family style Mexican food with Grant, Mary, Trent, and Breccia:

Dessert (at a deli, not the Mexican place, but a picture of Coop's hot dog didn't seem exciting enough to include here):

Texas 1

First stop:  family style fried chicken with Aunt Mary and Grant!

We spent a couple of hours at the historic Fort Worth Stockyards:

We picked up a fancy $10 cowboy hat for Coop, which he wore for the entire week:

Long horn cattle!!!

A cowboy is never far from his hat...

En Route to Texas!!

As soon as Coop got out of school and I finished my grades, we headed out on a road trip to visit my Aunt Mary in Texas.  We took our time driving down there, stopping for lunch at PF Changs in Wichita:

Then on to Oklahoma City, where we visited the bombing memorial.  This is the survivors tree that was very very close to the federal building, but survived the bombing and is thriving today:

I hadn't planned to take Coop inside to the museum part, but he was interested in going.  It was spectacular.   They had just recently undergone a $10 million renovation, and it was worth it.  Amazingly high-tech museum with tons of information and absolutely intense exhibits of artifacts from the bombing:

After the bombing memorial, we went to dinner at The Melting Pot in the Bricktown part of OKC.

Cheese fondue!  And then chocolate fondue!  And a salad thrown in the middle for something "healthy."

At our OKC hotel, Coop wanted to work out a bit:

And the next morning, we hit the Science Museum of Oklahoma.  It was pretty crowded, with tons of school groups visiting that day, but we had fun:

After a quick lunch and a stop for gas, we hit the road and were in Texas before we knew it:

Mother's Day and misc

One afternoon, Coop and I played Mastermind.  He's actually quite good at it!  I was impressed!

For Mother's Day, I booked massages for Coop and I.  I was a little worried how that would go with a squirrelly 8-year-old, but it was lovely.  As Cooper said, "that felt aMAZing!"  Indeed.

For my Mother's Day gift, Coop picked a giant "You Rule" clothes pin.  It fits in perfectly with the giant pen, pencil, and post-in notes at my office!

Bedtime.  Man, I love this kid:

Selfie with Cooper:

All of the "treasures" Coop cleaned out of his jacket pocket before I washed it.  (About half went back in after the jacket was clean.)

Coop and his friend Henry at the KU Lied Center to see the Wild Kratts!

Coop and his friend Molly wrote a story called The Adventures of Jenny and Anakin (featuring Coop's snake Jenny and Molly's pet turtle Anakin).  They won the classroom book contest with it!!

During the last serious week of school, the students all presented reports for the parents.  This was the project (a giant drawing!) that accompanied Coop's shark report: