Wamego!

One of my childhood friends lives in Wamego, about an hour and 15 minutes away from me.  We scheduled a meet-up one recent Saturday, so Coop and I drove to visit Amanda and her family.

The first thing Coop noticed was the Jeep CJ-7 in the garage, and man, he was in love!

We visited the Oz Museum with Amanda and her daughter Annie:

In the tornado machine:

And apparently Walter Chrysler, founder of the car company, was born in Wamego.  His house, cleverly, has the witch's legs sticking out from underneath it.  I told the kids to act shocked and surprised.  They were less than thrilled.

And then, as all great days must do, it came crashing down (literally) off of a scooter.  Amanda saved us with hydrogen peroxide.

August

Working on vocabulary homework:

At a nearby shooting range with Alan:

So excited to hear the news that his new lego set arrived!

Legos!

Coop announced that he got sent to the principal's office during the first week of school.  Uh oh.... "I wrote a poem that my teacher liked and wanted me to share with the principal!"  Ok then!

(Naturally, we're all in school because of the swimming and the compliments.)

Last gasps of summer

Alan took Coop to the electronic shooting range at Cabela's:

Meanwhile, competing for the role of most unfun parent, I showed Coop a website for learning out to type:

Coop's best friend Molly surprised him one evening with this awesome x-wing fighter made by a local artist out of plastic cardboard stuff.  Amazing!

And then, at last, it was time for school to start.  First day of fourth grade!

Boys' trip to Colorado

As soon as Camp Raintree was done for the summer, Alan and Cooper loaded up and headed west.  First stop, the Garden of Eden in Lucas, KS:

Legos and ice cream.

Apparently, a two-day Monopoly game with Alan's friend Miss Danni.

Rocky Mountain High

White water rafting!  Check out Coop's face (to the left of the AVA watermark):

Movies in the hotel room:

And a restaurant in Hays where the food arrives in cars?

More summer!

Coop and I have been having fun building castles:

We drove to Olathe one day to check on a friend's dog, and when we drove by a Family Leisure store, Coop started singing the jingle ("Where family and fun come together") and then immediately said "I watch too much tv."  Fair enough.  But we stopped and looked at hot tubs, grills, patio furniture, pool tables, and swimming gear.  We bought nothing.

Coop received a Mail Order Mystery.  It's a series of packages that arrive in the mail that he has to work out to solve a mystery of some sort.  First up, code-breaking!

A lovely Saturday spent watching Star Wars with the lego Millennium Falcon nearby

Alan took Coop to see the Body Worlds exhibit at Union Station:

(The crazy look is Coop practicing making his eyes point in different directions.  Yeah... I don't know either...)

Summer fun

Relaxing with netflix on the iPad:

Bike riding with Grandma Joan:

Repainting a bird house for Grandma Joan:

Snacks (the first of many!) at a Royals game with Alan and Grandpa Jerry:

Alan labeled this picture as "mesmerized" by the baseball game.  I'm not so sure....

Cousins Camp -- water fun

Because it was approximately 150 degrees in Lyons during Cousins Camp, we opted for several water activities.  The pool:

And water balloons:

We had a set of water balloons with paint in them, so the kids started in white t-shirts:

After:

Cousins Camp -- more family

Aunt Ellen and Grandma Marlene drove to Lyons to see all the cousins:

We ate lunch at Scrambled Sam's in Lyons (amazing sweet cream pancakes!):

Cousins Camp -- water / sand tables

Mom bought these water / sand tables for the kids to assemble and play with:

Even Baby loved it!