Birthday festivities (part 1)

The weekend before Coop's birthday, we met Ellen and Kent in Abilene and toured the Seelye Mansion.  Coop got to play with the 1904 bowling game in the basement:

Grandma Joan and Grandpa Cecil came up, and we had lunch at the Mexican restaurant:

On his actual birthday, Coop wore his "new" bowler hat and tie, which belonged to his Great-great Grandpa Esau:

And then he got strep throat, so we spent his birthday afternoon at a walk-in clinic and then resting at home with amoxicillin:

On the up side, the assistant teacher in Coop's classroom drew this for him:

Amazing!

Playing

Many evenings look like this in light of the new iPad in the house:

But we took advantage of unseasonably warm January weather to play outside with Gus and Eleanor:

Dirty kids!

Hawaii, part 6

With some wildlife:

IN WITH THE WILDLIFE:

A snazzy new Hawaiian shirt!

At the top of Diamond Head:

Hawaii, part 5

Candids:

Facetiming with me!

A fan:

On the bus:

Borrowing a watch from one of the college kids:

Hawaii, part 4

In the giant maze at the Dole Pineapple Plantation:

At the Polynesian Cultural Center / luau event:

A new tattoo!

At the beach where they went snorkeling, which was, in Cooper's words, "the best day ever of my life."

Hawaii, part 3

I believe these were all taken at the Pearl Harbor Memorial / museum:

Hawaii, part 2

On some giant slide?

At the beach, naturally:

And with some giant trees (clearly I'm not the right person to be providing narration here...):

Hawaii, part 1

As soon as Christmas was over and Alan returned from an economics conference, Cooper attended school for one day, and then promptly left with Alan for a week-long trip to Hawaii.  Alan and his co-worker Martha taught an interterm class at Baker on the history and culture of Hawaii, and then naturally had to take a group of students to visit.  Coop was more than happy to tag along.

Hanging with the big kids in the airport:

Behind Martha at the Iolani Palace (I believe):

I think these next photos were at the Bishop Museum, which got rave reviews from the boys: