A visit to Hutch

On a quick trip back to Lyons, Mom took us to visit the sale mine museum in Hutch:

Coop even got to mine his own salt chunk:

Ice cream afterward at the Bullseye Grill in Yoder:

And we walked across this big bridge over Highway 61 (something Mom had always wanted to do but thought she needed a kiddo with her so she wouldn't look so dorky!):

Summer friends

My Washburn friends got together to watch some of the World Cup summer games.  We met at local bars, and the kiddos just had to entertain themselves with toys or iPods.

Henry's sister Caroline (our friends from Arkansas) came up to visit for one of the World Cup events (notice the Germany jersey!).

After the soccer game was over:

We had a sleepover with Madeline and her sister Genevieve, and we decided to introduce Madeline to Star Wars.  I'm not sure she loved it...

The First Part of Summer

The summer began with Cooper flying solo (but with Bear) from Kansas City to Denver to meet up with Alan.  We got a new special Star Wars backpack and Darth Vader lego figurine to help make the trip.

Success!

And upon return to Kansas, Coop started Camp Raintree where he is a member of the Orange class, and they rotate through a series of activities (board games, video games, library, pool, arts, etc) every 45 minutes.  The schedule alone is exhausting!

We also went to the "Lotitorium" (the grassy lot between the post office and the lumberyard in Baldwin) for a community theater production of The Phantom Tollbooth.  Very cute.

This year on the 4th, we finally convinced Coop to light some fireworks!  Mostly smoke bombs, but we're making progress!

Outside play in Arkansas

The kids rode bikes around the neighborhood park:

And we went to Henry's grandparents' house to play in their pool (with Henry' cousin Claire):

To distract the boys from shooting the grown-ups with water guns, we challenged them to knock the inner tube off the post.  They never got it, but it kept us dry!

Fishing with Henry's grandfather at a local pond:

Coop didn't catch anything, but that's not really the point of fishing, is it?

Food and fun in Arkansas

Henry was in school a couple of the days we were there, so we met him for lunch at his school one day.  Turkey and cheese melts.  Not bad.

Ice cream!  In the background, notice the Waltons store front?  It's the Walmart museum and visitor's center in Bentonville.

At the Crystal Bridges art museum:

And we ate family style fried chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies, and bread at Monte Ne Inn.  Yum!

Caroline, Cooper, Henry:

Walking around the farmers market:

At the (slippery, rocky, semi-scary!) water feature at the farmers market:

Hiking in Arkansas

We hit a few different hiking trails while we were in Arkansas:

Look closely in the background.  Directly in the center of the photo:

See it?

It's this guy:

Yeah.  That's a copperhead.  Oops.

Waterfall:

Scenic view:

Other fun things in Arkansas:

Henry's school had a book sale.  50 cents for kids books.  We walked out with about $20 of new books for Cooper, including many Star Wars titles!

Coop and Caroline enjoyed trying out the "fancy chair" -- a really nice lounge chair that Miss Melissa got for Mother's Day:

Miss Melissa is a pediatric occupational therapist.  One of her co-workers (an OT in training) needed the opportunity to evaluate a kiddo she didn't know.  So Coop volunteered.  One of his favorite things was this Cuddle Swing -- a stretchy sack that completely enclosed him while the OT pushed him back and forth:

We visited Crystal Bridges, a gorgeous art museum that had a display about the architect who designed Exploration Place in Wichita (Coop's standing next to the Exploration Place model):

We went to an estate sale where everything was incredibly expensive.  Coop sweet-talked the sale workers into letting him have this bear for $2 (instead of the $5 that it was tagged).  Still expensive in my book, but he was thrilled and spent the rest of the week with Bear:

Star Wars with our friend Henry!

Alan was busy working on this textbook, so Coop and I headed down to Arkansas once Coop was out of school.

 

Coop took his light saber, and he and Henry spent hours having light saber fights in the yard:

Reading Star Wars books in the car:

Putting together Star Wars legos at a place called Brick by Brick.

It was an amazing place, with lego sets all along the wall.  Nothing to buy (whew!), but you pick a set and spend a couple of hours putting it together.

The boys had a great time:

More light sabers:

Watching Star Wars on the laptop:

Playing Star Wars video game: