In April we took our first family vacation to Montana. We decided to take our time, and make as many stops as possible. It took us a whopping 5 hours to cross Washington, I think that's a new slow record for us. We stayed our first night in Spokane, and visited with the Spokane Clan. When we were almost to Swan Lake, MT it started to snow, it was so beautiful. We had great time visiting Great-Grama Geri, This was her first time meeting Logan. Cooper had a blast looking for fish off the pier, and throwing rocks in the glass-like lake & of course getting his shoes wet, which abruptly ended our walk.
Cooper & James loving the snow, but it was sure cold...the next day it was beautiful!!! Our next stop was Cascade, MT to visit Uncle John & Aunt Sandy. It was a nice visit and I'm glad we stopped, as Uncle John passed away this summer. We stayed the night at Sandy's beautiful house, and went to Helena the next day to visit JD, Heidi, & Ruby. Ruby & Logan had a great time getting to know each other and Cooper had a blast terrorizing their poor dog. That evening we went to Great Falls, and stayed with Uncle Mike & Aunt Vicky. They sure had fun with the boys and the visit was awesome. We decided to stay a full day in Great Falls and make it all about Cooper...he was such a good boy in the car...he needed time to stretch his legs and have a fun day....so we filled it in with all the goodies I remembered as a kid...
We lucked out and were able to go to Gibson Park and feed the geece and ducks. Cooper was in heaven. He ran up and down the sidewalk chasing the poor animals, and yelling "Eat! Eat!" He also climbed the toys and went down the slide. I don't know who had more fun that day Cooper or Uncle Mike!
It was on to Giant Springs to feed the fish. Of Course Cooper had so much fun! He would yell, "Mommy, Fishy, eat!" We went to the giant slide in Black Eagle, and I had fun there...so many memories of this place. I had fun because being the competitive Momma that I am, had the fast kid there. There was a little boy just flying down the slide, and Cooper was going but I felt he needed to keep up with the little boy, sooo I put down Logan's fleece blanket, put Cooper on and well, thankfully James stood in the middle of the slide, Cooper flew down the slide, and at the mid-point hit a bump and caught a little air. James was there to make sure he didn't fly off the slide...soo Fun! Cooper just kept walking back up the stairs saying " more more! again! " I was grateful that I was able to take James, Cooper & Logan (even though he was asleep most to the day) to places of my happiest childhood memories. We decided to take a break for lunch of course to Taco Treat. We took a half an hour at the cemetary to paint Aimee's headstone and clean it up. The highlight of the day for Cooper was our last stop......
Uncle Mike had arranged for us to go and ride the horses. They sold the horses, but Mike knew the owners and had stopped by a few weeks before we came and asked if it would be okay for him to come give Cooper a ride. They were very friendly. When we told Cooper that we were going to ride the horses he got so excited, that he frightened the horses just a bit, Mike calmed down Sage and saddled him up...meanwhile, Cooper was freaking out because he thought that he couldn't ride them...Once he sat on Sage, Cooper was calm and had the biggest smile on his face..he loved it! He had so much fun that day. He was worn out. We went home and had a great dinner, and Cooper literally Crashed on the floor watching TV! It was so much fun! We didn't want our time in Montana to end. James loved it too, He loved the openess, the wildlife, and the slow pace. We considered moving there....which happens everytime I go there...but we know that we needed to be here, close to grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins....maybe someday we'll move, but until then we'll just consider it our little patch of heaven on earth to visit.
Cooper couldn't wait to see Santa...then it was our turn and he wanted nothing to do with him. Logan was a good sport. He had to check him out before he let me put him on his lap.
Christmas morning was fun this year, Cooper was really into opening his presents and of course helping Logan. It seems that Santa had to bring Cooper a total of 11 new Disney Cars. As if he didn't get enough last year.
You can't see it,but Cooper's shirt says " I don't need Mistletoe" and if you really know Cooper you know that's the truth. Logan's shirt says " Santa's little Helper" Cooper really enjoyed unwrapping presents. He helped distribute the gifts at Grama Jeannene's house, and if you weren't paying attention, he would unwrap them for you. The present in the picture was for Logan...he didn't mind the help. He really enjoyed dancing with Scooby Doo!
Cooper qualified into the 
This is some early artwork that Cooper has brought home. 
