Every year after the fishing trip, my Uncle Brian throws his annual fish fry. We woke up early on Saturday and headed out to his house on the river to organize everything before people started showing up.
Cooper and Josh on the dock.
Along the bank beautiful flowers pop up everywhere - Uncle Brian thinks they are a nuisance, but I think they are wonderful!
Can you believe these are a weed??
The strangest flower I've ever seen!
He has a pet chicken, Trixie, that follows him around and will eat right out of your hand - Cooper really enjoyed that! He also has 5 little chicks that Cooper liked to crawl after and yank around.
Uncle Bri feeding Trixie.
Cooper crawling after a chick.
Josh showing Cooper how to feed the baby.
Yanking his tail!
The boys playing with the chicks.
Hanging from one of the giant trees in the yard there is a car swing - if we kept pushing, this would keep Cooper occupied forever!
What a sweet smile :)
Smilin' at Daddy.
Josh pushing Coop on the swing.
Josh, Cooper and I went on a walk down to the bridge - you just follow a few dirt roads and it brings you to the nature walk. Everything was so green and beautiful and the weather was perfect!
The backwoods!
Cooper riding piggy back.
Walkin' with Mom...
And with Dad.
On the bridge with Dad...
And with Mom.
We've decided to make it tradition that every time we're back in Illinois we're going to take a picture on the same bridge. The weather couldn't have been any different than when we were back in December of '09.
May 2011 - Oh how things change!
Once we got back to the house, Josh stoked the fire to prepare it for the pork tenderloin.
The first fire.
Before we started frying the fish, we headed out on the pontoon for a river ride. Grandpa made sure we had a life vest Cooper sized.
Papa walking down the dock.
Cooper on his first boat ride.
Coop with Cousin Brett.
Michael & Josh
Grammy, Coop, and Busch - yuck!
Crawlin' around the boat.
River Swan.
Our boat buddy!
Cooper is a water baby, there's no doubt about it. We sat on the dock and put his feet in the rushing river, he would throw a fit every time we took him out!
Cooper enjoying the water.
Once back from our beautiful boat ride, we started the fry - everything was so delicious! We sprayed with mosquito repellent and sat around the grass to watched the sun go down.
Brett, Shay, & Uncle Brian
Cooper and Grammy enjoying the river.
Michael enjoying his vacation.
Papa and Gramma
The beginning of the sunset.
Uncle Brian saved bags of leaves from last fall and started a bon fire once the sun went down - it was awesome! I love fire :) Cooper did too!
The giant bonfire!
Cooper and Josh watching the flames.
Cooper tried crawling up the smallest tree in the backyard several times - I figured 10 years from now he'll try climbing up it again - they'll grow together.
Being a daredevil.
Cooper and Henry James
On Sunday we packed our bags but weren't ready to leave - it's always a sad day when I have to leave my family! After lunch at Cracker Barrel, we spent the afternoon at Grandma and Papa's before heading to the airport - our flight was delayed again due to bad weather.
Cooper and Great Gramma @ Cracker Barrel
Playing "horsey" with Great Papa.
Peeking out the front door.
Thankfully Cooper slept during the whole flight back to Vegas. We were exhausted, but the trip was definitely worth it!
1 comment:
Looks like so much fun. The pictures are great - I love them all.
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