Cedar City Trip DISASTER!!!

Well this weekend was supposed to be a fun little trip. Brad's brother turns 40 this week so his wife was throwing him a "Surprise" birthday bbq. She had invited us so we thought what the heck, we can take a little trip down to Cedar city for the weekend. Yeah right! Well the trip started off good. Cooper did awesome on the drive down there. He slept for probably a good hour and a half. Then woke up with about an hour left. I crawled in the back seat and just played with him and read books and what not. We got into town and checked into the hotel. We got settled and headed over to Brad's brother's house. My sister-in-law had already spilled the beans about his bbq so we didn't have to make up an excuse for being in town. We went to dinner and then headed back to their house to hang out. Cooper had an amazing time crawling around and playing outside with his cousin Abel who is 18 months old. Cooper started to get a little fussy so we headed back to the hotel a little before ten. We got Cooper ready for bed and thought we could get to bed ourselves. YEAH RIGHT! Cooper would not go to bed. I tried putting him in his pack n' play. He would just stand up and scream. He is tall enough he can see right over the top. There really wasn't anywhere we could put the pack n' play where he couldn't see us. I tried turning the lights out and having him lay in bed with us. He was just all over the place and fussy. We really tried everything. Finally he fell asleep around midnight. We went straight to sleep too. I woke up at 3:00 am and was wide awake. Then Cooper woke up at 4:00 am and was up for the day. I tried feeding him, rocking him, bringing him to bed, etc. Nothing worked and he was so grumpy. He woke Brad up at 4:30. Then at 5:00 am we went and drove around for 30 min and he still wouldn't fall asleep. We got back to the hotel at 6:00 and decided to head to the continental breakfast since there was nothing else working. We were both exhausted!

We had made plans to go hiking with Brad's brother, wife Jamie, and Abel. We knew with the night we had that wouldn't be a good idea. I was soooo bummed. We had bought a hiking backpack and had planned it all out. The bbq was at 6:00 pm and we were going to have to be driving home after it. I had forgotten my sister was speaking in sacrament so we needed to be back to church at 9:00 am. We decided that with how tired we were it wasn't going to be smart driving home late that night in the dark. Cooper was grumpy and we knew he wasn't going to be getting any good naps. So we just decided the smart thing to do was head home. We didn't even get to do any of the things that were the whole reason for us going down there.

We were out of Cedar City by 7:00 am. That means that total we drove 7 hours (3 1/2 each way) for a short 12 hour stay in Cedar. I was sure Cooper would nap most of the way home. At least that is what I hoped because I needed to nap. Remember I was going on 3 hours of sleep and he had only slept 4 hours to his usual 12-13 hours. Well Cooper slept for 40 min and then was wide awake. He was okay for the first part of the trip. Then we hit Provo. He SCREAMED bloody murder all the way home from Provo. That is about an hour of constant screaming. I was in the back trying to comfort him but nothing worked. He just kept reaching out for me to grab him. It broke my heart. But we had to get home because we were all exhausted and needed our beds. We got home and finally after about an hour Cooper laid down and took a 4 1/2 hour nap. This allowed Brad and I to get a few hour nap in. Needless to say it was the biggest waste of time and money (hotel, gas, food) for a disaster of a trip. I am really nervous because in a few weeks we have Brad's family reunion and Cooper will be sleeping in the pack n' play again. I am going to start putting him down for naps in the pack n' play and hopefully he gets used to it. Otherwise I don't know what we will do at the reunion.

It might not sound like that bad of a night, but believe me Brad and I were exhausted, stressed, on edge from all the crying, and just flat out worn out! And to add to things......I left my phone charger at the hotel.

This is where he went when I tried to lay him on the bed

REAL Salt Lake Game

Last weekend (June 4th) we went to the Real Salt Lake game with some of our friends. Brad has been to quite a few games with a buddy. Our friends Nikki and Tim have season tickets so when the Nikki can't go Tim takes Brad. Cooper and I had never been to a game at Rio Tinto stadium so I was super excited. Since Nikki and Tim have season tickets they have the option to buy other tickets earlier than the public. So they were able to get us awesome seats right next to them and for really cheap too! We had such a fun time. Cooper loved all the people and watching the game. He made friends with the little girl behind us. He really is quite the friendly little kid when it comes to other kids. He loves kids and babies. He also flirts with women but men he has to be in the mood or he just gets scared or nervous. Real won the game so that made it even better. I love that he is awesome at going to sporting events because Brad and I really enjoy them. I love little outings like this where we can take Cooper with us but still be out doing something fun.

Utah Blaze Game

A few weekends ago we went to a Blaze game with Brad's Cousin and his wife. My cousin is a dancer for the Blaze so my 2 aunts, cousins fiance, grandma and grandpa were also at the game. We were able to sit next to my family because there were a lot of empty seats. Cooper was a trooper! The game went until 10:30 and he is usually in bed by 8. He got a little restless towards the end because he wanted to crawl around. The Blaze lost but it was still intense and really fun. The second he hit the car seat he was out! I love being able to experience fun family activities like this. It is even more fun now that we have a baby. I kind of make a point of doing fun things where he can go with us. Yes that means not as many movies as we used to. Brad doesn't like this. Going to movies is probably one of his favorite things to do. I think he will like when Cooper gets a little older and we can go to the kid movies and take him.

The noise didn't even seem to bother him. I got ear plugs incase it was too loud for him. But he would not keep them in. He was happier without them.

He refuses to keep shoes or socks on his feet so he always looks like an orphan baby.

Dancing Coop

Every time Cooper hears music he starts dancing. It doesn't matter if he is in the car, high chair, in the middle of playing, he stops to notice the music and then dances. I have been horrible at catching it on camera. I love that he dances so much. He is such a happy baby and just has fun with everything. I swear my child really usually has clothes on for most of the day. Although you wouldn't guess that by how many pictures we have of Cooper not fully dressed. This just happened to be after dinner and he had gotten too messy....yet again. So the shirt had to go. I love that when he noticed we were laughing at him dancing that he got even more into it and so proud of what he was doing.

Shirt???? No Thanks!!!

Cooper is a true boy and loves to not have any clothes on. Lately he has been the messiest eater. Even when he has a bib on he manages to get food everywhere. Dinner is by far the worst. So he usually ends up without a shirt after dinner. It is so close to pajama time that I don't fight getting it clean. Besides he is happier when he doesn't have to wear a shirt. Here is some of the mischief that Cooper gets into shirtless.

In Training

Cooper is OBSESSED with the treadmill. The door to the computer/treadmill room is always closed. So every time he catches the door open he crawls in there as fast as his little body will move. He loves all the cords and forbidden things in that room. His favorite is to get on the treadmill. He seems so amazed by it (even when it isn't on). The other night we decided to turn it on with him and see what happened.

Us and T.V.

Brad and I have a serious addiction to watching TV shows. We usually have at least 1 show a night that we watch. I look at it and don't know how I successfully did school, homework, worked and had time to watch all of my shows. Now it is nice having shows to watch because we usually sit down together after Cooper is in bed. It is our way to just relax for the night. Now that all of our shows have come to the end of the season we don't know what to do with ourselves. I hate how all the shows end at once. I would look forward to certain nights in the week because of a particular show. There are some summer series that are about to start. But there isn't nearly as many.

I really hate our addiction to tv though. I feel like the tv is always on when Brad is home. I have made it a goal to not have the tv on during the day. I feel like it takes away from Cooper time and there are a lot of other things that I could and should be doing. However once Brad is home it comes on. As Cooper is getting older I am going to make it a point to not have the tv on all night once Brad is home either. It is a very bad habit to get into. It takes away from family conversation and just together time. If it ever warms up and gets to be nice weather we can start spending more time outside. Usually by this time we are doing walks and playing catch outside. But we really haven't been able to do it yet this year. We also are going to get into hiking more this summer. We want our kids to be used to being outside and doing active things. Not just sitting home on the couch watching tv. Don't get me wrong, tv has been great with a young baby. It helps us get through the days and sleepless nights. But I am ready to not watch as much tv. It makes me feel lazy and tired! Besides our regular tv shows (listed below) there are the random shows that we will flip through and watch if we see they are on. The ones below are the ones that we record every episode and have season passes set on the DVR. Yeah I know it is RIDICULOUS. Writing all the shows out I see how ridiculous it is that we have SOOO many shows. I am sure I missed a few too!

Our Shows:

• Coming Home
• House
• Lie To Me
• Hawaii Five O
• Chuck
• Gossip Girl
• Glee
• Modern Family
• Entourage
• Community
  
• The Office
• The Big Bang Theory
• Friday Night Lights (ending)
• Human Target
• Leverage
• The Cape (ended)
• Real Housewives of New Jersey
• The Voice
• White Collar
  

My shows:

• Greys Anatomy
• Private Practice
• 19 Kids and Counting
• Kate Plus 8
• Quints By Surprise
• Desperate Housewives
• Ellen
• Oprah :(
• The Vampire Diaries
• Chase
  

Brad's Shows:

• Iron Chef America
• Ghost Hunters (Along with a ton of other Ghost story shows)
  
• Cake Boss
• Chopped
• Challenge
• Top Chef
  
• Real Time with Bill Maher
• Spartucus
• Dexter
• True Blood
• Hell's Kitchen
• 30 Rock
• River Monsters
• Shark Tank
  
• Okay really every cooking/competition show out there. I can't even think of them all to name them.