Remembering Grandpa

The Saturday after Grandpa died we had a bad storm and one of our trees was blown over. As you can see from the pictures it came down at the roots. It was the only tree in the neighborhood that blew down or branches down which made us believe it was rotting out.

The kids had fun playing in the branches for a little while.

Then Josh came over to help Darin and I cut up most of the tree with hand saws and an ax, (my Dad's chain saw was on the fritz).

It was while the guys were working that we realized that most of the tools we were using came from the lake home my grandparents had lived for 28 years. In the fall we would go out to their place with my cousins and Aunt and Uncle and trim down trees that had fallen in their woods. We all loved this tradition. It was lots of fun. And by the way Josh was hacking at the tree I think he's missed it a lot too.

Watching Zack and Kiley help us made me wish we had some place to go so the kids could experience that tradition as well. Guess they got one experience right in their own back yard.

Now Kiley's favorite expression EVERY DAY is "Oh no! Tree fall down!"

Rest In Peace Grandpa

Yesterday evening my Grandpa Cooley passed away. He had been in the nursing home for a week and a half and had been slowly deteriorating. But yesterday things sped up quite quickly, catching us all off guard. My Dad was thankfully there with him in his last moments and he went peacefully and quickly. We will miss him terribly!

Here are a few of our special moments with him in the past few years of digital photography.

May Delay

I'm going to jump back a few months to fill you in on what we have been up to lately. I'll start with May then hop to June.

So, the first weekend of May we joined my sisters for the Animal Humane Society walk. Always a fun event but a little crazy with 2 babies and 4 toddlers running around. Not to mention the 3 dogs.

-Rowan's all bundled up and wondering where the heck he is!

-Meg and Brynn

-Kiley, Macy (Meg's small dog) and Darin gearing up for the walk.

-Zacky and Macy waiting to begin.

Macy was the popular pup for a while since she is little and doesn't pull as hard!

-Riley and Bennett (Meg's big dog)

-Macy and Coko

The event for the big kids was to swap "rides" as much as possible.

Towards the end of the walk Riley and Zack took the reigns! They are getting so big!
Pooped Pups!

Time to eat and snuggle!

A fun day as usual but we noted there were no exotic animal sightings this year. No pigs, monkeys or goats. Maybe next year.

A New Cousin is Born!

Congratulations to my cousin Chris, his wife Jessica and their daughter Riley, (Yep, there are two Riley's in the family. Both girls, both spelled the same way and born 4 months apart.).

Tavon Reed Munn was born on July 12th. He was 7 lbs. 14oz.

We are very excited for them and wish them the best!

Wish I could post pictures but they live in Arizona and my cousin is not so good about sending pictures to us.

May and June Birthdays

To catch you up on what we've been up to I'm going to start with our birthday's that have been celebrated.
Starting with Zack's birthday on the 31st we celebrated 3 family birthdays in the span of 11 days. Here are some pictures of those happy days!

Note: For Zack's birthday he wanted a Candy Land themed birthday based on party plates he had seen in a magazine. He also requested an ice cream cake this year which got Auntie Meg off the hook for coming up with a cake idea. Luckily DQ can screen print anything on a cake now! :-)

Friday's Como Visit

As I mentioned in Sunday's blog, Darin took the day off on Friday and we decided to go check out the new Polar bear exhibit at the Como Zoo. Along with all the other animals of course. While the new exhibit was cool and so much bigger than what they had, that was not the highlight for the kids. Kiley told me her favorite animal was the giraffe (Grandma D will love that!), and Zack's was the gorillas. The reason for the gorillas was because one of them decided HE was going to rap on the window for a change! Zack thought that was quite funny! Personally, my favorite was the butterflies.

Another Catholic in the Family!

Congratulations to my Grandpa Cooley who joined the Catholic faith on June 21st, (Grandpa was Methodist). As Grandpa recently put it, it took him 88 years and 10 days to make up his mind but it has put his mind at ease now.
Welcome Grandpa! We Love You!

My parents and aunt and uncle were at the ceremony but the grandkids weren't given much notice of the event so unfortunately only Kerry was able to attend.

The day after my family had a small ice cream cake celebration to mark this special occasion.

Brynn really wants Daddy's ice cream cake!

At one point in the evening the heavens opened up and it poured! There were some storm warnings as well so we took the kids downstairs to eat their ice cream.

It was, shall we say, a tad chilly downstairs, so the kids came up with a way to keep warm.

Uncle play.

Happy 4th of July!

We want to wish all of you a very happy and safe 4th of July.

Here are our little firecrackers today.

We stuck around home today to celebrate. The kids helped peel some corn.

Kiley helped me take pictures of Zack and Dad's game of Frisbee. Which Zack is very good at throwing and catching!

Then they kicked the ball around a little.

Then it was time for food!

It's been a pretty low key weekend which after May and June is actually kind of nice. We did go to Como Zoo on Friday and are thinking of going fishing tomorrow but other than that no big parties. Just family time.

Hope you are having an enjoyable weekend as well and staying cool too! It's hot and humid here!