July iPhone Rewind

I don't typically do an iPhone rewind every month, but I really like when friends I follow do  them and I feel like our July was mostly made up of lots of little things that were perfectly captured by my phone but not necessarily worth of a blog post. So here's a little look at our July.

We went on a hike on some trails by our old apartment.  I wore Cooper on my back and he snuggled in and had a great time!

I texted this to David one Monday morning. As I was turning to tell Cooper to leave Lily’s bowls alone he threw one (while playing) and it broke. 

Splashing in the puddles after some rain came in.

Our first year dressing up for Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A-- yay for free food!

We met a friend at an indoor playground one Friday morning-- Cooper loved climbing up to look outside.

I came back from getting my water out of the kitchen and Lily had eaten one of my pieces of sausage off my breakfast plate.

We've been enjoying library storytime this summer--especially the bubbles at the end!

I have spent a ton of time researching about and working on our pool this month, this is a screenshot of a calculator for chemicals.

Watching the dog in the backyard is all the entertainment these 3 toddlers needed (at least for those 30 seconds)

Cooper found the ducks at the park!

Saturday morning park date with Daddy while I was on my retreat.

Cooper has flipped a switch from hating bath time to loving it.  I was brushing my teeth one morning and Cooper came in with all his ducks and hopped in the bathtub with them.

Working on table decorations for MOPS this year.

Cooper's 2nd haircut.

A friend brought me flowers when she came over for Book Club last week--so pretty!

Cooper loves his puddle jumper (which he refers to as "blue") and we took it for a spin at the city pool this weekend.

 We spent some time at Grandma's and he found this bouncer and asked my mom to get it out and then proceeded to have lots of fun going "rock rock."  He doesn't quite fit anymore, but he still loved it.

Rangers Game

Last night we decided to brave the heat and toddler craziness and go to the Rangers Game as a family.  David's parents had given him tickets to 3 games this year and this week was the final one.  He went with friends to the first two, so when I asked who he was taking to the 3rd one he said he wasn't sure if he was going to go since we'd had a busy weekend and hadn't seen much of each other.  So I asked if he wanted me to go and then we decided to try taking Cooper.  We figured he would not last the whole game, but we could go and eat dinner and see how long we all made it and David could enjoy taking Cooper to a game this year.  So we met David at work and headed out together for a night at the ballpark.

 David's tickets are in the All You Can Eat section which is so nice!  We were able to snag a table in the air conditioning during dinner.  Cooper ate 2 hot dogs along with a bun and his water.  

Before the game got started, we let him walk around a little bit inside the food place.  From the windows you can see the new stadium they are building and David told Cooper all about how he was going to take him there one day.

 Because it was a Monday and just *a little* hot, it was not very crowded at all, so we had our whole row to ourselves. Cooper enjoys walking across the rows.  

Then he wanted to climb the stairs, so he and David did that.  He stopped every few steps to clap along with the crowd.  After a few trips on the stairs, the security guard said he didn't really want him playing on the steps with everyone going up and down them.  So we took him to the top and let him walk around.  (It's definitely much harder to take him this year than it was last year when he just hung out in the carrier the whole time!)

We snapped a family picture and then Cooper was about done walking around at the top and not being allowed on the stairs.

So we headed to the ramps and let him walk some more.  He loved getting to walk and explore everywhere!  We were even able to hear and see the fireworks from a homerun before we headed out!

David stopped to get ice cream and I put Cooper in the carrier for our walk back to the car.  At this point it was after 8:00, so he was pretty content to snuggle and be held.

One last family selfie on the way to the car!

Even though Cooper didn't have any interest in the game, it was still a lot of fun going as a family.  I know David loved getting to share a game with his son and I love any evenings with my two boys!  Cooper stayed awake the entire drive home and then quickly crashed in his bed.

Anniversary Celebration

Since we've gotten married, our anniversary has been an unusually busy day every year.  In fact, the only anniversary where we've spent more than about an hour together without a big group was last year when we had a 3 month old who was with us the whole time.  We've had road trips with International Students, Young Adult Leadership Dinners, Community Group guys and girls nights, and doctors appointments all fall on the day of our anniversary.  And this year was no different.  I am going to be on the Leadership team for our MOPS group this coming Fall and I had to laugh when I got the dates of the summer planning retreat and saw that it was the 20-21.  David had to work on the 20th, so we grabbed breakfast out with Cooper before he headed to work.  My mom came and stayed with Cooper in the afternoon until David got home, so that little breakfast date was all we saw of each other on our anniversary.

We only have one car seat for Cooper and David had it for the weekend, so Cooper and I actually walked home from breakfast (which is why we chose McDonald's since it's only about a mile away) hence my workout clothes.

Luckily, we were able to make plans to celebrate the next night with a date night.  David had the idea of going back to Gaylord to eat dinner like we had done on our Honeymoon and it ended up being perfect.

We went to the Riverwalk Cantina and they were having a dinner buffet, so we enjoyed lots of fajita meat and queso and a variety of foods.

During dinner we went through some questions on this Anniversary Interview I found a few years ago.  It's been a fun way to look back at the past year and look ahead to the next.

After dinner we walked around the Gaylord a little and took a few more pictures.  They had a bunch of Smurf themed decorations out and lots of families out enjoying it.  We talked about a few different things to do after dinner, but ultimately decided on a movie.  We went and saw Won't You Be My Neighbor and we both liked it a lot!

Sunday we spent nap time filling out our Anniversary Journal and working on a date night jar that I gave David as a gift {the traditional year 5 gift is wood, so he got some wooden craft sticks to put in the jar}.  We came up with a whole bunch of date ideas-- some that can be done at home last minute, some that take a little more planning, some that Cooper can join us on, and some more special times out.  We color coordinated them for different themes and have that to go to over the coming year when we're looking for something to do together.  

It was a great weekend-- I love getting to celebrate 5 years with my guy!

5 Years

5 years ago we drove off from our wedding reception to start life together as The Daniels.

Looking back, I think in some ways life looks a lot like we thought it would 5 years ago, but in others it looks very different.  

In the last 5 years we set up our first apartment together, bought our first house, and changed jobs 5 times between the 2 of us.  We've traveled to 10 states together along with a cruise to the Bahamas and a honeymoon in Jamaica.  We welcomed our niece Piper and said goodbye to my Grandpa.  We've been on a lot of dates-- planned ones for a year of dates or Woodcreek Save the Date and unplanned and spontaneous ones.  We've gotten to volunteer with the International Student Home Groups and Teaching ESL together.  We were licensed as Foster Parents.  We started a new small group with some friends from the Young Adults group and later searched for and found a new church home together.  And of course we welcomed Cooper into our family.  

We've learned a lot about ourselves and each other over the last 5 years.  We've grown and changed in ways we never would have anticipated.  We've worked hard to stay connected to each other and we've marveled at how God has worked in our marriage, our family, and our lives.  5 years ago I knew I was marrying a great guy, but I had no idea all of the ways that would play out in our marriage and how affirming it would be to see how God answered so many prayers of mine in David (and hopefully a few of David's prayers in me).  

Life with this guy is so much better than I could have imagined.  I'm thankful for who he is and how he loves me.  I'm thankful for our 5 years together and looking forward to many many more.

Summer Fun: Road Trip to Oklahoma

Last year we took Cooper on his first road trip to Oklahoma for the 4th of July.  We had so much fun that we decided to do it again this year!

David worked Monday and then took of the rest of the week.  So we left not long after we got up on Tuesday morning.  We stopped in Denton for a late breakfast for David and I and a mid-morning snack for Cooper.  We've been stopping at the Chiloso in Denton the last several times we've headed North on 35 and it's been a good stopping place.  They are building a Buc-ee's in Denton as well, so I joked with David that we might have a tough time deciding which one should be our Denton stop.  Then we decided we could do one of the way to Oklahoma and one on the way home ;)

After we got back in the car, Cooper ended up falling asleep.  He's dropped his morning nap at home, but being in the car put him right to sleep.  He slept for 30 minutes exactly as he usually does in the car and then was awake. He played with a few toys before we stopped in Norman for lunch.  We ate at McAlister's and then made the rest of the trip to Oklahoma City to stay with David's Nanny (and Cooper's Grandnanny).

 The rest of the afternoon was spent playing!  We tried to put Cooper down for a nap, but he was so off his schedule after his morning nap that he just wasn't having it. So we played with toys, ate dinner, and then enjoyed some time in the backyard after dinner.

 Cooper was a big fan of Uncle Bubba.  They played ball on the back patio until Cooper was ready to crash!

 Wednesday was the 4th!  We spent the morning going for a walk and playing at the park.  There is a park in Nanny's neighborhood where Cooper enjoyed sliding and swinging and running around.  Cooper took a great nap that afternoon and then we headed over to David's Uncle and Aunt's house to spend the evening with family.  Cooper got to play with toys, swim, play basketball, and hang out with his second cousins.  But his very favorite was the ice cream Aunt Jarla made

 He shared Daddy's ice cream and as soon as he finished a bite he was immediately asking for more.  When we told him it was all gone he asked for more a couple times and then realized we weren't giving him more, so he immediately turned to Grandnanny and said "Nanny" hoping she'd give him some more.  He sure knew how to get into her heart!

 Thursday morning we checked out another park.  Cooper does so well on playground equipment now--he loves climbing up and going down the slides and is becoming a pro at it.

 We also checked out the splashpad for a little while before Cooper was over it. He loved splashing and he had the place to himself which was kind of fun.

 Uncle Bubba came over during his lunch break so Cooper got some more time playing ball with him before nap.

 Cooper loved playing on Grandnanny's piano!  He and David played a few songs and then we asked if Grandnanny would play something for him.  She played him Jesus Loves Me and he loved watching and trying to play along!  Thursday night Uncle Bubba took us out to dinner which was a lot of fun.  Friday we played inside, grabbed some burgers for lunch and then packed up while Cooper napped.

After Cooper's nap we headed back to Norman to see David's friend Dean and his family.  Last summer when we visited them, his little boy Ethan was running around and Cooper was still little and slept most of the time.  It was fun watching them run around together this time!  We enjoyed pizza and some good conversation before heading out.  We decided to go ahead and continue the drive home after dinner.  Cooper slept from 7:30-8:00 and then was awake for the rest of the drive.  I sat in the back with him after he woke up and he was content to sit with me and snuggle his stuffed animals, but he didn't sleep anymore.  We got home around 10:15, put him to bed and then crashed.

It was a great week with family and a good time away!  Looking forward to our next trip.