Weekend in Traverse City

Sarah and I had a really nice weekend in Traverse City together. Just the two of us.

Here's the view from our hotel room.



Here I am baring my teeth.



Mrs. Coop.



Droplets on a leaf. Kind of obvious. Sorry.



One of the renowned lakes in the Sand Lakes Quiet Area in stormy weather. I was standing on a bouncy bog when I took this. It was fun.



A path to the end of Old Mission Peninsula.



The light house on Old Mission Peninsula.



So yeah, spending one on one time with your wife is a beautiful thing.

Fall

So Summer and Winter got together this year and just kind of decided to skip Fall. It was approximately 75 degrees outside like three days ago and now there's an inch of snow on the ground. Good times. So here's a few photos taken during the niceness a few days ago. Another post will hopefully go up soon detailing the adventures of Sarah and I up in Traverse City over this weekend. We had a nice getaway. Remember, you can always view the photos larger by clicking on them.

Alex looks up to our neighbor kid big time. Wants to be just like him. With those cowboy boots I really can't see why not.



Sometimes we catch Alex looking like a clone of my brother Tom. It's pretty incredible.



As toddlers are wont to do, Alex is always in search of the next adventure.



What can I say? God made a nice baby.



We're reaping the rewards of labors of the previous owners of our house. The trees are beautiful.

Alex's Antics

Alex is a new dog, and he's learning all the old tricks.

Squishy face is a recent favorite. He generally prefers to dispense the squish on mommy or daddy's face, but his own will do in a pinch.



Peekaboo is another staple. He just can't get enough.



And of course there's nothing so thrilling as stepping into daddy's shoes and clomping around the place just like daddy does.

Halloween

Here is Alex in his Dragon Halloween costume, provided generously by his Grandma Johnston. He didn't like it at first, but eventually warmed to its insulated comfort and fearsome appearance. He enjoyed shouting at the trick or treaters, daring them to brave the fire of his breath.


Here is the daddy pumpkin.




And here is the baby pumpkin.



And here they are together chilling in the in the dark.



This little guy is our neighbor, he's about six months younger than Alex.



These two are brother and sister to the little guy above. We ate a terrifying dinner of mummy dogs, eyeballs, rotted filth and coagulated nast at their house (it's a Halloween tradition).

Potluck and Hayride

With only 15 years to go, Alex is already revving up his desire to possess a driver's license.



Sarah and Alex are the cutest.



Fall colors from the hay wagon.



Our friend Jayden.



Sarah, Alex and friends thoroughly enjoy the blistering wind and itchy hay.

A pa pa (a pumpkin)!

Fall is my (Sarah) favorite season. We've been enjoying the hayrides, pumpkins and the yummy food. Alex is an outdoors man - he is a boy after all. I have braved the cold days and bundled us up so that we can throw leaves, ride our truck super fast and visit the neighborhood dogs. I brave the cold so that when winter really hits I won't be such a wimp.

For Halloween I bought a small pumpkin for Alex and a big pumpkin for us. Brian did a wonderful job carving them in under 20 minutes since we were rushing to a 'spooky' dinner with our neighbors. Alex was a dragon (thanks to grandma) this year and took pride in yelling at the tricker-treaters if they dared come his way.

His favorite activites at the moment are, of course, taking the tops on & off the pumpkins and going on a good bug hunt. Now that we've freed the spider we held captive in a canning jar he goes outside in search of bugs under rocks and leaves. He can spend over 15 minutes poking things and shouting "bee!" even if he hasn't really found a bug.

I'll try to get Brian to get some pictures up soon but he's a busy man so I don't promise anything today.