The Cooper Chronicles: Major Catch Up!!!

We are on vacation in beautiful McCall, Idaho. Its time to catch up with the blog. I vaguely remember what was going on in my previous entry, but I do know that May and June were hard months. The first week of June, school was out, and it was pouring rain. The kids all had fevers and croup and so we were housebound. It was incredibly depressing!! I think that started my downward spiral of a month. Oh, and May 28th I had a wedding shoot--which I don't normally do. I think that wore me out so much and then I wasn't thrilled with the end results, so I had a bit of a meltdown the next day. It stunk.

Before anything else:
General conference time--bingo with their babies...

All sick at the Doctor's office!

My workout buddy (the popsicle is so he'll stop bugging me for a few minutes).

Using my new iphone:

I also had several shoots in June, so I felt overwhelmed with editing those plus having fun time with the kids in the afternoon so they didn't play video games all day. AND at the beginning of June I started a new work out plan to get me ready for this McCall trip. So the pressure of having to eat perfectly and work out every day and edit and be a good mom really caused my mind to go a little crazy. I think now that I was experiencing anxiety in a physical way and it wasn't good. June ended with a week of bad tummy problems which caused me to cut back my workouts, my supplements and ease up on the food perfection..and I think that was a blessing. I got things done, spent more time with the kids, and healed mentally and emotionally a lot. We spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's pool with the cousins. We are lucky to have such great cousins (and aunts and uncle and grandparents) nearby. The kids have had few playdates with anyone else but their cousins and we love it cause its easy.

Mason's first lost front tooth:

Mason's scraped nose:

Got to see Cars 2, lunch first at Quiznos...

Father's Day this month was nice also, we had pre-cooked chicken, ribs, etc from Oliver's, and salads and fruit and bread and pies for dessert. It was great and I think the dads were happy. The kids all made Jared cards and gave him lots of love that day. He's an amazing dad. Getting the opportunity to think about Father's that day made me really grateful for who he is. He does so much for the kids, and enjoys it (for the most part). I really think Jared will be the one who keeps our family close through the teenage years when it can typically be a hard time. He is so connected to each child, and if he feels a separation, he fixes it. Immediately. He always makes time to snuggle with each one, and really can see each of their unique spirits. Its so comforting to me to see him adore the kids the way he does. Although, before we were even married, I knew he'd be like that. Its one of the main reasons I married him. I also feel so blessed for my own dad and father in law. Both huge influences on my life. I really admire my dad and love being able to spend time with him when we do. Which is actually next week! Well, in a couple weeks, since he will be at a scout camp the first week we're up there. But I'm pretty blessed by the fathers in my life.

So. Then comes July. July 2, I had another wedding. So we weren't able to leave for McCall til Sunday. By the end of June, with all my tummy problems, I decided to postpone 3 shoots til August and that took a huge load off my shoulders and helped me to be able to accomplish all that I needed to before we left. I did a lot of packing Friday night prior to the wedding. Saturday morning I did a quick workout, and then left for the wedding around 11:30 a.m. Jenny (Jared's sister) was assisting/second shooting that day so it was really fun to have her along. In fact I still need to go through her images and get editing those. So after the looong day of working in seriously like 95 degree heat....(the wedding was at 2 p.m. for crying out loud! In the bride's parents back yard. Sooo hot.)....I drove home at 9:30 p.m. and packed some more. We were able to leave by about 9 a.m. the next morning, which was pretty impressive! I had also had a housekeeper come Friday, so I got to take "clean the house" off my list of things to do. I was actually really looking forward to just sitting. Sitting in the car for 12 hours sounded nice. And it was great!! The kids did awesome. Watched a couple movies, played the wii for a while after we stopped for lunch, and we ate so much junk that we didn't even need to stop for dinner. We got here around 9:30 p.m. (which was actually 10:30 Idaho time). Jenna had her kids stay up and wait and so the kids got to be all excited together for a while before finally settling in to bed. I have decided to use my iphone a TON for pictures, cause I will get them on the blog here so much faster, rather than uploading them to edit before blogging. I will do that too, but for the quick version..I have the iphone pics. Today we got up and went to The Pancake House for breakfast, but it was an hour wait. Then we went to Brundage Mountain to ride the chair lift, but it was closed. So we came back and did what we do best. Swim, jet ski, and relax.