The Rest of the Weekend

We left for Yale on Friday and arrived at the Mleynek farm just in time for the fish fry!

It was delicious and Grandma Neva always has more food than we could possibly eat... and PIE!

I didn't get any pictures of Cooper at the farm that day.

But he spent all afternoon running from tractors to barns to cows.

After all that fun we headed over to Van Gundy's.

Drew found all these toads and brought them to show Cooper:

He did a little dance and thought they were great!

Then he played a little game of catch with Grandpa Dale:

And took over Aunt Mallory's ice cream bowl:

The next morning we got up and went to the omelet breakfast.

Then we went to the parade. Cooper spent some time with Grandma Nene.

Uncle Drew helped Cooper collect some candy:

Grandpa Gordie and his brothers (All five in their 70's now!) drove tractors in the parade:

So did 'our' guys. Mikiah rode with Dale, then you can see Derek, Tyler and Bruce.

Cooper and Grandma Debbie:

Parade watchers:

Cooper made out pretty good with the candy!

But then he decided to stomp in a mud puddle for a while.

I didn't mind until he sat down in it!

We took a lunch break and ran a load of laundry... and then headed to the bathtub races.

This is where a team of four pushers and a driver steer a bathtub on wheels down main street and get pelted with the 7,000 balloons the high school football team filled and sold!

Cooper likes water balloons. We had to watch out for incoming balloons though

cause really the whole event is just a big town water fight!

Next we went to the horse show. It was a wet day for it, but still fun to watch.

Cooper enjoyed the horses.

Who knew we should have packed winter clothes for the 4th of July?!?

Cooper got chilly so Daddy put him in his jacket.

Cooper was able to pet this nice horse.

And the nice 'cowgirl' let him sit up there with her! Cooper loved it!

Next Uncle Drew took Cooper down this huge slide!

He loved that too!

He also took him into this thing... it was tall enough Cooper could stand up and

run through the tunnels... he didn't want to get out!

We headed back out to the house until time for the fireworks display.

Cooper killed some time riding the four wheeler with Aunt Mal.

And shooting some fireworks with Daddy.

He thought this tank was fun!

I'll omit the rest of the crying pictures once the loud ones got going...

these pictures are more fun! :)

This was when I noticed Bruce raiding the garden... one of his favorite things!

At least once a day someone asks, "Where's Bruce?".

If no one knows... he's usually in the garden.

Tyler brought his airplane... Cooper loves this and almost every time

he saw Ty he said, "Airplane?"

We had a fire and roasted marshmallows for smores:

Here is Derek's mom, Debbie and her mom, G'ma Jan in the kitchen. It seems Grandma Jan spends the whole time here! (We're a lot of mouths to feed!) The rest of us rotate in and out helping.... but Grandma is always there... thanks for feeding us so well Grandma!

The four wheeler is one of Cooper favorite things to do on the farm!

Can you tell???

As we've previously established, fireworks are not Cooper's favorite.

He cuddled up close when it was time to watch the big display.

And he was asleep by the end! He did this last year too.

I'll leave you with a picture of Derek and Cooper on a tractor.

Cooper really loved this the most! He started to fall asleep once so Derek finally got

him down. Good thing Grandpa Gordie has about 20 antique tractors...

there are plenty to go around. :)

I could have split this post up to make it easier for you to read, sorry for a loooong post.

If you made it to the end, good job! :) Thanks for sticking with us.