Wildlife Park

We made a family trip down to the Bahrain Wildlife Park yesterday. Now there is a reason they call it a "Park" and not a "Zoo". Not much to see, but Mary Ellen loves animals so we thought it would be a different way to spend a Saturday. Most of the park is actually a wildlife preserve that the King began to preserve some native animals and can only be accessed by the public through a bus tour. When I came over while I was pregnant we did the bus tour and it was interesting...and quite honestly anything at that point I could do sitting down, I was a happy camper. We just walked around the park this time. Now if you're thinking to yourself what animals are native to the "great sandbox" and all you can come up with is the camel...you'd be close. There were several types of bird, several types of goats and the camel...not much else. It was a nice afternoon, however, in a lush and beautifully landscaped park.

Andrew's pointing out the ducks and all the other birds to M&M. Nice for them to know that a duck isn't just a plastic yellow toy they play with in the tub!

M&M enjoy the Emu and Ostrich.

OK, so the camel is still the favorite! And M&M were able to get real close thanks to three kids who were pulling up landscaping plants to feed them. I guess there are little hooligans everywhere.

You can see one of the little hooligans in this picture...of course Mary Ellen thought it was the hilarious!

M&M taking a break while we wait for Daddy. You can see behind them some of the beautiful lush trees, palms, and rock waterfall that fed into the lake. Welcome sight in a dry and dusty country. M&M love to be in their side-by-side stroller. They'll talk to each other and sometimes hold hands and more often-than-not pester each other. This usually gets one or the other laughing. They were pretty quiet this day, just taking in all the sights.

As you can see in the last picture, Mary Ellen is the one to spot Daddy coming back...oh how she loves her Daddy!

Fun trip, but this will probably be our only visit to this "Park". However, we've already begun talking about the great "Zoo's" we'll be able to visit when we get back to the states!

Bath Time

Bath time has always been a fun time for Michael and Mary Ellen. I, on the other hand have always seen it as work! Tough job getting two babies cleaned, dried off, lotioned, dressed, etc. Especially when they were very little and I was always nervous their body temperature was dropping or I'd slip and fall and/or drop them. Anyway when we were finally all together again Andrew took over the washing and I would do the lotion, ears, dressing and all the rest. So not surprisingly they love bath time even more now. Seems Daddy makes it lots more fun. Thank the Lord for Daddy!

Andrew was the one who took these cute bath time pictures. Mary Ellen loves to splash. If you look close you can see the flying water droplets!

I thought this was a cute picture of Mary Ellen visiting Michael after her turn was over. Michael loves playing with his blow-up goldfish. Mary Ellen has a dolphin.

Michael is so happy in the bath tub and many times cries when Andrew pulls him out to dry off. He has always been my little smiley boy. And especially during bath time!

A Cooper New Year!

Happy New Year!! And what a fun surprise we had when our best friends, CAS and Christy's Christmas gifts arrived on Jan 1st. It had gotten delayed longer than usual and when it arrived we understood why....it was huge! So many wonderful surprises! We just kept pulling gift after gift from amongst the mound of styrofoam peanuts. Of course M&M were thrilled to have yet more gifts to open. I told Christy that with their Birthday being in September I was afraid that every year they were going to expect continuous gifts from September to January! It has surely seemed that way this year!

I did a "nap time" craft and made these funny New Year's hats using left over party hats from their birthday. They kept them on only long enough for some pictures. And they were distracted anyway by all the new gifts they just opened.

I created a slideshow for the Cooper-Gift-Opening-Extravaganza!

Thank you CAS, Christy, David, Carly and Daniel! Your gifts were so generous and we just can't tell you enough what a special family to us you are. We love you so much and can't wait to see you in February!