Copes

Day Trip to Sedona

Last Tuesday, May 19th, Angie and I took the kiddos for a day trip to Sedona. We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a day. We left Maricopa at about 9:30 and arrived in Sedona at about 11:30. We proceeded onto Oak Creek Canyon, Slide Rock specifically. We took the kids down to the water and let them play around. They were so cute together as always! They would sit on the rock together and they loved being in the water. After playing in the water for about an hour and a half, we had a picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips, potato salad, and cookies. It was yummy!! We then went to the Downtown area to look in the shops while Ethan ad Hannah napped. We had some fabulous peppermint chip ice cream at the Black Cow Cafe.  It was then time to venture home. We stopped and had dinner at the Olive Garden close to Anthem. Then we were homeward bound. We made it home at about 8:30 p.m. Ethan was out for the night and I was ready to relax and watch American Idol. It was a long day, but the kiddos did great and it was super fun!! I look forward to future day trips and the upcoming 2nd annual Fourth of July camping trip.

Photos will be posted soon! I am not good at that part yet.

Cougar Hunting

It turns out Onyx would not be a good cougar hunting partner as previously thought.

D-Backs game with the kids

Last night we went to see the D-Backs take one San Diego Padres, or Pears if you ask Holley. The game was alot of fun. The D-Backs had a 6-0 lead until the 7th or 8th when the Padres got 4 runs. Luckily, the D-Backs only gave one run, a homer, in the top of the 9th, winning the game. It was a lot of fun to take all three kids to the game. We took alot of photos. Ethan liked putting the popcorn bucket on his head, and then on Eddie’s head. After the game, we stopped by the organist, who let Eddie and Holley sit on the organ bench for a photo and signed autographs. It was a great way to spend the evening.

Ethan’s swim lessons

Ethan started swim lessons today. He did fantastic! He cried which is expected, but he grabbed the bar as he was instructed to do. He also has great breath control. He takes a breath before she dunks him under the water. He would be under water for three to five seconds before grabbing the bar all by himself. He also was faced away from the bar and he would turn to grab the bar. It was so awesome to see my little guy learning a new skill (He’s not my baby anymore. He is learning to swim. That is crazy!!) I may be a little biased, but he did such a phenomenal job this morning. He is going to have ths swimming thing down so quickly! I strongly recommend Infant Swim Resource to all parents that are looking for swim lessons!! The website is www.swimisr.com . Pictures will follow soon.

*Edit: The main national website is www.infantswim.com, while a group of Tucson ISR instructors operate www.swimisr.com.

Ethan’s Swim Lessons Started Today

Ethan started his swim lessons today. He is not a big fan right now, but its totally worth it. These lessons are swimming survival lessons. That means the goal is to teach him how to survive falling in the pool if by chance he were to end up in the pool area without an adult.

His instructor is named Erin, and his lessons are 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week, just him and the instructor.

He is learning to control his breath (not breathe underwater) and grab for the pool wall, instead of depending on other people.  I will try and have some video later this week.

The party at Erics

We had a party at Eric’s house. Sean, Matt were  the only two guys there. Monica, Ann, Heater, Mindy, and Glenda also joined us. The kids were Me, Holley, Jack, Ethan, Mckenize, Briaana, Maddie. First, we hopped in the pool. After a while of that we got and had dinner. We had hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, watermelon and a fun time. After that, I played baseball on ps2. I won. Then everybody left arounnd 7:00. That was a lot of fun. I can’t wait for another party.

Party at the Copes

At the party a lot of little kids came and played with Ethan. They also swam with everybody. After swimming, everybody came in and ate some hamburgers and hotdogs. Then we had homemade ice cream sandwiches. By then everybody was ready to go home. After everyone was gone, we cleaned up and watched a movie, Mall Cop.

DBacks vs. Reds

I attended the DBacks game with some friends from work. Duane knew the home plate umpire who let us have his tickets right behind home plate, row 32. Great seats. After the game, we met the umpire who gave us used game baseballs and took us out on the field, see below. It was a blast!

Mother’s Day Photos

Carolyn had the idea of taking photos my mom for mother’s day. I decided to one-up her and use them along with Ethan’s hand print for Aubrey’s mother’s day gift. Here are the photos. If you want to print them, let me know and I can send the hi-res ones.

Thanks to Riley for the mad photo-taking skills.

Shooting Today

I went shooting with three good friends today, Russell, Matt, and Ritch. We left Maricopa around 6:45am, hitting the range around 7:15. We all brought our arms and tried each for ourselves. I loved shooting both the shotgun as well as the rifle. I think Russell is still trying to beat my rifle grouping (5″ at 70 paces). I tried to shoot my handgun today with both eyes open. That was super difficult. I went from 90-100% target achievement to 20-30% target achievement.

I also did some rapid fire on a humanoid outline with two magazines. I got approximately 22 of 24 rounds center of mass, meaning the guy who tries to take my (or my wife’s or son’s) life is the guy with 22 holes required to stop him. All in all, it was a great morning. I had alot of fun. We also stopped in at the trap club to get details regarding trap shooting. Its $5/25 targets, which seems like a great deal.

Russell posted some photos.