Christmas Break

New Year's Eve - just a quiet evening at the Park Tavern with Jen.

Sorry guys - but Mary was in charge of this post, so the pictures are in backwards order. :)

Michigan trip - part 2 with Mary's family

We were throwing snow balls at mom from the balcony.

hiking at the bird conservatory.

jessica lynn

katie and megan at the zoo lights

i don't think normal people's first reaction is to do this when they see a big head sculpture

all of us at the art museum - it was very sunny

katie and megan by a piece of art

Christensen grandkids

we played a lot of rock band!!

kid's table at "Christmas" dinner (it was on the 27th)

megan jeanne with the mug mary painted for her.

mom with the photo book for this year.

katie, megan, and jessica with the outfits mary made them.

opening presents

mary with beauregard

we miss you lake huron!

Michigan trip - part 1 with Justin's family

(as a side note, mary put in the pictures, so most of them are sideways)

Mama Cooper opening her cases (yes, I said cases) of wine from Brad

Mary loves her new Pink Snuggie

Christmas Eve at the Burns' out in Ossineke

Makenna with a wig, I don't where she got it from.

Justin drinking the world's largest White Russian....mmmmm

Opening Presents at Dad's House

The GR Cooper's drove over that night too...Ashley opening presents

Aidan getting distracted

Aidan, Mary, Justin, Paul, Melissa, and Ashley in front of Tree

Mary making cookies before we left

J-E-S-S-I-C-A (Jessita)

Joe Jonas

see any similarities?

Lots of Updates

Recently we have had lots of activities so updating the blog kind of came last on the list. So now we are playing catch-up. Below is a list of events that have been happening. Underneath are pics!

1.) For Thanksgiving last month, Mary, Justin, Tim, Krista, and Jen all went up to Conifer to celebrate and eat with Jen's Aunt and Uncle. As usual, we has a blast eating, playing board games then passing out on the couches.

2.) Right after Thanksgiving we got our first Dairy Delivery! On our street we always noticed these white boxes on everyone's porch. So we investigated, and Denver still has a dairy delivery service. Through some investigating, we found out that all of the products are local, and produced from hormone-free cows. Mary also likes to think that they are living in little cow homes too. So now every other Friday we now receive a 1/2 gallon of milk, cage free veg. fed eggs, chocolate milk, and a block of cheese delivered right to our door. Plus we are supporting local farmers. It's pretty cool.

3.) The Friday after thanksgiving, Mary wanted to set up for our very first Christmas in the new house! So we put up lights during the day, well sort-of into the night. Then at night, we had our annual Christmas tree decorating party. Lots more food, and Christmas music.

4.) On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we all headed up to Erica and Carter's to celebrate our annual "Left-Overs" Thanksgiving. Although Mary and Erica had to buy the Offical Roast Beast (tofu "throw up in my mouth" turkey)

5.) Justin happened to stumble on free tickets to an Avalanche game and a Nuggets came on back-toback nights. Saturday Nov. 28th - Avalanche Game, Sunday Nov. 29th - Nuggets Game. Justin won the hockey tickets during a raffle at the MSU bar, and a work friend supplied the b-ball tix.

6.) This year again, we made our Christmas cards by using a rubber stamp that Justin carved. It is quite a process. Justin thinks that Mary is over using his artistic ability, and does not like being treated as an "art-machine". Mary shuts him up by feeding him large amounts of beer. We made 80 cards this year, hopefully you have all received them by now?

7.) Our good old college friend, and Justin's old roomate, Aaron, came out to visit last weekend! So Tim, Aaron, and Justin all went up to Fort Collins to do a Brewery tour. Then over the weekend we went up to boulder, flagstaff rd., and attempted eating a 7lb. burrito (pictures wil explain it all). We had a blast, and Aaron you need to move out here!

Sorry this is so long, lots of events were taking place! Hope you have enough time to read and look at it all. Thanks and enjoy!

Most recent pic of dogs, I think that they like each other, I could be wrong though

Mary making her pies for Thanksgiving

Everyone up in Conifer

Chocolate pudding pies

Pecan pie (Justin's favorite)

An arrangement of pies

Our first dairy delivery!

Justin putting up lights on the roof
(finished pictures coming soon)

Christmas decorating party

Orange Julius'!

Mary putting up the first ornament (it's a picture of her, how modest)

Justin putting up the star
(Tim & Krista have the same one, damnit)

At left-overs thanksgiving, Joe on scooter

Erica carving the roast beast

Avalanche game (went to shoot-out!)

Nuggets game

The "art-machine" at work

Cards drying

Justin, Timmy, and Aaron at the scenic overlook just before boulder

If the three of us were a band, then this would be our album cover

THE 7lb. burrito (as seen on man vs. food)

We were so happy before

Life sucked

My Gramps

As most of you know, last month my Grandpa Cooper passed away. He lived a very full and vibrant life, and left an imprint on all of his children and grandchildren. Whether we were helping grandpa in the yard, or hearing his famous stories around a late night bonfire, we will always remember him for the wonderful caring man he was. Below is an excerpt from his memoirs "Anecdotes and Never-Never Again" he wrote back in 1995. We are so lucky to have his very best stories preserved in writing. Miss you Grandpa, Love Justin.

Ronald Henry Cooper
1918-2009

My Grandpa was about 10 years old when this story occurred, when he lived in the Polish neighborhood of Saginaw.
Polish Parachute

"My Polish friend took an old bed sheet from his house. He wanted to make a parachute. We tied ropes on each corner of the sheet. We twisted the ropes at the ends up to about 3 feet. This helped to make a thicker rope to hang on.
We practiced jumping from a step ladder onto an old bed spring. The home-made parachute seemed to work pretty well. Then we got real brave. We put the ladder against the garage and decided to jump from the garage roof.
I arranged the bed sheet parachute on the roof. I jumped and the parachute opened beautifully. However, it did not help to prevent the hard fall onto the bed springs. My knee caps came up and hit my chin. I saw stars. The Polish friend was not dumb enough to try it. That was the end of our parachute jumping."

Justin's trip to Michigan

Justin had to make a last minute trip to Michigan due to the fact that his Grandpa Cooper passed away. It was an emotional filled trip, but Grandpa gave us the gift of a nice family reunion. The service for him was beautiful, he would have been very happy. Grandma Cooper was strong, but had her moments. It was great to hear and re-tell all of our old Grandpa stories. Thanks to all of you that sent cards my way, much appreciated. Below are pics of being with the family.

Justin & Mom at Grandma Mac's

Justin, Ashley, and Aidan at Dad's

Justin and Dad out in the woods setting up deer blinds

Early Snow...again!

Last week we got another bout of snow! Not as much as the first time around, but still quite a bit...around 8 inches in town. Below are some pics, we decided to go back to our old stomping grounds and play in Cheesman Park, the dogs liked it a lot!

Us in the Park (city in the background)

View from out our front window (didn't put the jeep in the garage...oops!)

Sun shining through the trees

Path down Cheesman

Pretty

Dogs playing in the snow

Veteran's Day

This is an article about the Veteran's Day celebration at our school this week. It was organized by one of the 8th grade classes at our school, and the picture cycling through on the side has kids I teach in it!! Pretty cool!