Smiles :)

Guess what?!!!! Cooper has learned how to smile!

He's smiled before on rare but happy occasions, but today he mastered the art of smiling! He grinned and laughed at his mamma all day long!

Here's a small glimpse of what I've had all day:

Camping!

Hey everybody! We are in the best mood because we just got back from our 3 day 2 night real live camping trip! That's right everybody! At 7 weeks Cooper is now officially part of the Syphus family because he can camp! I haven't been camping since just before we got pregnant with Cooper so I've waited quite a long time for this.

We headed out Thursday afternoon and got to our camping spot about Dinner time. Lucky for us Mom and Dad Syphus had already come out on Tuesday and set everything up. In fact, they were making dinner just as we pulled up! Hooray for easy camping! We couldn't have a camp fire because of all the fire danger, so instead we just sat around the.. uh.. lantern... and told stories, and Ben even broke out his guitar.

Friday we drove out to Twin Point and looked out over the Grand Canyon, the view was amazing! Cooper's never seen anything so Grand... literally! We spent the day driving around on 4-wheelers and eating (I love camping!). Jesse and Dave Berry found an ingenious use for the winches on the front of the 4-wheelers by hooking one end to a dead tree and then gassing the 4-wheeler into reverse. I think they felled every dead tree within a 5 mile radius of our camp-site. Also that day, Cooper seemed a little dirty so we gave him a bath in a pot! Cooper really knows how to rough it! That night we had an AMAZING dinner of dutch oven pork ribs and potatoes. Dad Syphus works miracles with dutch ovens, I swear those ribs just melted in my mouth! Besides, everything tastes better when you're camping. We spent another night around the lantern playing games and talking, it felt great to have everybody there..except Ben...and Annie...and Spencer.

All in all it was a way fun trip. The scenery was beautiful, and it was fun to have all the little nieces and nephew around! Cooper did great on his first camp-out. The only thing he struggled with was staying warm at night because he kept kicking off his blanket, so I had to bring him into our sleeping bag to keep warm. I didn't mind so much though, he's really snugly when he's sleepy! He sure does like being home though, I think he missed the a/c and his REAL bathtub!

He has a Name!

Cooper Jesse Callahan now has a name (he's not just "baby" anymore)! He was blessed yesterday by his Daddy in Sacrament meeting along with Grandpa Syphus, Big Daddy (Jesse's grandpa), Grandpa Doug, Grandpa Kevin, Alan Syphus, Dave Berry, Flint Chandler, Eric Miller, Chris O'Connor, Jimmy Lindell, and Bishop Jones. Jesse had a slight fever though so he was sweating like crazy!

Saturday, the day before the blessing we went to Zion and Jesse hiked a slot canyon called pine creek with some guys from work, Candice & Flint, and our brother in law Dave. It's a cool little canyon that was carved out by water, and to get through it you have to repel every so often down into ice cold pools of water, and then tread water while you un-clip from the rope to swim out. Meanwhile, me, Cooper, Annie and Maddie stayed at the bottom and took a short hike of our own on the weeping rock trail. Our valiant hikers took a little bit longer than they thought they would, but at least no one was hurt! *Also, Dave was the hero of the day by diving down into the murky water to get the bag of rope that sunk. Without him, they probably would have been stranded and cold and lonely!

Last but not least, last week we went to Sand Hollow Reservoir for family home evening with my family. All the kids played on the red sand beach and paddled around in the water. Cooper enjoyed being held over the water but not actually touching it. I think he was trying to play the part of Moses and part the "red sea". He does look very commanding, if you overlook the small matter of him wearing only his diaper. I know, I know he looks like a poverty stricken little guy, half naked like that, but he evening was very warm and he seemed to enjoy it at the time! By the way, can you believe he's already holding his head up?! He's so strong! Not to mention his killer biceps and cut shoulders. This little guy has a future!