Super Hero Cooper

We've laid low with commenting on the recent events of the world for a few reasons, it's a sensitive topic for us, we really don't know what to think, and our opinions may not necessarily be popular. However, we've made a point to document this journey and this is part of it, so here goes.... I think if I had any patience left after the last year an a half plus of our life, it went away in the last 2 weeks. It's waned significantly for a lot of reasons. I think the "me me me" mentality in our culture is astounding, and this situation only magnified it. The world is in panic, we have shut everything down when literally not 3 weeks ago half of the public schools had active flu and you couldn't get a Clorox wipe in the place, but I digress. The last 2 weeks there have been a lot of things I have seen and heard that are a hard pill to swallow. Most people have asked  "how on earth are we going to do this 14 day quarantine and COVID-19?" When we...

We had a wonderfully unexpected awesome experience this weekend with another former JMU Duke. For many of you who have followed our story, you know how special the JMU Dukes are to both us and to Cooper. You've also heard about Cooper's friendship with Raven Greene, and in many blogs we have also mentioned Cooper's favorite player from the team last year Jimmy Moreland. One of the reasons Cooper loved Jimmy so much is not because he was an amazing player (even though he WAS) or because he was going to make it to the NFL (even though he has), but because he supported Coop from day 1. He always wore his Cooper bracelet, never takes it off, and he would also often send messages to us cheering him on or supporting him in some way. Jimmy is a kind and good person and has always shown support for Coop.  Last year Jimmy got drafted to the Redskins so I thought it was only appropriate that we go watch him play since he is right down the road.  Jimmy's Mom, Yvone, has a...

Whew!!!! We did ALL of Disney in 3 days! Turns out when you don't wait in a single line, you move pretty fast through the parks. so 3 days an 45 miles later, we headed to Universal Studios. At the end of Cooper's active treatment, we took him to Universal, so this was a nice change of pace because it was really not crowded and Cooper kind of had an idea of what he wanted to do. This time he was prepared and made sure to wear his Harry Potter cloak! Evyn got to come on the Hogwarts Express and also see Manheim Steamroller's Christmas concert Legoland was also very quiet and a nice change of pace from Disney. Cooper really liked looking at all of the large LEGO models.

Kristy's parents came with us to Animal Kingdom, which we have to say, was SO much cooler than is used to be. A lot has changed at animal kingdom and Cooper absolutely loved the Avatar ride. Grammy was a little unsure at first because of how intense it is, but she was a trooper and we all had an awesome time! Avatar world Cooper was really excited about the dinosaur ride. 

Cooper's big part of his wish was to go to the new Star Wars park at Hollywood studios. Each set of grandparents came into the park for a day with us while the other set played with Evyn at Give Kids The World. Jason's parents and Uncle Wesley came to Hollywood Studios with us. Star Wars world was so cool and so realistic. Cooper got to build a light saber at Savi's Workshop as part of his make a wish with daddy and Wesley. It was definitely a highlight of his trip. Cooper also got to do Jedi training and fight Kylo Ren. Cooper looks super intense in this picture! Cooper loved the tower of terror!

Cooper was so very excited to see Magic Kingdom for the first time. He absolutely got that WOW factor. He loved all the rides but I think Space Mountain was his favorite at Magic Kingdom! Evyn loved anything that involved Minnie Mouse! Cooper is a little excited and is dragging daddy though Main Street.  Evyn at the castle show. She was so excited to see Minnie! Jungle cruise! Epcot Characters Cooper's favorite ride at Epcot was Soaring. Cooper really loved Epcot and all of the learning there. He's such a science guy and loved learning about how the world used to be and how things work.