Quick Visit To Birmingham

On Wednesday Sophia and I packed up the car, kissed Michael good-bye and drove to Birmingham for a quick visit to my sister, nephew and brother-in-law.  The main purpose of the trip was Cooper's program that was happening on Thursday morning...but we hadn't seen them in quite a while to hang out and the kids really missed each other.  Michael had to work, since it was in the middle of the week, and unfortunately couldn't go with us.  Dillon was already there, since it was his spring break, and my parents were also going to be there for Coops program. 
I was a little worried about how Sophia would be during the program.  I pictured her running up to him while he was trying to sing or yelling out Cooper-Dooper through the entire thing.  Here she was before the program.....

I put her paci in (which we really only let her have now when she sleeps) thinking that might keep her quiet...turns out I really didn't need to...4 year olds can sing much louder than a one and a half year old can yell to her cousin!  But Soph actually was SO good during the show.  She danced around and sat between me and my sister (who was next to me on the end keeping an eye on her class) and loved the music.  I think she is going to LOVE pre-school.  It was funny to see which kids on the stage I could picture her acting like during a program and which ones I knew she would definitely not be, haha.  Coop did so well!  I took a video of a great song he did but here are some of the cute still shots I got.....

He is definitely not the shy guy he used to be!!  After his program we had a great lunch (while it POURED outside) and then went to look at a couple houses that my sister and bro-in-law are interested in.  I really liked the first one we went to, could see them living there, the back yard was definitely awesome.  I mean, if they can't move to Atlanta, that is.  Jay could always just commute to and from work on the company private jet each day...that would be the best case scenario, but if that isn't an option and they are definitely going to stay in Birmingham for a while then I like the first house we looked at.  :-)  I am sure they will keep looking at houses, since they really just started, but it was fun to join in the house hunting efforts.  Maybe someday soon they will get to join Michael and I in a similar hunt around these parts.  I can sure hope.  :-) 
Later that day we were able to go to a really nice park close to Sara's apartment.  Sophia is so funny when we go to the park.  She likes to climb...but that's about it.  Swings are out, she isn't a fan.  Teeter-totters are a no.  And for some reason, she didn't want Coop do partake in these things either.  So for a while, her and Gamma walked in the giant space of green grass. 

Then my Mom must've been exhausted because they came back!  Aunt Sara-Ow Ow (what Sophia has been calling my sister these days, haha) finally got Sophia on to a swing by pulling her onto her lap and saying weeeee, weeee over and over and Sophia actually liked it! 

The same tactic worked on the teeter-totter.  Grab her and put her on.  My Mom had to be the other side though, hahaha.  Whatever works!  She loved it. 

Since Sophia had been telling Cooper no to most of the things on the playground he had run away to play on his own and was having a great time doing all kinds of fun things.  Apparently so was Grampa!

After a few "races" down the slide (Coop kept saying he won...Sophia didn't care at all or maybe didn't even know they were racing, haha) we mentioned food and Sophia was ready to eat, so we left the park.

After dinner we were all pretty exhausted.  So it seemed like an early night but by the time we got the kids to bed it definitely felt much later.  Plus it had been a long day!  But definitely a fun one.  The next day we let the kids play while we got ready and then had lunch at Cracker Barrel.  After that it was already time to head home.  It was a short trip, but I am very glad we decided to go.  Sophia talks about Cooper-Dooper every single day.  She misses him like crazy.  I'm glad they got to play together, even for a short time, even if she drove him crazy, and I'm glad we will see them in a couple weekends when they come here for more family fun!! :-)