Tanbo the Magnificent

Tanner Waite, our almost 14-year-old nephew on Andrew's side, came to watch Cooper and Gunner while Andrew was at work, and I was in Las Vegas for Girls Week. He came a few days early, and stayed a week after I got back too...so he became part of our fam for a few weeks. The boys LOVED having a big brother, and miss having someone to play with the ALL the time! Thanks so much Tanner! You are the favorite cousin right now...for sure! His "payment" for babysitting included his flight, and the fun things we did while he was here. Having visitors always is an excuse for fun, right?! It was a few weeks PACKED WITH FUN!!! Here are some of the things we did:

• Golfing with Andrew
• Hard Rock Cafe (Tanner is a rocker, so he enjoyed the memorabilia)
• Union Station (Ate, shopped, fed the fish)
• Cardinals Game (on autograph night!)
• Gateway Arch (He and Cooper went to the top this time)
• Lewis and Clark Museum
• Swimming
• Base and Dental Squadron Picnics with games and lots of food
• Bowling on base
• Movies (the boys and I saw "Wall-E" with our friend Karen, while Tanner went to "Get Smart")
• Grant's Farm
• America's Incredible Pizza Co. (all you can eat buffet and mini-bowling, arcade, go-karts, mini-golf)
• Six Flags - Cooper was so excited he is FINALLY 42 inches tall, so he was tall enough to ride 7 of the 12 big roller coasters. He is a little daredevil! Gunner was content playing in the misters.
• St. Louis Mills Mall and St. Clair Mall (Tanner was excited about the Hollister stores here)
• Cheering on Andrew at softball games. The Dental Squadron is currently undefeated with 2 games left. It has become a big deal!

SIX FLAGS

I thought Beckett looked cute in the black lights. :)

Riding the Metro. This was a first time on a Subway for Tanner...he wishes he had one in Spokane so he could meet his friends places without relying on his parents for transportation. :)

Lewis and Clark Museum

Mississippi River - it was neat to see the flooding. Tanner got good pictures of the street lights out in the river. Crazy!

Talking to Tanner made us feel old. He said some kids in school smoke or do drugs, but their parents are the "80s rockers type". When I was young the kids who did that had parent who were "60s hippies". I asked him if we seemed old, and he said, "No, not really, my parents are old." (the are, I think, 36...SO old! :) ) He told us about his "paperless" classes, building web pages using html, and powepoint presentations instead of "reports". Things change fast with technology!

The boys got to play TONS of video games. Tanner helped Cooper get really good at Tony Hawk skateboarding...and opened a lot of new levels for him. When Tanner left Cooper said, "I'm going to miss you Tanner. Thanks for making my video games fun." They both love Guitar Hero too. Cooper beat the game on "easy" while I was in Vegas. I personally still haven't done that...and he is FOUR years old! Tanner is AMAZING even on "expert" level. It looks physically impossible to me. I think the "no limit on video games" made up for the diapers he had to change on Gunner the week I was in Vegas. Thanks so much Tanner!!!!