Friday, August 20, 2010

Utah- Cousins Rock! Families Rule!

My girls love playing with their cousins and grandparents. I start to miss my girls when we’re there. They have very full agendas and hanging out with mom and the babies is not part of it. Alyssa got to spend a whole day with Mike's sister Polly. Alyssa and Polly LOVE each other. I think if Polly had had a girl she would have been much like my Alyssa. This dog is not Polly's, but she does had tow that look very much like this, and I credit Polly with helping Alyssa get over her fear of dogs. Patience is Polly.

Emma Grace has two cousins that were born the same day as her. We call them the triplets. They played really well together. It’s fun to see that they all have their own personalities, but they love each other very much. A favorite activity for the triplets was feeding the neighbors goats. Logan got in to it, too. My parents willow tree will never be the same. The goats were sure happy and well fed. The trampoline was also a big hit. We stationed adults all around the perimeter to catch any flying babies.

We spent a few days in Bear Lake. We went to the beach. My babies could play in the sand forever. The girls built some sweet sand castles.
Becca will be mad at me for posting this, but she is such a good mom. 9 months pregnant, contractions, tired she takes her kids to the lake for two days. I admire her. She had her baby while I was there. Layton Don was born weighing 7lb 11oz. He is a cute little guy. Everything went great. Except, Becca broke her tail bone! Oh, Man. She said having the baby was a breaze, the tail bone was what hurt.
We also went to Pickleville. My girls LOVED it. They wanted to hear all about when I was the star of the show. Yeah, right! I was never the STAR! But, I did have a lot of fun. They had to buy a T-shirt and I got one too.
We were the for the 24th of July parade. It's a very convenient parade to watch as is passes right in front of my parents house.
The last two days we were there we had a Larsen family reunion. We went on a hike in the mountains.
Played "The Amazing Race" around Logan. My kids were VERY impressed with my ice blocking skills. We made arts and crafts. The Duck tape wallets were a big hit. We ended the first day with a talent show. Savannah did a dance with Kassidy. Alyssa did an art exhibit with Tommie. Emma Grace sang Happy Birthday, Mushy Muddy, and Big Girls Don't Cry. Logan was the stunt double for Mason in his sword fight with Grandad. A good time was had by all.
Saturday morning we went to my Grandpa Larsen's graveside. Grandma Larsen met us there and she shared some stories about Grandpa with us. We then went to the Logan City Cemetery and visited some of our reletives graves that helped found Cache Valley.
Back at Mom and Dad's we had a family devotional. The theme of the reunion was "Your Stonger than you know, Smarter than you believe and Braver than you think." Mike and I were in charge. Mike shared The David and Goliath story. It worked out great becasue Dallas was there (7' 4") and so Mike could demonstrate how tall Goliath was by having Dallas reach up high above his head. We then played lots of game that you had to be Stronger, Smarter and Braver to play. It ended with a dunking machine and a chance for all of us to throw stones at Goliath (Scott). It was fun.
The reunion ended with a carnival in the back yard. Every family was to bring a carnival game. We used the dunking machine. My parents rented a popcorn machine, a snowcone machine, and a cotton candy machine. Yum. It was so much fun. Everyone was there and I really love my family. I love watching my kids play with their cousins and I like being with my brothers and sisters. My Granny Coburn came down and I hadn't seen her since Grandad's funeral. She is the best. She cried and cried when I drove away to come home. That of course made me cry and cry. Families are the best.

Utah- Seriously?!?!

Before we went to Utah Logan was complaining that his private parts were hurting. He would show his sisters by squatting down pointing and saying “hurts”. I couldn’t see anything and we were leaving so I just didn’t do anything about it.
He persisted when we got to Utah and my mom mentioned that she knew an excellent Urologist (My uncle Ryan). So, I took my baby to see my Uncle. My cousin is his nurse, and my Aunt Marlys is another nurse. Imagine my surprise when they told me that my baby needed surgery! OK surgery may be a strong word, but numbed, clamped, cut, and bandaged. My baby was NOT impressed.
We had a few great days and then disaster struck again. Emma Grace started to fever and puke. Logan followed suit. I had my friend Amy come over and look in their ears. No shock here, Logan had double ear infections. Alyssa was the next leaf to fall. She is my puker. Mike was fishing in Alaska and then back the Georgia. He joined us at the end of Alyssa’s pukage. Savannah cried every night scared that she would be next. My niece Tara Lee shared with her a philosophy her mother had taught her: If you only let good things in, you’ll get good things out. So, Savannah tried to have a good attitude, washed her hand obsessively and made it through just fine.
I guess if we were going to be on vacation during all of this, my mom’s was the best place I could have asked for.
It wasn’t ALL bad we had a good week before we fell and we were healthy for the last 3 days.

Utah- Lagoon

Alyssa and Samantha

Savannah and Rianna

We got to Utah on Sunday and we went to Lagoon with the big girls on Monday. It was fun. We went with Mike’s sister Noelle and her girls. They were so excited to be together. Alyssa prides herself on being the dare devil of the family. She rode pretty much every roller coaster. She said she enjoyed them, but I’m not sure she was being entirely truthful. Savannah is much more cautious than her sister. She rode a few of the big coasters, but not all.
I was the only one of the group that wanted to ride the Samurai. Mike came to say “goodbye” (he was flying back to GA). He walked with me down to the ride. We watched it run a few times and he was more than surprised that I still wanted to go. He said, “It makes me sick just watching it”. After I got off, he kept asking me if I was O.K. Did I want to sit down? How on earth could I be walking straight after riding that? I liked it.
So actually, I’m the dare devil of the family!

If I have any say…

Enough said.

Day at the lake

The next cover for the "Lake Lanier brochure"


Logan LOVES the boat

Emma Grace caught a "Schishy"

Professional fishermen

Savannah's catch of the day. (Look really close)

One of our favorite things to do during the summer is spend the day with the Daltons at the lake. They have been working super hard to get the lake house up and running. It was a nice day. The girls are awesome. They don’t mind swimming in nasty lake water, they enjoy fishing and even caught a few, and they love the rides on the boat. Emma Grace just loves hanging out the “the boys”. Logan wasn’t feeling super great (ear infection). I spent a big chunk of the day driving around Gainesville so that he could sleep. But we did get to take a boat ride together and Logan enjoyed that.

Swim team

I’m just a summer behind in my journal, so I’ll try to catch up. Every summer my girls join a swim team. This year we chose a team in Grayson. The girls were excited and LOVED the new coaches and friends.
Savannah and Gabby
Savannah and Megan
Alyssa and Emily
Megan, Savannah, Natalia, and Alyssa cheering for Gabby
It's a good thing I have kids, they help me make my best friends
They had a great year. Savannah’s relay team qualified for county, and Alyssa was a rock star. She qualified in 4 individual events and her relays qualified as well.
Swimmer of the Year
Unfortunately their county meet was to be held on a Sunday. It would have been a hard moral dilemma to face, but we were spared as we were flying to Utah the same Sunday. We are proud of our girls. They’re real go getters. While not super competitive, they love to be active. I’m so glad. It’s never a fight to get them to go to practice. They love being busy.
Maybe the best part of being on a swim team is the high quality “human murals” that are created in support of team spirit. I just warn the parents of the kids that hang out with mine. They had better make it VERY CLEAR if they don’t want their beloved to be covered in graffiti.
Alyssa's team spirit
Savannah's team spirit