Saturday, Tyler and I took Reagan and Elise to the BYU/Nevada game. We had such a great time, met up with Dad Larsen and his mom and sister and enjoyed being back in the Lavell Edwards Stadium. It has been too many years since I have been to a game there and I missed it, so I am very appreciative that my fil is so generous in sharing his season tickets with the family.

Tyler and Elise

I am not sure if they liked the cotton candy more than watching the game, but they seemed pretty content with both.

Hey, there's Cosmo

Elise was all ready for the game with the "Y" in her hair, she looked so cute and got a lot of attention for it.

Go Cougars!

Tyler and Reagan

Elise and Me

The "Y"

It was such a beautiful day, I just wish the Cougars had played a little bit better, it was a sad loss for us. After the game we headed over to Jacque and Mark's place for pizza and then to a hotel in Provo. It was fun, the kids got to swim and it was amazing how easy it was with just 2 kids who are 8 and 6, holy cow, we got to relax, enjoy eating, sleep in and didn't have any crying. It was amazing, but even more amazing was getting home and having 2 little girls run straight to my with big hugs and smiles.

First Day of School 2010

Today was the first day of school for Reagan and Elise. I was not ready even though we started almost 2 weeks later this year. After dropping them off I cried walking out of the school. Thank heaven for sunglasses. The kids were really excited and so that makes me happy. They both seem to have really good teachers, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that it's the best year ever.

They were so goofy getting their pictures taken, I had to snap one while they were messing around.

He looks so grown up to me! I can't believe he is in the 3rd grade

My first grader, I'm not ready to lose Elise all day long.

Reagan was placed in the front row, couldn't be happier about that. (I completely forgot to get a picture of Elise in her room.)

Mollie had to jump in to have her picture taken as well.

On other note, Ashtynn had her one year appointment today. I'll tell you we grow 'em tall here in Idaho.
She is in the 95% for height (so she'll be my outside hitter, she has long arms, Elise is my middle blocker and Mollie can be my setter, it's perfect)
She is in the 60% for her weight, weighing in at a healthy 22 pounds

She is a vision of perfect health and development. She was so cute in the doctor's office, it broke my heart that it ended with 4 shots. OUCH!!!!

New curlers and Vintage dresses.

Ok, now I feel bad, so happy though to see that I do have readers. I'm taking a blog break from posting about our trip, but I will get back to that really soon, I have a lot more pictures. Maybe if I posted more than once a week...

Recently I came across a blog post about some new curlers and since my hot rollers are, sniff sniff, in storage, I decided I would give them a try. I love them. They are so crazy looking, but really easy to do, now that I have it figured out, but the learning process was a little painful. I put them in Mollie's hair and I love the curls they created. I loved it on my hair as well, but I didn't take any pictures of my hair, maybe next time.

On another note, my mom pulled some dresses out of her storage boxes to show a friend of hers. My girls saw them and went crazy, they fell in love with them and begged me to let them wear them to church. It was funny how many people mentioned it brought back childhood memories. My favorite though was the very young mom who asked where I found the "vintage" dresses. I had to laugh as I told mom made them and I wore them. I guess I just wasn't ready for my childhood to be considered "vintage" ouch.

Boston

Dear Carrie, Paula, Rachel and Jacque,
I am writing this post to you since apparently you are the only readers I have of this blog. I think I may go private again, as it appears my writing is for a few select, all be it, very special people. Hahaha.

Anyway, after a week in Michigan, Tyler, Mollie, Ashtynn and I were able to fly to Boston to spend some time with Matt and Rachel and their family. A huge thank-you to Carrie for letting Reagan and Elise spend the week there so we could make this trip.

We flew from Detroit at 6:30 am and met Rachel at the airport at 11:30. We jumped in her car and headed to their home in Needham, about 20 miles outside of Boston (I think?). After a quick rest and some lunch, we went to the train station, about 1/2 mile away and got on a train headed for the city. Oh my word, I love Boston, what a beautiful city that is. We went to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall where we ate dinner. We also walked down to the Harbor, wow, it was so pretty.

Could these 2 girls be any cuter, oh my goodness, they had so much fun together

Matt, Rachel, Me, Tyler
Ashtynn, Ethan, Hailey and Mollie

Rachel and I at Fanueil Hall

Tyler, Mollie and I in front of a random building that I really liked

The girls were so impressed with the Sax player

The next day, Rachel and I hung around the house with the kids, she took the girls to a nearby farm while the babies slept and I worked. Matt and Tyler went back in to Boston to take a tour of Fenway Park. Sadly, the Red Sox were not in town while we were there, so this was the next best thing. Tyler loved it, they had so much fun and it will do until one day we can get back and go to a game. Don't hold your breath, it may be a few more years.

That's a happy man, right there

Thursday, we had access to passes for the Boston Aquarium and spent a couple of hours there. It was pretty cool, and the kids all loved it.

Me and my Ashtynn, who was amazing on this trip, by the way. She was a dream child

Mollie and Hailey checking out the dolphins

Check out the shark heading toward Tyler and Mollie...so cool

The Larsen Family minus Reagan and Elise

After the aquarium, we went to James Hook Lobster company, got a couple of crab rolls and a lobster roll for Tyler. We couldn't resist and also bought a live crab and a live lobster which we took back to Rachel and Matt's and boiled right up. DELICIOUS!!!!!!! We were in heaven.

Tyler had fun getting to prepare and eat a live lobster

The girls loved the lobster and crab, but ironically were very sad they had to go to bed and didn't get any to eat

Oh, the sweet succulence of crab

More fun in Michigan

With 9 kids, Carrie and I found the best way to entertain the kids while not at the lake was to take them to some of the parks in the area. Michigan has some pretty cool parks. The kids' school playground was awesome, there were tires everywhere to jump, bounce, skip, sit, roll, dance, sing, shout and anything else you can think of, and there seemed to be hundreds of them set up in cool designs. My kids were pretty impressed with it all.

This is Hilton School park, I love the picture with all 9 kids on the tower, so fun! Check it out, they even had zip lines.

This was one of the Metro Parks, the guys went golfing here, so we took the kids over the park right next to the golf course, such a pretty lake here.

We also went in to the City of Brighton, which I think is really a fun town. That is the town my sister lives in and downtown has some fun shops, a beautiful lake with boardwalks crossing over it and more, but that is what we saw. The kids fed the ducks, we had ice cream and then they played at the park.

Ashtynn, Tayden, Kaylee, Tyler, Karyna, Trevyn, Mollie, Reagan, and Elise on the boardwalk

Tyler and Ashtynn, she loved the ducks

Feeding the ducks from the bridge

So pretty, I love that they put hanging baskets along the bridge.

Elise, Trevyn, Karyna, Tayden and Tyler, check out the park in the background and the cool buildings, I loved it!

On the Road to Michigan and the Lake House

Wow, where has this last week gone? I have been wanting to post about our trip and yet everyday something new makes it so I can't seem to get this done. I will blame work mostly, but I also have spent a few days getting a Snapfish album organized of our trip. At this point in my life scrap booking has taken a back seat and yet it made me very sad to think all of these pictures from our trip would just sit on a disc in my desk. It came today in the mail, and I love it.

I figured I would do a post about Michigan and then add another post about Boston. So here is a little taste of our trip to Michigan. We left Idaho on Saturday the 17th the evening after Tyler's race and drove through the night and through the next day until we hit Cedar Rapids Iowa where we got a hotel. Originally we wanted to get a hotel so the kids could swim and play, but since it was around 11:00 pm when we checked in, we all went right to sleep.

Our fearless leader...

...and his amazing side kick

See, don't they look so happy! Thank heavens for DVD players.

After the all night drive, we stopped in Cheyenne Wyoming to let the kids stretch their legs and let Tyler get a little rest.

The next morning, we got up and headed for Michigan. We arrived Monday evening around 7:00 at Carrie's house. The kids were awesome on the trip, blew us away. Believe it or not, not a single puking incident, that has to be a record.

While we were in Michigan we stayed at their lake house on Handy Lake. It is about 10 minutes from their home and I must say, not a bad set up. The lake is out the back door, with sand to play in and their most recently acquired toys, the jet skis. So much fun. The kids loved being with their cousins and sitting around visiting with Carrie was the best. Of course, it would have been easier to sit around and visit without 9 children hanging around, but how boring would that be.

Tyler and Mollie out on the Jet Ski, she is such a little daredevil, it is hilarious.

And Mollie doing a little Ariel impersonation.

Reagan, cousin Tyler, cousin Karyna and Elise

The 2 babies had such a good time playing on the slide.

This is one of my favorite pictures. The pasty white baby is mine and the tanned sun bathed baby is Carrie's so funny.


Mollie and Tayden

Carrie and me!
Tyler and Ashtynn

The Lake house, view from the water

And the view of the lake from the house