Catching up - Tanner meets the Beach

(Just a warning - this is kind of a long post with LOTS of pictures. I'm posting this mostly for Grandmas' benefit!)

Sometime last summer Nate commented on the fact that Tanner has never been to the beach, so we decided to go visit his brother and sister-in-law who live near San Diego over fall break in October. (Fall break is new to me to, but for whatever reason kids get a week off of school for Spring Break in March, and a week off for Fall Break in October.) It's so weird having to plan our trips around school breaks (both Nate's and Kiersten's!) and not being able to just pick up and go whenever we wanted.

We had so much fun with Michael, Julia and Maiya and Mira. Our first day we headed out to the beach - Tanner was in heaven! He loved the beach from the minute he got out of the car. Kiersten, on the other hand, wasn't so sure - it has been almost 3 years since she'd been to the beach and apparently we had to remind her that she liked it, too. She did ok as long as she could wear her flip flops and didn't have to actually get in the water! Both kids had a great time making sandcastles with Maiya and Mira while Dad (he's the mound under the BYU sweatshirt and animal towel) and Uncle Mike (he's the mound under the had and pink stripe towel) tried to sleep.

I have several friends who have kids close to Kiersten and Tanner's ages who told me that their kids LOVED the zoo, so we bought tickets and hoped ours would too! Our first stop was the snakes and reptiles, a stop I could have done without. However, Tanner was fascinated - we quickly fell behind everyone else because he wanted to stop and watch at each case. The snakes were really active and interesting, but not interesting enough to "open the windows" like Tanner wanted to do! After that was the turtles, which cracked Tanner up. If one turtle was walking and then just stopped (which they frequently did), any turtles behind him would just stop and wait for the first one to start moving again. Tanner thought it was so funny that the turtles wouldn't go around each other. When we finally managed to drag him away from the turtles, it was off to the petting zoo. A couple of times I caught Kiersten giving the animals a sideways look that seemed to say, "If I don't come near you, then you don't need to come near me either."

We were so busy all day that Tanner didn't get his normal afternoon nap, so as soon as we sat down on the bus Tanner fell asleep. Luckily Nate noticed and I could catch him before he fell off the seat and hit his head!

Our last day of fun found us at the Temecula Children's Museum, which was AWESOME!!! It isn't huge, but there had to be some sort of experiment the kids - and adults! - could do relating to every single law of physical science. Kiersten and Tanner are already asking when we can go back.












It's always sad when it is time to head home, although a week of Tanner not napping (there was too much to do and see each day!) made it not quite as sad as usual! We haven't planned our next trip to California yet, but I'm sure it won't be too far away - I think the only place we go more than California is Utah!

A Month on Vacation

(WARNING! This is a pretty long post, although it is mostly pictures. We did a lot in the month we were gone!)

The kids and I spent from the middle of July to the middle of August in Utah visiting family. Nate got to join us for the first part, and the last part, but had to go home and work in the middle (someone had to pay for all the shopping I did!) We had a wonderful time, got to do lots of fun things, and see tons of friends and family.

Actually, anytime I travel with children, it isn't a "vacation," it is a "trip." It is only a vacation when no children are involved! So this was really a month-long trip, and only a couple of days of vacation!

We started out the trip with Nate's youngest brother's wedding (thankfully they chose to get married weekend Nate was going to be in town so he got to be a part of it!). Here is our family in front of the Provo Temple, waiting for them to come out.

This was the first time in who knows how long all the Larsens were together. Here are Kiersten and Tanner with all of their Larsen cousins.
Tanner and Angie at the fountains at the Gateway (in SLC). Kiersten wanted nothing to do with the fountains and was perfectly happy staying in Tanner's stroller watching from a safe distance.

We also headed down to The Farm at Thanksgiving Point where spent a couple of hours with my brother Todd, his wife L0ri, and their two girls, Brooklyn and Savannah.
Kiersten was more than happy to feed the animals as long as she could throw their food at them and they stayed on their side of the fence. She would not let them eat out of her hand, and she didn't like it when they came "begging" for more!
Kiersten was pretty brave and rode the ponies a couple of times. We even got Tanner on for a few feet before he decided he was done.
We had fun swimming with Grandma (who figured she didn't need to go past her ankles with Tanner!), and my aunt Leslie and and her youngest, Lexie (who showed me her very impressive triple twist jump) and Mitchel out in Grantsville.


One night when several of us were at my Mom's for dinner, Tanner decided he'd had it with his high chair and was joining Kiersten and Brooklyn at the big kids table. (I suppose it's all relative - before we know it, the big kid table won't be good enough and they'll want to be at the adult table!)

Nate and my dad arrived just in time to catch the last day of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Kiersten was really excited to actually be able to inside a temple and see where people get married.

Then we headed out to a family reunion at a ranch outside of Heber. It included my dad's Dad, all of my dad's siblings (and their spouses), all of their children, and all of the childrens' children (there were a few people missing, but most everyone was there). The ranch we stayed at had lots of things to keep us busy, such as horseback riding - Brooklyn and Kiersten are suited up and ready to go. (Yes, they made everyone wear helmets and life vests in order to go horseback riding!)

And Kiersten actually riding the pony. I was proud of how brave she was - she rode the pony 2 of the 3 times we walked out to the stables for her to ride.


They had archery, but I think mine were a little too young for that one!

Tanner enjoyed the paddle boats so much he fell asleep sitting up on my lap. Kiersten never wanted to ride in the paddle boats with Nate and I, always with Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandpa found a new friend. But, unfortunately for Grandpa, Tanner wasn't into making friends - all he wanted was a chance to play with Grandpa's laptop that was out on the bed.

Then we left the family reunion a little early (Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning) so that Nate and I could get ready for a backpacking trip I had been lovingly coerced into going on. Nate told me that it would be only two or three miles each way (it ended up being more like 7, although we didn't carry our packs for all of that), relatively flat (we had between 2 and 3 thousand feel of elevation gain, most of it in a half mile or so), and he would carry an air mattress for me (but the pump was too heavy, so he was going to blow it up with his mouth).

Anyone who knows anything about backpacking laughed at me and my pack! In Nate's defense, he did carry most everything else since I had the big, awkward, heavy foam pad. I wish I could say I slept wonderfully on it, but. . . well . . . , I'm sure I slept better than I would have without it!

Nate and I at Amethyst Lake. It was really pretty, and unfortunately a little chilly! (Unfortunately a cold, windy camping trip was not on my itinerary when I packed.)

It was a fun hike and we enjoyed spending time with Nate's brothers Dave, and his wife Juli, and Greg, and his new wife, Lexi. As much as I enjoyed it, I was certainly glad to get back to a shower and a real bed!

We finally loaded up the car (somehow with more than we brought out - I guess I did more shopping than I thought!) and headed home. We did make a slight detour up Kolob Canyon (part of Zion's). We did make Kiersten use the outhouse before getting back in the car and continuing on our road trip home. She was not excited, because she HATES public restrooms because they all have either automatic flushing toilets (she's so scared of them flushing while she's going that I have to hold my hand over the sensor the entire time she's in the stall) or they are exceptionally loud ( at least in her book, so I have to wait until she's out of the stall before I'm allowed to flush for her). She was delighted and more than happy to use the outhouse once she discovered that they don't flush at all!

While we had a great time, we are all glad to be back together as a family and home, sleeping in our own beds!

The Wonderful World of Disney

Since it has been over two months since we got back from our Disneyland trip, and I still haven't posted the pictures I promised Grandmas and I just finished scrapbook pages for this trip I figured I'd just post pictures of the layouts I did and call it a blog! This way there are way more pictures to see, and much more to read (if you care to!), and I'm not reinventing the wheel!