Soccer MVP

Earlier this summer we signed Kiersten up for soccer. Nate was delighted - he's hoping that soccer will counteract some of Kiersten's dancing-princess-dress-up-girlishness. I don't think there's much hope for that, but figured that soccer would be fun and entertaining for us! I figured that an activity where her mom isn't the coach would be good for her.

For her age the kids play 3 on 3, with no goalie, they don't keep score, and only have 30 min games (their weekly practice is supposed to be the 20 min before the game). The first week they must have played the best team in the league - a team that will go after the ball! There wasn't much action from our girls. If I remember right, Kiersten was the only one who scored a goal for our team, and she kicked it in the other team's goal!

But, our girls did do pretty well with throwing the ball in. The other team had to have their coach hold their feet down so they wouldn't move when they threw the ball in.

However, in the last few weeks we've seen such a change in Kiersten. Three Saturdays ago she was so proud of herself for scoring 2 goals. We didn't have the heart to tell her that to actually score a goal she had to kick them through the yellow goal cones, and not the flat orange out-of-bounds cones. Then the next week she scored 3 actual, real goals, which I missed because I was at the cannery. So we'd talked about it all week and she told me she was going to score 3 goals again this week (the Saturday we just had) so I could see her score a goal. She was on a roll this past Saturday, not only did she score the 3 goals we talked about, she scored 5 of the 7 total goals of the game! We're really not sure what happened to her, but she was unstopable!


Today she told me she wants to score 10 goals next time because "it's fun to score goals." That being said, she also still prefers practices to games because "there are too many people at the games." Of course, now that she has discovered how to score goals maybe she'll decide that games aren't all that bad.

You Can't Go Wrong . . .

So the other night Nate and Iwent out to dinner and ended up at a fairly new Greek restaurant near our house. I decided to try one of their sandwiches, and asked the waitress for recommendations. Her reply was, "Well, obviously in a Greek restaurant you can't go wrong ordering the Greek Gryo (pronounced jahy-roh, like in gyroscope)." Nate and I had the same thought, although we didn't say it out loud (at least not until she left the table!) "And you can't go wrong with a waitress who can't even correctly pronounce items on the menu!"

Despite our waitress I did try the gyro, and it was pretty good!

Tanner at 1 Year (and 3 months!)

I'm not sure where this summer has gone, but somehow almost 3 months had passed since Tanner turned 1 and I still hadn't taken him in for his 1 year pictures.

A week or so after I had these pictures taken, I took him in for his 15 month check-up. The doctor asked me how many words Tanner was using, that a stranger would be able to understand. I hesitated, trying to think if there were any. I think he misinterpreted my hesitation because he told me to "just estimate . . .10? 20? 30?" I started laughing and told him I was trying to think if there was even 1. Kiersten didn't even really start talking until she was 18 months , and he thinks my 15 month old little boy would be using 30 words? Tanner may not use many words, but boy he sure knows how to get his point across with pointing, grunting, and tears!

And then a few days after we picked up the pictures that I'd ordered, Kiersten decided that I hadn't cut them apart quickly enough, so she took matters into her own hands. When I got out of the shower one morning she came running in the bathroom and said, "Mom, I have a great idea. Let's cut these pictures apart." I explained to her that those were special pictures and that Mom needed to be the one to do it. She left the room dejected. I later discovered that she went and cut them apart anyway and then didn't tell me. It was a good thing she was in bed later that night when I discovered her handiwork. I think one picture off of each sheet can be salvaged; all the others show signs of having been cut by a 4 year old.

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!

Cold at Night

Now, I don't know how anyone can possibly be cold in our house - we keep our house between 77-80, and even at night the air has to kick on to keep the house below 80 degrees. Lately, though, Kiersten will tell us she's cold and either want us to get her a blanket (but apparently not cold enough to get up and get her own blanket!) or a couple of nights she's wanted to wear 2 pairs of pajamas to bed. This was quite an outfit. Thankfully, though, the next morning she told me she didn't get cold all night long. Good thing, because I don't know if we could manage 3 pairs of pj's in one night! (The pair on top are some my parents brought her from Hong Kong.)

Who needs toys?

Why on earth do I bother spending money on toys (or the effort to pick them up on an hourly basis) when Tanner is just as happy . . .

Playing in the cupboards, especially when he manages to bypass the child locks and gets in them all on his own! (Not pictured, but he's discovered a great new "chair" - the George Foreman grill, opened makes a perfect sitting spot!)
Playing with mom's pots and pans (most toys don't make nearly as much noise as when you throw the lids on the floor!)

And of course, we can't leave out the broom (and mop, and feather duster, and the all time favorite - the vacuum!)

Fun on the Fourth

We were a little sad that we weren't going to be with family for this Independence Day, but decided to make the best of things here. We tried to start our holiday celebrations Friday night when the near-by casino had their fireworks display. We let the kids stay up, and as we were going to load up in the car to go watch, Kiersten refused to go (she claims she doesn't like the loud noises, but she's only seen real fireworks once, and that was 2 years ago and she liked them then!). So I didn't push the issue, I put Tanner to bed and let her and Nate finish decorating her bike for the morning's parade.

On the morning of the 4th, we got up and headed over to the lake where Kiersten entered the Parade. Well, I guess we all entered, as we all walked (or biked) around the lake, but only Kiersten entered the contest. If I had realized there was a contest with prizes I would have done more than put Nate in charge an hour before bed the night before! :) Oh well, she was happy with what they did, although she did tell Nate it still needed some flowers.

Mom and Tanner after the parade.

After the parade was over, we headed home and had some friends over for breakfast and "fireworks." Arizona is pretty strict about what you can have for fireworks - in fact, there isn't any fire at all! Nate was so excited to buy a box of fireworks, until we got home and he looked at his purchase and realized that all they did was make a loud noise and shoot out confetti! Nate tried them out with Kiersten the night before and she didn't like them, but when we got them out with friends over, and the friends liked them then she did too! Unfortunately Tanner slept through all of breakfast and our fireworks!
Tanner just couldn't get enough of the red, white & blue patriotic ribbon jell-o. When he was done he managed to have jello everywhere, but he was happy so it was worth it!

We ended our festivities at our clubhouse where they had some old fashioned carnival games and jumping castles for the kids. Kiersten headed straight for the jumping castle and we had to drag her away from it half an hour later. She jumped so long and hard, and it was so hot that she was completely worn out after that and didn't want to try any of the games! We did get her to try a couple, though, and Tanner even tried the one where you choose a duck out of the bucket and got to pick a prize based off the number on the duck. We opted not to stay until after dark and watch fireworks on their big outdoor movie screen, but went home and had the kids in bed by 7!