Well, here it goes...

I finally was able to download the pictures from our very unhappy camera. These are some of the pictures from our cruise. We had a wonderful time! We went to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. Damon and Madi had a blast on the ship. We all enjoyed the shore excursions, and the kids are wanting to go again. Hmmm, I think we will have to save our pennies!! Anyway, here are some pictures that we took while we were there. We sailed from San Diego, spent one day at sea, spent one day in Cabo San Lucas, another day at sea, one day in Ensenada, and then returned. We did a little cruise to Land's End in Cabo and then went on a tour and the kids played in the ocean. In Ensenada (not pictured here) we went to a Mexican fiesta and did some shopping. The kids looked awesome for formal night on the ship, and they had a blast at camp carnival. They made new friends which they did activities with and even ate dinner with a couple of the nights. Of course we came home to winter weather. (yuck)

Love ya,

Michelle

Catching up

Okay, so I fell off the planet for about a month. We really are fine but things got a little out of control for a couple of weeks. We had a fabulous time on our vacation and really didn't want to come home. I will tell more when I am at my home computer and can post pictures to go along with it. We thank Chris and Alicia for putting up with us and a sick Damon for one night. Sorry that we shared the lovely cold that is going around and won't go away. We returned home a couple of days before Thanksgiving and hit the floor running. Mike and I both had to work the day after we returned and worked through the holiday. Then it was back to school, more work, and the start of the Christmas season. We have also had dance programs, school activities, and everything else. I promise to post pictures of everything. Unfortunately that may be a little while. We had to buy some disposable cameras while we were gone because the camera had a little accident. No worries, I just have to figure out where I put the cameras and then get them developed.

We did have Thanksgiving dinner with Chris and Alicia. This involved going out for pizza and pasta at Pat and Oscar's. It was quite yummy. Then we had a real Thanksgiving dinner, on Thanksgiving, at my parents house. We worked it in between sleep and going back to work. (Actually just Mike had to work that night, I worked the night before. hee hee)

The kids are gearing up for Christmas. They have lists a mile long and think that they are going to get everything. Damon wants anything that is electronic and Madison wants everything that is cute, fuzzy, pink, or can have it's clothes changed. (Pretty much everything) The good news is that Mike is off for Christmas this year and I only have to work four hours on Christmas Eve. Then, to top it off, we get the New Year's holiday off too. Our children won't know what to do with themselves. They will actually have everyone together at the same time and no one will be sleep deprived while celebrating.

All joking aside, we really are blessed to have the jobs that we do. We are so happy to be able to visit our family members that are scattered around the country. We are also thankful for our family and friends that actually put up with us, especially Mike and the kids (they can get a little out of hand).

I do promise to post pictures of what I have and fill you in on the details.

Later,
Michelle

Missing Time

Somewhere between August and November I lost some time. I believe that I am missing about two months. I am unable to figure out where the time has gone, but I hope to find it soon because I desperately need it back. I was not ready for Halloween, I am not ready to be gone to California, I am not ready for Thanksgiving, and I certainly am not ready for Christmas.... That being said I suppose that I am out of luck and will have to face the here and now.
We did survive Halloween, and Madison was able to down her entire stash of trick or treat candy in a matter of 48 hours. I believe that Damon is still working on his candy. The kids made out like bandits while trick or treating. Madison was Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Carribean and Damon dressed up like a zombie Doctor.

Mike entertained himself by decorating the yard for Halloween. Later, Mike went ghost hunting with Corey while the rest of us went to bed. (Sane people don't hang out in old grave yards on Halloween night. Now you see why Mike and Corey were there. ) For those of you wondering, yes they did find some "paranormal activity" in the graveyard in Eureka. No, you don't want to know what it was. I informed Mike that if any of his spooky little friends followed him home that he would be sleeping in the graveyard.

We have had the kids pictures taken and I have posted a couple of there here on the blog. I will also be sending pictures out with Christmas cards so watch for that. We will post pictures when we get back from our trip.

Just a little side note...we have reason to celebrate; my brother Chris just found out that he is having some of his research published in one of the science journals. He has had research published before but he was a second author on the project. This time it is his project and he is the author! Congrats Chris!

Fall Fun

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Not to say that nothing has been going on; everything is going on and that seems to be the problem. We have been busy with school, dance, football, halloween, friends, and fun. So, here is the scoop. Despite having been busy, we were able to take a nice trip to Logan with our friends the Thuesons (Yes, people other than our parents will claim us!) We had a nice drive up to Logan, visited the Gossner cheese factory to load up on a car load of cheese, and then we drove up over Logan canyon and down to bear lake. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy that day so it wasn't as pretty as it could have been. We were able to take some neat pictures so I thought I would share. Hope that you are having a nice fall (those of you who live in warm climates, such as florida and southern california, keep the weather comments to yourselves :) ) Thanks, Chad and Wendy, for putting up with us and our crazy kids!!!

Way to go Damon, we are proud of you!!!

Okay, so I finally am getting around to posting pictures of Damon's football. Please note that Damon is number 40. You will recognize him as the defensive lineman that is not built like a monster truck. Most of the kids that are on the line are what they call x-men; they weigh over a certain amount and are not allowed to carry the ball and other restrictions. Mind you, the x-men all weigh twice what Damon weighs but that does not stop Damon from wanting to play defensive line and go up against these boys. He had an awesome year and is looking forward to next year. It is cool that this is the one and only year that they will play under the name Saratoga Spartans, next year the new highschool will be finished and they boys will play under the new high school name. (It's neat to be the first and only spartans)

He is down in his defensive stance. Making a tackle by the ankles.

Off the line and hitting hard


Attending the coin toss as defensive capt. Notice how close Damon is lined up, he's ready

Bring it on

Congratulations Damon

So, it won't surprise anyone that I forgot the camera again on Saturday. I guess it is okay because it was really rainy and wet and would have been hard to get good pictures of Damon. Damon had been doing well during the game and has finally figured out exactly what he needs to do in the "crawler" position to break through the offensive line. This position is the equivalent of a nose tackle (yes, all 60 pounds of Damon plays defensive line). However, in the third quarter of the game something happened to Damon; we are not sure what, maybe a screw finally worked its way loose, breakfast finally kicked in, or someone lit a fire under him, but he was unbelievable. He was knocking kids twice his size over, got a hand on the quarterback as he was handing the ball off, and then held on to the runner one time and pulled him down while taking two other kids with him. He was hilarious, you could see the excitement and energy as it finally clicked. He did such a good job that his defensive coach asked him to be Defensive Captain in the next game!!!!! Way to go Damon!!!!

Catching Up With Madison

Today's post is catching up with Madison. Princess Madison has been exceptionally busy lately. Her social schedule is full with first grade starting, fall semester for dance starting, hula, and soccer. So here is the rundown for our social butterfly. She has started first grade and is participating in the alpine district online school. This is the same school that Damon did last year. Madison is loving it. She is taking language arts, phonics, math, science, history, art, and as her foreign language she has French. She likes the work and the variety of activities and field trips that they have done. So far this year we have been to the art museum for a special exhibit and This is the Place Monument; she is looking forward to another art exhibit and the Halloween party next month. Madison is taking ballet/jazz again this year and is quite excited about the class. She came home last week showing Mike the new moves that she had learned. (She now has dance moves to compliment the songs that she goes around singing) She is still taking Hula and just had her summer concert last night. The girls are looking forward to dancing twice at the Scarecrow festival in October. She loves hula because she gets to "shake, shake, shake, shake your booty". Madi has discovered a new hidden talent this fall. She is an amazing soccer goalie; this is quite a feat for someone who ran around the entire season last year holding hands with her best friends on the team and discussing the outfits they were wearing. She still socializes while running on the field but has become very focused when she is goalie. This makes me a little nervous since she has no fear and is diving face first onto the ball while people are still kicking it. (However, should one of the boys kick her, my money would be on Madison to win that fight. She doesn't put up with anyone!) We are very proud of Madison and how hard she is working.

My next goal is to catch you up on Damon. I wasn't able to take pictures at football because I forgot one week and he was injured the next. I promise to remember the camera and give you the scoop.

Love ya,
Michelle

Remember when...

This comes from my friend Amy. Thanks Aim, this is neat? Here is a fun little game...Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... Get Set... Blog!

We have returned

For those of you who didn't know, we have returned home. (I'm sure that this is a relief for some of you and a warning for others, depending on which end of the country you are on.) Overall, we had a wonderful vacation and really enjoyed spending time with Mike's family. We are proud to report that Mike's mom is on the mend after having back surgery while we were there. According to her it was Madison's wonderful nursing care that helped her feel better. We were also there to celebrate her 50th birthday. (She will die when she finds out that I posted this on our blog. I guess it is a good thing that she isn't allowed to go upstairs to the computer for a few more days.) ;)



I guess that I should give everyone a recap of our vacation. We ended up in Florida a day late because of some weather/mechanical complications with our plane. (Lets just say that a one hour plane ride to Denver became a five hour flight that caused us to miss our connection which left us in Denver for the night. Don't even get me started on the remainder of our airport/ rental car experiences. We spent the first couple of nights in St Petersburg/ Tampa Bay area of Florida. We went to the Dali art museum, the beach, and the clearwater aquarium. The kids fell in love with a dolphin at the aquarium named Winter. The dolphin was trapped in a crab trap line when it was a baby and lost its tail. No worries, the dolphin has adapted and even has a prosthetic tail which it is learning to swim with. We also spent time at the beach.
Next, we headed to Orlando where we went on an air boat ride, visited the city of celebration, went to Disney's Bizzard Beach (A definite must visit), The Blue Man group, and the kids went on a kids night out to Wonderworks with the condos that we stayed in.
We proceeded to Jacksonville from there. We spent time with Mike's parents and Tim, Beverly, and girls. We stayed with Mike's parents and we were able to see Tim and his family several times. Madison is quite excited to have new "girl" cousins to visit and she seems to think that she is the same age. (Note that the girls are twins that are seventeen and one that is eighteen and just graduated) Tim also gave us incredible seats for the Jacksonville Jaguars football game. We had a blast. The seats were about 15 rows up on the 50 yard line. We could have thrown a paper airplane and had it land on the Atlanta players. We spent several days on the beach where the kids enjoyed skim boarding, body surfing, shell hunting, and playing with starfish that they found.

We did spend a couple of days in Savannah, Ga and had a great time walking through the historic distric of downtown Savannah.
Overall, we had a fabulous time! However, we are glad to be back at home. We miss everyone there in Florida and hope that they come out to visit soon. ( We are trying to talk Tim, Beverly, and the girls into coming out for a visit. We would really like to have them in the winter when they could enjoy the snow. )
Of course, it has taken me two weeks to finally finish this post. We started back to work the day after we returned. With school starting this week we have been up to our eyeballs.
Well, enough rambling.

Michelle

An Early Birthday

Since Grandma and Grandpa Larson are going to be gone until close to the time we leave, we celebrated the kids' birthdays early. Here are a couple of pictures of their presents. You will have to thank Grandma and Grandpa for the mess of polly pockets and the giant lego dinosaur that walks and roars.

The Count Down Begins

Well, for those of you who haven't heard Mike and I shouting it from the mountain tops; we are going to florida at the end of July for three weeks. That being said, July is in full swing and we are still a long way from being ready to go. Let me just share some of the things that I have observed as we are preparing for our trip. First, one should never have to look at a website to tell them how and what they can pack for a trip... (example) I have had to check the number of bags that we can have, what products we can take, and whether our carry ons are the correct size. This is way too much, what happened to I pull the suitcase out of the closet, throw some clothes and toiletries inside, and get on the plane?! Apparently I know have to have a degree in physics, engineering, and chemical science to pack for a trip...throw the kids in the mixture and you have to include a jobs as zoo keeper. The second thing that I have learned is that giving yourself a list of projects three months in advance still means that the week before you leave you will be trying to get it all done. Third, I need to call a disaster crew with heavy machinery to clean my family room downstairs, the two little monkeys that play down there are apparently not enough. I am afraid at some point we are going to lose a family member to the mess that is down there. (Again see the above note about projects needing completed) Four, dog proofing your house before a trip is worse than kid proofing your house before they come home from the hospital. Finally, despite all of the stress that we go through before the trip begins and while we are there, and when we return home, we are still thankful that we have the opportunity to travel as much as we do and are happy to be going out to see Mike's parents after a couple of years without a trip to Florida.
In other happenings, we had a good fourth of July holiday. We had a BBQ and fireworks with my parents a couple of days before the fourth because we were all off work that night. On the fourth of July the kids and I went to fireworks in Riverton; this was an awesome display and we had the perfect seats (they were made even better by the fact that we could get right out and head home without waiting for an hour), unfortunately, Mike had to work and spent the night watching prisoners. The day after we went to a neighborhood block party where we barbequed and then had fireworks. The kids had a great time running around and playing with their friends.
Other than the holiday, the kids have been playing with their friends; and Mike and I have been trying to get things ready to go. We will let you know if anything exciting happens between now and when we leave. I am hoping to post some pictures while we are gone.

Later,
Michelle

LAX at the Y

Today both me and Damon got to experience a first. Michelle decided that I should get to learn how to post in our blog, so this is my first blog. Damon finished up his first day of lacrosse camp at BYU. The BYU lacrosse coach is running the camp along with some of the players. according to Damon it was "awesome" and "just like Football, only you get to hit people with sticks". Needless to say he loved it. We had him put on his equipment so we could take some pictures, throw in some blacklights and he could be trying out for Tron II. We will keep you updated as things progress, Madi will be starting a new sport for her as well this fall, she will be starting fast pitch softball.