V is for VISITORS

I feel so lucky that we were able to go to St. George for Thanksgiving this year. 

We woke up so early and flew down as the sun came up.

The plane was pretty empty, so we got spoiled with lots of room and lots of treats from the flight attendants.

Renting a car is always the worst unknown, and this time it was insane. Two hours of chaos later we were on our way to The Funks. 

We just dropped in to a warm, smell good house full of food and family busy cooking all the meal for us. 

We ate and did puzzles and watched movies. 

Lots of pie. Pie is my favorite. 

The next night we went to the desert Christmas lights. 

Saturday Riley had a booth at the Farmer's Market, so we went and bought stuff and helped her clean up when it was over.

We met up with Rob and Mary and ate pizza, 

and watched the live nativity. It was cold, so good thing it was super short and sweet. 

I would say the highlight of the trip was playing with their dogs. haha

Such sweetie pie dogs. 

Murphy would tuck us in and wake us up in the morning. 

Koda didn't mind that we were having a good time with other dogs behind her back...

We cheated on her, she cheated on us. It's all good. 

haha She loves Kyle so much. Kyle is her boyfriend. 

It felt so good to be with family. It feels like there's never enough family time. 

We needed

 one more day with the Funks

one more hour with Rob and Mary. 

 

G is for St George

We flew to St. George for Thanksgiving this year.

Andrew wrote a book most of the way. Something about some Pokemon characters and their lives. 

Flying is great. 

Flying is relatively easy. 

It's free and we get where we need to go miraculously fast.

But the worst part is when Jim hustles off the plane to go get the rental car. Everything is predictable up until then. It could be ten minutes, it could be ten hours. Sometimes it feels like ten hours. 

This is what we do while waiting for the rental car:

fight, 

get in people's way,

roll around the dirty floor, 

roll around on the suitcases,

get overpriced Wendy's. 

This particular time was crazy because while we were waiting for our overpriced Wendy's, one of my children surprise farted, but I couldn't do much about it because I had to wait for our food. 

So short story short, that child carefully walked to the bathroom by themselves and threw their underwear away. 

Then we got our food and then Jim rolled up with the car. 

haha

It always works out eventually. 

We all stayed at Sharley's and my children fell in love with their dog Murphy. 

In loooooove. 

Murphy would put the kids to bed, then wake them up in the morning. 

Jim smoked a turkey. This is him realizing how much a turkey resembles a baby. I think he sat it up and burped it after changing its diaper. 

The food was fantastic. 

Pie is the best. 

That night I stopped by the Stevensons for a little visit. 

Val made my moms sour cream lemon pie, so I had yet another piece. 

It was fun to see everyone. 

Then I went home and ate a smoked turkey leg. Braxton's idea.  

Since Grandma Cook couldn't drive in the snow to come to Thanksgiving, we went to her house the next day. 

We made Christmas Gnomes.

Then we drove home in the snow and I was so scared. 

As we drove away, my kids were so sad. They all cried. 

Andrew was especially sad about leaving Murphy. 

On our way to Vegas we stopped in Mesquite to see Robbie and Mary. 

My kids rebounded quickly when they got together with more cousins. 

Larsen Mini-Reunion in Birch Bay

Jim's family met up here in Birch Bay for a little reunion. 

Sharley booked some rooms at a resort, and it was so fun and perfect. I really for a minute forgot that I was actually down the street from my house. We would be living the hotel life, then suddenly we were driving to our house to fetch some more clothes or a fan or my good shampoo. 

We passed by this curiosity of a car on our way to the resort. I made us all get out and scrutinize the bizarre details.

The rooms were so great...including a kitchen and living room and a murphy bed.

The first day after everyone arrived we went to Paso for dinner then over to "Canada" and ice cream. 

Sunday morning. Father's day. 

Jim smoked a brisket. 

We watched the USA women play in the world cup. 

The kids got a kick out of seeing daddy with his twin.

Evan said "twins in the chairs" to them when they were sitting here...in the chairs. 

After church we came back to our house to have a father's day brisket. 

It was soooo good. 

Then that evening we hiked down to Pt Whitehorn. 

Avery is backing in to the hollow of the tree. 

beep beep beep

The Father's Day picture. 

So we were still in school during all of this. It was a bit of a trip. 

They got up early out of the murphy bed, ate their breakfast on the little island, and headed out with their backpacks. Their usual bus goes on this route, so we knew when and where to catch the bus. 

Once they were at school (field day!), the rest of us headed up to Mt. Baker. 

Nooksack Falls is raging in the spring.

The last time we stopped by the falls (7 years ago) I had little babies and I was so focused on making sure they didn't wander off a cliff I couldn't really enjoy the view. 

Joe and Susan now have the babies and it is a reminder of where we used to be - the diapers and the hovering and the change of clothes. Little Lucas threw up right as we got to the falls - car sick.

Their kids are the same age that my kids were when we came here last - two and four. 

Baby Evan had to get his clothes changed way back then because he loved splashing in puddles and got all wet. Little kids are sooo hard!

See this post to see how different we were then. It's crazy.

Then we drove all the way to the top. 

The darn clouds were covering Mt. Baker. Grrr! 

How can such a big mountain be so elusive sometimes? 

We were on a time crunch since the kids were getting home from school at 3:00. 

But we stopped by Chair 9 for a burger. 

Once we fetched the kids and returned to the hotel, we swam and swam.

Evan was being so loud - the Blacks (who live kind of nearby) heard him and followed the sound of his voice and joined us for a little while. 

That night I was putting the boys to bed and they were whining and being rowdy, so I just left the hotel, walked down to the bay and watched the sunset.

They were asleep when I came back. 

The next morning was the actual last day of school. It is so funny to have them down by the bay for the last day of school picture. 

I feel like we were in such a time warp this week. 

We were at home, but on vacation. 

We were in school, but living in a hotel. 

After the kids were safely on the bus, we went to Whatcom Falls.

We wandered down to the cliff jumping area. Remember last summer we came here and it was packed with jumpers? Click here and scroll to the bottom for that post.

Today it was abandoned. We couldn't believe it.

I was standing over here yelling for Jim so I could take his picture, and then he started emptying his pockets...then the shirt came off...then he jumped. 

So of course Lance did the same. 

Then we hurried home to meet the kids at the end of their last day with the speakers blaring Alice Cooper,

"SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!"

That night we went down to Semiahmoo for a weenie roast. 

Avery is showing me this tiny baby spiral shell. 

What is going on here: I found a little pebble and put it into Evan's mouth. haha

We polished off the night and the mini reunion with some more ice cream. 

It was so fun!

It's been a long long time since we've had new visitors come visit so that we can play tour guide. 

It was a great way to ease us in to summer vacation.