Court of Honor

Ethan earned his 1st Class

Elijah earned a bunch of merit badges

My nephew Sam, talking about Scout Camp

Elijah and one of his favorite leaders PJ

This actually occurred on August 17th, but I have been too busy to blog anything. Elijah, as a disclaimer, had strep throat at the time, and was trying to fake a good smile. Nice try! The boys earned quite a few merit badges, and Elijah is very close to earning his Eagle. Way to go boys, we are proud of you.

Back to School

And their back!!!!

It was back to school for my kids this week. Ethan started middle school, 6Th grade, on Monday. He was so excited, but as you can see, he wasn't too thrilled about me taking his pictures. We know that he will have a great year!

Olivia, who is now in 4Th grade, informed James and I on the way to school that there were a few rules. First, no saying "your going to have a great year", or "we love you", or "we are so proud of you". The only thing that we could say was "see you this afternoon". WOW!!! That was a little scary. Second, we were limited in the pictures that we could take, she was slightly embarrassed of her parents.

Elijah is now in 8Th grade and this his last year of middle school before high school. I am such a bad mom that I forgot to take his picture, not that he cared, but luckily tonight I get to take pictures of him at his court of honor, so I will make up for it. He is also excited to be at the top of the pecking order now. He is also excited to take care of his little brother. On Monday, he walked Ethan into school to help him get his schedule, and take him to his first class. Tuesday was the first day for Elijah and Olivia, so Elijah was able to show Ethan how to got on and off the bus. What a great brother he is.

Scottsdale 2012!!!!

After we left San Diego, we headed for Scottsdale, our favorite family vacation spot.

James was able to meet us there. We had the best time. Since Elijah had not seen his dad in nearly three weeks, and we had not seen him in two weeks we had to make up for lost time.

What did we do.....you know it....We shopped, and we ate, and we swam, and we read books, and we ordered fun drinks by the pool, and we went to the movies...and we had a wonderful time.

Jamie, McKenzie, Jill and her family, and Jake and his family were all able to come and see us at the Princess. We had a great day swimming at the pool with them. We later went to dinner at Chipolte, which could turn into a tradition since this is the second year in a row. We love Jamie and her family!!!

On our last day in Scottsdale, which was James birthday, we got up early to swim, ate brunch by the pool, and later went to Nothing Bundt cake, and then headed home.

The trip was too much fun, and so much so that weren't even aware that we hadn't take any pictures. Shame on us...it is definitely a place and time we want to remember!

San Diego (one more time)

After we left Fresno, we went back to San Diego, but only for one night.

We had a great time visiting at the Ranch and seeing MaryKay, David, Tiffany, Katie, Jeff, and Peter. We love and miss them all.

We also had a great time visiting the Urgent Care where Elijah was diagnosed with Strep Throat for the sixth time just this year! (He is on a waiting list to get his tonsils removed....and we can't wait)

Although I don't have pictures, we were able to stay with Richard, Holly and their kids that night. They were so kind to put us up at the last minute and the kids really enjoyed hanging out with Anna and Johnny.

Fresno

Eventually we made our way up to Fresno to go see Grandmama and Poppy.

As you can see, Ethan survived his burn...but barely. He was in pretty bad shape. Lesson learned: Spray sunblock is not as good as lotion sunblock (especially for us pale Larson's).

We had a wonderful time visiting with family that we hadn't seen since Thanksgiving. The kids loved Aunt Rebecca's new pool. They swam in it everyday. The boys worked on their coin collecting merit badge with Poppy too.

What else did we do in Fresno....pretty much the same things that we did in San Diego.....we shopped, ate, played, swam, and visited and we loved it. It was great to see Grandmama and Poppy, the kids love and miss them too much!

The Rose's

Not only did we stay with the Pyatt's, we were also able to stay with the Rose's. We had so much fun with them too. We ate some of our favorite food, and tried new place too.

I have been dying to try Sprinkles and Julie was so kind to go with me and try it. It did not disappoint. The only thing bad was that Elijah and James weren't there with us. The banana cupcake with vanilla frosting was the best!!!

The kids also had fun destroying Julie's house. They constructed an elaborate tent city that they slept in at night. I should say that Olivia slept in it. Ethan was so badly burnt from our beach day with the Pyatt's that it was a miserable couple of nights with him!

Our San Diego days were fun. We visited with old friends, shopped til we dropped, ate till our stomachs were about to burst, went to the movies, hung out with family....It was GREAT!!!

Beach Day with Jamie and McKenzie

At last, after a very busy Summer, I finally have time to sit down and blog some of our Summer activities.

Our big summer adventure begin July 9th with Elijah leaving us to go to Scout Camp in Arizona...hopefully I find pictures to post of that. He had a great time at camp and was able to earn seven merit badges. Great Job Lij!

I met him in Payson AZ to pick him up from camp, he didn't even have the chance to come home before he was off to another adventure.

We picked him up and set off the next day for San Diego. Elijah was so lucky because he was able to go to Scout Camp in San Diego with our old ward. It was at Fiesta Island (beach camping), so it was far different then his AZ adventure. We dropped him off at camp and Ethan, Olivia and I had nearly a whole week worth of time to do whatever we wanted.

While in San Diego, we were able to stay with the Pyatt's. Jamie took us to the movies, and the beach one day. We went to the beach later in the afternoon and I was very careful to spray down the kids with sunblock, and we didn't stay too long....pictures to come of that!

We loved the beach, and we miss it! Ethan spent the entire time in the water, catching waves and playing around. Olivia loved to hangout with McKenzie and catch sand crabs. We had a great time.

We love being with the Pyatt's!