First Day of School

Walking to school.
Truman is very excited.

And a bit nervous!
Isaac didn't want his picture taken, TOO BAD!

School days are here and the last few weeks of summer I was starting to get anxious to have a more regular schedule and my boys needed something more productive to spend their time doing. Truman has been so excited to start Kindergarten and he is ready. He tends to get a bit silly when he has friends around so I hope he will be a good boy at school. He has a good teacher and I think he will have a great year. Isaac will be gone all day. I am actually quite sad about this. It seems like I have lost a lot of my influence and control. I hope that these last few years I have taught him appropriate values. It seems to be going by too quickly. I love being a mother and I hope my boys will love school and always try their best. Look out Orchard.

Lake Powell

Lake Powell-Halls Creek Bay

Last trip of the summer. It was the least crowded I remember Lake Powell ever being in the summertime. They say its because of the price of gas. We went with Kimberly and her family, our family and Jason. Jess and Mom and Dad were out for this trip. We decided to go to try and keep our minds off the stress of dad's surgery.
We had a good trip and the most exciting event was teaching Isaac to wakeboard and waterski. He was able to pick up on both easily. He is the most coordinated kid around and he was waterskiing for so long we finally had to tell him to let go. He was mad at us after that. A watersport lover is born.

Nicole and Lucy

The kids love to watch the watersports!

David about to bite it on the skurfer.

Lake Powell is such a beautiful place. It has so many memories for me and I hope that my kids will love it the way I do. Its not just the fun that makes the vacation it is the company. I love my family a lot and hope to have many more Lake Powell Days!

What I love about Summer!

The lazy days of summer are just about over and I thought I would remind myself why I love it!

1. Lake Powell. I love this family vacation and have been going there since I was a young girl. Even though it is a very different vacation now that I have kids I am happy that my kids are loving it from a young age as well.
2. Reading a book. When I was younger Jessica use to give me a summer reading list. I should have had her give me one this summer. I will remember next year.
3. No schedule. I love the relaxed, easy, no plans days. You can wake up and decide to do what you feel like doing.
4. Yard tours. This is something that I do with my mom and sisters. We go for a little walk around each others yards and look at plants and get ideas. We even pull a few weeds as we go. All the Larsen girls love to garden, our Grandma was an excellent gardener and we inherited the love.
5. Water skiing. Nothing like an afternoon and evening at Pineview!
6. BB Q's. I love to get together with family and have a simple BBQ.
7. I love to relax in a hammock. I have yet to do this this summer. I better get on it.
8. Sunshine.
9. Flowers. They truly make me happy.
10. Eating outside. My boys and I have eaten lunch outside on the deck quite a bit this summer. I love eating outside. It is just fun. Not having a big mess inside is an added bonus.

I hope everyone has had a great summer and that you get in those last few loves.

Swimming Lessons

Nice googles, T-Dog!

Go Isaac!

The boys have been taking swimming lessons at the Bountiful Rec Center. They were in the same class and were working on stroke development. I maybe signed them up for too high a level because they still need to work on stroke development. They had a fun time. We stayed after several days and swam with cousins; now I am all swimmed out. (Perhaps I should have enrolled myself in a swim coarse. It might have come in handy last weekend.)

Spudman!

Pre-race.
Why are there so many crazy people?
The swim is tough. I kind of freaked out.
David & Wade after the race.
Just before crossing the finish line.

We did it!

Hooray! We did it! I feel so good to be done with this. We are both a little sore but proud to have finished the race. We both improved on our times from our last Spudman. We decided that we need to focus on swimming in open water. It is soooo different. Also if I commit to do the race I need to train more consistently. Do you see a common theme in my life?

We drove to Idaho with Wade and stayed with my aunt and uncle. My kids stayed with my parents. Gayle and Milo were very gracious hosts. Thank you so much to them. Thanks also Mom and Dad, I never have to worry about my kids when they are with you. My cousin, Lisa was also participating in the race for the first time and she did a great job. We talked about doing it again next year and decided that today would not be the day to decide. We also saw Andrea and her family so it was a fun little reunion. Joc was also there with some other friends so she didn't stay with us but she did a great job too.

Pre-race Jitters!

This is all my gear.

Tomorrow we leave for the Spudman. It is Saturday and I am very nervous. My goal is to finish the race and hopefully do it a little bit faster than last time. I think that I am in better shape but I am not sure that I have trained as much as I needed to. I have been focused on the fat man program which, for me, takes a lot of effort. Last spudman, all my siblings participated. This time I will be the only Larsen. David and I decided today that at least our entry forced us to exercise probably more than we would have otherwise. Wish us luck, we may need it.

Behind on Blogging

I am very behind in my blogging. I have not been feeling much like writing lately. You will have to look back in time to see what we have been up to the last month. It has been a busy one.