School Stuff

This was Courtney's induction into NJHS (National Junior Honor Society). Ashley served as the NJHS President this year so she spoke at the program and helped with the induction. We're proud of both of them and their hard work.

Courtney started playing the flute this year. She has really enjoyed it and caught on quick. (So I guess this is turning into a braggy post--if you are not a grandma or grandpa to these kids feel free to skip :) She was excited and surprized to be moved to varsity band after the first semester. This photo is from their festival performance. She can't wait to go on the Festival/Disney trip with the band in a couple weeks--I'll be helping chaperone--I'm thinking I need to stockpile some sleep before we go.

Last week Courtney tried out for next year's cheer squad and made it! Looks like 7th grade is going to be a busy year for her.

Well, hopefully we are semi-up to date now. This ought to be enough for me to take a break until October or so, right?

We hit the jackpot for our next rootbeer taste test

We found this store here in Vegas. It's called Rocket Fizz. They specialize in soda and old-fashioned candy. So (Sceili's, Blair's, and Larsen's) next time we have one of our taste tests we've got a source now. We could even expand to cream, orange, blueberry, pineapple--they've got everything--well except for my 2 personal favorite rootbeers--Brick Oven (of course) and the one with the Saint on the front (what was the name of that one?) We picked out a few for the Easter Baskets and my recomendation is "Jeff's Orange Dream Soda."

Lake Mead Tunnels Hike and Hoover Dam

Grandpa and Grandma Larsen came out for a quick visit in March. While they were here we decided to to the train tunnels hike at Lake Mead. It was perfect for kids and fun to go through the tunnels. The railroad was dismanteled a long time ago. We'd like to try it with bikes sometime--maybe next year after Matthew gets a little more experience. We were close to Hoover Dam so we walked across it and checked out the new bridge that is almost finished. Come visit and we'll give you a tour ;) (Not sure why the boys look like they are praying in the bottom left photo)

Easter

We enjoyed dying and hunting for eggs with the family at Grandpa and Grandma Edington's house. They always do a great Easter Egg hunt.

Ashley is 14

Well, the big milestone at 14 seems to be being able to go to the church dances :) It just so happened that Ashley's birthday was on the same day as a dance so she had a few friend's over to dinner to celebrate and then I dropped them off at the dance. When Courtney realized 14 meant dancing with boys she exclaimed to Ashley "you are going to be having the time of your life!" We may make Courtney wait until she's 18 ;)

Weekend at Disneyland

We jumped in the car after school on a Friday and headed to Disneyland. It was a quick trip. It was supposed to rain all day Saturday which kept the crowds away. By 5:00 it started up just in time for us to make a run for the car and head back to Vegas.

Random Early 2010

Matthew's working hard on riding his bike without training wheels. He's caught on pretty well, but still prefers something a little more stable so we bribe him to practice (1 ride around the block, which is 1/2 mile=1 Chuck E. Cheese token) so he'll get comfortable enough to really enjoy it. He's just about to that point.


Tickets to the Lion King were half price in January so I took the oldest 3 kids. They loved it!

Ashley and Tom went to Youth Conference in March. This was after a day of games and service (painting).

Matthew is really loves school. He plays school ALL the time. This is his class learning some of the songs from kindergarten. I love listening to him play. I'm going to miss him a lot when he goes to 1st grade and is gone all day.

Cub Scouts

Logan had "the best week of his life so far" at Cub Scout Day camp in April. The boys went from 4-8 after school. Lot's of fun boy-stuff to do! The Pinewood Derby was in January. One of Logan's goals this year was "not come in last place in the Pine Wood Derby." He was happy to acheive his goal, but I think Tom was much more excited about how they did than Logan.

Matthew turn's 6!

Matthew chose a jungle party theme for his 6th birthday. This was the first time he had friend's over for a "real party" and he was pretty excited. The boys ate jungle worms (hot dogs sliced into long strips and boiled so they curled, mmm. . . ), they played games, hunted for snakes and the highlight--well it was kinda gross--our neighbor brought his live snake and let the boys that wanted to touch or hold it and then they got to see it eat. So if you don't want to see it's lunch sitting on that little white plate very clearly, don't click on the collage to make it bigger :)

I find myself getting a little sad everytime Matthew has a birthday, since he is the youngest, but I sure like the boy he is growing into!

Catching Up. . . Sorta

Some of our out of town family has mentioned it's been a while since we've put up pictures of the kids (last summer wasn't that long ago was it :) I'm feeling a little guilty because I enjoy everyone else's updates but I'm not reciprocating. This and the next few posts will be highlights since Jan.

(You can click on the collage to see it larger. . . I think)

January (or maybe Feb.) the kids and I made a weekend trip to Utah since my sister Chrystie was visiting there from Oklahoma, and it's a lot shorter drive than Oklahoma! We enjoyed the BYU creamery, the museums on and near campus, and I gave the kids the "this is where I met your Dad-this is where he kissed me goodnight-this is where we went for walks-this is where I used to live-tour." So far they all want to come to BYU for college--I did tell them if they didn't behave on campus the security camera tapes may be held against them when they apply, that seemed to work although Matthew was a little worried about being on BYU's "black list."

The kids got some great time in playing with their cousins, the snow, decorating cupcakes with Grandma. Chrystie was training for a marathon which she has since completed so I got to go on one of her training runs with her--which was fun--(especially since I joined in for mile #'s 15-18). She is tough--she did all 18!