Denver, Colorado

For summer vacation, we took a quick trip to Denver to visit Greg's sister Marlys. Despite the long drive, it was a great trip! Marlys and Ed live in downtown Denver and we loved being able to walk anywhere downtown. Free buses run up and down the main corridor so you just hop on and off whenever you want.


The first day we went to the Denver Aquarium, which Kent and Kurt especially loved.

We also took a drive up to Winter Park to do their summer activities - a 3000 foot long alpine slide, plus a ski lift to the very top of the mountain, and a few other activities. It was nice and cool and we thoroughly enjoyed doing something fresh and new.




We were very close to some of the professional sports complexes too.


Vacation was over too fast though, and soon we were back on the road...leaving the cool mountains for the hot desert.

Football Camp #2

Grant left today for football camp. They go up north about 3 hours to a small town called Snowflake. It's much cooler up there for their 4 practices a day schedule. Grant really dreads going. It's a lot of hard work, plus the food is terrible. And that's not just according to Grant.

So yesterday we went shopping for food he can take along. All the boys take quite a bit of food with them because they get hungry between practices and no snacks are provided. He takes 2 duffle bags - one is entirely full of food and Gatorade:

I am very detailed when it comes to packing for camp. The first year he went, I made a list of everything I packed. This year, his friends were asking for the list. :) I just tried to think of every little thing he would need while he was there, because they have no access to a store of any kind. So I work off the small list the coaches provide, my list, then I also make a list of what is in which bag. Since I'm doing the packing, Grant would never find anything if I didn't specifically tell him. Yes, he is spoiled!

Last year when he was gone, we redecorated his room. This year, nothing is planned, and he will be lucky if I even have a chance to clean it! This is his last year, so I hope he at least enjoys being with his friends. :)

Another era comes to a close...

A significant part of the beginning years of my relationship with Greg took place at his parents' house. Even before we were married, we spent Sundays and all holidays at their house along with his sisters and brothers and their families. We'd swim and grill in summer; and watch football and cook in the winter. After we were married, it didn't change much and definitely after we had children, it didn't change. In fact, since I started telecommuting after I had Grant, Grandma and Grandpa watched him on Thursdays when I had to go into the office. Likewise when Wyatt came along. Many, many memories developed during those years.

When Grandpa passed away, things changed, and that era came to an end. We no longer went over there all that much. Instead, Grandma came to our house and we spent holidays here or at Greg's sister's house. They were still family gatherings, but of a different kind.

Then Grandma moved to assisted living and the house stood empty for a little over a year. Greg took charge of getting it fixed up to sell. Before it sold, however, Grandma passed away. At that time Greg's oldest sister bought the house and it stayed in the family. During the last few years, we didn't spend much time there.

Fast forward to the present and the house is being sold. Today we spent all day helping them move. I wandered the house...feeling all those memories flooding back. It was weird. And sad, too. I took advantage of today and took some pics of my boys, and 2 nephews - all Larsons - on the infamous 50 year old loooooooooong sofa (that remained in the house when my SIL bought it), and on the Brady-Bunch stairs.

The final era is over...

Football Camp #1

Wyatt started Freshman Football Camp this week. It's 2 hours a night, which wouldn't be such a big deal, if it wasn't so hot out! When I took him over to the high school it was 111 degrees outside. At least for now they are just in t-shirts and shorts!


Wyatt is so different from Grant, who is so quiet about everything. Wyatt comes home from practice full of news and wants to tell us every little thing that happened. I hope that continues as he gets older!


Last night, Mike Pollak of the Indianapolis Colts came to talk to the freshmen. He's an alum of their high school, and Grant had his mom as a math teacher in 8th grade. Mike had already talked to the Varsity team a few days ago. Grant said he answered lots of questions about being on the same team as Peyton Manning!


Wyatt...in his very first Corona Football shirt.

Summertime!

Summer is more than halfway over! The boys have 4 weeks left before school starts again. Why does it have to go so fast? We've had Roanna and her family visiting, summer school for Wyatt (PE!), football practice for Grant, weight room for both Grant and Wyatt, Grandma visiting, and now we are down to football camps.

Kent and Kurt are still around, but they took the summer off from activities. They've spent a lot of time in the pool and hanging out with friends. In fact, we've had a revolving door for friends for all of the boys!

School will be here before we know it...maybe I'll be ready by that time to have the boys out of the house. But for now...I'm enjoying having them home and wish summer was longer...

End of the Season baseball video

It's been a long season for Kent and Kurt - they ended up coming in 6th in the regular season, but 2nd in the playoffs!

The Art Pot

This year at Kent and Kurt's elementary school, we are doing an Art Pot fundraiser. Each class in the school has to decorate some kind of pot and then it will be raffled off at the spring social in April.

I volunteered to head up Kent and Kurt's class' pot and chose to do a recycled/found object art piece with a garden theme. Their class is known as the Broncos because their teacher rides horses. So we decided to call it Broncos' Good Luck Garden with additions of old rusted horseshoes.

It started off as a galvanized bucket purchased at Lowe's. Then I added metal painted various shades of green to act as stems, grass, greenery, etc. Kurt and I then created lots of various pieces and took all of it into the classroom. The kids then all decorated and painted the flowers and insects in any way they wanted, and glued them onto the stems. I told them we were going for a worn, rusted look, and that the painting could be as messy as they wanted. They did SUCH a great job! I never would have come up with the designs they did. The result was a wonderful, whimsical, colorful (and heavy!) pot in which the winner of it can plant something or use it indoors as a basket.

When we were all done, I had the students all sign their names on the bottom of the bucket...as artists always sign their work!

Flag Football Stars!

Kent and Kurt started flag football a couple of weeks ago. This past Saturday they had a double-header and played great! Kurt is the speed demon and got his first interception - he was so excited jumping up and down! I was too excited to get a photo of it, however.

Kent made several catches and completed his first touchdown and extra point! That last point earned them the win!

Happy New Year!

I know - shock! that I'm updating this. I don't know why I feel like it's so hard to keep up with this.

Anyway, Christmas came, and went. It was a quiet Christmas for us, no extended family around, but as it turned out that was fine since a couple of us were sick. We had lots of celebrations the week before Christmas though (well, I did...dinners with friends and such). The boys enjoyed their Christmas break from school. We bought them a second Xbox 360 to alleviate some of the fighting between all 5 of them (yes, I include my DH also). So now we have the front room set up with a TV and a computer monitor where they can play side-by-side. My DH was a genious and found that you could hook the Xbox up to a monitor - yay, we didn't have to buy another TV!

As usual, we are into sports - Kent and Kurt start flag football (with DH as their coach), and Wyatt starts tackle football on Saturday. Grant is on a break as high school footbal just finished up in the middle of December. He played JV this past season, but was moved up to Varsity for the playoffs - it was quite an honor!

I'm still busy working for TJFormal and prom season is starting up so things will get even busier soon!

Have a GREAT 2009!

Pterodactyls

I just wanted to test out putting a video on my blog. This clip is from 2003 when K&K were almost 5 years old and they put our king-size pillows on their arms and acted like pterodactyls. It's very tiny since it took it with my digital camera. Note to all mom videographers...no talking or laughing! Ugh!

The digi layout I did of this moment is down below.