The Larsen Reunion

From Mom:

All of my posts are so back dated. I am not sure anyone even actually reads this blog anymore! I am much more up to date on social media and I feel like I turn these into one giant photo stream anyway, but I am NOT ready to give up!

In the middle of July, my dad's family had their reunion. My mom booked this fantastically large house at Bear Lake.


BUT FIRST! How could I forget? We went up to the Shakespearean Festival to enjoy the Green Show on a Saturday. Angie and her girls joined us. It ended up being slightly chaotic because we got in to town a little later than we intended and there was a festival going on in Cedar City that blocked off some of the streets. We even briefly tried to see my Grandma (we were actually aiming to surprise her!) who was in town for plays, but she got sick and was at her hotel which proved to be absolutely impossible to get to because of the festival! Oh well.

Shortly after this photo, I realized that Allie had fallen and cut her head open! It was this tiny puncture wound. Luckily it didn't need stitches, but it was close!

We snuck in and played on the Adam's Theater stage again. MEMORIES!

And before I can mention the reunion, I have to mention this other adorable thing. Siena had been in charge so much of the summer while I was at class or work that she taught herself how to make pancakes. As in, she text me "Don't be mad. I made pancakes." She looked the recipe up on Pinterest and proceeded to make them. The only thing that went wrong was that she didn't know about non stick spray.

The kitchen wasn't even that much of a disaster!

And lastly....I GOT A HAIRCUT, The stuff had to go.

Blurry photo, but it felt so good.

Okay now on to the reunion! Our reunion started on Saturday afternoon, Pete was supposed to be competing in the Toughman 70.3 race in Spanish Fork that morning so I took a slow morning at the zoo with the kids. We were then going to hop in the car, watch Pete finish, scoop him up and jet to Bear Lake. The morning went totally as planned for me. Including seeing Zuri the young elephant frolic in the water!

Siena participated in a show!

And we got free ice cream!

The morning did not go as swimmingly for Pete, 2/3 of the way through the 56 mile bike portion of his race, his tire EXPLODED and not just the tube. The actual rubber tire. Race over. Which ended up being okay because then he was very useful up at Bear Lake instead of being totally wasted!

The house in Bear Lake was beautiful. This was the indoor playroom.

This was our sleeping space...it had two sets of bunk beds plus a kind bed and two sofa sleepers. Angie and CJ slept in here with us. It would have been cool except for it was HOT. Like no AC hot. Which meant CJ slept out on a sofa downstairs and we slept fitfully with Allie and Sam keeping us up. Soooo not our best night.

We took the next morning to spend at the lake. The beach was rocky, but the kids seemed to love it.

My Uncle Nick brought kayaks which were a HIT.

And then I talked my mom in to renting one of these. So much fun.

We even got matching shirts. It was such a fun couple of nights. I love getting to play with my cousins.

Summer Snapshot...and the 4th of July!

Mom finally started working in the emergency department and confusing everybody. Apparently Aunt Becca and her are dead ringers for each other.

But never you fear...we still spent plenty of time at City Pool.

Sam FINALLY figured out how awesome a puddle jumper is. It was like sweet freedom.

You'll notice Iva's spectacular swimming skills in this picture.

Family time in a pool. Perfection.

These two were wiped out from the Saturday's activities. Teehee.

Sam's transition to nursery has been a bit bumpy because he tends to need a nap around then, but he LOVES snack time!

Family games!

More pool time. Iva is a such a super model.

Mastering the family selfie!

For the 4th of July, Grandma and Grandpa were out of town, but we celebrated at Aunt Angie's house and pool!

We also got tickets to see Diamond Rio at the St. George Celebration at the college's stadium. It was HOT and we were on cement, but it was fun to dance to some of the music

However, late nights (and LONG evenings) in the heat with toddlers is no fun so Mom went home with the two littles before the fireworks. That ended up being a good thing because Iva is NOT a fan of fireworks. She only fell asleep with headphones on and a movie CRANKED.

Keyhole!

At the end of June, Mom got it in her head that now that she was done with school, we needed to PLAY with Grandpa. It was time for our first canyoneering trip. Grandpa and Mom were confident we could do Keyhole because it was nice and short, but fun.

We were a little nervous as we headed off, but the drive to Zion is always nice.

Figuring out how to rappel in a wetsuit was a little bit awkward and we had some tough learning moments where Grandpa and Mom had to be very firm in reminding us how to be safe.

BUT IT WAS SO COOL!

And by cool...I mean the water was chilly and Mom wished she had maybe put on her wetsuit too!

After we finished our canyon, we made a stop at our favorite swimming hole to kind of clean up. The water in Keyhole was GROSS and STINKY!

Cara took her first jumps off the big cliff. Big news!

The yummiest reward was Zion Pizza Noodle after. We ate till our bellies were bursting.