Easter photo shoot...

Here are some of my favorite new pictures of Ashton and Gunnar all dressed up in their Easter outfits...Lars decided to come straight home and change...that's why he's not in any of these! Stay tuned for the long Easter weekend post :)

Spring Soccer...

Well we swore we wouldn't ever sign Ashton up for soccer again after fall soccer last year...just because he really wasn't into it and we had to fight to get him there and participate, but when it came time to sign up for spring he said he really wanted to play again, so I caved in and signed him up figuring we'd give him another chance as a now 6 year old...hoping it would go better this time. So far so good. (well besides the usual rainy cold weather here this time of year...) He seems to be more into it this season and is having fun with it so far. I really like his coach and it's been fun for him to make some new friends. We'll see how it goes towards the end I guess. It really is fun to watch, oh and some things never change...he still makes time for goofing off.

Bigger boy bed!

The time came again to upgrade Gunnar's bed...He just seemed like he wasn't staying warm enough at night. I was going in to cover him up a couple times a night and his room is the coldest in the house...so we decided it was time for him to have a real big boy bed. Luckily we had this twin bed downstairs in our playroom (it was Lars' bed when he lived at home). So a couple weeks ago we moved it up and moved Gunnar's bed down. First night sleeping in it...

He loves it!
Oh and a few other signs of his big boy-ness...just a few days ago I started to notice that he can now say his G's...he first said "Go-Gurt", then when I asked him what his name is he said "Gunnar Chase Larsen". Till now it has always been "Dunnar". So proud of him (and he is so proud of himself)! But it makes me kind of sad :( He can also say his C's and K's...I noticed first when he said "Soccer" so well at Ashton's game last week (used to be "sotter"). He sure is growing up!

CaLiFoRniA...

Kelli and I got to go on a little 4 day trip to California last week...(Thursday-Sunday). We went to visit our Dad's cousin Neil, who has actually always been more like an uncle or grandpa to us and has for years asked us when we were coming to see him. Well a few months ago I decided that I didn't want any more time to pass before we made a trip out to visit him, so I called and told him we were coming and booked our trip. He turned 80 in December although you'd never know it if you spent an hour with him. My gosh he has a better memory than anyone I know...he told us story after story of things taking place 50 or 60 years ago with all sorts of details that I would never remember! Same old Neil we've always known :) This was our first night there...eating at a yummy Italian restaurant where Neil of course new the whole family that owned it. It was SO good!It was fun to finally get to see where he lives...which is in a great little gated neighborhood in Salinas (closeby Monterey). We flew into San Jose and he drove the almost 2 hours there to pick us up. To me our trip had all the elements that make up a relaxing vacation...We ate out almost every meal, I got to sleep in every morning, took a nap one day, read a whole book and started another on the way home, went for a good run one morning, didn't have to clean or do dishes or laundry, got to spend some time outside and see a few sites around the area... (Lone Cypress Tree on 17 Mile Drive)(Beautiful view right next to the 18th hole of the Pebble Beach golf course...)(Carmel Mission Catholic Church...we attended mass there on Sunday)The Monterey Bay Aquarium... ...where Kelli (as she was trying to pet a stingray) dropped her whole purse in the tank! I realized later that I got a picture of her purse going in...we had a good laugh about it...hahahahaha! Mostly we just had fun catching up with Neil. He has to be one of the happiest friendliest people I know and doesn't go anywhere without making a new friend. Oh and we even got him set up on facebook while we were there...ha! Within a few hours he had almost 40 friends!

Love ya Neil...and thanks for your generosity, hospitality and your refreshing overall positive outlook on life. Always fun to see you!Oh and thanks to Lars for taking care of the boys all weekend...with the help of Nana and Papa in Price. I sure missed them, but they came home with all sorts of stories about how much fun they had!

Goodbye little tent trailer...

The time has come for us to get rid of our little tent trailer that was given to us by my Mom and Stepdad 4 or 5 years ago. We have been thinking a lot about getting a bigger trailer and have looked at quite a few over the past couple of weeks, so we knew the first step in that process would be to sell the old one. I waited for a nice day to have Lars pop it up so that I could take some pictures of it to post on ksl to try to sell it. The whole time Lars kept saying that it probably wouldn't sell and if or when it did we may only get 3 or 400 dollars for it. I just thought, that's fine, I'm going to post it anyway and see what happens. So I got my pictures, came inside posted it and not 5 minutes later someone called, then at the same time someone else called on Lars' cell phone, then after he got off the first call, someone else called. He couldn't believe it! Within half an hour we had someone who wanted it and was willing to pay my $950 asking price! hee hee! The guy was about to jump in his car and drive up from St. George, but I felt bad knowing that Lars would be driving to Price this coming weekend and could at least meet him with it as far as Spanish Fork. So it's sold! Unfortunately right after we'd posted it, someone posted one almost exactly like it for $600, so the guy texted us to see if we'd go any lower, so Lars took it down to $800...but that's okay.

So I was feeling pretty good about it all until Lars started talking about all of our fun times in it. Then I cried. Then I felt bad that it's going to be gone. I mean I'm glad that it is, because we feel like it's time to move onto something else, but he's right, we did have a lot of fun times in it and it has been a good trailer for us. So now my hope is that our buyer (who has a wife and little boy) will enjoy it with his family. Some of our fun memories...Before my parents actually gave it to us, we would drive up and borrow it sometimes and one weekend we picked it up and drove clear up to Diamond Mountain over by Vernal...(about a 5 hour drive for us) because Lars wanted to scout the area before his deer hunt. This was long before kids, just the two of us. And I remember when we finally got to where we were going it was close to midnight, we couldn't find a place to camp so we just parked it kind of out in the open and it was really, REALLY windy, and I was SO tired. We popped it up, got in bed and I guess after a couple minutes Lars was trying to talk to me and even with the wind blowing 50 miles an hour (SO LOUD) I was out. Fast asleep. He still loves to tease me about it. We ended up moving the trailer a couple times trying to find a better place and finally did and I just remember it being one of our most fun camping trips ever.Then of course when Ashton was about 18 months old we took him out for his first camping trip in it...and he LOVED it! I remember he was into everything, but it was so fun introducting him to camping and he had a blast playing in the trailer.Gunnar got to stay in it I think once when he was pretty little...I remember setting up the playpen in it, but can't remember where we went! Then again last summer when Lars stayed up Logan Canyon one night with him and Ashton. He loves it too. I think they will both be sad on Thursday when they see it go away attached to someone else's truck, but they will love it someday when we can get another one and be able to go out a lot more as they get older. Goodbye little pop-up trailer :)

Wiggly teeth!

For months now every few days Ashton has asked me to wiggle his teeth to see if any are loose yet and each time when I say "Nope, not yet"...he gets SO disappointed and wonders if he is EVER going to lose his first tooth. So the night before last I asked him if I could check and lo' and behold when I reached in and wiggled one it felt loose! Then I tried the other bottom one and sure enough it is loose too. Oh the look on his face! Just like when he learned to ride his bike with no training wheels and tied his shoes by himself the first time. Priceless. So happy and excited! So he of course walked around wiggling them all night, then as I was tucking him into bed he asked me if I would come in every hour during the night and wiggle them for him! Oh Ashton...I love you!

But I do have to say I will so miss your cute perfectly straight baby teeth...I remember the excitement Daddy and I had when that first little one popped through when you were about 8 months old. And there it was all by itself for another couple months till you finally got your second one. Yes I will miss them. But I guess it has to start happening sometime...However I do hope they wait to come out till after I get back from California on Sunday!

The Aquarium and Build-a-Bear...

For months we had planned to take Gunnar to the Zoo in Salt Lake as party of celebrating his birthday. We talked to him about it all the time and he was so excited to go, but of course when the day came, it was just too cold...(imagine), so as a back up plan we went to the aquarium instead. His and Ashton's cousin, Hunter, has his birthday on the 29th of March, so we asked them to join us with Nana and Papa & meet us there to celebrate both of them together. Hunter turned 8...so hard to believe! We got there a little early, so they boys opened presents while we waited. Then we spent a couple hours at the aquarium and the kids actually loved it. Gunnar loved the penguins...This weird rubber eel (that totally grossed me out)......the little frogs and salamanders and well mosty everything. He wouldn't however pet the sting rays...I actually did (believe it or not!) and they were pretty cool! Ashton liked the electric eel and the jelly fish best...After we made our way through and got suckered into a few purchases at the gift shop, we went to Red Lobster for lunch. Then did the other part of our celebrating that we'd planned forever. We took Gunnar to Build-a-Bear... He thought that whole process was pretty fun too. His favorite part...that he did over and over and over again was fluffing his bear under the little dryers. He named him Lolly :) After we finished there we headed home and stopped off at and RV lot on our way to look at some trailers. I think that was the most fun the boys had all day. The lot was so huge that the sales guy had to drive us around on a golf cart to see all the trailers and they thought it was the best thing ever! Oh and of course looking at all the trailers (the bunkbeds in them specifically) was a big highlight too. It was a fun day! And now we'll just have to wait for a nice day to finally make it to the zoo. Maybe we'll get one by July...