Time Out in Phoenix

For my birthday Lamont gave me a plane ticket to Phoenix to see Time Out For Women. I was extremely excited because I was able to go stay with my good friend and former roommate Denise. We met up with my other friend/former roommate Melanie to attend the conference. We were able to hear our former Bishop from BYU, Brad Wilcox, speak. It was an awesome conference and a much needed break. Bishop Wilcox got us some seats right on the front row by all the presenters and we were able to sit by and meet many of them. I told Lamont that it felt like EFY for Women. I left the conference feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. It was also some great girl time to just shop and talk. Thanks Lamont for taking care of the boys so I could have some "time out"!

WORLD SERIES HERE WE COME

Going Private

We have finally decided to make our blog private. We will be sending out an email invitation shortly. If you would like to continue to have access to our blog (and you do not think we have your current email address) please email us at lmcmlarsen@gmail.com.

McKay turns 5!

Yesterday McKay turned 5 years old. It was an exciting day for him. He enjoyed having his friend Jude over to the house and to get some ice cream. Later that night the party began...Little Caesars pizza for dinner, presents, and chocolate mint cake and ice cream. All at his request, of course. When I asked him what he would like for his birthday he told me 3D sidewalk chalk and shoes that light up. McKay is such an important part of our family. He is a very thoughtful little boy and you can't help but smile when you are around him. Happy Birthday McKay - we love you!

Fall Fun!

Last weekend if finally felt like fall had arrived. After a busy morning of soccer games, we attended the Pumpkin Festival down at the Chatfield Botanic Gardens. We were happy to have my sister Melanie join us for the weekend. The boys had fun dressing up for the occasion. We had a great time picking out our own pumpkins right off the vine. We found some good looking pumpkins. There were several games and blow up jumping houses for Carter and McKay to enjoy. Carter even got to ride a pony. Then it was off on a hay ride. That was a big hit for everyone. Tanner really got into it and made tractor noises the whole ride. I think this will be a must next year as well.

Tonsils Out!

Two weeks ago McKay had his tonsils out. Today we just received clearance from his doctor that he is healing well and can get back to normal activities. The decision to have his tonsils out was made after four episodes of fever and throat infection in the past two months. Each episode lasted for about 5 days. It seems like he was sick half of the summer.

He was so brave the morning of surgery, looking so cute and innocent in his little hospital gown. He was happy that Beary was able to join him the day of surgery. It's hard to see your child go through this knowing all that it entails. The night before we discussed with him what to expect the day of surgery and he received a priesthood blessing. He was quite calm until the doctor came in to finalize everything, then he started to cry and get a little nervous. The anesthesiologist let him pick his scent to smell when he fell asleep. He chose marshmallow. I went with him into the operating room until he fell asleep. He was very cooperative in breathing in the gas, or blowing up the balloon as they told him.

They came and got me as soon as he was waking up after surgery. He was a little disoriented at first, but then noticed the pain in his throat. As soon as the pain meds were in him he did very well; he did not even throw-up. In fact, in the four hours in recovery he ate four Popsicles and drank some apple juice. He continued to recovery quickly and had macaroni and cheese and part of a bagel that night. He hardly needed his pain meds during the day and by the end of the week he started getting his energy back and even played a little soccer. We are hoping the this is the end of all the illness and are proud of him for being such a trooper!

BYU football

We were pumped and ready to watch some BYU football this year! In preparation for the season, Lamont watched many highlight videos and we were ready for a great start. First, we had a house full of people for a fun watching party for the first game of the season. BYU had moments of concern, but we were able to pull off a win against Washington. It was fun to cheer on the cougars with friends.

Then it was time to attend the BYU - Air Force game. Lamont bought 74 tickets for ward members AND my parents and sister came to Denver to join in the festivities. We were prepared to have a great BYU cheering section! Once we finally made it to the game after sitting in traffic for a very long time (McKay had a soccer game that morning so we got off late), we got there just in time to see BYU score their second touchdown of the game. It was all downhill from there. I think the team just fell apart and everything seemed to go wrong. Unfortunately in that game the cougars didn't give us much to cheer about. After the game it was off to our favorite Texas BBQ, Rudy's, to drown our sorrows in BBQ sauce. Boy, was it delicious!

We have decided that this is a rebuilding year for the Cougars and hope with a little more work they can still pull off a decent season. GO COUGARS!

A 4-wheelin' Labor Day

On labor day, we went with some friends of ours, the Collards and Lucks, to do some 4-wheeling out past Colorado Springs in the Woodland Park area. It was very beautiful up there and the perfect weather. We had some fun buzzing along the dirt roads. At first, Tanner was a little scared and then decided that he was having fun until he fell asleep. That made for a tricky ride for the Lamont for a little while. McKay wasn't so sure about the ride, but I must admit that I tipped the 4-wheeler at the very beginning. No one was injured but McKay was a little concerned the rest of the way. I am not sure who had the most fun, Carter or Lamont. Both just loved it! Tanner woke up just in time as we got back to camp with a big smile on his face. We were able to enjoy a delicious BBQ lunch at our campsite before we had to get our tired and dirty boys back home.

School's In

This school year went off with a bang the day after we got back from Texas. Carter is still at the Challenge School with the same teacher since they do 1st and 2nd grade grouping. Once they were finished explaining the "boring rules" then school was great again. He was even the first student to take home the stuffed dragon Chartreuse and write a narrative from the dragon's perspective - that made his day!


McKay missed the deadline to start kindergarten by two weeks, so he is doing private kindergarten at Holy Love School. He goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday all day. The full day has been a little bit of an adjustment for him. However, he is really enjoying school also and his teachers are impressed with his knowledge. He told me that his favorite part of the day is lunch. He always comes home with a smile and we have been happy with the school.

Our trip to the Lone Star State

In August we had an enjoyable trip to Texas. It was a great family time. We were able to spend ten days with family barbecuing, swimming, and just enjoying one anothers company. Carter, McKay, and Tanner really enjoyed spending some time with their cousins.


A highlight of the trip included Lamont's brother Chase returning home from his 2 year mission to Bogota, Colombia. It was wonderful to greet him at the airport. Due to delays in his flight, it ended up being a late night but we were still there to meet him. The boys even made signs to welcome him home. We enjoyed spending the next several days with him learning about Colombia and helping him prepare to return to BYU the next week.


The other highlight was Lamont's youngest brother, Reece, receiving his Eagle in scouting. He is the last of seven brothers to receive this award. For his project he painted a map of the world at a local elementary school. We were so proud of him and all the work he did to receive this award and walk in his brother's footsteps.

What a good looking family! I can't help but think that it is only a matter of time until we are fully immersed in scouting and our boys will be standing up there to receive their eagles.

Camping, camping, and more camping!

Part 1:
I guess I didn't get my fill of camping after girl's camp, because only two weeks later it was off to Steamboat Lake to camp with my brother and his cute family. We camped for three nights!!! That is quite an achievement for me. We enjoyed our beautiful camping area. Unfortunately, the pine beetle had made it to our camping site before us and killed many of the trees. Subsequently, they had to be chopped down and so it felt more like we were camping in a meadow. Still, looking on the lake was nice - it just made for some hot days. To relieve ourselves from the heat we headed into Steamboat Springs during the days. It was a fun little ski town and we did some shopping and had some good BBQ. We also enjoyed viewing the Yampa River Botanical Gardens





Tanner had a lot of fun with his little cousin Cameron. They both liked to find rocks and play in the dirt. McKay also really enjoyed playing with Cameron and showing him his stories. One morning we decided to take a boat out on the lake. The boys did a little fishing and we were able to enjoy being out on the water. It was an early morning though, so Tanner and Cameron fell asleep during the boat ride.



After boating in the lake we decided to take a little swim in the lake, which was nice and refreshing on such a hot day. It was then up to Fish Creek Falls for some hiking. We did a short hike to the uppper falls and a short hike to the base of the falls. Both were very beautiful. One of my favorite parts about the camp was the food. There is nothing like Dutch Oven cooking. We dined on stew and biscuits, peach cobbler, mountain man breakfast, chicken and stuffing, and apple cobbler. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.




We had so much fun on this trip and it was great to meet Josh and Kyle somewhere in the middle. We have decided to make camping with them an annual trip. Next year we'll see them in Moab!

Part 2:
Our ward campout was the very next week. This was an easy camp. We ate dinner before we came up and the bishopric made breakfast the next morning. Carter and McKay look forward to this camp each year. In fact, we hardly saw them except for sleeping because they were having so much fun with their friends. There was a good turnout and we enjoyed chatting and playing games with friends as well. The YW were in charge of some water balloon volleyball Saturday morning, which was also a lot of fun.



Does that look like a tired dirty face or what? I think that is how we all felt after all this camping. I think it may be safe to say that the camping was great, but I'm pretty camped out right now.

Summertime!

Our summer has been so busy and has been going by so fast. Here are a couple of the highlights:

The fourth of July-
We decided to take it easy this fourth and stay close to home. It was a fun weekend with friends and BBQ's. Since we are not in city limits we were able to shoot off whatever fireworks we wanted. It rained all evening on the fourth, but that didn't stop us...we continued to shoot off some fireworks with the garage as our shelter. Quite a few neighbors had artillery shells that went up in the air. Lamont informed me that next year we are heading to Wyoming for the good stuff. I thought that Tanner might be a little scared of all the fireworks, but he was not scared at all and enjoyed every moment of them squealing and pointing. His favorite was the snap, pop, pops which he is doing below.


We have also been enjoying some family activities like bowling. Carter and McKay got summer passes and it is only $1 each for us to bowl the whole summer. We have been taking advantage of this and have been going about once a week. This is a great opportunity to work on keeping my game consistent - no comment please. The boys have really been enjoying it. We have also done a little more movie watching and took the boys to see Toy Story 3, which all of us enjoyed. Well, McKay is still deciding if he enjoyed it - he was so worried about something happening to the toys that it brought him to tears! Maybe the movie hit a little too close to home or maybe he was just not feeling well!? We also love going to the Rockies games as a family and had the pleasure of attending a game last week on the 16th row. It was even better when the Rockies hit a walk-off home run to win the game!

Swimming lessons have taken up many of our mornings. Carter is beginning to really get his basic swimming skills down. He was very proud to have passed his class as a Seahorse and to move on as a Stingray. McKay is just getting comfortable in the water. It helped to have his friend, Jude in his class. He is doing well on his back float, but needs a little work bobbing all the way under the water.

Last but not least, I survived Girl's Camp last week. Thanks to some wonderful camp leaders, camp was a success and everyone seemed to have a great time. Our theme was Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like our Heavenly Home." It was a fun take on the movie focusing on knowledge, love, and courage and developing these attributes to get to the Emerald City or the temple and ultimately to our "Heavenly Home". It was a lot of work, but a fun bonding time with all the girls and leaders. The YW liked to tease us that they couldn't go to sleep at night because the leaders were up talking too late....sure,whatever. Once it stopped raining on us, we were able to just enjoy the beauty of being up in the mountains.