T-Rex Museum

For Connor's b-day I took him to the T-Rex Museum. Actually on his birthday, I couldn't find the place, and of course I ran off and left home without my cell phone. Yes, I did stop to get directions- twice- but no one knew where it was and it was listed at the wrong addresses in the two phonebooks I tried. Yikes! Needless to say, it was a pretty small place and apparently, fairly unknown. Anyway, so I figured out where it was so we went the next day. Connor had a fun time discovering dinosaurs, fossils, and checking out the cool stuff in the gift shop.

He's holding this weird jellyfish-like creature that represents the beginning of the evolution of dinosaurs.

Checking out more dinosaur history.

I think Connor's favorite part was playing with the dinosaur toys and the doll house! He also liked the puzzles and books in the reading area.

A neat thing they had him do was "dig" for fossils. They had two digs set up, one of some sand that you ran through a coarse screen to find the fossils- stuff like teeth, claws, rocks.

The second is this screen box that they ran water through and we shook out. They said it's much like panning for gold. In the box he found some cool rocks, gold and amber pieces, a snail fossil, and a little green toy (that's what's in his hand in the pic).

All in all it was pretty cool. The place was small so it only took us a little over an hour to see everything.

Connor's Birthday

Connor's birthday came when we were in Utah but we celebrated once we got home.

Here's Connor on the "saddle" seat at McDonald's . He's not asleep, he's just not wanting to look at the camera. Going to Mickey D's was obviously his choice, even though I tried to dissuade him from going there (because Ammon and I just had signed a petition to boycott McDonald's b/c of their pro-gay stance) but, I lost. I figured it was his birthday so he should be able to pick where he wanted to go.

Here he is blowing out the cake we made together. Happy 4th birthday Connor!

Uncle Brian (my brother) was actually out here working and visited us at the same time. It had been his birthday the week before so we celebrated his and Connor's together. We really enjoyed having him here for 2 weeks. Connor enjoyed seeing him each evening. He loved Uncle Brian's robot car (a convertible) that he loved to see open and close. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of that. :(

Connor has shown such an interest in music in the last year or so that we decided to buy him a keyboard for his birthday. Everytime we are at the grandparents houses, he plays their drums or their pianos. He also likes to play on the pianos at church. We figured he would enjoy playing around on it. So, we'll see how it goes!

My mom made some amazing little superhero costumes with capes- Zorro, Batman and Superman.

Connor immediately put on the Superman cape and wanted to be flown around.

Here he is "jumping off of buildings with a single bound...it's a bird...it's a plane...it's Superman!"



Here he is lumbering off the stairs into the arms of his waiting papa. Uncle Brian took a few 'hits' as did I. Wow that kid can jump with some gusto and he never tired of it. This was great fun. Thanks for making these mom!

Connor in true bat form.

Here are more gifts from my parents that they bought while on their cruise- a cool t-shirt and beach bag that change color in the sun.

Visit to Zion's

On our way home from the family reunion, we decided to stop at Zion's Nat'l Park. I had never been before and it had been several years for Ammon. We figured that since we pass by it all the time on our drive between Utah and Arizona, that we should stop sometime so this time became sometime.

The overlook at the northwestern most part of the park.

On our first hike that we took up to Weeping Rock. Connor enjoyed watching the water flow down.

Here he is "reading" the plaque about the rock. He actually did read a few of the small sign markers along the path.

Here's us on the park's shuttle. It's a pretty goofy pic of us but look at the awesome view through the window! It was amazingly beautiful up there.

Here we are on our second hike up to the 3 Emerald Pools. It was really pretty.

This was along the same trail. Awesome rock formations.

It was quite the hike once we got near the pools- stairs and more stairs. I don't know how Ammon did it, carrying Connor on his shoulders.
View of the rocks from the uppermost pool.

Connor drawing in the sand at the upper pool.

We made it! Here we are at the top pool.

Fourth of July

On the Fourth of July, we had a picnic, games, an Easter egg hunt and fireworks. Quite a full day!

Ultimate frisbee with the cousins.

Croquet--only the guys.

Eating.

After the park and before the fireworks, we had the annual Larsen Easter Egg Hunt at grandma's house. I don't have any pictures but everyone was hunting for eggs filled with candy. Each family member gets 3 eggs to find that have been hidden by the fathers. The annual event usually occurs in the summer sometime when the family gets together.

In Utah, having your own fireworks is legal! This was a first for me so it was fun to see the kids setting them off. Ammon, the pyromaniac, thrived on this task. He set one off after another. Connor was a bit scared of the fireworks. He wasn't even interested in doing a sparkler- a good healthy fear- and I wasn't going to force him.

Fireworks in the street. Ammon is the one closest.

I love this picture of Uncle Chris. He looks like a deer caught in the headlights!

Connor licks the sidewalk

One morning after Connor spent the night at his grandparents house, grandpa caught this on film.


Isn't he hilarious-- in his underwear outside drawing and then licking the sidewalk to make a correction to his drawing?!

Here's more of him drawing on the sidewalk. His subject that day was cats, probably because the Larsens have 2 cats.

Campfire games

After the hike, we roasted hot dogs over the fire and then marshmallows for smores.

All the younger cousins got involved in various games: Settlers of Catan, Oh Heck (Shanghai), and speed Scrabble.

The youngest kids, including Connor, played a follow-the-leader game where they crept around like cavemen or zombies with big sticks. Here's a shot of them behind Connor with the ice chest.

Connor made our wheeled ice chest into a wagon. He had a lot of fun pulling it around and then had me pull him around. Pretty cute.

Donut Falls hike

After the first water scare, we decided we'd go on a hike with the rest of the family. Because Connor's shoes and socks were soaked and drying alongside the fire, Ammon decided he would carry him on his shoulders- for the whole hike! I was amazed he was willing to do that because I wouldn't even think of it. Connor would be wearing wet shoes before I'd do that!

Just about everyone went including Ammon's 82 year old grandma. She was amazing and kept up so well, it put us all to shame! We had a hard time finding the falls and first overshot the trail that led to it going too high and then back tracked going too low. We attempted to find it for the third time and finally did. It was quite beautiful. It's neat to see the water gush through a hole in a huge boulder just like a donut hole. Apparently later in the fall, when the water is not as high, you can hike right up to the falls and even walk behind it, getting sprayed by the overflowing water.

Gorgeous views from the overlook onto Donut Falls.
Larsen cousins on a log (above) and several of us at the overlook (below).

Here are my cute boys before we started up the trail.

Ammon's better side. haha

The aunts, uncles and cousins behind us. Some of the other cousins were up ahead.

Our family on a bridge over the raging river below Donut Falls.

Water scares

One evening of the family reunion, we retreated to the cool weather and beauty of the mountain pines up at Spruces campground. We arrived early and played games, relaxing in the refreshing atmosphere. We noticed that the reserved site was alongside a river. I felt a little apprehensive about that because I knew we'd have to keep an extra eye on Connor (was that feeling foreshadowing on what would happen?). Once Ammon's family arrived, his sisters wanted to take Connor down by the river, first Sarah and then Amy. A few minutes later, I looked up to see my father-in-law sprinting to the river so I quickly yelled for Ammon to sprint down there too. You guessed it, Connor fell in. The water was cold and fast-moving. Amy looked away from Connor for a moment and saw out of the corner of her eye a branch that hung over the river shake and then heard the splash. Before she could react, she said Connor had already traveled about 5 feet down the river! She jumped right in and got him out but the current was so rapid that she could only pull Connor to the far shore so my father-in-law waded across to get Connor. He was of course crying and very cold. He had tumbled around in water but miraculously had no cuts, bruises or bumps on the head. What a blessing.

I quickly changed his clothes and was grateful that all of our dirty clothes were in the trunk of the car. Thankfully we also had some extra clothes available for Amy too while we dried both of their clothes and shoes out by the fire.

Here's a shot of the drying items around the ring of the fire and one of Connor and Amy in dry clothes after the ordeal. I'm so grateful to you Amy and thank you again for your quick thinking in getting my boy out of the river!
















Ok so I said water "scares" so yes, there were two! The next day we had a 4th of July party at Ammon's aunts community park and pool. Connor and I played in the pool just fine floating around on the pool chairs while Ammon was in the deep end with the cousins playing diving games.
Then Connor decided he wanted to go over and visit daddy so I let him get out of the pool. I thought he saw daddy move to the other side of the pool but apparently he didn't nor did he seem to realize daddy was not in the pool but was alongside watching the action (that's why I let him go over there without me walking with him). So, it was rather shocking when Connor got to the deep end and slid in along the wall. From the shallow end I could see the top of his head so I thought he was holding on to the edge of the pool but as I got closer I could see his hands were not on the edge. All the cousins were around him but they were not paying any attention to him because of their game. I finally yelled to uncle Chris, who was also playing, to grab Connor. He quickly wheeled around and yanked him out of the water. He said Connor was in up to his forehead and was just treading water with all his might. Again, Connor was unharmed, not even coughing or gasping for air. He must have instinctively inhaled before he went under. Connor and I just sat and cuddled for a long while as I told him how scary and dangerous what he did was. We talked about how important it is to not get in without an adult, etc, etc. I told him he would learn to swim in his swimming class he would start the next week (thankfully I had signed him for lessons before we went out of town). After this happened, several people asked me how I was doing. I just didn't know how to answer or react. I mean, my nerves were shot. Two scares in as many days-- that was just a bit much for a momma to bear.

You know, I had always heard that child drownings are silent but I never knew until this scare. I thought I'd hear splashing or yelling but there was not a sound. Quite a reality check for me, and hopefully for all of us, to be extra careful with our kids around water.

What a blessing that Connor was unharmed. I thank God for that.