Sweet 16

TaraLyn is 16. She is having a hard time believing it. For years now she has been telling boys that she can't date until she is 16. It has been a great way to not have to worry about guy problems. Now she is wondering what she is going to tell them. I think that she kind of likes them.........after all she invited a bunch to her 16th birthday party. We had 28 people at her 16th birthday party!!!!!! We had a Luau and had a great time.

THE FOOD

THE DECORATIONS

FRIENDS

CLAYTON GREETED EVERYONE

Clayton made his own pineapple hat to wear. He was really into the party. It was cute.

ACTIVITIES

Summer

Summer has come and gone. I look back at the last few months and wonder what I have accomplished. I decided that I have spent a lot of time preparing for trips, going on trips, and cleaning up after trips. We have had a few visitors in between trips and several get togethers. We have had a lot of fun with family and friends. We wish that we could be with all of you more often, but we are soooo thankful that we were able to see everyone that we have this summer. Thanks for the good times!!!! Here is what we have done:

June: Cub Scout Day Camp, Girls Camp, Larsen Family Reunion (Seattle WA, then we drove to Moses Lake, Tri-Cities, Burley Idaho, and then Lehi Utah) Youth Conference

Clayton's Day Camp Group

Larsen Family Reunion

(I posted all of the pictures on my facebook, so if you want to see them go there)After the family reunion the girls flew home to go back to work. The boys and I spent the next week traveling. We visited my mother in Moses Lake. My friends Sheli Franklin and Tammi Shepherd came over from Wenatchee to see us. I sure wish that they lived closer.
We then traveled to Tri-Cities and saw Annika and Bruce's new home. Then we drove to Burley and played with RaeAnne and Camille for a few days. Preston showed us his fun airplane. The boys thought that it was pretty cool.
Our next trip was to Utah. We met up with Kim at the Hill Airforce Base to look at the Museum that they have there. I wanted to take some pictures of the planes to frame and put in the boys room. While we were in Utah we went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. We also visited the new Draper Temple. Aunt Kim treated us to the movie "UP" It was fun to listen to Kjel. I think that he could relate to the scout in the movie.
Oquirrh Mountain Temple We had a great experience while we were at the temple. We ran into Aunt Heather who was helping usher at the temple. She introduced us to Elder Kikuchi. He was kind enough to talk to the boys. He asked them how old they were and then he wanted to make a pinkie promise with them. So they pinkie promised him that they would serve a mission when they grew up. He told them that he didn't want a wishy washy promise but a for sure promise that they would. We took this picture afterwards, so that they could remember their promise.

Draper Utah Temple

July: Week trip to VA, Warren's Dad and Mema Phyllis visited for a few days, TaraLyn's 16th birthday party.

Pictures at Virginia Beach with the Haws Cousins

The following pictures are of Jamestown. There are pictures of the fort, a ship that the people came on from England, and the Indian village. Of course these are all replicas, but we had fun exploring the Indian dwellings, the ships, and the old fort. They had people demonstrating the everyday lives of the early settlers and Indians.

August: This weekend Kjirsten and I are going to Illinois to Kjirsten's friends wedding reception.

In between all of the fun the girls have been working and playing. The boys have been having campouts and scouts stuff. Warren has worked. And I have been cooking and doing laundry. I am excited for school to start so that maybe I can do some rug hooking again!

I should have taken a foreign language in High School

About a month ago I signed into my blog spot to make a new post and somehow the text was in some foreign language. I couldn't read anything to figure out how to change it back to English. Frustrated, I just logged off. I had forgotten about my problem and when I logged on today I was again reminded that I am not good at reading foreign languages. Thank goodness for children (not that they could read it, they are just better at figuring out computer things) they helped me get it switched back to English. Yeah!!