MS Ride

(Slide show at the end)

     What a great weekend!  We stayed in Camarillo Friday night, then the boys and I drove to Santa Barbara Saturday morning while Will rode his bike there.  The weather was perfect for the ride!  

     Will raised a total of $1,200 for the MS Society!  Thank you to everyone who donated!  The event raised a total of $750,500!!!  What a great cause to ride for!  At the beginning of the race the announcer said, "While you climb those tough hills, think of those people suffering from MS and all that they go through."  

     There were over 1,000 riders on Saturday!  There were a lot of teams riding together; it looked like the Tour De France!  My batteries died when they all took off - it was a great sight seeing so many cyclists!  The batteries also didn't work when I tried to take a picture of the host of Amazing Race!  He was riding with a team and he got to speak at the beginning of the ride. 

     Will said the first 30 miles was FAST.  He rode about 26 mph in the middle of about 50 riders - a few teams.  He said it was fun to draft and be in the middle of it all.  Next time we'll have to get a real team to ride with.  (Our "Team Larson" just cheered on the side of the road!). Will rode 100 miles from Camarillo to Santa Barbara in 5 hours and 13 minutes.  

     We were at the start line at 6:30 am, went back to our hotel for breakfast, then drove to the beach to wait for Daddy and play.  After the race there was a huge blow up slide that the boys went up and down about 30 times.  (Sorry, didn't get a picture of that either.)  They enjoyed the drummers, watching all the riders and of course playing at the beach!!  They slept well last night! (Will included).    

     Here's our slide show of the big event.  *If the slide show has stopped, click on the x in the right hand corner and it will play again.

     We wish Will would have had a camera on the ride to take pictures.  He said it was beautiful.  They climbed up to about 1500 feet elevation (and started at about sea level)!  They had rest stops along the way and tons of food and drinks throughout the ride.  He only stopped for lunch (they had Subway sandwiches for them) and stopped for water.  Next time we'll mount a camera on his helmet so we can see it all!  What a fun day.

Preschool Fun!!

Here are some pictures from today.  What a great little group!  We missed Kaylee though.  

Making our counting books

Tasting apples.

  

Nixon giving Breyson a ride.

The Three Muskateers

Ten Apples Up on Top!

Tadaa!

Late Night Dentist

It finally came out!  Camden's top tooth was super wiggly forever.  He would not let us get close to it - he knew we were trying to pull it out.   After bribing him with a toy, he wanted to try it himself.  He tried 3 times and he couldn't do it.  He was crying and crying because he wished it would just fall out by itself!  Finally we made a deal that we would pull it while he was sleeping so he wouldn't even know!  He said o.k.!  After we put the kids to bed he said, "Mommy, make sure you do it in the middle of the night because sometimes I'm just laying with my eyes closed!" So, in the middle of the night (10pm) we barely twisted it and out it came!  (It was barely hanging on.) Tadaa!!  He was so excited when he woke up the next morning without a tooth!  It worked!  Now the tooth fairy gets to visit us!

Play Time

The other day I was making dinner while the boys played outside drawing on the cement with chalk.....I checked on them and this is what I found!!!!  It felt like I was in the middle of the Cat in the Hat book when I gave them a bath.  Red everywhere!!!  It went from place to place to place!

Police Man Blake one morning after taking Camden to school.  Later that day he had to wear the fireman rain boots to soccer practice!

Blake and Nixon  (Obi Wan Kenobi and Iron Man)

September

Here are a few pictures from this month so far.

We visited my grandparents for my Grandpa's 82nd birthday.  They are both so young for their ages!  The boys always love visiting there (and so do I).  In fact, we went one day and G & G were gone.  Blake sat on the porch just waiting and didn't want to leave!  (Funny he was being shy when it was time to sit next to grandma though!)  Every time we visit, the boys always go straight for the m&m's, get out all the cars and visit the deer, turtle, and bear outside.  They also love to ring the big bell outside on the porch.  It's always fun to visit Grandma and Grandpa!

This is the way Blake colors now.  He really tries to stay in the lines-in fact he gets frustrated when he can't!   When he colors Spider Man he colors the individual squares first to make the whole picture!

Homework time!  This is one part of school that Camden doesn't really like yet...does anyone ever like homework???

Camden's first year of Soccer!  He is LOVING it!  He said he even likes it better than baseball!  That is huge for him!  He made his first goal at practice yesterday and kept yelling WHOOO I made my first goal ever!!!!  He is a great runner going all over the field!

Blake took a picture of himself during Camden's game.  Too cute!

Ninja Blake 

Blake helping with the infamous Sunday Night Cookies

Tagged

I was "tagged" by Stacy to list 3 of each of the following: joys, fears, goals, current obsessions, regrets, and facts about me.  It's been interesting to think about the answers to all these...so here goes:  Oh, I also have to tag 5 more people - I'll comment on your blog telling you to do this same thing!!!!!  Don't forget to tag 5 more also!  Check your comments! (Lisa, Amy, Jill, Kristin, and Emily M.)

JOYS:

1. My Family 

2. The Gospel 

3. Morning Runs

FEARS:

1. Losing another child

2. Seeing accidents-I wish I could help them

3. Jumping off the cliffs at Rainbow Pools by Yosemite!  (I had jumped off cliffs into water at Lake Powell before, but this gave me a sunburn while I waited for the courage to jump!  I finally did it, but was pretty fearful!  I'm sure I wouldn't be able to now!)

GOALS (These seem to always be on my list of goals)

1. Read my scriptures daily

2. Exercise

3. Organize family photos and 

4. Practice the piano (I know, only 3 responses, but I could only limit it to 4!!)

CURRENT OBSESSIONS

1. Hanging out with my hubby

2. Playing with my kiddos 

3. Tatsu at Magic Mountain (In the last 2 visits we've been on it 4 times already!  We went for our last anniversary and went 3 times in a row!!....This last time we had over an hour wait to get on it!)

REGRETS

1. Wearing flip-flops all summer long.  (I need a pedicure - BAD)

2. Selling ALL of our Thomas the Train stuff at a yard sale a few weeks ago.  (A woman really liked a tent train that we had and then we brought out the huge bin of train stuff....she quickly asked how much?  I looked for Will's advice, he was busy bartering with someone else, I know he does great deals....so I said $20.oo???? um, $15.00???? I looked for Will's help again but he was still busy.  She said I'll take it!  (Usually they say no and try to get things for $5.oo or less!!I was wanting to take the box back inside..She was smart) She handed me $15.00 and off she went and so did Thomas! Uggggg I get sick just thinking about all those great times we had together playing trains and what a great collection we had!  Since the boys had lost interest in them I was thinking about keeping them for their kids some day, but finally realized it's just 'stuff' and was ready to part with them...so I thought!  I am NOT a good sales person!  Luckily when I sold furniture for my Uncle I was never as bad!!!!!  I was surprised when Will couldn't believe I sold it for so cheep!  I guess all I can say is some little boy is SOOOOOOOO happy to have all those trains!!!!! I hope they are well loved!

3. Never going to an event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah!  We went to see it all.  Camden was 2 months old.  We walked all around checking everything out, took lots of pictures, noticed how expensive it was to even see Curling, and didn't want to pay for an event ticket.   Now when will we ever have a chance like that again??? We should have paid for the tickets!

FACTS ABOUT ME:

1. I met my wonderful husband in the ocean.

2. Two of my favorite movies are Goonies and Anne of Green Gables!  I would love to go on such a great adventure (As Goonies)!  And I'd like to see where that movie was filmed- somewhere along the Oregon Coast.  Also, I'd love to visit Prince Edward Island and see where Anne of Green Gables was filmed! 

3. I love going to craft stores - like the one in Smithfield!  And I love browsing through School Supply Stores!!!

Saturday Home Improvements

As Will was painting the trim around our house, Blake wanted to paint too.  I got his paints and paper, and he wanted a ladder like Daddy.  Here he is, just like Daddy.

Next they found the rollers which are even cooler than a little paint brush so they got to paint with water.  (A great alternative to real paint for kids...and notice the color change on our house.  They had fun "painting".)

Caution!!!  The following pictures should not be tried at home.  These are trained professional stunt men!!!!!  (I was pretty nervous to come home after a quick errand to find the little helpers on the ROOF with Daddy as he painted the trim from up there!!!)  I have seen this scene once before actually....the day after Thanksgiving as Christmas lights were being hung!!  

They were pretty good with the water so they got to help inside now with the real thing!!  

These are our little rockers rocking out to the Backyardigans Knights music on our way out to dinner.  They both were playing guitars and singing.  We'll have to make a video of this.  They are hilarious! 

I love this picture!  Camden was reading to Blake after baths.  What a busy day!