Happy 61st Birthday Dad!

We celebrated my Dad's birthday at his favorite locatation, Lund, Utah. I was a little worried about taking 3 kids and a dog to the barren desert for an all day event, but I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty that Lund holds. There were mountains in the background, a few trees, some bushes, and a lot of sand. My Dad had a goal for the day to clean up and get his hangar doors hung. We had a nice lunch, then most everyone drove their 4-wheelers to the sand dunes for a longest drive competition. Some of us that aren't golfers and had kids to watch stayed behind. While they were gone, Isaac, Bethany and Bryn were playing so great together in the hangar. I was so delighted to see Isaac interacting with his cousins and they were having so much fun together. They were making a bowling alley using empty pop and water bottles, they had softballs to use as makeshift bowling balls. We thought this looked like good clean fun and left them to play and have fun. About 20 minutes later Isaac came back to the trailer with white paint covering his hand. I knew we were in trouble and went to survey the damage in the hangar. The kids had gotten very creative on the cement floor of the hangar and had spray painted lanes for their bowling alley. They also had made a great sign to hang outside the hangar which read "Bolwing Isle", this was a large piece of tin with the words written in red spray paint. Wow, aren't they creative and imaginative! I feared that Grandpa would not be happy, so Chani, Shella and I scrambled to find sponges, sandpaper, and anything else we could scrounge up to try to wipe the spray paint up. The kids also dug in and started helping. We managed to lighten up the marks, but they will remain on the hangar floor as a reminder to Grandpa as to how much fun he had on his 61st birthday! We love you Dad!!

Grandma and Grandpa Reeve's house

After spending several days in Midway with Nick's family, I took the 3 kids and the dog to Hurricane to spend a week with my family. Nick had to get back to work, so he came back home to Cheyenne. I think he had some nice, quiet down time being home by himself, but he says he missed us. We had so much fun spending time with all of my family. We went swimming almost every afternoon, went to Red Cliffs for a picnic, celebrated Leslie's, Dad's, and Uncle Kenneth's birthdays, had an apron making party with aunts, sisters, sisters-in-law, and my mom, and just wore ourselves out having so much fun. I feel bad that my kids don't get to live close to their cousins, so it makes me happy when they do get to spend time together. Isaac had so much fun that he informed me that next July we're spending 7 days at Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's house, and 21 days at Grandma and Grandpa Reeve's house.

1st annual Larsen Family Reunion Highlights

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July in beautiful Midway, Utah. We enjoyed spending 3 lovely nights at the Zermatt Resort. It was our 1st annual Larsen reunion, we had fun spending time with family and just relaxing. Adalee was baptized, congratulations to her! We were glad to be there for that special event. The kids had fun playing in the sandbox, blowing bubbles, and creating their own sun visors. Aunt Lisa was the party planner, thanks to her the kids were entertained. We had a nice BBQ, then celebrated Tasha and America's birthdays with a delicious cake. Uncle C.J. and Ty treated us to a kid friendly firework show-thanks guys! When it got dark, we took the lawn chairs to the front yard where we had a spectacular view of the city fireworks on memorial hill. The boys planned a backpacking trip to the Uintah mountains, while the girls had a blissful afternoon of shopping and dinner. I'm glad I'm not a boy!! It's always fun just being around family, it was so nice to see everyone. We all voted Lisa to be in charge of the 2nd annual Larsen Reunion, so we'll look forward to that next year!

Isaac's input

This is what Isaac wrote in his journal one night during the dog training:
My dog ate chocolate. Chocolate is not good for dogs. My dog ate a tissue. It drank toilet water. And we got the Doggy Bowls. I tried some Loud dog toys. I buyed some dog balls. My dog chewed on my socks.

This all really happened the first night we brought the dog back to the hotel room with us. We've improved every day since, and Isaac's dog now only eats dog food and dog treats. We are learning!

Shopping excursion to PetCo

This is out of order, but these are pictures of our first outing with the dog after getting back home to Cheyenne.

CARES Graduation

These pictures are of Sarah Holbert (CEO of Cares) Megan Lewellyn (Canine Assistance Director of Cares) A board member awarding Isaac his certificate, and Nikki and Trenton Heiman, and their dog Ronday

Isaac's Professional Therapy/Service Dog

Isaac's new dog is named Crosley, her litter was born on opening day of baseball season and were all named after baseball stadiums. My Mom, Isaac and I just returned from a 5 day course in assistance dog training. The company is called CARES, it stands for Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Educations Services, Inc. It is a great program, and we were so impressed with all 19 of the dogs they trained in our graduating class. Our testing and training took place in Concordia, Kansas(an eight hour drive from Cheyenne). The dog has had 9 months of intense training. Most of the dogs spend 3 months in a State Prison where they live with an inmate 24-7. Then the dogs are trained by students from girl and boy academies(troubled teens, or teens with behavioral issues). Then the dogs are trained with Megan and Sarah, who are the amazing women who run Cares. We participated in many activities with the class, attending Pizza Hut, Super Wal-Mart, Applebees, the mall, and the park(where Isaac pointed out a sign reading "NO DOGS ALLOWED") Part of the public access testing was visiting a skilled care facility(old folks home) and the prison. Going to the prison was an experience I'll never forget. There were 5 inmates that talked to us, they said they couldn't change what they'd done in the past, but they wanted to give back and help people. It was really neat to see how the dogs had changed their lives, and how the dogs will benefit the people that take the dogs home. Crosley is trained with hand and voice commands, she is trained to sit, stay, lay down, shake, stand, stop, up, give 5, dance, brace(for handicapped purposes), come, wait, retrieve, heel, about turn, etc. The very best part of all is that a few times a day, we take her outside and say "take a break" and she'll go to the bathroom on the spot. Getting a dog that's already potty trained is wonderful! We are hoping that Crosley will help Isaac with his autism. She will help him with social opportunities and also provide safety for Isaac, as he tends to run out into traffic. Isaac hasn't taken full responsibility for Crosley yet, but he does play with her and feed her doggie treats. She sleeps on the floor at the foot of his bed. Hopefully Isaac will be able to take the dog to school with him. By law the dog is allowed anywhere Isaac goes, and has already been to many restaurants, stores and even 2 hotels. For our test, we had to put the dog in a down, stay position and leave for 3 minutes. She did great and didn't move. Crosley also had to line up with all of the other dogs in the class and couldn't move until I told her to come. The hardest test for her was not moving when they tempted her by putting food 2 inches from her mouth. (We failed this test during practice when she ate a chocolate chip cookie off the ground) They're not allowed to eat people food or pick up anything up off the ground. All of the dogs had to lay down and stay while they were tempted by children, balls, strollers, etc. All of the dogs did really well and passed. She's a big responsibility and it is an adjustment, but I think we are making a smooth transition in dog ownership. Thanks Mom for joining us for the adventure.

Grandma's Here!!

We picked Grandma Reeve up on Friday at the tiny, Ft. Collins/Loveland, Colorado airport. We got to see her taxi in on the runway and walk off the plane. Sophia and Savannah have really warmed up to her and are enjoying her company. Mom, I hope you won't need a hearing aid after all of the high-pitched whistling in your ears(watch the video clip), for some reason they thought it was hysterical. Grandma came to take a road trip to Concordia, Kansas with Isaac and I. We are leaving this morning(June 22)to go for a one week training course for Isaac's new service dog. We are nervous but excited to get a dog. I'll be sure to take pictures and post them next week. Wish us luck on the trip! Thanks for coming Mom!

more Yellowstone pictures

YELLOWSTONE

We got to Yellowstone, and it brought back such fond memories for me as a child. I loved being there with my family staying in the cabins in the park. I remember the hikes on the boardwalk, watching Old Faithful erupt, feeding the marmots, and viewing the animals in nature. Well now I'm there with my own family and it's a little different. Isaac didn't want to hike and kept turning around to go back to the van, Sophia and Savannah were not feeling it(maybe they're a bit young to appreciate the magnificence of it all) and Nick didn't want his picture taken. We were so excited to get to Old Faithful, but we got there just in time to catch the tail end of the eruption, we said that counted, and didn't wait the 90 minutes to the next one. We did have a good time, and we saw a large herd of Buffalo with their young, a bald eagle in it's nest, several pelicans, elk, and a wolf. The highlight of the trip was meeting up with Mike and Mindi Smith, it was so fun to see their family and visit with them. We went to the IMAX theatre in West Yellowstone and watched a movie on the largest motion picture screen in the world, it was amazing. We had a fun time, but Nick and I decided we'll wait until the girls are at least 7 years old next time we go to Yellowstone.

Cody, WY

We stopped in Cody, it's just one hour outside of the East entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Nick thought it would be good for our family to brush up on our history, so we visited the Buffalo Bill Wild West Museum. The kids liked it at first, but it is a huge facility, and it became hard for them to focus and appreciate all of the history they were witnessing. They just wanted to run around and be kids. We were doing alright until Sophia walked over a small fence and into a tepee, we didn't see her right away, but we did hear loud alarms blaring around us. This older man in a museum uniform came over to us in a panic and said "You guys have got to keep your children under control." He continued to sigh, groan and mumble, but we just picked her up and went on our way. She wasn't trying to be disrespectful to old Buffalo Bill, she just wanted a closer look.

more Thermopolis pictures