How Could I Forget?

I find it a bit interesting that I forgot one important milestone of this summer in my little catch-up session. EJ (for those of you who forgot what EJ stands for, that would be my "Endorphin Junkie" husband) had a big event occur this August. He turned 40! Forty years old! The big 4-0. Although I had thoughts of embarrassment, surprise and grand occasions, we decided to just go with a party at home with one small surprise. After all, I turn 40 later so I don't want any birthday backfire! So here you are, EJ at his 40th birthday bash.

This is EJ on the Surf Board. It was his little birthday surprise. Think electronic bull in the shape of a surfboard. It's crazy what you can rent out there! Fun for kids, fun for adults, but really just fun for kids. The birthday boy took a ride or two as did all the members of his department. The rest of the adult birthday crowd didn't have enough beer I suppose. Hmmm, we'll get them next time. Regardless of the lack of adult surfing, we had a grand old time and were happy to have a number of friends to celebrate the beginning of EJ's next decade with us.

Catching Up

It's been a while. I'm not even going to give an excuse. I'll just hope someone is still out there. If not, I'll chalk this time up to personal creativity.

I know we are into October so a summer wrap up seems inappropriate but I don't care. I'm going to do the summer wrap up anyway. We had an awesome, busy and fun summer. Here's a little wrap up to catch you up with the Larson clan. The fall wrap up will happen on another day, or month, hopefully not year. But we'll see, things happen.

JUNE

After I got suckered into working past my teaching contract date by attending a few conferences in June, summer finally started by heading to Dillon, MT for RATPOD. Ride Around the Pioneers in One Day is a fundraising event for Camp-Mak-a-Dream, a camp serving children battling cancer. I have watched Greg the past 3 years or so, green with envy as he participated. Luckily for me, I got a fancy, dancy, pretty green cyclo-cross bike for Christmas and got my wish to ride this year. Put a few road wheels on and I'm ready to go. Training was a bit of a joke but I squeaked in just enough to actually enjoy riding RATPOD instead of hating it. My motivation for this ride is the pie stop. Since this is a ride, not a race, you basically cycle to the food stops, at least that's how I think of it. It goes something like this...start to the breakfast stop, then the lunch stop, then the watermelon stop, then the pie stop, then you're done...127 miles later. Finally, the day ends with a BBQ with a great blue grass band and beer. As an added bonus this year, G-man rode 32 miles with his grandpa "FarFar." He totally flashed it then rocked out with the band on a loaner fiddle from a band member. Wish I had video of that one! Always an awesome event that I'll look forward to again next year!

JULY

Ahhh, the cabin. We had a magical time at the cabin this summer. G-man learned to knee board, slalom ski, and wake board. I don't know it was luck, talent or pure determination. I think he has his dad's gross motor skills. Roo got lots of time on the tube behind the boat before building his confidence to knee board. He finally did it and would basically pull the entire length of the navigable river! I had a great time skiing, cooking, baking, reading, and just relaxing. EJ got his ski time in, and in, and in. As well as some cycling. We also had our nightly rounds of game playing. G-man has become a master of Scattergories and his brother is close behind!

AUGUST

August was full! First a trip to Bozeman for the Tour de Bozeman. Next, Yellowstone National Park where we saw an insane amount of wildlife! Two grizzly bears, 3 black bear, a fox, a rattlesnake, plus the plethora of elk and bison! The majority of that was all in one day. G-man is so spoiled now that he grumbled when we didn't see any bears the second day. EJ and I had to explain that in all our years in visiting Yellowstone, we had only ever seen ONE bear. To see 5 in one day was truly exceptional!

Next we headed to Salt Lake City for my 20 year high school reunion. We were able to hang out in SLC, including the boys in their cousin's little swimming pool. This photo was too funny not to post!

On the day of my reunion, which I torchered my husband into attending, he race in the Tour de Park City, a 170 mile road race...from hell. We were able to see him finish (here are the boys entertaining themselves as we waited) and I think his best comment afterward was on the way back to SLC. As we passed a golf course, EJ said, "I think I'll take up golf." Although a suffer-fest it was, his teammate drove back to MT right after the race and managed to win a crit race the next day. Maybe it wasn't as bad as they say. I'm not about to find out...I'll stick to RATPOD.

We don't look that old do we? My 20 year reunion was a blast. The opportunity to have my closest high school friends in the same room was wonderful. I have managed to stay in touch with all of them but we are never in the same room. It was great to see many other people as well and I was pleasantly surprised to have some great conversations with old friends I didn't expect to see. On the "awkward" side, as G-man would say, it was really awful to have to look at someones name tag before talking to them. Especially when they clearly didn't look at mine. Whoops! I guess it's not my fault they changed so much...

So now we are to fall. School started off with a big old bang. I am sure that every school year starts off with the chaos and craziness that this one has and that I just suppress it to the back of my head. Between flag football, par cour and violin for G-man and tae kwon do, soccer, and violin for Roo as well as implementing a new autism and social skills curriculum at work, I'd like to commit myself some days. But mostly it's all good and happy. I will admit that the boys have more going on that my comfort level allows but I'm not going to begin to explain how we got into it all and why. We'll just accept it and move on and hope we don't drive each other nuts in the process!

Happy Fall Y'all!

G's Spring Recital

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G-man entertaining you all with Gavotte in G-minor by Bach. Enjoy.

Roo's Spring Recital

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Roo's Allegro. Enjoy!

What Blog?

Oh yeah, I have a blog. I almost forgot. Okay, not really, since I check the blogs I follow almost daily. I guess I just haven't been inspired. I should be, I have a lot to say, I just find it easier to update my status on Facebook.

Facebook. FB. Timesuck.

I started this blog as a way to spend a more productive time on the computer in the evenings. Kind of a journal. A way to keep family and friends in the loop. A creative outlet. Humph. FB sucked that a way in a hurry. There's no creativity there. Networking, sure. Old friends found again, yep. Knowing more than you wanted to know about the guy you thought was cute in 10th grade, uh huh.

But now I'm sucked in. I'm sucked in bad. There is no productive, creative writing time occurring on my blog. I'm too busy checking the status of people I haven't see in 20 years. When I'm done with that, maybe a goofy FB questionnaire. Or just check out all the photos of people's kids who I didn't know had kids.

It's really pathetic, I know. But I have to admit that it is FUN. It is fun to see what my best friend from 9th grade is doing. It is just as fun to come to the conclusion that if we lived in the same city, I would still want to be her friend. It is fun to have an easy way to stay in touch with good friends who I don't see very often. And it's fun to wish a friend well when you see they've had a bad day.

So I apologize for my absence. I will try to find a way to balance FB and blogging because I really do enjoy writing. But if you don't catch me here...you can always find me on Facebook.

Keep Ski Tips Up

Today was ski day. G-man and his buddy who were riding the lift together decided to find out what happens when you don't keep your ski tips up when it's time to unload the lift.

You face plant, slide under the lift and cross your fingers that you don't get bashed in the head by the chair.

The only thing better for an almost 9 year old boy is telling the story at lunch.

As long as you find it funny!

Addendum

So if the last post wasn't enough. Here is the current update on Grant's most recent missing pair of gloves. You know, the ones he left at the neighborhood skating rink. I think I mentioned them.

Today was ski team day. Off we went for a chilly but fun ski day with a little informal racing through the gates. Both boys had a blast working their way through the gates and trying to beat their own times (and maybe some of their friend's times). Anyway, there we are, sitting at lunch, G-man sitting next to a teammate of Roo's and also a personal acquaintance when G says, "Hey, those are my gloves." Sure enough, we take a look at this 1st grader's gloves and there's G-man's name written on the tag.

Humph, G is now in possession of TWO pairs of his very own gloves. I wonder how many lost and found lives these things have left!

Lost and Found

As the holidays grow further and further away, I am coming to terms with the fact that the holiday post will probably never happen. If you are sorely disappointed in this development, let me know and I will succumb to the pressure of cheery Christmas photos for all.

Instead, I have come to realize how lucky a certain disorganized child of mine is and am choosing to post on this fact instead.

G-man is a really good guy. He adores his friends, is generally kind, does well in school, and is liked by many. That said, G-man is one of the most disorganized souls I know. I swear the child would loose his head if it were not attached to his body. I know it sounds cliche but really, I think this is a strong possibility!

With that in mind, when winter arrives with the need for hats, gloves, snow pants, sweatshirts and the like, it can be a challenge for the big G. Although I should clarify, it really isn't a challenge for him because he has no idea where anything is. He knows where it "lives" as I say or in other words, where it should be, but if he has misplaced something without our knowledge, there's not a lot to be done about it. Therefore, it is us, his parents, who find anxiety in the fact that he cannot locate his skiing gloves the morning of ski team. He just gives a shrug and says maybe he left them on the sledding hill. Humph. It's no wonder he never has money in his piggy bank, he constantly has to replace his gloves.

So with this background information, I present you with two little stories that also show what a great little neighborhood community we live in.

The first story involves our "backyard" sledding hill which really isn't in our backyard but links to the wonderful hiking trails behind our house. The boys love to sled on one of the hiking trails back there and have dubbed it "the bobsled run." It is appropriately named as it follows a narrow path that winds down the hill at a fairly steep rate. On this particular day, the boys were sledding with their friends, helmets on heads, as we require, and having a grand old time. (In situations like this, we often loan out ski helmets to friends to ensure safety for all). So boys are sledding, boys are laughing, boys are jumping and crashing, and eventually, all boys return home. At some point, there is a realization that one of G's helmets was left on the hill. Big surprise. I honestly don't even recall how much later this realization came about, it just came. However, being that G's helmet was tagged with his name, he lucked out to find it sitting on his desk at school a few days later. Humph, he (or should I say we)lucked out on that one. Some kind friend clearly found it on their daily hike and knew exactly where to return it. Now that certainly isn't going to teach him any lessons about keeping track of his things. However, I am very thankful to this anonymous soul who found and returned the helmet, I don't want to buy another one!

Story number two involves ski gloves. Big surprise there. We are constantly trying to keep track of his gloves. We typically keep two pairs in stock which translates to having one pair in stock due to one pair usually missing.

During the winter, the boys participate in a little local ski team at our nearby ski resort. It is a blast for them and a blast for us. They get to ski with fun coaches and we get to, well, ski. The environment is a blast, lots of friends and a bar with great pizza for apres ski socializing. A few weeks ago we were engaging in such after ski enjoyment with friends (doubly fun since our kitchen was dysfunctional, but that's another story) when as we returned to the car, we realized that one glove of G's was missing. Again, big surprise since he's been gallivanting all over the mountain with his peps. We went back to the bar, checked our table area, searched the lost and found, and spotlighted the parking lot. No glove. Feeling defeated, we headed home with hopes it would appear in the skiing lost and found before our next ski day. But as only G-man luck would have it...he found it on Monday...AT HIS SCHOOL'S LOST AND FOUND! Let me clarify that there is no real good place to put this child's name in his glove but there it was, at school ready for him to take home. Humph I say again. This child's luck with people returning his belongs to a place he can find them is not assisting in the lesson of personal organization. It is helping my pocketbook however, so thank you to those who are finding and returning our belongings. I love my little community and hope to pass the kindness along to others in one form or another. Maybe now his two sweatshirts and currently missing gloves (oh yes) will turn up soon. Let me know if any of you see em. Description upon request.

Just Happy

So much to blog and so little time.

I'll fill you all in later.

It has something to do with a kitchen remodel and a new F word.

FRIDGE.

I suppose I also said I'd post a holiday blog. Hmmm. I'll get on that.

Until then, I couldn't let the day pass without acknowledging my happiness, joy, excitement, and complete giddiness after the events of today. I feel at peace with hope in my heart.

Today, I am proud to be an American!

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You...

a holiday update!

We were at the cabin for an amazing two weeks of relaxation on neutral turf with family. It was a wonderful time and I will update you all later. After being in an environment with no computers or wireless access for the holiday what do you expect me to do?

Now that I have unpacked, finished my first week back at work, and gotten my head on straight, I will consider and actual posting...soon.