Dollywood and School

Samantha started school on the eleventh and she is really enjoying first grade. Her good friend that lives by us ended up in her class and she was very excited!

We went to Dollywood before school started and had a great time! If you ever make it to Tennessee you should take a trip to Dollywood (Dolly Parton's amusement park). Samantha is getting tall enough to go on some adult rides and she even went on the Tennessee tornado twice. It's a roller coaster that goes upside down three times. I was a nervous wreck with her on it! Carter did amazingly well. He just sat in the stroller and people watched.

There is a new ride and you just ride on a boat, squirt people and people (who are not on the ride) squirt you. I let Aaron take the kids on that ride and he got soaked! It was pretty funny.

Aaron and the kids right after the ride.

I wanted to put this picture of Carter in because I think his hair is so funny! It's getting longer, but it will not lay down! It is constantly sticking straight up.

Bear Lake

We just recently spent a week in Utah and had a great time seeing all of our family on both sides.
Part of our week in Utah was spent at Bear Lake for the Stevenson reunion. We had a lot of fun swimming and being together as a family.The kids (and adults) had a great time building sand castles on the beach.

Ryan and his cousin Eliza burying themselves in the sand

Samantha is preparing to run her part of the Stevenson olympics relay

Just a cute picture of the kids

We had a great time jet skiing. Ryan and Samantha just couldn't get enough!

Larson visit

Here are some pictures of the our time spent with the Larson side of the family. We had a great time hanging out with family, playing way too much guitar hero, playing tennis, and celebrating my grandpa Larson's 90th birthday.Here are Samantha and Ryan feeling pretty cool on grandma's sports car!

The kids playing pick up sticks with grandpa

This was taken during grandpa Larson's birthday celebration. Don't they look great!

It has been a long time since all of the Larson cousins have been together. Growing up, we always had to line up youngest to oldest for a picture. We couldn't give up that tradition!

Hot rod grandma!
By the way-I rotated this picture twice, but for some reason it keeps coming out this way.

Aaron turns 32

Aaron turned 32 yesterday and we had a small party for him. We all gave him a portable basketball hoop which everyone (especially Ryan) has been having a great time with. I ran out of time so I quickly made a cake in a 9X13 pan then frosted it. While I was outside, Ryan came in and "decorated" it. Well, there was a very thick layer of all kinds of sprinkles and it made for a pretty crunchy cake! You can't see the cake that well, but most of the sprinkles are right in the middle.

The classic blowing out the candles photo.

Carter is six months!

Carter has reached his half way mark to a year! I can't believe he is already six months. He's not sitting up alone yet. If we try, he just tips over or folds in half then spits up then proceeds to play with the spit up. He can roll to his stomach, but can't go from his stomach to back so that really makes him mad after a while. He loves to spit and blow bubbles all the time (even right in the middle of the prayer at church :)). We are enjoying watching his little personality come out and can't wait to see him progress even more.

He looks totally cool in his shades!

Here he is sucking on his toes. Don't you love the pink blanket we put him on. Poor guy.

This is Carter's favorite place to play

Staying cool

It has been very hot and humid out here so we have been swimming a lot this summer. Our family joined the YMCA to get back into shape (Aaron and I) and to swim this summer. The kids also took swimming lessons and have really started improving. We're trying to pass the water wing stage.
Aaron was less than thrilled that I added his picture in a swimming suit on the this blog, but I think he looks hot!

6th annual strawberry picking day

We had our annual strawberry picking day a few weeks ago. We started doing this when Samantha was only one and we have loved doing it ever since. I think we got about 19 pounds of strawberry's this year. We make a ton of jam and freeze some for smoothies. At only $1.25/lb it wasn't too bad. It was pretty muddy this year so the kids ended up getting caked in mud.