The Dudes are two!!!

Happy Birthday.July the 2nd was a big day for the Dudes (Logan and Liam). They turned two. However, they both started the terrible twos a bit early.
Liam tried out the slip and slid that Grandpa set up for everyone to try.
Lorelei, Logan and Joe enjoying the big above-the-ground pool.
Joe had a go at the slide. Actually, he was about the only one then tried it more than once.
Gigi and her cousin in the pool.
Lorelei tired the slide once but she actually just kind of crawled down, because the water was turned off. But it was still fun.
Lunch time for the boys. They love corn on the cob.
Logan eyeing some of the gifts. Wait a minute. This one isn't even wrapped!
Gigi accompanied us to "Happy Birthday".
Hey this looks like a hat from Aunt Tana.
Logan the Batman with the dino hat.
Hey, boys, look at these cool fishing poles. They double as long light sabers.
Logan with his hat.
And Liam with his hat.
Logan looking over his Batman set.
Liam studying this one.
"I had it first". " No you didn't!. It's mine". "Leave it alone".
Mmmm Chocolate. My lips love it.
I am a very careful eater. I am not like my brother.

4th of July @ Big Lake

Once again we spent the 4th of July at Big Lake at Dick and Kathy Anderson's cabin. The whole crew was there. I will include a variety of photos.Gretchen with a puzzled look.
Batman Logan trying out the boggy board.
Lorelei, Joe and Gigi waiting for their turn on the pull behind toy. Wait, the new boat broke and we aren't going anywhere.
Liam thought he wanted to try it out, too, with his Spiderman muscle vest on.
Liam and Logan with their muscle vests on. I was playing lifeguard but was still in my shorts complete with cell phone and car remotes. This was the first time the dudes had life vests on and didn't know what they would do. Liam started walking out into the lake. by the time he was waist deep, he started becoming very buoyant. He was lifted off of his feet and started rolling and bobbing in the water. Four steps later I saved him. I did not ruin the cell phone or car remote. Two other times I had to save people. Joe was in a float toy (he had on a life jacket) and he drifted into water about 6-8 feet deep and was slipping out the bottom of it. He was terrified, but Grandpa save him. This time I had on my trunks, and had to swim out to him.
Here is Rikki (aka Kelsi from High School Musical) giving me the evil eye.
Dave Sonja and Chloe.
Spiderman Liam
Joe is wondering why he has to wear this jacket in the Summer.
Lorelei was feeling a bit blue about 30 seconds before Grandpa came by to brighten her up. It didn't take long.
Kirstin and others
Panning to the right
Nikki and Hadley
Kathy, don't look so surprised. You knew I was taking this.
The Mosses.

The Crops are growing

We decided to get back into vegetable gardening this year and cleared out all the flowers behind the garage and shed. We enriched the soil with compost, manure and peat moss. Then we started to plant. Judy planted the first set of peas in the middle of May and they have all been harvested. Mmmm mmmm good. We have had several meals with the first batch. I planted the second batch (three times as many) in the early June. They will be ready in two to three weeks. We also have tomatoes and onions. See below.Below are a long row of beans next to the garage and two rows of peas by the fence.
We have several rows of carrots. I hope that these will end up bigger than my little finger.
Behind the shed, I have about 24 potato plants. Most of them grew 9only had about six that didn't do anything. But there isn't any room to walk in there any more. They will be ready to dig up in about five or six weeks.
Below is the first set of peas that have been eaten up.
We also have one small cucumber plant not pictured (it was too embarrassed for a photo).

New set of Wheels!

Okay, somebody has to do it! The old clunker of a Pontiac that Brett and Charity had , has gone the way of all clunkers. Therefore, a brand new 2008 Kia Optima that gets about 30MPG came into their lives. That will help alot on those long commutes to work. Congratulations. I waited quite awhile for the Country Larsens to post the picture and it never happened , so here it is.

The Cazier family reunion in Nauvoo

Well, it is next week and the long awaited post has been published.
On the last Friday and Saturday of each June the descendants of William Cazier and Pleasant Drake have a reunion. The Larsen's are part of this gang. This year it just happened to be in Nauvoo, Ill. I made reservations several months ago. Kirstin called a couple weeks before the reunion and expressed interest in going. So on Jun 26, Jeff, Kirstin, Logan, Liam and myself set off for an adventure. We found out that the boys have a great deal of will power by not napping until we were about 15 minutes away from our destination. The Nauvoo Temple looking towards Iowa and the Mississippi River.

Another view of the temple looking east.

So to let the boys burn off some steam, they went swimming in the pool of the Nauvoo Family Inn & Suites, where the Smenteks stayed. Logan liked to run around with his speedo boat stuck around his body. He was pretty daring because he walked to the edge of the pool, not seeing the edge, and stepped off into the pool. All was well because his boat caught him. Then he repeated this because it got a big reaction from mom and dad.

Monkey see, monkey do. Liam had to run around also.

I stayed at the Historic eight room Hotel Nauvoo where the famous buffet dinners are.

The next day, we all went on a horse carriage ride through the back woods of Nauvoo to Inspiration Point, over looking the Mississippi River. The dudes wanted to meet and visit with Rocky and Andy, the two Belgian horses, each weighing one ton.

Logan in the Tribute to Women garden behind the visitors center.

Liam is having second thoughts about this guy trying to get a hug, let alone having a little sister, though it appears he never noticed the little kid behind him.

Then it was fun time for the boys at the city hall park. They loved the swings.

These guys are not bashful when it comes to slides, They climbed up the ladder, ran to the end, and threw themselves down the slide with no hesitation.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

The Cazier reunion picnic was moved from the state park because of hot temperatures and a threat of sever thunderstorms with up to two inches of rain. None of the bad weather materialized. Here are some of those that attended.

This is where the Sunset By The Mississippi show was held in years past. But the flooding of river took its toll on low lying areas at the end of Parley St. The show was moved to its new permanent location between the Stake Center and the Visitors Center.

There used to be a replica ferry and covered wagon here to show how small everything was. Wagons were only about three feet wide and 10-12 feet long and the ferries only carried one wagon.

Here is a wagon and it looks like the dudes want to be hitched up and go for ride. Two-Dude Power. Giddy-up.

Logan's treasure find was a stick that he carried around all day.

Liam's treasures were rocks. He hung on to them most of the afternoon.

Hey, look at what I have. What do you mean? Mine are better.

We had front row seats for the Mississippi By The Mississippi show, a musical variety show. Here some of the senior missionaries are doing one of their acts. During part of the show, some of the young performing female missionaries sat down on the steps you see in the picture. Liam loves girls. And as soon as the girls sat down on the steps, Liam started flirting with them. He said, "Hi. I Liam." The girls were smiling and waiving back. Jeff and I were watching this whole flirtation event and never though to take pictures. I can just imagine the next sentence: "Whats you doing after the show?" Watch out world. There is a girl crazy boy out there and he is only two years old. Happy birthday.

Liam riding the sheep.

Its Logan's turn on the same sheep. The sheep does not mind who climbs on him.

Here are the young performing missionaries in High Hopes and River Boats show. These are the girls that Liam likes. However, the boys had some difficulty during this show and had to go to the cry room.

Time to burn more energy. To bad we can't harness this and use it in the car.

The boys patiently waiting for dad just before leaving for Minnesota. Kirstin walked to my hotel (about 1/2 mile) while Jeff loaded the car and checked out of the hotel. We had a couple rain showers while waiting. What we didn't learn until later was that Jeff had an issue with a kid named Jacob, blocking his way out of the hotel with the luggage cart. He eventually had to push the kid out of the way and run him over, because his mom and dad would not control their kids and get them out of the way (the whole family was blocking the hallway).

Me and the boys. They were looking forward to another car adventure. This was the first time they have spent any amount of time in other states. Well, they fell asleep in no time and had a good nap before lunch.

Jeff, Kirstin, Logan and Liam (he did not want his image recorded). This turned out to be a great adventure with the Smenteks. Over all, we had a lot of fun.

Lack of posts

Well, it has been a long time since I added a post to my blog. I promise to have several new posts soon. Everything seems to get in the way of posting, whether work, garden or unforeseen things. I will be heading to Nauvoo in a day with Kirstin, Jeff, Logan and Liem. I will be attending the Cazier family reunion. I have never attended one and it should be interesting and I hope fun. I will be posting next week, again. But don't hold me to it.