The reception

The Larsens redid their entire backyard for the reception. I know they worked on it all summer to make it perfect, and it was. The evening was nice and cool and the decorations beautiful.

<

The cake - one layer chocolate and one vanilla. Top layer is waiting to be eaten in a year.

Me and my sweetheart! My kids are running loose somewhere.....

Outside the Temple

After the ceremony Russ and I picked up our kids at his sister Jeanna's house just up the street and we got the kids dressed in their wedding color clothes. Then we hung out and visited with relatives as we waited for the bride and groom to emerge from the temple.

Ryan, his wife Stacey, Me and all my kids waiting for the bride and groom.

What a good Grandpa!

They finally made it out!

My kids love their new Aunt Ashley!

And Maili loved her cute wedding attire

Ashley's younger sister Annie had her nails painted a bright yellow to match the wedding colors as well. And she had it with her at the temple! So as the photographer snapped pictures of Taylor and Ashley I decided to do Maili's nails!

Wedding colors are green yellow and blue if its not obvious.

Thyse was feeling really shy that day.

Maili and Grandma Cindy

Groom's Dinner

Taylor's wedding started out with Ashley receiving her endowments at the Timpanogos Temple on Friday Aug 28th. After the temple we all met at the Rose Room at Thanksgiving Point for a really yummy Groom's Dinner held in Taylor and Ashley's honor.

This is me with my 4 brothers

L to R Cordell, Taylor, Marci, Tyson, Ryan

All the adults of the family

Bring on the grandchildren!

Pineview Reservoir

Six months ago we decided we wanted to return to one of our favorite camping spots in Utah - Pineview Reservoir which is in the Ogden Valley and is one of the most beautiful spots in the state in my opinion. When you make a reservation in February to camp in August you assume it will be around 90 degrees (at least) - perfect lake weather. We were so excited we invited our good friends the Jorgensens to join us and they brought their ski boat. Unfortunately, a cold front came through. It was cloudy, windy, and in the 60's. We were not very prepared so we spent Friday night and pretty much the whole day Saturday freezing out rear ends off!

This didn't necessarily deter the kids from getting wet anyway! We at least managed to take advantage of the hour of sun that broke through the clouds on Saturday morning and Russ and Alan both got a chance to water ski......or I should say Alan skied and Russ tried to get up. Strangely Russ couldn't get up! We think it was because after that we realized the boat had been sluggish and did not have enough power to pull him out because it was overheating. Too bad he's not coming to AZ with me in a few weeks so he can prove his manhood again skiing at Apache Lake.

Saturday afternoon we were so cold we decided to make the 20 minute drive into Ogden and see a movie! We saw G-Force with all the kids. Take my advice and wait for it to come out at Red Box.

Our friends the Jorgensens

Sunday morning was sill rather cool but then sun finally decided to come out and make things bearable. By then though the boat was toast, and already pulled out of the water.

My baby is such a big boy now!

I was brave enough to get in the water for about 3 minutes after warming up in the sun for 2 hours. I had to jump off of the dock to do it. Thyse was braver and walked down to swim with me.

The kids had a lot of fun together. Emily and Alex are a little older than my kids but they were so patient and cute with them! We'll have to try it again next year guys and hope we hit a warmer weekend....or buy a trailer so we have somewhere to escape from the cold!

First Day of School

Technically this is the first day of Kindergarten for Bryton. 2nd grade started a week before hand for Maili. Thyse is just in the picture for fun. He will have his first day of preschool on a few weeks.

I wish they were actually this loving....if only life were like pictures.

All ready to go in. Parents are not aloud to cross that red line near the doors!

Tagg's Bachelor

Keeping up with our tradition of not going on vacations with the whole family this year, I went to San Diego without the family to meet up with the PDC. The PDC originated in the Fall of 1994 with the guys from the north side of W-hall 4th floor in Deseret Towers at BYU. We've stayed close over the years and Tagg is finally getting married. We decided that was a great excuse for us all to get together. We had a blast staying at Jim's parent's beach house on Coronado. We spent most of our time playing volleyball on the beach, but we also found time to go golfing, play beach football, and to see the USS Midway. In the football game, I had to keep telling Matt sorry for bumping him a little too hard. The very last play involved me catching the ball and leaning into the endzone as Matt tried to come over the top. Unfortunately Matt ended up with a bloody nose which turned into a black-eye. It was great to get back together and pretend that we were 18 again.

The view from the Sea Haven

24th of July - Float Preview Party

Every year in Utah we celebrate the 24th of July, the day the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley and began to settle what would later become our great state of Utah. Part of the celebration includes a large parade downtown. Although we have never braved the crowds to see the actual parade we have made it to the float preview party for the last two years. Here you can get right up close to the floats, see all the cool details, and view them in the South Towne Expo Center where it is cool and air-conditioned. There are marching bands practicing for the parade and free face painting and balloon animals. We went with our good friends the Tafts and the Taylors.

My Cute Spider Man!

Matthew Taylor, Bryton, and Chase Taft who were all in the same pre-school together all had to have the same snake on their cheek.

Maili and Ella Taylor both wanted to be tigers. Since they only painted half the face for free I advised them to get 2 different halves painted so they could then put their cheeks together to form one complete tiger.

Just a few of the floats we saw.

The kids voted for this "Monsters vs. Aliens" float on their "Kids Choice Award" ballot.

For some reason when Bryton approached the balloon animal guy and tried to tell him what he wanted they guy told him he already had an idea......and proceeded to take 5-10 minutes making Bryton this incredible wearable balloon helicopter. I've never seen anything like it before!