Memorial Weekend in Washington State

It's rare that all five of the Larson siblings, their spouses, their children and the parents are in the same place at the same time, it's even more rare for our entire gang of 17 immediate family members can visit Sumas and the extended Larson family and grandparents at the same time - this very rarity happened over Memorial weekend and to boot the sun was out and not a drop of rain fell! Although the sun was pleasant enough, we had quite the hankering for rain, not just any rain but big heavy Seattle rain.

In addition to our Larson family gathering Levi and I met some of our friends for an 11 inning Mariner game, spent a rare 80 degree day swimming at Lake Roseigner with our nieces, Levi and Luke climbed Mt. Si, Levi played a bit of frisbee with his old team Huckin' Easy and then we gathered for an evening bbq with some more of our friends from home. Despite not living in Seattle for a year it felt as if we had never left, our second home in Bothell never felt more cozy and our incredible group of friends haven't yet given up on us despite our lengthy absence. Levi boarded a plane back to Yuma on Tuesday and Jen remained in Washington for another week to visit her family and celebrate our nephew's 2nd birthday.

Finally a table!

This damn table. It's journey to our dining room began more than 2 months ago as Jen tried her hardest to make it fit in the back of their Ford Focus if it were just an inch smaller it would've fit! We returned the table and as we were driving home we realized it might have fit if we had remove it out of it's box. So during Jen's next visit to Phoenix she bought the same table for the second time put it into SIL Kristen's suv with a plan to remove it from it's box and then fit it into the focus, alas even without the box it did not fit. So the table has been hanging out in their garage until we purchased our shiny new bigger vehicle and brought it home. It extends to accommodate more people but for now it makes the perfect location for a cozy romantic dinner for two.

Jen is still reconsidering the blinds - we might change them out for white blinds instead. Thoughts?

Here's a gratuitous photo of our new 50" Samsung 1080 pixel flat screen. For the last 8 years during college, Levi's grad school and military training we have lived very economically. This included watching television on the TV Levi bought for himself in High School 10 years ago. While our friends and family purchased their shiny new plasmas and LCDs Levi quitely salivated over them but remained financially disciplined. When we purchased the house Jen had pages and pages of design ideas and sketches. Levi only had two things on his list: 1) A work out nook in the backyard - check! 2) A shiny new flat screen in place of his 10 year old high school television - check!

Beating the heat

This week the temperatures have reached as high as 110 degrees. Our new favorite way to beat the heat is to visit Lake Martinez and the Colorado river. Luke, Kristen and baby Kendall came to visit us in Yuma and we spent Sunday cruising Lake Martinez and swimming off of a sand bar in the Colorado river. We are so very tempted to buy a jet ski or boat. More to come on this later!

Flat Stanley's Wild West Adventure

We received Flat Stanley from our 8 year-old niece Emma with instructions to take him on an adventure and take pictures with him. Flat Stan learned a lot of fun facts about Yuma, saw the lettuce fields, visited the Sonoran Desert took photos with Saguaro cacti, and got bit by Digger the desert turtle and tussled around by our cat cloudy. On our drive out to the desert we saw a group of guys parachuting from a plane into the desert, afterward Jen asked them to take a picture with flat Stan and they happily obliged. In fact Jen and Flat Stanley were interviewed on camera for the Jump School's graduation video montage.

We also visited San Diego where Stan wrote his name in the sand, got knocked over by a wave and took a ride on the beachside rollercoaster. We also brought Stanley along to the crawfish feed at Luke and Kristen's where he met their Flat Stanley. The two Stanley's were floated on a boat into the pool crafted from picnicware - to say the least we thuroughly enjoyed this project!

Crawfish party in Phoenix

Luke and Kristen paired with their friend Jeff through a crawfish party last weekend in Phoenix. It was great fun. We ate, drank, swam, mingled - the boys were up to their usual shanagins - wrestling, a game of chicken, jumping from the roof to the pool - all of the things that make Jen wince and hope Levi doesn't break his neck.

New vehicle!

With the temps consistently above 100 degrees it was time for a new vehicle with air conditioning. Our goal was to find a small SUV with decent gas mileage, strong A/C, something with lots of room to accommodate our new home remodel life style. We were looking at Toyota RAV4s and Honda Elements - we found this 2007 Honda Element with 10k miles in San Diego and could not pass it up! The Element feels brand new, the tint is dark to help reduce the heat, the seats fold into a plethora of positions even completely flat to pair with the flat front seats to form a bed while camping. You can also buy all sorts of smart accessories - for example you can buy table legs to screw into the tire cover to create a camping or tail-gaiting table! The gas mileage is good for a SUV, but best of all the A/C is strong and very cold. Driving has become an enjoyable experience again!

Levi hates moving but seems to always volunteer to help other people move. It was less than a week of ownership before he found someone to help move something which he took a huge delight in.