Cub Scouts

When Andrew turned 8 he was excited to be able to go to Cub Scouts.   After lots of reminding by Andrew we finally managed to get his uniform and get the badges on.  He even reminded my mom that he needed to go one Wednesday afternoon.  Here he is in his uniform.  He is officially a Wolf!  I am still having a hard time understanding all of the requirements and ranks in scouts, so hopefully by the time Grant is a scout I will have it down.

Once he got his book (thanks Landon!) he got right to work.  He memorized several items and did a few requirements and was able to get his Bobcat award (I'm not even sure "award" is the right word) at pack meeting.  Here he is with his leader.

And here are the awards.  He also got the baseball, golf and kickball belt loops.  I am glad that he likes going and is excited about learning new things.  This week he is at cub scout day camp and has been doing many new things like shooting an arrow and bb guns.  Of course, those were the two things he mentioned first.  They are also learning some not so exciting things like tying knots and learning songs - or at least they aren't exciting to an 8 year old.

Camping with Dad

Every spring our church has a Father's and sons camp out.  This year they went up to a park in the Fremont hills.  Andrew loves to go to these camp outs.  Not only for the s'mores, but also to run around like crazy with his buddy Max.  They always have a great time.  I always request pictures, but I don't often get any.  Max has a sister who is Claire's age and she really wanted to go on the camp out, so their dad organized a Father's and daughters camp out for June.

Claire was really looking forward to this because she loves to go camping.  Elaina and a lot of her friends were there.  I hope they make this a tradition as well.  

Andrew's Baptism

Andrew was baptized back on June 2nd in Morgan Hill.  It happens to be the same building that my siblings and I were baptized in.  I feel bad that it took me so long to write about this very important event.  June has been a really busy month for us with the end of school and baseball and everything that goes with that.  Throw in a business trip to Chicago and you are out of time!  Ever since Landon got baptized back in December Andrew has been so excited to get baptized.  My brothers and their families were able to come up from Los Angeles and Danny's parents were visiting on their way back from Hawaii.  Here is a picture taken before the baptism started.  This was the first time that Ryan's kids had met Mateo.

Our family.

Andrew and Landon.

Ron and Jan with Andrew.

My mom and Lisa gave talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost.  My mom even had all of the cousins participate.  It was such a special day for everyone.  Here is Andrew posing in his new suit that Jan got him along with Bishop Taylor and Gary Morain.

After the baptism everyone dispersed so we didn't have a chance to take any family pictures, so we did it after church the next day.  Here are all of the cousins on my side of the family in age order from right to left: Landon, Andrew, Isabel, Elaina, Claire, Mia, Taylor, Chris, McKenzie, Grant, and Mateo.  They are aged 8 - 5 months. 

The whole Larsen extended family.

My parents and Andrew.

Andrew also got from my parents his own set of scriptures and a BYU case just like Landon. 

Gilroy Gardens

On their way back from Hawaii, Danny's parents stayed with us for a week so that they could be here for Andrew's baptism.  Since Monday was Memorial Day we decided to head to Gilroy Gardens.  It was going to be Grant's first visit.  Unfortunately, Danny was sick so he didn't come with us.  Ron and Andrew went on the paddle boats first and the rest of us headed to the train before the line got too long.  Grant seemed excited about riding the train, but he quickly decided that he didn't like the whistle.  It probably didn't help that we were sitting in the first car behind the engine and the whistle.

Grant was too short to ride this one by itself.  Claire took a turn though.  I remember the first time she rode this ride that she screamed the whole time.

Grant and Grandma looking on.

Next up was the carousel.  Grant didn't like this one either so he rode on one of the benches with Jan.

Andrew wanted to ride the roller coaster, so I rode one time with him and the next time he rode by himself.  I had the camera on the wrong setting so the pictures were blurry.

We tried to get Grant to ride in these cars, but he seemed to be done with the rides.

So at the next ride we waited and waited for the others and he got bored. So he pushed the stroller around, nearly missing people, so then I took him for a walk.

But then he escaped in the enclosed garden and refused to move.  He was tired at this point.

But then finally we saw Ron, Andrew and Claire on the monorail.  They are behind the tree here, but what a cool tree!

As is tradition we had ice cream on the way out.

But Grant didn't even make it to the car.  He fell asleep in the stroller with his juice.

A fun day for everyone!  I hoped that Grant would transfer from the stroller and keep sleeping but no such luck.  He woke up and never went back to sleep, not even when we got home.  But Andrew, Claire and Grandpa all fell asleep in the car on the way home.  It was fun to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Preschool graduation

Last week Claire had her graduation from Busy Bee Preschool.  Although she was excited about the graduation ceremony, she was not excited about school being over.  She LOVED preschool.  She had two wonderful teachers who love the kids and are so sweet with them.  Claire has been there for two years now and has grown so much.  This is where she really learned to write her name and to be more social with other kids among many other things.  I'm sad for her to leave her little group, but excited and nervous for her to start Kindergarten in the fall.

Mrs. Beesley had chairs set up in a half circle with their names on them when everyone arrived.

Then all of the kids came in with flags.  Then they led us all in the Pledge of Allegiance.

She had each of the kids stand up and tell something that they learned during the year.  They also sang a couple of songs.  This picture is Claire doing the hand motions to one of the songs. 

Here Mrs. Holbrook is presenting Claire with her binder for the year.  They collected art and various things that they did during the year in the binder.

Inside they had measured and weighed them in September.  Claire was 44.5" tall and 42 lbs.  In May she was 46" tall and 45 lbs.  They also asked her what some of her favorite things were.  Among them were that her favorite food is peas (really?) and that she wants to be a teacher.

We took a few pictures afterwards.  Here is Claire with Nate, Cayden and Elaina.  The kids weren't too interested in taking pictures because they wanted cookies. 

Our family afterwards.  I had hopes that Grant would sit still during the graduation, but that was difficult, so Danny was outside with him and I was trying to take video and pictures at the same time.  I'm not sure that either turned out great.

Claire with Mrs. Beesley.

Here are some pictures from her classroom for Claire.

Claire is really excited for Kindergarten now, so hopefully she still feels that way in August.