Larson Reunion 2008

We had a Larson Reunion in San Diego over New Years. All of my family stayed in a nice hostel in Point Loma that had plenty of room for all 28 of us. When they weren't at the hostel, they were staying with us in our small 800 sq ft 2-bedroom apartment. This was the first time my whole family has been completely together since before Heather and I were married.

Christmas Pictures

Our gingerbread house tradition. My brother Golden was visiting from Indonesia.

So we leave 4 cookies for Santa and the next morning after Coby has opened his present loot, all we kept hearing from him was "Why did Santa get four cookies and coby only gets one?" My son, Mr. gratitude.

Work Holiday Party

Every year Heather and I have to pay big bucks to go to my work holiday party. It would be illegal for my work to throw us a party by themselves: the joys of working for the government. At least everyone reading this feels better knowing that I'm not having the time of my life on their tax-paying dime. Anyway, the parties are always a fancy dinner and dancing kind of thing. Heather and I really like to show our moves on the dance floor, and sadly, this sometimes is the only chance during the year we get to. It is always better with good friends too. Like Jacoby would ever go to a dance without doing the robot, and quite well I should add.

Halloween Superheros

Every year, Heather makes us all matching costumes, spending hours and hours of work (usually at the last minute). Everyone always asks us where we got our matching costumes, and everyone is so impressed that Heather made them. She is quite handy, I have to say. This year she was quite sick with her pregnancy and still was able to pull it off: although at crunch time the kids just got the fake buy-it-off-ebay deal.

Christmas Card

Heather is so talented. She wrote up this poem to include with our Christmas card. It really is a gift she has. Hopefully she only uses it for good (not evil).

What a year this has been full of joys to remember
One that kept us busy from January to December.

Coby at 4 is energetic as ever but even more fun
He learns things so quickly and is always on the run.
Holding my hand he’ll look up and say
Best buddies right mom? It sure makes my day.

Our funny little Rett-ster has grown up a lot
Doing things on his own he’s no longer a tot.
He still is a sweet boy and mischievous too
Everything is “I do it”, you can tell that he’s two!

At UCSD Jacoby took schooling under his wing
Earning a Masters in electrical engineering.
He’s ever so busy with work, family, and school
With very little sleep, he’s still mister cool.

Heather turned 30 and is now in her prime
Crafting, & baking & writing silly rhymes.
She’s pregnant again and is sick as can be
June 2009 will bring baby number three.

Two weeks in Europe on an adventure we went
Our kids watched by friends who were heaven sent.
First stop was Venice, a maze of beautiful sites
Glass blowing, gondolas, so much to see in only two nights.

Ancient history came alive as we toured around Rome
Eating Italian food for a week sure made us miss home.
Paris was da bomb (Jacoby’s helping here) and the food was divine
Spending this trip together was a fabulous time.

By London our poor little feet were exhausted
We were missing our boys and our noses were frosted.
So after a little sight seeing it was off to the shows
Les Mis & Wicked brought our trip to a close.

Summer was full of the joys that are found
When you live only a mile from a beach year-round.
A student apartment is our new zone
Saving our pennies for a house of our own.

Up to Lake Hume for a family vacation
For camping, and swimming it was the perfect location.
Next on to Sequoia to see the worlds biggest trees
The boys loved to make s’mores and do as they pleased.

We have so many blessings, too many to tell
We hope this letter finds those we love as happy as well.
We are grateful this season for all that joy that can be found
In family, in friendship, in God’s love all around.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Jacoby, Heather, Coby & Rett Larson



Here were a few of the lines that I nixed:

First to Venice, so beautiful and serene
Some say that Jacoby is really mean

First stop was Venice, a maze of beautiful sights
The gondolas were very romantic at night (but we didn’t really go on one since Jacoby said they were too expensive. See other poem about Jacoby).

He’s a busy guy with family, school, and work
Sometimes we think he acts like a jerk.

Family, school, and work keep him busy
With too little sleep he gets in a tizzy.

This is using her powers for evil.

Apple Pickin' in Julian

So in the middle of October (my last weekend of feeling good) we went camping in Julian with some friends of ours, the Haltermans and then picked apples the next day. It was a ton of fun except that it was SOOOOO cold. And I mean cold. I always hate when it gets to cold camping because I wake up all night long thinking that maybe the kids are going to freeze to death. When usually I reach over to check on them they are super warm. They really should make those sleeper pjs for adults! I have wanted to go apple pickin for awhile now but whenever I bring it up to Jacoby he looks at me like I am a nut. (That's what you get for marrying a Washington boy who used to walk home through apple orchards.) So pickin apples wasn't exactly high on his excitement list but we had a great time anyways and the kids thought it was a blast!
Here's Rett playing with acorns. Shell & I loved to collect these as a kid. We would find the acorns who's "hats" had fallen off and make people out of them. Such fun!

Here's our new tent and a funny story all in its own. We had a small four man tent that we just no longer fit into since if it says four man it means two. Anyways, so we found this one brand new on craigslist for $85 but it sells new at Target for $140. So it was a great deal. We go to meet the guy to buy it and its kind of a back alley type area. Not the best part of town but maybe he works at one of the warehouses there. So he pulls it out of the back of his trailer covered by a tarp and we check it out. It's all new and sealed so we buy it. Then he asks if we need a sleeping bag and pulls out a really nice one for $20, also brand new. We didn't bring any other money so we said no thanks. As we are driving off Jacoby turns and says, you know I wonder if this is stolen property. I mean why else does he have all this brand new stuff on a trailer?? So we might have bought stolen property. But heck if I was going back to that alley to ask for my money back!!! And for camping it was a great tent. Being able to stand up the middle of them tent was awesome and it has so much space!!

Morning Sickness Musings.......

After another particularly bad day of a particularly bad week of a particularly bad month our bedtime conversation went something like this:

H: Know what I would do if I could go back to school?
J: Oh, oh, um let me think, you would do research and create a way to rid all pregnant women of naseua. Is that it? Since you've told me that 20 times at least in your pregnancies.
H: Yeah, well its a good idea.

A little later:
H: Know what is valuable? Marrying a woman who doesn't get morning sickness while pregnant.
J: No kidding.
H: I mean really that is like gold if you can find that. (Since currently our house is a mess, I can't ever make dinners, and somedays we never even get outside!)
H: So we would tell our boys to make sure that they find those girls. They say that those who get motion sickness when not pregnant are more prone to get morning sickness. (Flashbacks to all those cartrips I threw up after are reeling through my head at this point.)
J: Our boys could take their dates to the fair and go on all those crazy flip you all over type of rides that always make you super sick. The loop-de-loop rollercoaster, the zipper, gravitron, you name it. (Then he procedes to tell me about puking when he got off the gravitron and the octupus in high school. ) So, then when they get off they could ask their dates how they feel to test their motion sickness.
H: That's a great idea.
J: Oh, except our boys won't be able to go on any of those rides because most likely they will get sick like us.
H: Oh, bummer. Well they could just wait outside the rollercoaster and ask cute girls as they come off, "How'd you like it? Are you feeling well? Could you ride it again?".
J: Then when people ask where do they look for dates they could tell them at the carnival:)