The boys and I just got home from a family reunion in Utah. It was a "Larson" reunion. My grandmother (my mom's mom) is the youngest of 14 Larson children. My mom and I drove the 13 hours WITH 2 TODDLERS to my uncle's home in Centerville, UT. It all went ok, but I definitely cannot do it again next year unless Travis goes too. It was around 100` the whole time we were there! Needless to say, I kept my pregnant self indoors as much as possible. On Saturday, though, my uncle had a bunch of tickets to a demolition derby in Heber City. Travis and I had talked about going to one several times, but had not done it yet. It was great, and Elijah loved it. He picked his favorite cars, and cheered them on. He jumped up and cheered with the crowd when there was a really good hit, and when an old truck got flipped over. It was fun. Then, on Sunday, my cousin Trevor had his farewell. He leaves in a couple of weeks to serve a mission in Madrid, Spain. The house was packed full of people-the whole neighborhood, and then some. So, I got to see all of the family, and although I didn't get to visit as much as I would have liked (too busy chasing a couple of troublemakers all over the place), it was really great to see everyone.
They had miniature horse cart rides for the kids @ the reunion
My Grandmother and her sister Louise My Mom (in the middle) with her sister and brother
Elijah enjoying the demolition derby

We just got back from our annual Rogue River trip. It was great! I only wish it could have been longer. It's so fun to get the kids out camping and rafting and see how much they enjoy it. Elijah did a LOT better this year. Last year, he was afraid of the white water. This year he loved it. The rapids were his favorite part. He did great on the raft and in the kayaks. He even jumped off of a little cliff rock with Travis! Ethan did good too, although the raft trips each day fell right at his naptime, so he would sleep through at least half of it. His favorite part, I think, was just camping and being able to get as dirty as he wanted- and he did! After less than an hour of arriving, he was filthy, and stayed that way the whole trip no matter how many times we showered him. Travis and I loved it too, of course. We got to try out our new Riken double kayak that we bought several months ago. It was perfect for us. I miss being able to do the 4 day trip down the wilderness section, but these day trips are just right while the kids are still young. One of the other things that make this trip great every year, is going with the Egberts. This year, they brought 7 of their 11 kids with them. They have a great time, and help our boys to have a great time, too. I'm already looking forward to next year, and seeing how Alexandra likes it.
Speaking of Alexandra, her name isn't 100% for certain any more. While on this trip, we realized what a great name we thought Riken was. I know it's much more unique, and we're trying to decide if that's a good thing or not. It sounds great to me, but I don't want her name to be so different that she ends up hating it. I would think that almost anyone into rafting and kayaking who know where the name came from would think it was really cool, but I'm not sure how it sounds to other people who aren't familiar with it. So, if anyone who reads this feels like giving their input, please feel free to leave a comment. I'm interested to hear what other people think, especially those who have never heard the name before.
Anyway, onto the house. While we were gone, we received an offer on the house. Each day we took a little drive to get within cell phone range to talk to our realtor and negotiate with the buyers. I'm not entirely pleased with how nit-picky the buyers were, and what we ended up giving into, but at least it is over. And now, we get our new house in Silverton! Yea! If all goes well, we should be into the house by the end of August. That gives me about a month or so to get settled in and get Alexandra/Riken's room ready. Hopefully I still have enough energy at that point to get it all done!
Here are a few pics from the trip:

Tonight was Travis and my weekly date night. We did a little eating, then did a little shopping. And may I say- I LOVE that I can finally shop for baby girl clothes! I have had to pass them up for so many years. My mother-in-law gave me a gift card today, and I immediately spent it buying up clothes for Alexandra. I can find awesome clothes that are soooo my style, just in minature form. It's great!
So far, our home hasn't gotten any takers. We still have 2 weeks left to get an offer on ours in order to get the house in Silverton. I suppose that if it doesn't happen, then it wasn't meant to be, but I just want to get through all of this before Alexandra gets here. If we don't get the house sold in the next couple of weeks, then we'll probably have to take if off of the market. Any later than that, and the moving will fall right around the delivery by the time all of the financing is finalized. I just can't wait for it all to be over with. We listed the house as a call-show, so any realitor that wants to show our house has to call us, but if we don't answer, they can just let themselves in and show the house. I have to keep the house totally spotless at all times. CRAZY stressful, especially with 2 toddlers! But in the end, it will all be worth it... hopefully!

Well, our offer was accepted on the house in Silverton, and we have 3 weeks to sell our house. We were listing it by owner, but with the new incentive to get it sold fast, we listed with a realtor. Now we just have to sit back and hope for the best. Here is the house we're hoping to move into soon:

Ok, so I'm just going to dive into this, and see how it goes. It'll be a neat way of keeping friends and family in the loop, while also keeping a personal journal of our family experiences. This first post is going to be pretty long in order to get the recent goings on posted. So, anyway, here it goes:
Travis and I are awaiting our 3rd child (first girl) in October, and so our home is beginning to feel a little too small for our growing family. We were initially looking for some acreage to build on, but after a couple of years of searching, we have found nothing that fits us just right. So, we have moved on to the idea of just finding a bigger home without the acreage. I would love to move somewhere completely new, since we have both grown up here and lived here basically our entire lives. Travis has a different opinion. He is too attached to our old high school, where he volunteer coaches, and is waiting for the right head coach position to open up. Plus, he's pretty happy with his job and such. I, on the other hand, am bored with waking up to the same surroundings that I have been my whole life. While I like it here, I want desperately to try something, ANYTHING new. So, while I have been unsuccessful at getting him to move out of the state, I have at least convinced him to move to Silverton. A really cute, artsy, outdoorsy town about 20 miles away. We went looking for homes, and found 3 that we loved. After much debate and weighing of the pros & cons of each, we finally narrowed it down and wrote up an offer. We'll find out today if they accepted it. If so, we really need get on the ball and get our house sold.
In other news, we just got back from our last (and first) adult only vacation for several years to come. We figured we'd get some alone time in before our 3rd baby arrives. We went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a week. It was fun, but much more for the partying crowd. We were in our room for the night, sometimes already asleep, just when the partying was just getting started. Like I said, it was fun though. Lots to do right outside our hotel- glass bottom boat taxis to another beach, snorkeling tours, jet skis, parasailing, dinner criuses... pretty much anything we wanted to do. But, we missed the boys A LOT, and are most excited for our next trip coming up. Every year we go white water rafting on the Rogue River. We love it, and the boys love it. We leave in less than 2 weeks now.
Last bit for now, I promise- I have an art show coming up in August. I make wire wrapped stone jewelry. The name of my little "business" is Creative Designs. The show is actually in that little artsy town we're hopefully going to be moving to. I've been busy coming up with some new design ideas, and I'm anxious to see how they sell.
Well, that is it. I know this first post dragged on a bit, I just wanted to get all the current news out there. Here's a cute pic I took of the guys at Enchanted Forest on the 4th of July: