Last few days in Salt Lake (Tues-Fri, January 6th-9th 2009)

TUESDAY, January 6th
On Tuesday night, we went to dinner at our FAVORITE Chinese restaurant, Asian Star. Gary (the owner) always takes such good care of us there. This was the first night Reagan seemed to be back to her healthy, happy self.

Avery at dinner

The "big" kids - Makenna, Reagan, Blake and Alyssa

Makenna, Blake and Alyssa

Silly Larsen kids ~ Reagan & Makenna

The ENTIRE Family! I don't know why we've never done this before, but we never have someone else take a picture of our whole family. Luckily, we snapped one this time as we were leaving Asian Star. It's pretty amazing that our little family of 5 has grown to a large family of 14!

After dinner, my dad was swinging the grandkids ...

... and throwing Makenna up in the air

WEDNESDAY, January 7th

Avery stepped into the fridge and refused to get out! We all know how much Avery LOVES food!!

Camille brought her girls over because we thought we'd be saying "goodbye" and heading for the airport ... we ended up changing our flight from Wednesday to Friday to allow more time for Reagan to recover from her stomach bug.

Makenna, Avery and Samantha

Makenna, Avery and Samantha

Reagan finally woke up and joined the kids ... even though she seemed okay the night before, she went back to being listless and sick on Wednesday

Makenna, Reagan, and Avery giving them "loves"

FRIDAY, January 9th

By Friday, Reagan seemed to be doing well! Phew! It was a long couple of days with her being sick. I love the above picture of her, once again in her favorite dress-up dress!

Benee and Alyssa

Benee brought the kids over on Friday morning to say goodbye before our flight.

Reagan and Benee

Reagan and Benee

Blake was so annoyed with all the girls and their dress up clothes, so my mother made him this fabulous cape that is reversible, red and black!

Nana and Avery

My parents took us to the airport and everything went SO smoothly! We got right through security and when we got to our gate, the gate agent was more than accomodating, allowing us to get on the plane with Zone 1 to get the girls situated. We were slightly delayed to push back from the gate, but only about 25 minutes. Reagan sat in the window seat and spent that time watching the planes out the window and coloring. By the time we took off, she was getting very sleepy and she quickly fell asleep sitting up, staring out the window. I wish I could have found my camera to take a picture ... she didn't move from that position for 2 hours!!! Avery was a little reluctant to fall alseep in my arms, but she finally gave in as well and slept for about an hour and a half. With both girls sleeping, John and I both put on our headphones and watched the in-flight movie!!! The movie was called Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear and Tea Leoni and it was really funny. I couldn't believe it. I'm sure it was a once in a lifetime kind of situation where we were able to relax and watch a movie while flying with a 3 and 1 year old! I felt like we were due, since our flight TO Utah was so long and painful ... the flight home was a quick 3 1/2 hours and it honestly couldn't have gone better.

Sunday and Monday in Salt Lake (January 4th and 5th)

After going to bed really late (because Reagan was so sick), I woke up early to make it to breakfast with Natalie and Jami ... we had already made plans and I didn't want to cancel, so I had to take Avery with me. It was a fun morning at the Cottonwood Market Street, except that Avery wasn't very happy to be sitting for so long, listening to boring mothers talk.

Natalie, a very tired Amanda, and a grumpy Avery

This is a horrible picture of me and it turned out really dark, due to the bright background, but I just had to post a picture of my cute friend Jami.

Sunday afternoon, my grandparents (my dad's parents) came over for dinner

Benee and Avery

It's always been a tradition for my mother to make won-tons on New Year's Day ... this year, it took a couple days for them to be made, but they were definitely worth the wait!

Sunday dinner with everyone except John and Reagan (who were downstairs in the basement being quarantined, due to Reagan's nasty stomach virus)

After dinner, we headed over to my aunt Collette's house ... I finally got to meet my cousin Amber's newborn daughter Hadlyn!! As soon as I held her, Avery was immediately jealous and insisted that I hold her too!

Hadlyn Collette Boyd was born on November 12th, weighing 4 pounds, 6 ounces. She came 6 or 7 weeks early, very similar to Reagan. She was absolutely precious!!

Grandpa Mann (my mother's father) was there and little Samantha walked over to him, offering her fist ... she's been trained to "give bones!" It was pretty funny because my grandpa didn't understand the whole concept :)

Doug, Hadlyn, Benee, and my Dad

Amber and Neal Mann

Camille feeding Hadlyn ... doesn't my sister look beautiful in this picture?

I can't remember what I took away from Avery, but she was obviously very upset about it. This is a funny age because she wants to explore and discover all kinds of new things ~ when I take away dangerous items or expensive/breakable things, she gets VERY upset and throws some pretty incredible temper tantrums! Rather than getting frustrated with her, I should just take pictures and video of her dramatic displays so we can laugh about them later :) Lately, we've been calling her the "drama queen" so often, that even Reagan calls her that!

Thankfully, Avery's tantrums are relatively short and she goes back to being her sweet self ... she was soooo cute with Hadlyn! She stood next to my mother for the longest time, hugging, kissing and loving little Hadlyn. I took so many pictures, but here are a few of my favorites.

Avery loves playing with baby dolls ~ she hugs them, squeezes them, kisses them, and drags them all over the house. She was desperately trying to get my mother to release Hadlyn so she could take her :)

Sweet cuddles

Giving "loves"

The other purpose of our visit was so that I could see Collette's newly remodeled kitchen and living room. It was all gorgeous! We also indulged in some delicious desserts.

My cousin Amber, her mother Collette, and my other cousin Molly (Molly is the little sister of my cousin Sara who lives in Brooklyn)

Cute picture of the Siebenberg Family and my dad

Camille and Samantha ~ When Sam gives her cheesie smile, she loves to show her teeth ... she can be such a little ham!

Grandpa and Avery ... Avery's poor little cheeks were so dried out from the dry desert climate

Sweet Makenna

Uncle David and my dad ~ I fell in love with this dark brown tile they chose for the floors ... it almost looked like leather and it gave the room such a warm, cozy feel.

MONDAY, January 5th

On Monday, I went to my friend Melissa's house for a playdate. We've been friends since 7th grade, so it was wonderful to see her!

I was so bummed that Reagan was sick because Melissa's little boy Andrew is almost Reagan's age. This little boy has already endured so much in his short little life ... he's already fought off a rare form of pediatric cancer! My heart goes out to Melissa for having the strength to watch her baby go through chemo-therapy ~ I simply can't imagine going through something so traumatic. Thankfully, all his recent scans have come back clean and he's healthy and thriving.

Our other friend Allison came over too and brought her youngest son Ashton, who's the exact same age as Andrew. Their two boys were so cute and played together so nicely. Allison and I have kept in touch over the years, but haven't seen each other in about 7 years! She was living in Kansas City, and then St. Louis while her husband Benji was completing medical school, and then his residency. We never seemed to be in Salt Lake at the same time, so we used email to stay connected during that time. It was so nice to finally see her in person and catch up!

Although Avery was well overdue for a nap, she was a trooper and kept up with the boys

Tuesday and Wednesday (NYE) in Salt Lake

On Tuesday morning, we did something that was SO much fun! We went on a tour of the Sweet's Candy Factory with my family! This candy company has been in business since 1892 and it's still owned by the Sweet Family (I guess if you have the last name Sweet, you're destined to go into the candy business!).

They made us all wear hair nets (something that Reagan protested against the entire time) and take off all jewelry. A tour guide took our family through the entire factory, explaining how everything worked. It was fascinating and delicious (they let us sample candy as we went)!

They didn't allow cameras in the factory (so I swiped this one from their website), but my favorite part was watching the orange sticks being made ... they are the only company that makes orange sticks (orange gelatin covered in milk or dark chocolate) and I've been eating them since I was little. My parents have put a box of orange sticks in my stocking every single year and I love them.

The other interesting part was seeing how they make their cinnamon bears ... instead of pouring the hot gelatin into a metal mold, they press the metal mold into a pan of packed cornstarch. The cornstarch holds the shape even better (so you can see the small details). Then the hot liquid is poured onto the cornstarch. Once the candy cools, the cornstarch is blown off and the bears are shaped perfectly. It's amazing. In fact, if you press your finger into cornstarch, you can see your fingerprint. I thought this was fascinating.

After our free tour, we were each given a bag of salt water taffy and then we went shopping in their gift shop. Reagan was dying for jelly beans.

Alyssa picked out some raspberry sticks

Blake, Alyssa and Reagan

My mom treated us all to some candy :) Thanks for buying, Mom!

As I tried to snap a shot of Reagan, Blake jumped in front

Makenna

After the candy tour, we went to lunch at The Training Table (Yummy!), then John and I took the girls to my grandparent's house (my dad's parents).

My grandpa brought out his favorite toy, the Elmo who does the chicken dance.

Reagan and her great grandma, playing catch with a ball of green yarn.

Grandma helping Reagan build a chain of monkeys (remember the old monkeys in a barrel?)

My grandma taught my grandpa how to knit hats out of yarn. He's really good at it!

When I saw this picture on the wall, I couldn't help but take a picture of it with my camera. It's a classic. It's of my dad's family (he's the oldest of 7 kids). I remember this day so well - it was in Murray and it was freezing cold that day! I didn't realize until just now that my grandparents aren't in the picture ... I guess they just wanted it of their kids and their families. Anyway, I'm on the bottom right, in a light pink dress with black shoes. My little sister Camille is in the red and white dress and my older sister Benee is in the red dress, with the scowl on her face ... we've been making fun of her ever since!

That night, my parents took us to a new favorite Japanese restaurant called Matsu.

The next morning was NYE day (Dec. 31st). Reagan insisted on wearing a dress that day. Here's a cute picture of her eating breafast with Nana.

John and I left around 11:30 AM to go skiing for a half day (we're not in the best shape, so we knew we wouldn't last a full day on our first day of skiing in 2 years!). We were there for the 12:30 afternoon start time and I took these pictures with my iPhone ... it was a beautiful sunny day, 45 degrees up there!

I took this picture as we were going up our first lift. John and I love going skiing together. We always have such a great time. After skiing for an hour and a half, I took out my phone at the top of the moutain to take a picture of the beautiful view ... I noticed a voicemail from my dad. Aw-oh. When I called him, he said that Reagan had tripped and fallen right into the corner of the coffee table. The bleeding had stopped, but he figured she needed stitches. John and I raced down the hill, jumped in the car, and headed down the canyon. We met my mom and Reagan at the new IHC hospital ER.

The doctor numbed it first by putting a soaked cottonball on the wound for about 30 minutes ... here's a picture of her with a bandage wrapped around her head to keep the cotton ball in the right spot. She wasn't happy about it, but she was a pretty good sport overall. Thank goodness for my iPhone, since she watched some of her favorite shows while we waited for it to get numb. When the doctor came back and looked at it, he opted for the Durabond glue, since it would be much less traumatic on her than stitches. We're a little concerned about what kind of a scar it will leave, but at least it's right above her eye brow - we hope it won't be too noticable.

We came home from the hospital and let Reagan sleep ... she took a nice long nap (unusual for her). Then Benee and Doug dropped off their kids for the NYE festivities, since they had dinner plans with their friends.

Camille and my mom organized dinner for everyone and it turned out wonderfully: we made our own version of Cafe Rio's pork salads.

Alyssa and Blake

Blake and Makenna ~ Reagan (nice pose!)

The kids started playing dress-ups and we all had a good laugh watching them. My mom kept all of our old dance costumes which have been perfect for the girls ... since Blake felt left out, she got him some gender appropriate dress-up clothes :) Poor Blake, the only boy with 5 girl cousins!

Too funny

Samantha wanted in on the fun, so Camille helped her put on this skirt - as you can tell, she was very happy to be following the big kids!

Reagan and Alyssa

Avery

My mom sent Reagan this pink tent to NJ, but also bought one to have at her house for the grandkids ... Avery and Samantha were playing together so well, going in and out of it.

Bring on the Guitar Hero Rockband!!!

Do we look like rockstars??

We celebrated New York's NYE (10:00 vs. midnight) ... we all went outside and made a huge mess! Benee had purchased all kinds of fun items for the kids.

I love this action shot of Alyssa getting me with silly string

LOVE the silly string ...

... the kids were covered in it

It was a fun NYE celebration. John and I are looking forward to a really good year in 2009 :)