Cousin Fun

This captures what a cousin playdate looks like quite well. Jared running in circles, Kayden playing with "Baby Wowah" and Laura soaking up the attention. Lots of smiles are around when Kara and Kayden come over!

Kara's Birthday

A perfect day for the Pearsons' first-time-at-Disneyland: Kara's birthday! We stayed mainly in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and only walked through the others. By then, feet were tired and it was already time for bed! My regret was not taking enough pictures of both of our families together while we were there -- this is the best one we had from the super-fun day. Jared loved it all, of course. He loves being with his cousins. We were glad Kara was finally able to take us and the kids and show us around both parks. Corbin took Tom and me on the Big Bear rapids and we got SOAKED. It was fun and we were glad we brought extra shoes. It was a great way to do something special for Kara's day! Happy birthday, sista! And thank you so much for helping us have a great time (it's only taken us 6 years to get here with you!).
The Jedi Training show was really enjoyable for us. We ate lunch there and then were highly entertained by the kids getting "trained" by Jedi masters. Jared's eyes went HUGE when the Storm Troupers came running out, then again when Darth Vader came up out of the ground, then AGAIN when a fully-decked out Darth Maul guy came out. Each chosen child "battled" Darth Vader with their new skills. Very cute. Kara took this photo of Laura and me sitting by a scarecrow spot in Adventureland.
Jared LOVES being with Corbin, even when his skills don't quite match up to his older cousin's. He says, "Guess what. Corbin is my cousin AND my friend."

We had a great day -- extra horrays for the overcast skies, Kara's line pass and free tickets from Brother Fletcher! Here we are, wearing our "I'm Celebrating" pins we got because we were with Kara on her birthday.

Team Pearson!

Chrystelle - HDSA-OC's President, Rick - the VP, the Mayor of Irvine and me!
Sherrie, my visiting teacher, met up with me before the walk -- what a great friend!
Walkers getting ready at the start area - see Chuck Street's helicopter? That's one of our event "signatures".
Jared didn't know what to do around those cute Lakers Girls -- so he just made faces for the cameras and ran around like crazy so they would notice him.
Kathryn presenting volunteer and fundraiser awards at the event.

Saturday morning was the Team Hope Walk for Huntington's Disease. Team Pearson did a fantastic job -- we were one of the top fundraising teams (awesome! too bad I didn't win the Hawaii condo stay raffle the top people go in on -- next year!) and the event itself was a lot of fun. It was a lot of work, but worth it. My chairpeople were amazing. Hopefully we "found" and encouraged more families in the area who haven't been out before. It's still a smallish event -- about 350 people were there, plus our CEO, the Mayor of Irvine, 3 Lakers Girls, 1 Cheer Team, over 100 Volunteers and some great music groups -- but I'm always hoping for more walkers. Here are some photos of the big day! Whew. Only one more "official" planning night this week and my Fall Season will be quite different -- less on the calendar! More focus on the home! Back to normal...until next summer when we prep for Team Hope Walk 2010! Go Team Pearson!

Closeups

Ah, the joys of fruitsnacks. This particular brand, Florida's Natural fruit nuggets, are pretty much amazing. A-maze-ing. I love them a little too much and it makes me feel a little guilty that I'm snacking on kid's treats. But I'm not too old for those, not by a long shot!
My sweet, sun-kissed little man!

Reading and Writing

Today was Jared's first day of preschool! Notice his "special" shoelaces -- it was his choice to have one dark blue, one white. I figured, hey, why fight this one? It was fun to see him get his bag together, choose his lunch items, lay out his school outfit and be so happy to go. He looked like an old pro going in there. This is his 2nd year of preschool and the difference between last year and this is astounding. Look how big he is now! His teacher said he had a GREAT first day and from what he was saying on the way home, that was true. Highlights from Jared's memory: he enjoyed the story of a froggie who dreamed he went to school with no clothes on (whoops of laughter at this) but that wasn't true and he actually had ALL his clothes when he went to school and he had a nice froggie teacher. Jared also like painting and playing with the nice kids.

Catching Up

Laura at 7 months. This picture perfectly captures the way she and Jared are at home. He loves being near her, she loves him being around. Lots of smiles. She still has only the 2 teeth on the bottom and is almost standing up and walking. She needs props to get around, like her walker or a piece of furniture, but she is getting strong! What a fun and beautiful little girl.

Mountain Houghtons

Aunt Bea put up photos of our Saturday visit to Pine Cove. Thanks for a wonderful day, Uncle Mark & Aunt Bea! We had a GREAT time visiting with you and being in your beautiful mountain backyard. We hope the fires stay far, far away from your beautiful home.

Check out the pictures!
http://mountainhoughtons.blogspot.com/

Little Cello

Aspen Grove 2009

The big Pearson family reunion took place this month. That reunion, along with cousin Raymond's wedding, made for a most excellent Utah-based vacation. We saw members of the Price family, the Houghton Family, the Pearson family and the Welch family. Awesome. Here are a few pictures to tide you over until I download the rest.


The Pearson clan at Aspen Grove, the BYU Alumni family camp up in Sundance Canyon. What a great time! Focus was on Grandma Pearson who turned 96 this summer. We won the Aspen Follies, where all the families staying there compete in a field day-type competition. Tom has about 30 first cousins on that side, so with four generations there, it was an impressive group.

Our shirts had a swiss cross on the front (like the Red Cross) and on the back was the saying Grandpa Irvin used to say to his children when they got a boo-boo. He'd blow on the injury between each phrase: "Fort-en-crowder *blow air* Kat-en-swid *blow air* Leggen-Lauer *blow air* Usetta-utetta *blow air* -- now it's all better!" The family used to think it was a Swedish saying, but when they asked some Swedes what it meant, it wasn't familiar at all and they kind of gave a weird look.


Houghton family side! We caught a quick visit with Dani on Saturday the 15th. Three days later she had her baby, Tatum Ashley. Jared LOVED the Wii game she let him play during our visit. We don't have video games at our house so from the look on his face, you'd think it was the most exciting thing he'd ever done in his life. Thanks for a great visit, Dani! Your baby is beautiful!
Here we are with baby Laura at Aspen Grove.

First Tooth

There is a good explanation for the crankiness and crying that has destroyed our once-peaceful evening (and early morning) hours...Laura's first tooth. After a very fine presentation of our beautiful children at Grandpa Price's house (sorry Aunt Marilyn!) the tiny sliver of white made its appearance. That really makes for a rough night. Wouldn't want to deal with the sound and fury like that all the time -- exhausting (and a little embarrassing). Here we are three days later and she is back to sleeping like normal and is as sweet as can be to the people all around us here at Aspen Grove. At least until that tiny neighboring tooth decides to cut through. Scary thought. I should have some pain reliever on-hand. What do you suggest for infants?