Look at my spring time visitors!
We have lived here for 20 years and our pine trees are big enough that the quail have decided that it is safe enough to visit. These young boy birdies were clucking to their girls. I had 4 pair that I could see. Spring time antics! If I were the girl......I would go for the one with the cute feather doodad! (Haha, all the boys have cute feather doodads)

The Larsen last day of skiing family reunion at Alta!
We started out the day on Albion. Chase and Adam are snowboarders and not skiers. This was Adam's 3rd time on ski's and Chase's first time. So we began on Albion. With the help of a few pointers from Tom the two of them are skiing up a storm. They will need a little more practice before we haul their fannies onto black diamonds - but I see Freestyle skiers in the making.

In the Beginning there were 9....this is Chase's first lesson!

It really is a good idea to point your tips downhill! Chase caught on quickly and then he wanted us to follow him where???????

The sun was shining and everyone had a smile for the day! Chase, Morgan and Shauna riding the chairlift. Dad, Grandpa, Gary, Bullfrog, he goes by all 4, is 72 and his favorite run is to ski nonstop from top to bottom. Thigh burner runs.

After lunch the cry for Baldy Chutes was issued. We rode Sugarloaf chairlift to the top and headed west over the saddle then climbed to 11,068 feet in elevation to the top of Baldy Chutes. The 4 of us were the ones to answer the call. I will not lie. As soon as the call was issued, my knees started shaking and my heart rate went up. The climb is not the scariest part for me. It is the drop off the cornice (this time the cornice was pretty much gone and we just dropped off the ridge) into the chute and the first 5 turns that have my adrenaline going. But I have patient brothers and a Dad who encourage me. Not to mention the little voice in my head telling me to "just make the stink'in turn".

Thank you Tom for taking the pictures! I will work on my form next time.
We skied Baldy Chute and live to tell about it! :)
Online info tells me that there is 750 vertical feet in the chute with an elevation drop from 11,068 to 8,500 feet and pitch of 38-40 degrees.

This is about half way down the chute. Dad and Rodney are already at the bottom. The snow was fabulous, there was enough melt that there was some grab to the snow and no ice! The no ice-is my favorite part. It had been skied enough that there was small bumps formed in the chute. I loved it!
A few more runs to loosen up our legs and then we take our traditional last run of the day on High Rustler! The traverse to high rustler can be a little scary, some really fast skiers zoom by you, as you cross the top of sunspot, stonecrusher and lone pine. A lot of people gather on the rocks in the sunshine to throw snowballs at on coming skiers, fly kites and be happy, before they take their last run of the day. Mom (Froggy), Rocket, Tom and I made last run down High Rustler.

This is Froggy. I want to ski as good as my parents at 71 and 72 when I grow up! They rock!!!!
And Rodney on his tele skiis.

Then, we end the day in the parking lot having chips and dip, sloppy joes, salads, the biggest oreo cookies (Jamie made) and remembering the day! A few of Mom and Dad's friends stop by to grab a sloppy joe and say goodbye for the season.
Geri got to Alta about our 2nd run and Shelly brought up the sloppy joes. Our missing members were, Kevin who was home sick, Tiff and Rob are in Chicago, Josh is in Oregon and Arial was in St. George.

What a great day! Thanks everyone! Love the fam!

The End of another season!

Let's start with before the wedding!
Jamie, Morgan, Lyndsey and I were training to run the Riverton City half marathon. I was doing really well until I broke a rib. Have you tried to run with a broken rib, it doesn't work out so well. This halted my training 5 weeks before the race. So the night before the race, which happened to be only 1 week before Morgan's wedding. We like to keep a lot of things on our plates. I decided that I was going to run anyway and see if I could at least run the first 5 mile loop and then drop. When I woke up the morning of the race. I thought, this is the stupidist thing to do, So Kevin and I were the support crew. Jamie, Morgan and Lyndsey ran and did great! They finished better than any of them thought. With their limited training.

Jamie and Morgan -------- Lyndsey crossing the finish line

At the finish line! Lyndsey said, "Don't ever ask me to do that again!" But now she is thinking of the next race. Way to go ladies! You did awesome and I am going to train to run one of these! I am glad that I sat this one out. But I am going to run!

Move ahead one week and we have the wedding!
Tiffany arrived Wednesday evening! Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. we were at Grandma's baking the chocolatiest cake ever. It was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache in the middle and chocolate ganache frosting topped with a chocolate bowl and covered with chocolate strawberries. "Death by chocolate" It took all day Thursday to bake, dip strawberries, frost and dip more strawberries!

Ingredients for the cake------Tiff creating some magic!

Rob, dipping the perfect strawberry. We were very good and didn't eat a single strawberry until Friday, when we were eliminating the ugly ones.

We didn't get all the strawberries dipped by the time we had to leave to go to the temple for Morgan's endowment session. Then dinner and we sent some people home to bed, while Tiff and I finished dipping the berries. We had about 300 strawberries all covered in chocolate. Yum, Yum! I climbed in bed at 1:00 a.m.

4:00 a.m the alarm goes off and we start the day. I showered and got ready, because I knew there wouldn't be any time later. We had Morgan to Heather's for hair and makeup by 5:00. I managed a 1/2 hour nap here. Heather worked her magic and Morgan looked beautiful and ready for the day. Thanks Heather, your awesome!

Then married at the temple. I did not get my camera out much, why should I, we had a photographer there, so I just enjoyed the day. When we get the photo's back, I will post more!

Luncheon at a church nearby. Thankyou Birks, the luncheon was really good. I had the wrong coordinates on the invites and sent all of the Leake guests to a vacant lot. Sorry guys. They did all make it to the right place and were able to visit and have lunch.

3:00 we met at the reception center and hung umbrellas, put up pictures and put rainboots on the tables.
Jamie had lasagna for us at her place, which was around the corner. This saved us from being really grumpy. It is hard to smile, hug, shake hands and try to eat, so the before the wedding food was a fabulous idea.
Thankyou to everyone who shared this day with us. It was all we could ask for!

Now, a week after the wedding, I had the pleasure of going skiing with my friend that I grew up with on the slopes of Alta. Carrie currently lives in the upper panhandle of Idaho and is a ski patrol woman with a resort in ID. She brought some of her co-workers down to ski our slopes and I was invited to have one of the best days on the slopes, of the year. The skiing was good, but new friends and old friends make the day perfect.

I met Ilkka, from Finland, and he skiied with us all day. He was getting ready in the parking lot and introduced himself to the other car. They invited him to ski with us. What a pleasure!

Carrie, Jack (81 years old), Ilkka (from Finland)