Scout Camp

Last Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday I had the opportunity to attend Scout Camp with my boys in the Deacons quorum. I couldn’t get away from work for the whole week so I was there for just two and a half days. It was at Camp Easton which is on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. It is a beautiful camp with tons of fun activities.

I will have a sidebar now to talk about the last time I visited Camp Easton. It was when I was 12 years old and it was my first scout camp. I had a great time but at the end of the week the whole troop was called into the mess hall. No one was allowed to talk to each other. I didn’t know what was going on. My dad was the Bishop at the time and he was at camp and was doing some interviews. I went into the room and they asked me if I knew what was going on. I said I had no idea what this was all about to which I was told that the others said I was not involved. Well, it turns out that one of the boys had been stealing credit cards, pocket knives and other items from other troops and their leaders. There were also some other boys involved in some vandalism. What a mess. Needless to say, our troop was banned from attending Camp Easton.

Back to the present. The boys had a blast. They all earned three merit badges and three partials. We had combined with another ward/troop because we only had 4 boys in our Deacon’s Quorum. Well, we challenged the camp staff to a game of Ultimate Frisbee. We ended up playing 5 games over two days. We won all five! The boys loved it.

The worst part of the camp was the heat. It was so hot! I took a nap in my tent one afternoon and woke up with big sweat spots on the top of my sleeping bag. It was a good thing that they had lots of water activities. I am glad the boys had such a good time.

As for me, I had a good time too, but I really missed Whit and Justin. Justin rolled over for the first time while I was gone. Both front to back and back to front. He has become really drooly these last few days. We think he is starting to cut teeth. Well, that is it for now. Here are some pics of the view at camp.

Life rolls on

Life just seems to fly by. I try to keep up with my blog but it just doesn't happen. I made my last post with full intention of posting again quickly and low and behold it is months before I get around to it again. It doesn't help being gone from the house for 12 hours Monday-Thursday. It doesn't leave a lot of time in the evenings to do things like blog. I have to many other really important things to do, like spend time with Whit and Justin.

I love being a dad. I just feel my heart swell with love and hope and happiness whenever I look at, think about, play with, or hear about my wonderful son. What a blessing Heavenly Father has given to me and Whit. Justin is such a character. He never wants to smile once he sees the camera or the webcam, but we can usually coax out some laughs and smiles if we are tricky enough. He has no problem smiling or laughing when the camera isn't on.

He is also so curious. He loves to look around the room and see what is going on. Sometimes he cries and you can't figure out why, but then you sit him up and turn him to see the room and he calms right down. It is really funny to see him get frustrated. This has started recently. He will be trying to do something like play with a hanging toy or with a chewie book and when he can't get it to do what he wants he throws a little tantrum for a second. He stomps his feet yells. But he stops as soon as he starts and he is back to concentrating on doing something with his toy. He has also been sleeping through the night. At first it was 6 hours and now it is 8 hours. We have been waking up at those times to make sure he is eating. He then usually goes back to sleep for 3-4 more hours. Everyone tells us how lucky we are.

I have been called into the Young Men again. This time I am the second counselor in the YM Presidency. That means I am over the Deacons. It is a small quorum but it has been interesting. They are a lot different than teachers. I really think there is something that happens when kids become teenagers. They just act differently. Whit has been called as the primary pianist again. She loves it.

Well this is long enough for now. I will post a couple of pictures for your enjoyment.

Ooooohhhhh the Pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the title may be a little exaggerated but I have hurt my back again. This time is pretty bad. My chiropractor has said that I sprained the lowest disk in my back. There was no moment when I did something that I felt it go or felt a tweak, it just came on gradual. My back starts to tighten up as a defense mechanism and one day it just hurts too much to do anything.

But oh how I am thankful for my chiropractor. He makes me feel better. It will still take time for my back to heal. I have been instructed not to lift anything, that includes Justin. What it really means is I have to find creative ways to pick things up so I don't "lift" them. I really do try to be careful because I don't want to hurt my back worse. But I am still going to hold and take care of Justin! If you have ever had real back problems you know what I am talking about. Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery.

Winter Hibernation

I have noticed that since Christmas break there have been a lot of people who have fallen behind in posting on their blog, me included. I am going to chalk it up to hibernating for the winter. But now that it is spring time this big bear is waking from his slumber. I am hoping to start using my blog as more of a journal (since I don't keep one regularly).

A lot has happened since I last posted. Christmas, my birthday (29 years old!), moving out of the house into an apartment, and the biggest of all, the birth of my first child, Justin James Larson. It is hard to express orally or in written word the feelings of being a father and holding your son for the first time. It was amazing! Just look at this picture.



The joy burst in my chest when I saw him and heard his little squeak. I had such a huge smile on my face for hours and hours. I also can't describe the feelings of joy in my heart and on Whit's face when she got to hold little Justin. The look of happiness and love on her face made me beam. What a wonderful family I have and how blessed of Lord I am.

My time is busier now trying to figure out how to be a daddy and take care of Whit at the same time. I am worried as much or more for her as I am for him. I just know that the Lord is blessing us everyday.

I am surprised at how easy it is for me to take care of the "yucky" stuff. The things that grossed me out before seem to have no effect on me. I guess I am just good at dealing with what needs to be done. I also suppose Whit is going to use this to make me clean up the throw up. Until next time, Have a great day!

You Can Quote Me on This

Have you ever noticed yourself quoting movies, TV shows, songs, or books in your everyday conversations? I have come to discover that I quote movies and TV a lot. Most of it is with Whitney, but I do it with other people too. It's really hard (that's what she said) not to use these quotes. At work the other day the company provided lunch for the employees. It was Chicken Cordon Blue, corn, salad, and mashed potatoes. If you know me you know what's coming. These mashed potatoes are so creamy. Caesar Romero was tall. Only one person at my table laughed. Oh well. I guess not everyone has my sense of humor. I guess I'll just have to hang in there like the little boy cat. Nailed it. Like many people, I have a lot of things I quote, but I have discovered that I quote some things more than others. Here is how I would list the top shows/movies I quote by percentage.

45% The Office




45% Psych



10% Other assorted movies/shows

I guess even Bruton Gastor would be able to tell what my favorite shows are right now. What is interesting is that most of the stuff I quote is from comedy shows. I just thought it would be fun find out what other people like to quote. Leave your own list in comments.

In case anybody was wondering, I do not have a deep seeded jealousy for a tiny little boy cat.

5 things I miss (and don't miss) about Utah

Whitney made a post about this a few weeks back and I thought I would do the same. Only I don't know that I could come up with 10 things so I went with 5. Most of my friends know that I never wanted to live in Utah for any long period of time. But now that I lived there for 6 years and have moved away, I have found that there are some things that I miss. Here we go!

What I miss:
1. Living in a college town. I loved living right next to BYU. There always seemed to be things going on and places to go. It is a different atmosphere. Along with this comes college sports. This is related to #1. Game days are awesome. There is excitement in the air and I love going to the games.
2. KSL. It was just fun to watch (or listen) their news broadcasts. They are just more professional than the news casters I have seen.
3. Utah Jazz. I am a basketball nut and I loved being able to listen or watch all of the Jazz games. I was a Sonics fan growing up and hated the Jazz, but I grew to like them a lot.
4. In-laws. As strange as it sounds to some people, I love my in-laws. They have been so good to me and I love being with them.
5. Friends. Whit and I made so many friends and I miss them. It was fun to have people to talk to and spend time with that are in the same stage of life as you. I know that everyone will move away, but I will keep in touch. I suppose that this also includes the friends that I made working at the bindery. We had good times and I miss them too.

Don't Miss:
1. Crazy and impolite drivers. It is nice to have people who let you in when you put on your signal, enough said.
2. Insincerity. I told lots of people that I would get a feeling of insincerity from some of the members of the Church. It just felt like some people did things just for the appearance rather than because it was the right thing to do. Let me emphasize that it was not everyone. I guess I grew up in a community with a lot of really sincere and good people both members and non-members.
3. Having no money. This really had to do with being a student more than living in Utah, but because I was in Utah when I was a student I think it applies. While I have more expenses and responsibility now, it is just nice to have greater income and being paying off the debt.
4. Inversion. It was terrible at times. I really didn't have much of that where I grew up. It would just get so nasty, eeeewwww!
5. High food prices. My dad was a farmer and I grew up in an agricultural area. The food prices were significantly lower. And not only that, Washington does not have sales tax on groceries.

So there you go, hope you enjoy.

Joining the ranks

I have had a cell phone now for 3 years. In all this time I have not had text messaging or any other type of messaging (picture or video) Whit and I have been on her parents family plan with Verizon. It really helps as far as cost, but we had no options on our plan because they didn't want to pay for them (not that I blame them). But this past weekend The decided to renew and upgrade their plan. I now have all the types of messaging. The only thing they didn't get was a data plan. So now I have joined the ranks of the many who message with their phones.

As a consequence of the renewal we were able to get new phones for the upgrade price. We went to the Verizon store to look at what phones we could get and their costs. The salesman was nice to point out some good features and problems with some of the phones. We were poised to purchase our phones but we couldn't because of some account access problems. It was a good thing too. As we had decided to get the phones the salesman started pressuring us to buy things we didn't want. He started bring accessories over that we didn't ask for and was strongly encouraging us to purchase the insurance for our phones. We left and didn't go back. We instead went to Bestbuy. What a different experience. They were helpful, answered all our questions and the phones were cheaper. They didn't pressure us to buy other things either. So now for the main event: Which phones did we buy?



Whitney got the new LG Chocolate. It has an extra 1GB of memory for songs. It is a flip phone instead of the original chocolate which was slide. My brother Steven has the original chocolate and I didn't like the interface at all. This one is much better and most importantly, Whitney likes it.



I went a little more modern. I got the LG Dare which has a touch screen. It is awesome. The touch interface works really well and the menus seem easy to navigate and find what you are looking for. It also has a 3.2 megapixel camera. It is a sweet phone. So for those of you who want to talk or text me, just leave your number (if you know i don't have it already) and we can get started.