Holy Cow

Where has time gone. I know it has been about 4 months since our last post so here are some of the highlights. Cayman is now 3 and keeps us busy!!! Andy just finished a season (8 games) of co-ed indoor soccer which was fun because she got to play with her cousin Bryant. I finished school... but not really because I tried to CLEP out of a class and the way the test results is so stupid and confusing, so I missed it by 1 stinking point! Man were we a bit miffed about that. So I am taking my last class now and trying to get it done before Christmas. That is a real quick update with what is going on with us. Hopefully it won't be another 4 months for us to update our blog.

A Sad Day

Well its offically over, the annual passes to Disneyland are expired! :( We got one last trip in two weeks ago, it was so much fun! Cayman loves it there, I am not sure how I am going to explain to her that we are not going to be going back for a while. We will just have to keep watching the home videos to get our disneyland fill.
The week that we went they were starting their new fireworks show and there is something that is so awesome, I wont say because if you are going I dont want to ruin it for you but a little hint is that someone flies and it is not Tinkerbell. It is so magical!! It made me cry, not that it takes alot in disneyland, I cried the whole way out on the last night because I knew that it would be a while until we would be back. Well here are some pictures from the trip, I guess all good things come to an end......until next time!!!

Long Time No Post

Well its been a long time since I have posted anything here so I thought I would do a over veiw of the last month or so. After the week we spent in st george/disneyland for spring break we spent the next week going up to the hospital in murray to spend time with larrys dad while he was in the hospital. We are very greatful that everything turned out so amazingly well. He had his surgery to remove his tumor and though it was a tough recovery for him he is getting better. They ended up sending the tumor to harvard to have them test it and the results came back that the tumor was not malignant! HOORAY!! He did have a bit of a rough week last week, he was having kidney issues and the flu. We cant wait for him to really get back on his feet so that he can do the things that he wants to do! We love you Papa! Here is a picture of his tumor, the ruler is a 6" ruler

The next 12 days we spent living in springville babysitting for my brother and sister in law while they went on a vacation to hawaii. It was alot of fun to get to spend an extended amount time with my neice and nephews (tyler, witney, spencer, and ethan) and to be able to get to know them even better. One funny thing that happened while there is that my brother just bought a house that has a pool in the backyard and the people who owned it before didnt close down the pool for the winter and so there was a process to get it up and going for spring, well just before Kelly(my bro) left for his trip found out that springville would double their water prices for the summer while they were on their trip so he scheduled appts for people to come fix things, well they weren't showing up and then when they finally did the city was supposed to fill the pool from the fire hydrant and when I called to tell them what time to come they told me that they actually dont do that. Funny how they can tell two different stories..anyways, so I put the hose into the pool on wednesday at about 2pm to fill it hoping it would be filled before friday when the price doubled. Well on thursday morning it was about 1/4 of the way filled, there was no way! I did some thinking and here is what I came up with



Yep call it redneck but it worked, I put two hoses in the tub out the back, down to the pool and siphoned them, now we were getting somewhere!!! Well as the night went on it still wasnt looking like it was going to make it so in an all out effort we all spent about an hour working together and filling soup pots and bowls in the tub and then out the back window and larry and I would carry them to the pool and pour them in...




It was actually really fun and everyone worked together! You can see how close we were, we didnt completely finish before friday but we didnt have to do too much that day.
On Friday the kids came home from school ready to get into the pool however when the pool guy came to set it up they told me that the heater needed some repairs so it wouldnt be heated, everything else was ready just no heat...thus creating the 1st annual penquin plunge!!! Yep the water was a chilly 58 degrees! I will add a picture later it is on the other computer. That was a blast all the kids (even the biggest one larry) went down the slide and jumped off the diving board, it didnt last more that 15 minutes but it was hilarious watching their faces come up out of the water!
That saturday ty had a soccer game and witney had gymnastics and wit's was up in SLC so we picked up ty, then went to wit's meet and they had finished early so we didnt even get to see her perform. While we were in downtown we went over to capitol theater where Wicked was playing and since we had the kids we got an additional 3 entrys into the lottery for tickets. (we had tried to win the whole week larrys dad was in the hospital so that larry could take his mom to it and we had no luck) Well they only draw 10 names and if you get drawn to can buy 2 tickets for $25 each, 8 had already been drawn when number 9 was drawn they yelled out "witney" and of course stumbled over the last name, but I looked at her jumped up and down and scream and we ran up to the front to get the tickets. I couldnt believe it!! I called my mom and she came up switched us cars and took all five kids home for us and babysat so that larry and I could see wicked(larry had not seen it yet) It was the best, our seats were on the 4th row! It was amazing to be so close to the actors. I could see that play over and over again and never get tired of it. I cant wait until october for the arko girls trip to denver, we are going to go see wicked there!
When we finished babysitting we came home and it was like going to a place that you love that you havent been to forever! I felt like we had been gone for years not weeks. It was so nice to be home! Thanks to our great neighbors who mowed our lawn, got our mail, took care of primary stuff for us etc, etc, etc. We missed our great neighborhood so much!!!
We got home on thursday and on friday it was on the road again, this time out to roosevelt for a going away party for larry sister and her family who were moving to St. Louis for school. We are sad that they had to leave and we will miss them so much but its only for a couple years. Thank goodness for Skype!
The next 2 weeks were just filled with the catch up process of being gone so long, working and doing hair appts and then two more quick trips to roosevelt, one for larry's little brothers seminary graduation and being ordained an elder, and the other for his high school graduation

Congratulations Pat!!! We are so proud of you!!!
Well that brings us up to this week, again filled with just working and doing hair appts and getting some projects done around the house. Cayman has had a big change in her life today

Cayman has moved up to the big girl bed! She loves it! I just hope that she doesnt fall out or get out in the middle of the night. She is such a sweet little girl, in all the craziness of the past month she has been so flexible just to do whatever we need her to. A couple of funny things that she has done this month.
She got two butter knives out of the silverware drawer, brought one to me and said "I'm captain hook, lets fight!" I said "ok well then I am peter pan" and we would hit the knives together and after a minute or two cayman says to me "you old codfish!" All I could do was stop and hug her, it was sooo cute!
I found two crayon tips up her nose, she obviously didnt learn her lesson with the rocks, poured her own sippy cup of milk then says "mom I'm a big girl!", loves to sing and knows every word to the loathing song from wicked, apparently we have been listening to that alot around here, and requesting ketchup on her waffles, cayman has been Kenzified! I love it!! Well sorry that was a very long update, hopefully I can do a better job at keeping this up!

Sweet!

I love when people put cute or funny sayings that come from their kids, so here is Caymans latest! We were in disneyland and we had just bought her a princess crown. When she saw herself in the mirror with it she was so proud and thought she looked so cute. Right after that we went to get in line for the carousel. While waiting I was holding her and she was watching the horses trying to decide which one she wanted to ride when she stopped looked me right in the eyes and said "Mom, I am so happy!!" It was the sweetest thing. It made me want to cry that this little 2 year old girl realized and verbally acknowledged how she was feeling. She is truly growing up so fast.

Where would we be without laughter from kids!

This week has been an interesting one, to say the least. Cayman has been a little clown this week making us happy when we needed it and she doesnt even realize it (or maybe she does? hmmmmm) Larry's dad had Cancer in 2006 and he did chemo and he beat it, which we are all so greatful for but the bad part is that the cancer is back. He has been getting tested every six months since he first had it and at this last checkup it showed a tumor that has grown to the size of a tennis ball. It has been hard to know how to feel because we didnt know how/if they could treat it, he couldnt do chemo again and they said they might not be able to do radiation because it is so close to his heart, we didnt know what they could do for him. We found out tonight that he is going to have surgery to try to remove it. We are optimistic (we have to be!!!!) We are praying that everything goes ok, We know that what ever is supposed to happen will, but we really want him to stay with us for a lot longer!!! We love you Dad!

4 little rocks

So this is where the part about Cayman making us laugh comes in. We were at work having dinner and cayman sneezed and a little rock landed on my leg. I thought, that little girl should not have rocks in her mouth!!! We got home and were getting ready for bed and I looked at her and it looked like she had a big booger so I wiped and it was stuck (sorry more detail than some may want to know) so I dug it out and it was a rock. I was so surprised, wondering how this rock got there, I looked at her nose again and right behind it, there was another rock! I got that one out and again there was another rock! She was a rock spewing pez machine! Larry and I just sat trying not to laugh to show her that we did not approved of her shoving rocks or anything else for that matter, up her nose. I felt her nose to see if there were possibly anymore in this secret hiding spot that she had found, and it seemed ok. We put her to bed and Larry and I both laid in bed laughing for a good long while about it. Just what we needed, so thanks Caym! Oh yes and in the morning I got her out of bed and guess what was in her nose, yep another rock!

Easter with the Erk's

Last Sunday we had our easter celebration with the my side of the family. We get together and have a big dinner and the kids get to hunt for eggs. Cayman thought it was the coolest thing that there were a ton of "eggies" laid out for her to pick up, and she was even more excited to see there was candy in them.


My food assignment was dessert. I made these cute cupcakes that look like easter bunnies going into their bunny hole, it was a hit at the party. Thanks to Misti/Kristi for the idea and thanks to Amy for the butter and shortening sunday morning(I couldnt have done it without you!!)

Happiness from a hat!

At Disneyland when larry got his birthday gift card, I knew what he was going to buy. To preface this a little for about 8 years everytime we would go to Disneyland, Larry wanted to buy an Indiana Jones hat. This isn’t a baseball hat type it looks just like Indy's hat in the movies and it was alot of money for a hat. Everytime we would go he would go try on the hat and look in the mirror, well this time he had money that he had to spend on souvenirs so on his birthday we go to the shop and he tries on the hats to get the right size and then gets the biggest smile you have seen just knowing that he is finally getting this hat. He goes and pays for it, the lady wishes him happy birthday and while there the lady hands him the phone from behind the desk and it is goofy, wishing him a happy birthday (so cute, the details that Disney puts in! Amazing!) Then he proudly walks out of the shop and this time he doesn’t have to take it off! Who would have thought that a hat could make someone so happy! Well he wears the hat proudly for 2 days and our last day in the park Larry and I go on splash mountain. Larry wanted to have his hat on for the picture that they take when you go down the big hill. (I think you can see where I am going with this) Anyway he wears it with his hand on top of it to keep it on but as we get down to the bottom he thought that we had slowed down enough to lift his hand and the second he did POOF the hat was gone. We got off the ride and told the castmembers that he had lost it and they told us to come back in 30 minutes because when something gets lost they usually will float through and they will catch it. 30 minutes had passed, Larry walked back to splash and no luck, an hour later he tried again, no luck, 3 more times that day he tried and still no luck. At this point we had to go fill out a form at the lost and found so that if it got turned in they would know it was his. When we got there they said that they drain the ride every night and walk through it and pick up any lost items so its likely that it would be there in the morning. We told them this was our last day in the park and they said that if it got turned in they could ship it to us. Larry was really sad, then mad at himself that he lost it and then sad again but was still hopeful that they would find it that night. The next day on our way to Costa Mesa we stopped in at Disneyland and Larry went to check and still, no luck. You could tell he was so sad because he really just wanted it to be there because this was our last chance in the Disneyland area. Well we traveled home and on Monday when he went back to work I decided to just call down there to see if by chance they had found it and guess what, they had!!! I was so excited that I could barely talk. Larry hadn’t opened his birthday gift yet so I put a card with it that that said happy birthday and that Disneyland had found his hat and they were shipping it that day. When he read that part his face was classic he looked at me and said "are you serious?" I jumped up and said YES!!! then he jumped up and down saying hooray they found my hat!! Well on Friday we got a knock on the door, Larry went to answer and no one was there, then he saw the UPS truck and then saw the box, he grabbed it ran in the house and said "my hat is here, my hat is here" He opened the box and put the hat on ran in the living room and jumped in the air and clicked his heels together several times, it was priceless! My sweet hubby finally had his hat, he was like a little kid! It was so great to see him so excited about it.

Kakaw monthly news!

Yes I think that I need to change the title of our blog,The new title is kakaw monthly news. It just seems that the time flys by and I am lucky if I get an update in! Well in the last month we have been able to do some great things. We got to go to the Draper Temple open house, it always amazes me at how beautiful that they are! It was neat to take cayman with us, even though she is still too small to remember, but as we walked though she noticed the chandeliers and she would say "Mom look, sparkly lights!! they are beautiful!!" It was adorable.
Also a few weekends ago all of larry's family was in town for his cousin, jeff's farewell. It was alot of fun to be able to spend a lot of time with them, (but poor cayman got thrown completely off because for 4 nights in a row we didnt get home before 12:30am.) Jeff is going to the stockholm sweden mission, he is very excited to be able to go and serve, I think that he is the most excited missionary that I have seen in a long time. He told us that there needs to be a trip to sweden to pick him up, if there is you can count us in! Good Luck Jeff!!!
Our big event was that on march 11th, larry turned 30!!! In the words of Jane Hatch he is now 20 10!!! I wanted to do something special for larry, I thought what would he want to do and of course he would say go to disneyland. We were going to go in april for spring break but alot of people from utah would be there, it is part of orange county's spring breaks and it is the week after easter (which is known to be busy at disneyland) so I thought I will take him to disneyland, we'll take one last trip on the annual passes before they expire and when you go to disneyland on your birthday they give you free entrance to the park, well larry already has a ticket so they give you a gift card for the cost of a ticket. That would be a nice bonus for him some spending money to buy whatever he wanted (I had a pretty good idea of what he was going to buy, this will be explained more later!) My parents, and two sisters families came on the trip with us. On the way down we spent the night in the booming metropolis of Primm Nevada at a place called buffalo bills, I was a little nervous because of a review from someone I know saying that their room was a crime scene but for $6 a night and you get in late and leave early I figured we would risk it, surprisingly it wasn't that bad (luckily!)
Disneyland is always so fun! they have it all decorated for a celebration, there are cute mickey balloons on the lights poles that are wrapped in ribbon and the mickey in front has on a birthday hat with balloons on each side so it was like they had decorated disneyland just for larry's birthday. He even got a button to wear that says happy birthday larry, so every castmember who saw it would wish larry a happy birthday. So to you my sweet hubby, I hope that you had a great 30th birthday!
The rest of the trip was great 3 days in disney and then on saturday we went to H&M and then to the costa mesa swap meet which was pretty good, we both got some great sunglasses for really cheap. Cayman got this little toy dog that barks and walks and as we walked out she sang "I got a puppy, I got a puppy" over and over to a little song that she had made up. I wish I would have had my camcorder there it was so funny!
This trip was one of the best, but I am so sad knowing that the passes will expire soon but the memories that we got from the 7 times we went we are grateful for and would not trade for anything! Watching cayman discover the magic of disneyland and enjoy the rides, sounds and smells will always be with me, another memory I will never forget was the chance for Kenzie to come with us, and for me to be an 11 year old again with Kenzie and Haley. Thanks girls for letting me be silly! We are sad that our trips to disney will be far far more spread apart. I guess all good things must come to an end. Maybe in a few more years we will do the annual pass thing again, I can't wait!


Cayman at the start of gadgets go coaster

And Cayman while on gadget's go coaster
When it was over she loved it!


Cayman and her puppy she named "ruff ruff"

Bon Voyage!

Larry and I had the chance to take a cruise, just the two of us. A great deal came along and with our Anniversary in January and as larry's graduation present we decided to book it. We are so glad that we did. We left cayman at home with summer and the lunds took her one day as well Thank you all so much!! It was so relaxing to go and just to have myself to take care of. It was a breeze getting through security at the airport and I kept feeling like I was forgetting something because we didnt have cayman and all of her stuff.
We left out of Miami and the 1st night the waves her really bad, we didnt get sick but were a little worried that it would be like that the whole time (we didnt know it was really bad because it was our first cruise) Luckily the rest of the time the waves we much milder. Our cruise was Eastern Carribean and it went to Samana Dominican Republic, St Thomas USVI, Tortola BVI, and Nassau Bahamas(we were supposed to go to norwegian cruise lines private island but they couldnt take us on the tenders because the waves there were going to be too big, so we got a bonus port city which we were thrilled about.)
The food on the ship was great and some of the food we were ordering we had no idea what we were getting. It was fun to just order whatever knowing that if you didnt like it you could just get something else. Everything that we ordered was great. Especially the desserts!!

Larry wanted sushi on the trip and our 1st meal on the ship there it was! Plus he had steak and lobster, scallops, shrimp, mahi mahi, and lots of other seafood.

Formal night was the second night on the boat, it was fun to get all dressed up for a date and have a fancy restaraunt to eat at.

In Samana Dominican Republic, we took a whale watching tour, we are heading out to see the whales

We found the whales and got to follow them for over an hour. We followed a mom and her baby, the baby whale kept jumping up out of the water, it was amazing, it jumped 5 times in a row. They are so BIG. Seeing them in real life made us appreciate how amazing these animals are and how amazing our world is that god created.

After Whale watching they took us to an island called Cayo Levantado, to swim and relax on the beach. It was beautiful.

Our next stop was St Thomas we went to Coki Beach to snorkel. This is looking out from where we were laying on the beach.

After Coki Beach we took a taxi to Magen's Bay. It is one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was so amazing, it was a perfect beach with mountains on both sides of us.

Another picture of us on Magens Bay

Coming back from Magens Bay right over the top of the mountain. This is looking out over the city and where the ships are. The roads there are scary, switchback turns and steep hills and the taxis drove crazy.

Our next stop was Tortola BVI. From here we took a ferry to another island called Virgin Gorda to go to a place called The Bathes. There are huge boulders that create caves, you get to climb through these caves and the water from the ocean is coming in. When you got through all the caves at the other side it opened up to a beautiful little beach called Devils Bay. It was so beautiful there, the water was crystal clear.

We climbed up on top of the boulders for an amazing view.

Before we left home I was afraid that I would be a wreck the whole trip because I would miss cayman so much. When I said goodbye that was so hard and I cried alot but the whole rest of the trip I didnt cry(which I was proud of) until... we walked out on deck in the Bahamas. I looked out and there was the Disney Cruise Line and instantly the tears started coming. I pulled it together after a minute or so but next time we cruise we want to go disney and take cayman with us

Just off the boat

Since our stop in the Bahamas wasnt a planned stop we didnt have anything planned to do on this island. When we got off the boat we went around seeing what there was to do. We saw a place to rent scooters and we decided to do that and give ourselves a self guided tour of the island. We felt so adventurous! Most of the roads were one way and they drive on the left, it was a blast. This was one of our funnest days becuase "we just flew by the seat of our pants" as larry said.

One of the places we went was to Fort Charlotte, It was a neat old fort and part of Pirates of the Carribean was filmed there.

We also went to Atlantis, this is a beautiful resort on paradise island with a huge aquarium with giant devil rays.

What an adventure that we had! It was so nice to have a full week of just time with larry, (even though we missed Cayman) but being able to be free to do whatever we wanted without worry was so nice. It is something that larry and I will cherish forever and will remember forever!

The New Years Letter???

Merry Christmas!!! oh wait that's already happened! Yes, christmas snuck up on us this year. I had good intentions of sending out christmas cards and then when I knew that wasn't going to happen then I had good intentions of sending out a christmas email BEFORE christmas and then that didnt happen either! So we will call this a Happy New Years email! This year has been a great year for our little family. Here's some of the things that we have done this year.

Larry:
-continued going to school, however he has 2 weeks left and he is finished!!! Hoooorray!!!!
-Built a nice shed in the yard, with some help from the neighbor, thanks KP
-is still working at dentrix
-is happy that the Utes beat BYU and are in the Sugar bowl
-is a great dad to Cayman!

Andy:
-I got my hair cut short
-has loved watching Cayman learn and grow
-loves to do hair and cant wait until we get a salon built.
-loves her calling in activity days.
-and my very favorite thing this year is that I got to be with Cayman every day!


Cayman:
-went to disneyland 5 times this year, yes you read that right, we have a serious addiction! She loves Disneyland so much! Her favorites are the teacups (however it has to be a pink cup), Small World, Tiki Room, and Buzz Blasters
-She has finally hit 25lbs, and has just hit a heighth growth spurt.
-Can carry on a conversation with you (if you catch her in the right mood)
-loves to dance and sing songs
-turned 2 in October

We have had a wonderful year and are excited for the year to come, especially for larry to be done with school! (And hopefully we can get in a few more trips to disneyland!) We wish you the best for a great new year!
Love
Larry, Andy, and Cayman