2008 Family Reunion

This last weekend we had the Chlarson Family Reunion. I look forward to this EVERY year. We've been having them for the last 16-17 years...maybe longer, I really can't remember the exact year it started. I've only ever missed one, the year I graduated and went on a trip instead. (That's a story in it's self that Matt loves to share with everyone!)

The first one we had (that my memory recalls) we celebrated Grammie and Grandpa's 40th wedding anniversary at Oasis Park, where we took family pictures and of course, ate food. (That's what the Chlarson's do best, eat!) After that we've gone camping every year. They also involve the much sought after t-shirts. (Which I still have all but one, which I'm assuming got lost along all the moving.)

So this year with gas prices, the HUGE amount of babies being born, and everybody being just plain worn out, we only had a one day reunion. I have to admit I was very sad. It's the only time that I go camping all year, and it's the most fun with our huge family. We hit up the aquatic center and enjoyed each others company, nonetheless.

This year they opened up a surf n slide. Malcolm, Jayni and Dane were pretty excited they were tall enough to try it out. Here they are waiting in the LONG line. Love that Dane's giving Jayni bunny ears!
Malcolm on his first attempt. He stayed on forever. The lifeguard was trying to tell him how to turn so that he would get to the side to get off. He ended up just biffing it.
Jayni's first ride. She wasn't too excited to go again after she fell off.
Dane on his run. Malcolm and Dane wanted to do it over and over. Also I just had to point out, Matt was at the top helping them get on. So I was videoing with one hand and taking pictures with the other. Shaila's got talent!
Mom was in deep conversation with Aunt LaVoy while holding Winners. PS Aunt LaVoy...I have some very lovely pictures of you. I won't post them, because I want you to still love me!!
Quinn loving the slide. Poor kid, he didn't get to play as much as he wanted. I wanted to visit with family rather then watch him in the water the whole time.
Mason too. This kid is a busy 2 year old, never sitting still.
Winston with his favorite toys...his links. Man, he's adorable!
Matthew is such a great dad. Look at him cuddling Winston. I'm so thankful he loves babies!!
Right before all the food was pulled out, we got our t shirts of the year...this is what they looked like. I'm so glad I can be a crazy Chlarson!!
Loving all the red shirts in a row. I also love how Uncle Alan is the only one posing for me. In this family everyone seems to hate getting pictures taken, so I just snap without warning.
The adopted Chlarson. I just had to post the only picture I took of Max. This is Brianne and Tom's 16 year old friend from England. He came over for some basketball camps, and was lucky enough to be a Chlarson for a day. I LOVE his English accent, I could listen to him talk all day! Can't wait to see you next year Max!!!
My sweet nephew Grayson. This is Landon and Holli's son. He's such a good mix between the two. He's so cute with his big dark brown eyes. He has THE hugest grin, but the picture I got of it was all blurry because I forgot I was on manual focus...dang!
Milo, Grandpa Quinn and Nathan. Notice how Grandpa is rubbing Nathan's ears. Seriously, does everyone rub peoples ears in this family!
Maryls, Kacey, Mom, Mel Dane and Jayni, oh and part of Annelise. Looks like some good conversation to me!
What a beautiful Grammie I have. She'll probably hate that I put a picture of her, but Matt and I just adore her!
I got this cute, cute picture of Reed too. I think it is just adorable, and I love the big blue eyes!
Annelise commented on how he was just staring at me, so I looked down at him and said "boo". He jumped and immediately got a pouty face. I missed the pouty face, but got the thumb sucking cry. Sorry Reed...but it was dang cute!
Friday night before the reunion, Matt and the boys went with Pop, Colby, Max and Landon to the Moses Lake Pirates game. Mom, Brianne and I slaved away getting food ready for the reunion. It seems to always be the case, the men play, while the women do MOST of the work. The boys loved it anyways. I was glad they were able to see some "real" baseball since they have both been doing t-ball this summer. Didn't Matt take a great picture with the sun flare and all!?!When they got back Quinn told me all about the pirate and seemed really excited. But then he told me he didn't want to take a picture with it because "it's scawee". (scary) At least Malcolm's getting over the fear. This picture doesn't look to great. Matt forgot to change the setting in "the moment", so I had to lighten it up quite a bit.
A video of Malcolm's first run...and the lifeguard's rear! Sorry about the crazy way I video tape, my annoying voice and my annoying laugh. As I said earlier, I started taping, realized I wanted pictures, so had to switch hands video tape while taking the pictures...whew!!

Matt's Architectural Detail

I love my husband!! He is so very talented in way too many things!! He decided to take on the "Monthly Special" too. As I asked him to go get me my DQ Thin Mint blizzard, he stopped on campus with the tripod and took these pictures. Isn't he awesome!?! I love that he's learning to use my camera right along with me.
This is the clock tower on campus. It lights up at night...doesn't it look awesome! Too bad we don't have a zoom lens to get a closer shot of the clock.

Architectural Detail

Okay so I am doing this on the very last day of July...but I was just hoping that I could get some better pictures. I was hoping to go on campus and take some pictures there. They have plenty of "architecture" there. I walk up there everyday, but with 3 kids in tow and friends walking with me, I didn't feel I could stop for a photo shoot! I would still love to take a "time out" for myself and go up there soon.

Anyways, the "Monthly Special" from Take Out Photo was photographing architectural detail. I only took one picture on this, but I'll share three of the same thing. These are from our "family fun day" in Spokane. They have this fun fountain that the kids just love to run through. I just think it's plain awesome. I love using a fast shutter speed and capturing what the human eye can't see...stopping the water. So here they are:




Not much, but at least I was thinking about the challenge of it all month. Now it's being better and following through with it during the actual month. I guess I can blame all my lack of time management on having a baby!

I Wish...

I wish you a Happy Birthday!
I wish you were still here.
I wish you could rock me.
I wish you could hug me.
I wish you never left!
I KNOW Families are Forever!!


I still love you.
I still miss you.
I still cry for you!

(Thanksgiving 2000 Trevor, Dad, Me and Tanner)
My hair was "growing out" from a bad haircut I let a boyfriend talk me into doing.
Later after we broke up, he apologized for it. Ha!

Malcolm's New Tricks

So we have some awesome neighbors (thankfully) Holly and Aiden that live beneath us. They're great and we've become good friends. They recently taught their two older kids to ride their bikes without training wheels.

Malcolm has been wanting to learn ever since. So we went and bought some pads so he wouldn't get too hurt learning. I kept telling him he had to wait until dad was home to teach him. So last Wednesday Aiden told him he would help him. He took the training wheels off and started running with him on the grass. He did good the first time and went 20-30 feet on the grass.

After lunch their girls came and asked Malcolm to come back out. While I was inside, Aiden continued to work with Malcolm in the parking lot. By the time I came out, Malcolm's totally riding with little help. By the time Matt comes home, Malcolm is riding around the parking lot several times before falling. I was so proud of him! He's a pro now! He can start himself when he really wants too with the help of the curb, but a lot of the time he ask us to hold his bike while he get on.
I can't believe he learned to ride in ONE day! He was so proud of himself and he thought he was some awesome stuff. Thanks Aiden for doing all the work! You're awesome! You too Holly!!
That same day Malcolm started doing tricks on his big wheel. He rides really fast then turns the wheel, spinning it. All the kids thought he was so awesome, and now all of them want to ride them. I've had to start locking them up, because the big kids think they should ride them too.
He's such a cute little biker! I love him with all his cool little helmet and gear. He's growing up right before my eyes! Sniff, sniff!

Matt of all Trades

I just had to post this one last picture from our day trip to Riverfront Park. Matt has been into these HDR photos. He's really been wanting to try it , so he set up the tripod and took several different exposures of the clock tower, then layered them all in photoshop. I don't know how it all works, maybe he can explain it better if he feel like it. I just had to share this amazing picture he captured. I have such a talented husband!!! Anything he tries, he's great at. I wish I had half his talents!

Wyman Family Fun Day

On Saturday July 12th my family was ALL able to get together for the first time this summer. We went to Riverfront Park and had a blast. When we got there we found a spot for our picnic, but first took a big family picture. All we had was my camera and a tripod. We got a decent picture for such a huge group. I was also able to take some pictures of individual families. I was happy for the opportunity to practice my photography skills! Thanks guys!
We also got a picture of all the grand kids together. That was quite the experience. Look at all those babies, and not enough big kids to hold them. Malcolm and Dane were struggling just a bit. Also notice the amount of boys!!!
We finally got all for babies together at one time. Pretty sad that we haven't been together all at once this whole summer. Aren't they all so cute. They go in order of birth. Emma 10/13/07, Reed 12/23/07, Grayson 1/10/08 and Winston 2/2/08. The 3 boys were born within 6 weeks.
Here's another picture of Emma. I actually took this one at the boys' party, but I just had to post it. She's just so dang cute! Brianne was able to call ahead and make ticket reservations for our group so we were able to get a great discount. We could go on unlimited rides and several other things, but we mostly did the rides. Malcolm loved doing the bummer cars. Quinn was pretty sad he was too short.
Quinn and Mason riding on the airplanes together. Quinn is about 9 months older then Mason, but Mason has been quite bigger then him for quite sometime.
Malcolm loving the planes as well. I think the kids thought they were in Disneyland with all the rides!
Mom and Milo are here riding with some of the kids. Us adults enjoyed some of the rides, until we got a little nauseous. I rode 3-4 spinning rides in a row...not quite as fun as when I was a kid.
We rode the carousel about 1000 times. This carousel is almost 100 years old, next year. I think it's beautiful. We all loved it too. The kids could get on over and over and us parents could just sit and watch. I practiced my panning with it too. I take way to many pictures, most of which suck!!
They have this fun little water feature now. I planned on letting my kids play in it for a while, but ended up only happening for about 5 minutes.
Malcolm ran through once, but Quinn only got his feet wet. We were ready for dinner and home.
After everyone left we rode the carousel a few more times with Milo and Melanie's family. We then decided to hit Olive Garden together, since it was just across the street and wouldn't require getting everyone in and out of the car again. It was us 4 adults with 7 kids. We got quite a few looks, and I saw one girl counting the kids. Really, it's not like our families are that huge. Amazingly the kids were great. Better behaved here then when we are all at my Mom's.
Quinn was very tired and kept asking to go to the car to sleep with his blanket. Right before we left he just couldn't handle it anymore and started to lay on the gross and dirty floor.
On our way home, we had to stop and comfort little Winston who was so sleep deprived. I took the opportunity to take more pictures of course.
We had a great time with all our family. I wish we could spend time like together more often. I sure feel blessed to have such a great family. I'm so grateful for eternal families!! I love you guys!!

Sparklers

I couldn't wait for the 4th of July so that I could try taking pictures of fireworks and try some with sparklers. It came so fast though, that I forgot to buy any sparklers. Luckily while Mel was in Las Vegas, she bought a ton and ended up bringing them home. It was great, I ended up staying longer then planned, so one night she came up to Mom's for a night of sparklers, just the two of us. We had a great time practicing some photography skills with our cameras. It was pretty windy, so at first I was a little uneasy about the sparks hitting me. We repositioned the tripods and it was better. Some of the creations I got in the end. For the very first time of trying it, I think we got some great things. Thanks Mel for the fun and laughs. I could have done that all night long!!
It's really hard writing a name backwards!!