Dad - Rockin' the Shades across the Globe!

From Hawaii

to Panama

to Washington

at a wedding (I'm not sure whose...)

in Kuwait

with a camel

in Greece

in Bavaria

and Trier

Apparently, he got into some trouble in Rothenburg...

...and the shades were confiscated. Poor Dad. :)

Cruella Deville

Mom has always had the creative juices in the family. As a kid I was always impressed with the costumes that she would pull together for Halloween. One year mom made a Captain Hook and Peter Pan costume from scratch! I couldn't wait 'till I was old enough to wear Captain Hook! It looked so authentic! One of my most memorable costumes was her infamous Cruella Deville ensemble. I remember her putting a lot of work into it. The most exciting part of the costume was when she had to do her hair. I remember thinking, "How in the world is she going to get her hair to look like that?" Somehow she got that hair to stick straight up! At the time, Collin was a baby (maybe 18 months old) and he already had a little dalmatian zip-up costume. I vaguely recollect mom commenting on how malicious she must have looked carrying her child around as a puppy when she was Cruella Deville! Something that I love about Mom is her ability to make projects like this sound so fun and exciting. This wasn't even my costume but I still wanted to be involved in making it! Whenever she would work on her costume she would go around the house singing, "Cruella Deville, Cruella Deville, If she doesn't scare you, No evil this willll....." I love Mom!

 

Alabama

Melanni, Jesse, Ariana 

I remember these pillow cases, even the texture and how they felt!

 



 I have a vivid memory of almost drowning in this pool during one of my swimming classes. At the time I was sure that I was going to die and no one would notice, but now I look back and I'm pretty sure I would have been just fine...I think my teacher would have noticed if I didn't come back up for air! We were playing Ring Around the Rosy in the pool and I lost grip on my neighbor's hands and I slid down the edge of the where the pool got a little deeper. I remember feeling totally panicked because I couldn't breathe and somone from my swimming class grabbed my hand and pulled me back to safety. It was the kid in the black shirt and yellow shorts (swim suit?). After that, she (he? I always remembered it being a girl, but I honestly cant tell by this picture) was my hero!

 I don't remember this particular trip to Dad's work, but I have always enjoyed going to his work and seeing the aircraft he flies. The shirt I'm wearing was one of my favorite shirts. I'm pretty sure I had school pictures taken in it after we moved to Panama.

 Mom always did such a good job of dressing us up and doing our hair! I remember roller skating around this house on the concrete. It was a good house for skates!

Did we call this lovely vehicle 'The Beast?' I think we did, but if I am remembering wrong, we should have! I remember the guy who came to buy this car from us was wearing a wife beater shirt and he had long hair. I was scared of him but fascinated at the same time. He was probably a really nice guy, but as a kid I was totally intimidated by his appearance!

Grandma's Toy Closet

I'm so glad we have a picture of Grandma Larson's toy closet at their house in Chehalis! You can see Christian James having a grand old time with his cousins. Grandma had such fun games and toys to play with in there. I remember playing Chinese checkers, Othello, and dominoes.

What do you guys remember about that closet?

Remember our old van?

This is the van I had to learn how to drive in on the narrow streets of Germany. I think there were 12 seats in it: 2 in the front and 10 in the back. One of my first times driving it by myself, I drove home from church and Dad followed me home in another car. He said I nearly gave him a heart attack the whole way home because I drove too close to the right side of the rode and almost hit several parked cars.

Also, I remember on a trip we made to Keukenhof in Holland (to see all the pretty tulips), there was a man who asked if he could buy our van. I think he wanted it for his band to travel around in.

Oh, and this picture was in the folder for Melanni and Murray's wedding, so I'm not sure what's going on here. Maybe Dad and Christian James are fixing something on the van?

Tschüß!

Panama was awesome!

Panama was my very favorite place to live growing up.

Ariana, Jesse, Christian James, Melanni, and Rebecca

Melanni performing a Panamanian dance in her pollera dress. I loved seeing her all dressed up. The pretty ornaments in her hair are called tembleques. I loved how white and sparkly the tembleques were. I remember Mom telling us that they were made from fish scales. I still don't know how they make fish scales look so white and pretty.

Ariana

So, that's me in the gym at my school, Curundu Elementary. I have no idea what is going on here. Maybe an assembly? I don't know. I have a few memories of this gym. 

1. There was a short boy named Eduardo in my class, and he could run REALLY fast. I remember thinking that he looked like Mario from the Mario Brothers Nintendo game when he ran because his arms moved so fast they looked blurry.

2. One time in gym class, it started pouring rain. You can see that at the top of the gym, the walls are just chain link fence. The rain came in gushes and flooded the room. Soon, we were soaked and standing in inches of water. I thought it was really fun, but I bet the teachers were scared.

3. During recess, one of my favorite things to do was dig for ant lions in the dirt with my friends outside the buildings.    

If you don't know what an antlion is, here's a picture:

  

Here's the weird thing. I didn't know this was an antlion until about 20 seconds ago when I searched online to find a picture for you. Apparently, what I was catching all those years ago in Panama was the antlion larva. Yep, I liked stuff like that.

  

We used to catch these all the time and hold them in our bare hands. Panama was awesome! (Oh, and this is blown up like a thousand times. They were only the size of the eraser on the end of a pencil.)

  

This is how we knew where to dig for an antlion. (Ahem. Excuse me. Antlion larva.) There was a definite technique to it because those buggers were fast and the mound of sand around their little sand pit trap would always start caving into the hole.

I loved it! Although, you couldn't pay me to hold one now!

Mom Looks Like a Flippin' Model!

I was looking through some of the pictures Mom digitized, and couldn't help thinking how pretty she is. We have a beautiful mom.

Christian James, Mom, Jesse, Melanni, and Ariana at the beach in Alabama.

 In our living room in Panama

Holding Richard in Panama.

Ariana and Melanni in Hawaii

Ariana (left), Melanni (right)

This picture brings back a lot of memories. Like, those encyclopedias in the background, I think Mom and Dad still have these. I remember pouring over these and looking at the pictures. Also, the giant speaker behind me is the same speaker that fell on James's toe. I just found out from talking to Mom that she put his toe on ice, got Ariana and I to a babysitter, drove James to the hospital and THEN she passed out! 

VOTE!

Ariana, Melanni, Christian J., Jesse, Becca, Richard, Whitney, Lyndsay and Collin,

 

 We need to vote on a title for this family blog! 'Christian and Denise Larson Family' is pretty awesome, but I think we can do better(0: everyone put your ideas for what we should call this blog in the comments section and then we can vote to officially name this blog!

 

Mom and Dad gave all of us Larson kids an amazing Christmas present this year. They archived our family pictures from growing up online. I found this is my stocking on Christmas morning: (minus the computer chord hiding the web address...hey, I don't want EVERYONE to be able to access akward pictures of me growing up!):