Runnings of the Risks: The Big One for Our Little One

***Disclaimer - I think the videos aren't working on here for some reason. Go to https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGrandLarseny to watch them if you can't see them on here.

First, and perhaps most importantly, Rawley had his first birthday on August 4! We're so pleased with him and his sweet attitude, cuddliness, and he's truly a joy to raise and love. We were able to celebrate with my side of the family since we were at my family reunion. Here's a fun throwback picture of Rawley a few days after he was born compared to now :)

But for now, on to some of the other stuff we've been doing. Of course, we've been a hike pretty much every weekend because I really want to get my fill now while the weather is still nice! I think the first one we did back in May was Stewart Falls up by Sundance. It was actually pretty long, and we weren't really in shape for it haha, but Rawley was a good sport the whole time and enjoyed watching me play games like running up and grabbing his hands and pretending I couldn't reach him as we walked along. We saw some amazing plants there - parts of it looked like a fairy land to us.

We found a wild columbine flower on the way up, which was fun - I'd definitely never seen one in the wild, and really love those flowers.

Fun times with family hikes!

Seriously - the whole forest in this area was blanketed with these big leaved-white flowered plants with all the white aspens - it was pretty magical looking.

Don't know what this flower was, but Paul's nice and either takes pictures of the flowers we find/lets me take them on his phone because he knows I love them. One of my favorite parts of hiking is finding wildflowers.

Pretty dramatic!

I'm pretty sure that's the moon visible there.

We found these weird flower centers without any petals.

Small but precious.

More fun flowers :)

This is the view from where we like to jog to about every other day on top of temple hill (we are actually in relatively good shape now.)

We also hiked up Rock Canyon and it was in fact very rocky, but very pretty. We like that we can get to it just walking from our apartment into the mouth of the canyon too, that's pretty fun.

Some awesome really floaty fairy looking things that were actually seeds from a nearby tree.

Rawley really loves going hiking with us, and he's so incredibly cute strapped to Paul's back. He sometimes likes to squeeze Paul's sides too :)

In the canyon

Family - isn't it about... time? (We definitely look like we belong on some Mormon ad)

So... right by the stream we were hiking on there was this really sketchy looking natural water fountain. Paul said he'd try it, and it seems he didn't get sick, but I suspect it might have been straight up stream water.

Some pretty purple flowers we found. I'm actually pretty surprised at the variety of flowering plants here, I think there's more than there are in Virginia actually.

Hiking into the evening

More scenic purple flowers.

Watermelons make the best toys <3

Paul is happy he has a son to wrestle with haha

Dad kisses <3

IHOP fun :)

We watched fireworks at Thanksgiving Point again with Becca and Levi like we did last year. Rawley was kicking up a storm last year when he was still in the womb, and this year he loved them! He was pretty fascinated and not at all scared which was kind of surprising to us - I guess he's just a brave little baby. He was maybe a little bit nervous in this picture initially though, haha.

He's extra sweet when he's sleeping, haha.

He just started doing this a few days ago - he thinks it's really fun to make this gaspy inhaling noise. He's like our little tree frog - he's been doing it in the morning now to let us know he's awake :)

We went to a welcome home party for my second mission president and his wife, and it was really wonderful to get the updates on the mission and how their mission went since I went home just 5ish months into their mission. The Spirit was very powerful as they bore their testimonies to us about how the work is still progressing forward. I'm really really pleased to say that two of the areas I served in, Palawan (first area) and Mandaluyong (third area) are soon to become/have already become stakes! Paul and I hope to get back there pretty soon after he graduates college. I love the people there and I do miss my mission, but I love Paul and Rawley so much I'm glad I'm here with them ;)

Rawley actually likes to play with stuff that's not baby toys more than he likes baby toys generally haha - like mail.

Mischief seeking is Rawley's chosen profession

Or computers.

He also enjoys snacking on fingers every so often....

Yum yum dad fingers!

Peek a boo!

Lunch boxes are for heads.

Forks feel funny.

We hiked up part of Squaw Peak as well, but didn't make it to the top. It was cool to overlook the valley though, and there was a very different landscape. Rawley was very pleased!

We were actually on the side of a mountain :)

Not really sure why Paul's face looks so weird here.

Pretty spectacular view!

We found a TON of these random snail shells up there - I guess there's some sort of colony that lives up there part of the year.

Found some cool yellow flowers up there.

Dramatic.

Saw the temple looking all beautiful one night when we were out for a run.

Spray bottles might be the best - and most surprising!

Paul's been building computers from used parts and selling them for a profit with his little business he has going - he's been having fun making a pretty decent profit from it and giving people cheap computer options that are pretty good. I'm really impressed with his IT skills and knowledge of technology generally - it's a useful talent/interest to have!

We went on yet another hike, this time to the hot springs in Diamond Fork canyon. We didn't even actually know it was the hot springs hike until we were already on it, but we were pleased because I've wanted to go there the whole time I've been in Provo. Paul's really nice because hiking isn't exactly his *favorite,* but he says once he gets out with us he really enjoys it. He says the Risks are generally more homebodys when they have downtime, but he's glad I drag him out on the weekends anyway. What a great husband I have!

Climbing a "rock wall" we found on the path

A small pool once we were getting up close to the hot springs - it already smelled like sulfur at this point.

The hot springs themselves. They were actually hot enough on a hot day we didn't really hang out in them much but went a little further downstream where it had cooler water mixing in. These are the source pools for the hot water though!

Enjoying the pools sort of since it was so hot outside.

Some pretty mini falls near the pools

Some interesting green growth from the outflow from the pools

It was really quite pretty

Hanging out in the stream. Rawley of course loved the water

Pleasant little falls.

Just a bean, being goofy.

Rawley helps me work out sometimes. When he sees me doing crunches he just crawls over and gets on top of my like this.

LARSEN FAMILY REUNION 2017 - WASHINGTON

We were really happy to get to go to Washington with my family for a week for the Larsen family reunion. The first day, August 1st, was actually our second wedding anniversary, so we dumped Rawley with my parents (they are super nice to us!) and we spent a majority of the day in Seattle. We went to the Microsoft headquarters there, and we even took a picture with young Bill Gates (seen above.)

In the Microsoft headquarters, they had several screens that were interactive. This one guessed that we were 22 (me) and 28 (Paul.) I told him I think it must guess younger for girls than it really thinks and older for guys, because ain't no way he looks like he's 28. More like 18, hahaha, but I"ll take the 22 gladly.

Here was one where you had to make all the different faces for various emotions and it would snap photos at the appropriate times.

Here were our souvenir nametags from Microsoft, haha.

We then went to the Seattle arboretum/gardens, and found this weird tree.

And these cool flowers.

And these fun hydrangeas (I think that's what they were) and they had a whole fancy garden of them.

A close up of that flower because it's weird looking but pretty.

More interesting flowers there.

The unfortunate truth is that we didn't do much else that day because the traffic was so bad getting out of Seattle. We checked in to a little bed n' breakfast type place. After that we went to "Blondie's Plate" which was this fun little church turned into a upscale restaurant. They sold like multiple plates and the idea was you'd get a multi-course dinner, but we're poor so we just got two of the "hearty" courses and it was good enough. The really fancy mac n' cheese and burger sliders were super good and we liked it a lot, plus we got to romantically cuddle in the little corner bench they gave us to sit at.

We went to Hoh Rainforest which was beautiful and very old. It really felt like Jurassic Park could have easily happened there with all the ferns and moss on extremely old trees. This is my cousin Sylvie on some old roots we saw.

Here's my cousin Dutch on the path we were walking.

On our drive to one of the parks one day we saw these elk just chilling by the river.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was going to the town of Forks. Yeah, that's the one where the Twilight book series takes place and all. We went to the beach right near there called La Push and it was amazing to see these really big rock formations jutting out of the water. It was sort of chilly but still really fun to hang out there on the beach. Note the cute dog in the corner.

Some pretty flowers blooming by the beach.

Lunchtime with Daddy <3

Dad found this starfish on the beach

Here he is with it - thankfully it was still alive and we put it back in the ocean.

Having fun playing in the waves... the water was actually freezing and really only tolerable for a few minutes at a time.

We think my grandma is super cute :)

You can see the interesting rock formations very clearly in this picture Paul took.

Another cool shot of the mini islands at La Push.

Some cool driftwood piles people had stacked at that beach.

Rawley actually LOVED the beach. We did too, the beaches were really relaxing and peaceful, and although cold, it was super nice to spend a lot of time by them.

Beach squat at La Push

Family pic at La Push :)

Here's the cool gorge, it was really deep and powerful.

Some interesting ground cover in the forest

Big ole' trees

Sylvie, Dutch, and Miles with some cool roots

This would have been a great picture without my finger in it

I think that's Dutch there

Some teeny tiny delicate flowers

Look! Trees!

A lot of the family and some non-family

Sylvie in a tree trunk

Grandma with her collection of grandkids and great grandkids :)

Paul walking on some big ole' log over a tiny creek

Big ole' logs.

So Merina bought some really big steaks for the family dinner one night and Paul grilled them. They were really tasty and amazing, Paul is actually a pretty pro griller (which was on my list of husband nice-to-have qualifications before I got married hahaha)

And then it was Rawley's birthday! He didn't get any of the steak though cuz it's obviously hard to chew and he only has four molars. We got him this wheely spinny toy which he loved (my brother and his wife had one just like it and Rawley loved it when we visited them), and some squeaky rubbery squishy blocks. He also got some nice toys and books from grandparents, his great aunt, and great grandparents which he really appreciates :) When he sees books he reaches out for them and gets excited which is sweet. Anyway, we sang him happy birthday and gave him cake, which he mostly just ate the frosting off of. Such a sweet and fun little baby - we're kind of sad he's not little and tiny any more, but we're happy he's progressing and growing into such a great little boy.

Enjoying his birthday cake :)

The last day we were at the reunion we woke up early (6 am) with my aunt and uncle and walked out along the beach near where we were staying in Sequim. We walked 10.5 miles round trip along the beach to get out to a lighthouse - it was the only way for the public to access this historic lighthouse.

We had to get out that early because the beach gets covered up by the high tide during the day, so the morning is the best time to go during low tide.

Paul found a cute little starfish on the walk

It took us a good long while to get there!

We finally saw it emerge from the mist after a while. It was very quaint and still has a light on the top running.

Paul liked it more than this picture would lead you to believe.

We took a self-guided tour and climbed up to the top

The very Washington-y view from the top. This lighthouse was 100 some years old and so was the connecting lighthouse keeper house there. They let volunteers go in for a week and stay in the house and help run the lighthouse, which is a cool program they do there.

#drama

Some nasty old crab carcasses at the base of the lighthouse

Some really sweet baby birds perched on one of the lighthouse doors. When their mom would fly up presumably to protect them from us, they'd start peeping loudly and opening up their mouths really wide - reminded us a lot of Rawley :) Thankfully Mom had him that morning so we could walk that early.

This seaweed was everywhere washed up on the beach. It was actually pretty gross and rubbery and as we walked we popped the bladders on them.

A large barge we saw floating off the coast on our way back.

A nasty crab carcass that still had eyes attached that were all gelatinous. Gross.

Cool giant driftwood.

A nasty seaweed bit that had eyes.

The walk up from the beach a was also beautiful.

Pooped after having so much fun with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents.

We really liked the log cabin we stayed at this year with everyone. Paul and I said we'd definitely live there in the future or in a house like that.

View from the patio.

We LOVED the bed in the master bedroom. There are really cool big round wooden doors on either side of Rawley which you can't really see here.

We stayed at a really dirty old hotel... but at least they had a cat in the office there that crawled into my lap and sat there purring for like a half hour. That pretty much made my whole day.

Here's Rawley with his blocks at home that we gave him for his birthday

He crawled up here all on his own when I wasn't looking :)

One of his favorite things to do is peek through small openings or behind stuff at us.

A happy freshly bathed baby with spiked hair

He was crawling around on the bed and managed to get himself wedged between the footboard and the mattress

We promise Rawley wears clothes in public. It's just easier most of the time between all the messy foods he eats to keep him naked most of the day, haha...

Already a baller. He loves our basketball!

Maybe a little like his Hill uncles :)

I've started making earrings out of clay and hand-painting them for my business and I've really like how they turned out. Hopefully I get some Christmas orders for stuff like these soon! I've gotten a few orders lately through my online store.

He WAS doing a good job of nodding "yes," and now he shakes his head back and forth most times I say "no" to him.

Rawley was "helping" me organize the baby clothes my brother and his wife gave us.

We took Rawley to a park and he had some fun with Daddy.

Cowbells are exciting.

Lil' pirate baby boarding a ship.

On a different day we took him to a new splash pad that was recently built in Orem. Rawley loved it a lot since he thinks water is just about the best thing out there. We think he was a little overwhelmed by the sheer mass of children that were also there, though.