My baby girl

Josie Maiz Larsen was born at 3:09 am on January 21st. She is weighing in at 6 lb 9 oz and measuring 19 1/2 inches. She came in record speed I think even beating her brother Jett's crazy delivery time. Sloan's doctor lives 5 minutes from the hospital and she came in time to deliver the placenta. A really cool nurse is who helped deliver our new daughter. She did not have to do much more than hold out her hand's and catch her though. Sloan is flat out incredible at this labor thing. She blew away all of the people at the hospital with not only how fast but how effortlessly she did the entire thing. From Sloan walking into the hospital to me cutting the cord was at best a 25 minute period. I am proud of her and grateful that she is my wife who has given me another incredibly cute and perfect baby. Both of my girl's are now taking the night to rest in the hospital before they come home to us boy's.

Not yet

Well the 16th has come and gone. Now two day's later Sloan is still not showing any signs of our baby girl's arrival. She has been reading up on thing's to get labor going so the last two day's we have been walking, hiking , 4 wheeling, eating spicy food and other fun activities that I wish she would have read about 3 week's ago. She hasn't been doing anything dumb like drinking caster oil. She is uncomfortable and ready to be done this time but we know that everyday that the baby stays snuggled inside will make her much healthier. It has been so damn nice this weekend that I wish I could quit my job and move into a tent. Yesterday hiking out south of Gunlock was insanely pleasant and we all had a blast. The boy's had their dog , sand to play in , rock's to climb and just about their favorite toy in the world STICKS. Oh and on Friday afternoon when I got off work we walked over to the church parking lot behind our house and in about 15 minutes Johnny Bo learned to ride his bike with no training wheel's. The first time he got going a good distance after about 100 ft he wrecked laying the bike on it's side and slid for a few feet before jumping up holding his hand's in the air yelling towards a bunch of teenage girl's who were sitting on the lawn over at the church " Cheer for me everybody! " Ha ha , he is an awesome kid.

January

Sledding down the hill to the old camp site in Pinto

You can see me wrecking face first in the snow with Bodie under me somewhere

Hiking with Tash on a cold freaking day a couple week's ago.

It has been cool having Tasha live down here again. It has only been a few week's since she has been here but we have seen and hung out with her many times. Johnny Bo and Chubb's love her to death. Every time either of them say's a prayer they always ask that they can see Aunt Tasha again. The weather has been pretty sweet this last 4 of 5 day's. It was so nice today that if Sloan wasn't about ready to pop I would be trying to think of a place to backpack this weekend. Sloan is really suprised that she hasn't gone to the hospital yet. She was convinced that she would be early. Only 4 more day's until her due date. So one way or another our little baby is going to be here some time soon. I am excited to see her and a little nervous about how crazy our house is going to be with 5 of us. Should be fun.....

NEW YEAR

We celebrated a few hour's early so the boy's were still coherent. It has been a fun night with pizza, silly string, fireworks,movies, blow horn's and pot's and pan's. Bodie and Chubb's are fun kid's and know how to party. It look's like our baby girl is going to wait until 2009 to join our family. Happy Freakin New Year people.

December

Long winter's nap with my boy's

Sloan and the boy's playing in the snow while I was freezing my arse off at work

Knights

Cutting our tree on the Kaibab

Boden is out of school for the next two week's and I'am pretty damn jealous. I think we should all live at high altitudes, everybody get's two week's off for Christmas and at least a month off for summer. The boy's are really exctied for Christmas not only because of Santa but they are ready to see Papa Cj , Grandma Lisa , Aunt Tash and Uncle Boo. It should be fun. If thing's stay the same it might even be a white Xmas. It has been bloody cold here in St. George and we have a had a few inches on the ground that the boy's have had a blast playing in.

Kwagunt Hollow - Jumpup - Kanab Creek

We were driving through Hurricane at six oclock Saturday morning when the cop pulled us over. I was with Hubba, my old friend from my short stint in the Marine's and we were heading for the Kaibab Plateau where we planned to backpack into the Kanab Creek Wilderness. The cop was a pain in the ass but after he told me to fix my headlight and he got the green light from headquarter's that I had no warrant's or price tag's on my head we were on our way. We made it to the trailhead without further incident. We through our pack's on our back's and started down the jumpup-nail trail under clear blue skies and a chilly temp. We warmed up quickly as we dropped from the pines into the low desert. Once we hit the bottom we jumped straight into Kwagunt Hollow which we followed for a little over a mile. This red rock canyon was pretty with a little spring fed stream that ran over and under the smooth sandstone. We climbed over house sized boulder's and bypassed 30 foot waterfall's with clear pool's and yellow leafed cottonwood's. After more walking than we had guessed from studying the topo we finally hit Jumpup Canyon. We traveled five mile's down this beautifull canyon at which seemed record speed after the slow going through Kwagunt. Jumpup had a basically flat rocky river bottom with no large boulder's that allowed us to move quickly. Through most of this canyon the wall's on each side 10 to 15 ft up are so rock tumbled smooth that when the light hit's right they look wet. At this point we were racing the sun and moving at a brisk pace as we walked, talked, bitched and laughed about life. After a good half hour of wondering if or when this canyon would end suddenly and dramitcally a wall was in our way. We had hit Kanab Creeek. This is the lowest and closest to the Grand Canyon I have been in Kanab. The wall's are streaked red , sheer, intimidating and of course beautiful. We had come almost 8 miles over pretty rugged country and were bolth happy to slide our pack's to the dirt. After making camp , eating a simple dinner and staring into a whiskey lit fire we slept the pleasant and fullfilling sleep of isolation. The next morning was cold but not at all bitter. I lit the fire once more to catch a little warmth while we ate a quick breakfast.. After packing camp we swung our pack's into place on our back's a little more painfully this time and started the walk back to higher elevation. As usual the hike out was quicker even though our bodies felt half as strong as the day before. Eight mile's later and 16 miles total arriving at the truck and dumping our pack's for the last time we looked back at the top's of the rugged maze of canyon's below where we had only hour's before been in amazment.

Roastin hotdogs

I decided to cancel my backpacking trip this weekend since I will be going next weekend. Sloan pointed me in the direction of the guilt I would be feeling if I abandoned my family two weekend's in a row. I kid, I thought of that myself plus I had nowhere in particular to go anyway's. It was the correct choice because we have had a good time. Saturday we drove out to Snow Canyon and let the boy's hike around. They had a blast and only agreed to leave when we told them we would go get their dog and drive out by Gunlock and build a fire. Another fine choice even though the wind was blowing and Sloan and Jett got a little cold. It was an insanely pleasant way to spend the evening. We roasted marshmallows, hotdogs and drank beer while watching the sunset behind the red cliff's. Today while Sloan and the boy's were at church I headed back to Snow's for some more hiking. Tonight we plan on taking the boy's to see a movie. So all and all a kickass weekend.