Happy Birthday Lawrence!

Some of you may know that Jena has a turtle. More appropriately, Jena's mom now has a turtle and he's actually a Sulcata Tortoise. Jena saw him in a pet store in Lawrence, KS just over 10 years ago and thought she needed the cute little thing. In true Younger fashion, she negotiated a better price and took him home. At the time, she did not realize that this little "turtle" could live up to 80 years and would get big enough to ride some day. Since we never really knew when he was born, Jena decided that Columbus Day would be his birthday each year. As you can imagine, he's seen some interesting times in his 10 years on earth. Here are a few highlights from Larry's life:

• Was small enough to ride in the cupholder of Jena's car when he came home.
• Has lived in Tribune, Garden City, and Goodland...but mostly in Tribune.
  
• Once walked away from Brett and Jill's house in Goodland and was lost for 2 weeks. He was found about 6 miles north of town and made the front page of the newspaper on return.
  
• Can destroy any flower bed or garden in no time at all.
  
• Can eat you out of house and home now and enjoys all the veggies he can get.
  
• Was almost adopted by the Garden City zoo until another turtle in the exhibit was stolen. Jena quickly decided against leaving him there.
  
• Likes to give the grandkids rides...yep, you can ride him!
  
• Has lived about 8 years longer than any vet or tortise expert expected him to live.
  
• Is the main attraction at the turtle race at the Tribune fair.
• Weighed less than a pound when Jena got him and weighs close to 80 pounds today.
  
  

We hope you enjoy the pictures. I had to include the first one above as a nod to Max and the great Polaroid. I'm not sure anyone other than Max still has and uses one of those! Can you even see Larry in the picture? He's pretty small in Jill's hand.

A huge thanks goes to Wayne and Kathy for adopting Larry and giving him a great home. He probably would not have lived nearly this long if it hadn't been for the care he gets in Tribune.

Frustration!!

I tried to help Jena with the blog tonight and killed the whole thing!!! All I wanted to do was updated the background and I lost all the page elements. I think it ties back to the html code from a certain website...no, I'm sure of it. Anyway, I'm done with that website for backgrounds. I think it's mostly fixed now. Maybe it was time to change things up a bit anyway. OK, I'm done ranting...Matt.

Lot's of Fun!!

Joshua and Maddix sure had a lot of fun the other day! They learned it's fun to play with the dishwasher and to play under the sink. They went in and out of the cabinet a hundred times. Josh liked it when Maddix was on the outside of the cabinet and could hand him stuff. It's fun to see them grown up together!

14 months old!!

Wow, Joshua is already 14 months old!! These are some pictures we took when we went to Gunnison to see Grandma and Grandpa McKenzie!! Josh is now walking all over the place and has several words he can say. He is such a fun little man and I'm blessed to get to get to stay at home with him. Enjoy the pictures and we will blog again when we have more time.

The Boys

The Mai boys were in town a couple weekends ago and all the little boys got together. From left to right, it's Logan (Eric and Jordan), Maddix, Joshua, and Tresten (Chad and Gwen). If these boys have half as much fun as their dads had, we're in trouble. They are all about the same age. Logan is the oldest and is a couple weeks older than Josh and Maddix. Tresten is the youngest and is just a few weeks younger than Josh. It was good to see everyone. It's been over a year since the last time we were together and none of these little boys were around yet.

The last picture is just a funny one of Maddix and Josh that we thought we would share. Obviously, they are deep in conversation!

San Diego

Jena and I recently went to San Diego for a few days. I had to be there for a business meeting and Jena was able to come along for an extended weekend. We had a great time and San Diego is a great place to visit in mid-July. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 80's during the day and there was always a cool ocean breeze. The evenings and nights cooled down to the mid 60's. Perfect weather. We stayed in the Manchester Hyatt and had a great bayside view. This first shot is out of our hotel room window. The bridge in the distance is Coronado Bridge and connects San Diego with Coronado Island (in the upper right of the picture). Our first day in San Diedo, we toured the city and took a boat ride through the harbor. This shot is from the boat, looking back at our hotel. The Hyatt is the two towers on the right side of the pictures. We stayed in the tower to the furthest right.

During the city tour, we stopped in Little Italy and got a history lesson about the Italian settlers and tuna fishing. While in Little Italy, we toured this Catholic church that was filled with paintings of biblical scenes.

This shot was taken at Mission Beach. We went to a place called the Wave House where they have wave machines that you can surf on. Being the land-locked flatlanders that we are, we chose to drink a few beers and enjoy the scenery instead. Other activities during the weekend included a trip to Coronado Island, a Padres/Rockies game, and some R & R at the pool.

I also got a chance for a little golf. I played at the Crossings at Carlsbad. It was a challenging course. Most every hole as "hit the fairway, or hit another". I was proud of myself for only losing 6 balls in 18 holes. One of the other guys I played with proudly donated 20 balls to the course. The week was a lot of fun and I would definitely go back to San Diego.

Birthday Cake!

First Birhday Cake!!

First Birthday cakes! Joshy had a little party with Matt and I on his real birthday. Jill and her crew also came over. It was nice to have some family come for his real birthday. But then on the 4th of July we had a big birthday bash! The grandparents made it down and a few other family members and friends came to celebrate also!!

I made his cake on the 25 of June, while we had a good friend Darla make his cake on the fourth. Her cake was much much prettier than mine and tasted a lot better too! I’m still eating cake for breakfast. Only two pieces left,” I better share with Matt.”

Joshua wasn’t sure what to think when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. He also didn’t like an audience when he tried to dig into his cake. He did much better smashing his cake on the 25th than on the fourth. Darla made him a cute little turtle cake for his big day. So cute I didn’t want him to destroy it! All in all it was a very fun first birthday!!!