A Year In the Life

When I arrived at my parents' house on Sunday night, my dad was excited to show me the latest project they've been working on.  

Years ago, when I was still in elementary school, my dad found his old train set from when he was a boy.  He brought it to our house, fixed it up, and mounted the tracks on a big piece of wood.  It was our favorite thing to play with whenever there was a snow day.  I remember that as soon as the radio announced that school was cancelled due to snow, all us kids would get Dad to hoist the train board out.  Then, we'd build a complete town around the train tracks with Lincoln Logs, Legos, and blocks and play with that thing the whole day.  It was awesome!

Well, once again, that old train has been resurrected, but this time on a much grander scale.  Dad bought new tracks, but before he attaches them to the train board, he had my sisters paint a town on it.  Jenny and Jami have spent hours designing and painting this town that is uniquely "Larson".  I probably stood and stared at this for a half hour the other night, just delighted with what they've come up with!

(I added the letters to the photos so I could explain what each site is.  There are no letters on the actual board.  And it was too big to capture in one photo, so sorry for the awkward splicing.)

My mom, Jenny, and Jami came up with representations of everyone in the family, as well as some key places in our family history.  Here is what everything is:

A - Bitner Train Station (Dad and I think they should change this to Bitner Bahnhof, in honor of our German residence)

B- my dad's barn and pasture

C - Grandma and Grandpa Darrington's cabin at Bear Lake

D - Lucas Pit Stop, since Jeremy hits a gas station every day for his Pepsi supply

E - Bear Lake

F- Jason and Whitney's house in Neola, UT

G - Bust's Burgers, because Justin is the king of drive-thrus

H- Jenny and Mike's house in American Fork, UT

I - Jodi and Jeff's house in Amarillo, TX

J - Sonny Elementary, as Josh is the eternal student

K - Us-Go-To Market.  When we were little, our neighbors' dad worked in Vernal, and his family would visit him occasionally.  Whenever they did, their little 3-year old girl would say, "Us go to Vernal".  That became a catch phrase in our family, and since Jeff and Ashley now live in Vernal, and he works for Coca-Cola, this market just makes sense.  You'll notice the Coke insignias. 

L - a softball/baseball diamond.  My family has always liked to play and watch.  In fact, I remember staying with my Grandma D, and often after dinner we'd head over to the city baseball fields to watch whatever random teams were playing.

The train board is not officially finished, since Mom wants to polyurethane it before they attach the tracks.  But, I think it is just so cool, and I couldn't wait to post about it!