Christmas 2008 - Pictures

The Curtis Christmas Family Adventure

Curtis Family Christmas – 2008
Account given by Robert Curtis

Visiting Grandma Jan and Grandpa Sam

Our family went to visit Grandma Jan and Grandpa Sam in Nampa, Idaho (next to Boise). Santa came early to visit us there. Grandma Jan made a special call to Mrs. Claus asking for an early visit from Mr. Claus. We received a message from Mrs. Claus saying that Santa would make a special arrangement to see us early. He certainly did. Eli woke us up at about 5 am ready to go. Grandpa Sam and Grandma Jan were obligated to wake up, and do so willingly. The kids got some fun stuff (including a Razor scooter for Spencer), but they're favorites were the plastic swords and treasure chests (with a real key to open). Jesse and I got a gift certificate to Home Depot and Outback Steakhouse from Jan and Sam. We used the Home Depot credit to buy a nice drill and coat rack to hang up with the help of the drill. The kids put together a small Christmas tree made of candy and frosting. They helped decorate the real Christmas tree with pictures of Elmo. We all had a great time. Thank you Grandma Jan and Grandpa Sam!

Coming home – a family adventure

The commute home was quite the adventure. We headed home on Monday, December 22, 2008. The weather was bad. We noticed that there was a sign saying that I-84 West was closed. We ended up stopping in Twin Falls and went south to Wells, Nevada and then to Wendover.

The kids thought Wendover was cool from the start with all of the lights glowing (little do they know). We stopped at the Pilot gas station for a break. We came back out and the car would not start. We played around with it for a while. We bought jumper cables to try a jump start. We went back in the gas station to stay warm while we figured out what to do. While making phone calls and trying to decide what to do, a woman asked if the kids would like candy canes. She then asked if we were stuck and called a mechanic to give us an idea of what to do. He said it was probably the starter. This was obviously something that wouldn't be a quick fix so we made the decision to stay overnight. Luckily, the Red Garter Hotel and Casino was across the street and charged only $22 per night. Done deal! We grabbed all the stuff we could out of the car and made the trek across the busy street. The kids went to bed watching Polar Express.

At 8am I went over to the gas station where the car was to meet the town mechanic there. We tried a new battery hoping that the problem was a bad alternator. It wasn't, so the mechanic had it towed to his shop. We waited patiently as a family for a phone call from the mechanic. It was the starter. He didn't have one, but was 90% sure that he could find one around town. Meanwhile our time was running up at the hotel. They let us stay an extra two hours. After our time was up, 1pm, we made the family trek just over 1/2 mile through the cold wind to the Smith's which was next to the mechanic. By the time we got there, the mechanic had put a starter together out of parts from other old starters. We bought some food for the trip and the car was done by the time we were done. We pulled out $432 in cash from the bank to pay for our car, picked it up, and left hoping to never come back again. We are grateful that we received so much help from family and the townspeople of Wendover in getting home safely.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at my parents, Grandpa Bob and Grandma Robyn. We had a great dinner. There was plenty of gluten-free food for Jesse and Eli, including a pumpkin pie and decorated sugar cookies. Eli was very excited. We had a lot of people over to join in on the festivities. Both Cody’s and Tucker’s parents were there. George, Wendy, and the rest of the family came as well. We summed up the night playing Scattegories with them. This is a game where each of us writes down unique answers to various categories that must start with a certain letter before the buzzer goes off. We laughed at each other’s desperate attempt to plead their case for each category. The kids left cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa Claus to come…again.

Eli was the first to awaken. He noticed that the cookies, milk, and carrots were eaten. He woke us up immediately, about 6:30 am, and told us that Santa Claus had come. We carefully walked downstairs to wake up Grandma and Grandpa without getting into the presents. Cheri wanted to us to wait for her, so we did. The kids were so excited. We finally all gathered around and took turns opening presents that had been placed under the Christmas tree.
The kids got some great presents from Santa Claus. All siblings and their spouses had presents for each other (we each had a name). I got some nice jeans from Cody. I forget what Jesse got. I gave Tucker a “History Channel” book of various historical facts. Jesse also got Alysha a book, one of the “Shopaholic” series. Jesse also made bean bags for Roman and Capri.
We left home earlier than we had originally planned due to the snowy weather. It had snowed about 12 inches that day. We got the kids settled down for bed. When they woke up, Santa Claus had dropped off a few more presents because the boys had been especially good this year. This was an unexpected surprise to all of us.
To top off the Christmas experience, we went sledding the next two days because of all the great snow. Needless to say, it has been a great Christmas for all of us.

Above are a few pictures Cheri had stored somewhere. They are not in any particular order.

This is Spencer's first day of Kindergarten. He is doing great in Mrs. Zaugg's class. He is learning lots and enjoys being with his classmates. I love picking him up from the bus. It's a few minutes we have together to talk about his day.

These "Superheros" are determined to fight any bad guys and save the day.

San Diego Zoo - Aug 2008

San Diego, August 2008

We enjoyed our time in San Diego with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Robyn. Their house is in a nice area and just a few miles from the Carlsbad airport.

We went to the beach on Saturday. The kids were not sure whether they liked it at first. After all, there was sand everywhere that gets all over you. We finally were able to build a sand castle with a miniature lake that was filled by the ocean water via a canal that Grandpa Bob built. The boys finally got into jumping the waves. Jesse or I would help them jump up just high enough to keep from getting smothered by the waves. Then Jesse and I went “boogie-boarding” together. Sunday we went to church and relaxed.

Monday we, except for Grandpa Bob, went to the San Diego Zoo. There was a lot to see. The animals we wanted to see were visible and often feeding, playing, or just pacing. We saw panda bears, koalas, orangutans, gorillas, hippos, a polar bear, grizzly bears, a tiger, a lion, a condor, a hornbill, and much more.

Tuesday we went swimming in a community pool (we also went Friday). The kids learned to overcome some of their fear of the water by swimming with just noodles, under close supervision of course. I pretended to be a sea monster and would go after them in the “kiddie” pool. They thought that was fun.

Above are some pictures of the beach. Soon I will post pictures from the zoo trip.

Alaska - May 2008

Mother's Day Sign

Hauling dead branches for Grandpa Sam

Marshmallow on fire!

(Just perfect)

Eli

Grandpa Sam and birdhouse

San Diego - Dec, 2007

Spencer

Robert and Jesse

Dad and Eli

It's been a while

This blogspot has been neglected for about 8 months. Since then we went to San Diego for Christmas. The weather was nice. Stuff, colorful and beautiful stuff, was growing everywhere despite the season. During our visit their, we went to the San Diego Wildlife Preserve. It was amazing. It appeared to be a slightly milder version of Jurassic Park with its rolling hills of various wildlife animals. Nobody got eaten or trampeled on. In fact, it was a nice peaceful ride around the park.

We went on a couple family trips. One was to Alaska to see Jesse's parents, Sam and Jan. We did a lot outside using Grandpa Sam's real tools. We built a birdhouse, a Mother's Day sign, and roasted marshmallows in the yard. Grandma Jan had all kinds of "arts and crafts" projects going on inside. We celebrated Eli's birthday with a pirate birthday party. This involved looking for a treasure box by following a "real" treasure map created by Spencer. It also included a birthday cake in the shape of a pirate's hat. We had a great time.

Jesse now has only 2 semesters of nursing school left. I am taking some Computer Science courses to pursue a job in computer programming. Jesse has been home with the kids this summer with no other work or school obligations. It's been great for her to have so much time with our boys.

Spencer, our oldest, will be going into Kindergarten this fall. We are scared for a couple reasons. One, he'll be riding the bus often. Two, we're not sure we want him to grow up. Time sure does fly by. After a week, he'll be an ace at riding the bus, making new friends, and learning.

Eli is going to preschool. He is doing great. He, and Jesse, both have Celiac's disesase which means there is no gluten in our house. He is much happier now that he is back off gluten. He loves to laugh and be silly.

Kaleb is a monster. He gets into anything and everything. Still, he is loved by all...especially his brothers.