Spencer's birthday party

Eli at Spencer's ice skating birthday party

Spencer at his ice skating birthday party

Spencer got in a fight with the wall...and lost. Check out those stiches!

Kaleb riding the Jeep

Spencer riding the Jeep

Eli riding Grandma Curtis' scooter (at full throttle)

First snowfall / first snowman of the season



Spencer, Eli, and Jesse looking at the fish

Good times with Grandpa Sam and Grandma Jan

Eli learned how to ride a bike. We've been working on it here and there during the summer, but Grandma Jan put him at the top of the hill, ran a few feet, and then let go. He did it! He tried several more times, only with more pedaling. He needs a little practice before we put the bikes away. He was glad to hear the clapping and cheering. We got some video and, as you can see, Grandpa Sam took some great pictures.

It was nice to have Grandma Jan and Grandpa Sam over at our place. They have done lots of playing and interacting with the kids, especially Kaleb. Kaleb did not leave Sam alone for a minute. We have been eating well with lots of help around the kitchen. Jesse, Sam, and Jan harvested quite a few vegetables and fruit from the gardens Jesse has helped take care of. It was also nice to have the help in maintaining a clean kitchen, doing laundry, and watching the boys. Their last minute decision to come visit us was a great surprise. It's great to have family.

Riding Bikes

Eli has is own transportation...he can ride a bike! Go Eli!

Camping Pictures - August 2009 - Spruces

Camping trip – Spruces – August 2009

Camping trip – Spruces – August 2009

Our family needed some time together after a very busy summer. Jesse became certified as a Registered Nurse, looked for job opportunities, interviews, and finally got a job at Copper Hills Youth Center. I had school and work as usual.

The trip was well planned. The kids helped create a list of things they would like to eat during our camping trip. Jesse bought all the stuff and we started preparing meals, mainly foil dinners, a day or two before we left. The kids helped season the vegetables, chicken, steak, and shrimp. For breakfast we packed cereal, yogurt, bananas, and milk. For lunch we had roll-it-up ham, turkey, and cheese. We also brought a few “gluten-free” granola bars and peanuts with us for snacks.

The kids were so excited when we found our campsite. They immediately started exploring little trails and searched for anything that might be used for a fire. We put up our tent as it started to rain. We managed to cover the things we had unpacked and headed inside the tent. The rain only lasted for a little while. At that point we successfully started a fire, on purpose. Jesse and I were so proud of ourselves for success. We owe our success to some great wood, a tepee, a few small sticks lying around, and a lot of lighter fluid.

We got very little sleep that night. It was colder than we had expected. We headed straight for the car the next morning to go for a drive and get some hot chocolate at the bottom of the canyon. That day we went to Silver Lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. We took a detour there which goes to another lake. We didn’t get very far before Spencer was in need of a toilet. He went “Boy Scout-style”. Eli suggested the use of a leaf to wipe. Spencer was not into that, probably for the best.

We left the lake and headed back to camp. My parents came to visit us at our campsite and had dinner. We started another fire and cooked the rest of our food—including shrimp, steak, chicken, zuchinni, asparagus, and corn on the cob—all on the fire. It was all very good. After my parents left, we cleaned up and headed toward the tent as it started to rain again. The next morning, we bribed our children into leaving early by offering more hot chocolate on the way home. We not only survived another camping trip, but had a great time.

Ward Campout - 2009

Spencer learns to ride a bike.

Family at the park in Nampa.

Heritage Park - Eli's Family Birthday

Petting zoo at Heritage Park

Robert and Jesse finish a 5K together.

Pictures

Summer is Coming!

We are excited for the summer. Jesse is graduating with a nursing degree, but is unable to work as a nurse until July, so we'll have her to ourselves until then. We're excited to go on walks, have picnics, play outside, and go camping. We have a great ward campout planned for June.

We have a garden plot in our village ready to be worked. The kids have started growing the seeds inside our apartment to be planted in a couple of weeks. We did this last year and the kids love planting, watering, and watching the garden grow.

We have lots of family that we will be seeing soon. Grandpa Sam and Grandma Jan are coming to Jesse's graduation and will help us with our garden plot. They are gardening experts. It will be nice to have them visit us. Also, my parents are moving back into Daybreak. We'll have fun with them too. We're glad that we'll be able to see them more often.

My brother Jonathan, Elder Jonathon Curtis, is serving in the New Hampshire, Manchester mission. He left for the MTC a couple of weeks ago. We're looking forward to writing him often. We hope to hear from him often through e-mails to my parents and hopefully form letters to us.

We have a lot to look forward to.

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