Road Trip

March 30, 2008

I do believe today is Papa Herb's birthday. We will call him after church. We did have a great time on our road trip with Agata and Travis. I almost got the pictures in the right order! The condo we stayed in (thanks, Martineau's) was beautiful. We probably did too much in one day, but it was fun. When we returned to St. George after hiking in Zions, we bought hamburgers and shakes at Iceberg. Travis and Agata bought some giant bacon-plus burgers. They were amazing to look at and I'm still dreaming about them. We watched "Too Be or Not to Be" (one of my favorite movies). Agata was a good sport about it being set in Poland. She pointed out that it was made in 1942, which is pretty amazing as it is a big spoof about Adolf Hitler.

Tyler called when we got home. He and Dawn have a home phone now and internet. I will tell you the numbers, etc, but I don't want to post them especially. Dawn's Mom is improving, which is a great blessing, but she has a long ways to go. Dawn is feeling well and buying baby clothes.

It's snowing here!!!! And cold. (remember how hot we were in Zions?). (and how cold we were at Bryce Canyon). Anyway. Spring is slow and late here, which is the very best way for it to be. We might actually get fruit.

Oli is walking. It's been too long since I've seen him.

Did you know Travis and Agata don't especially like Mexican food? Anyone got any suggestions about the upcoming trip to you-know-where? All I know is "pica" means hot. Don't say pica. Maybe "no pica".

We love you all and look forward to many good memories this summer.

Love, Mom

Cove Fort

Travis and Agata in front of old cabin. It looked cozy.

At the gates to the Fort.

I liked this: a slit that narrowed to the outside for shooting Indians (sorry) and protecting the Fort. The only shot ever fired was when one Hinckley boy shot the other one in the knee.

Cove Fort

Here's Dad, Travis and Agata at doors to Fort. They were filled with sand to block arrows and bullets

Looking down from the sentry wall.

Agata and the Fort

Here's Travis and Agata (maybe we've seen this one before)

At the Fremont Indian Museum

Dennis descending into the pit house. The Fremonts were very small people.

Agata and Travis with the hill behind them. Originally the Indian village was built on that mound and crossed the highway.

We are actually climbing on the petroglyph trail.

Travelling Through Utah

Now entering Red Canyon or something like that

Birthplace of Butch Cassidy. Below is Big Rock Candy Mountain and Agata in a pit house at the museum.

More Bryce Canyon

Here's two cold and cute people

Can't help taking pictures

Dennis, pine trees and Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon

We just finished seeing Cove Fort, the Fremont Indian Museum, and Big Rock Candy Mountain.

The lookouts were a little scary.

Looking down. There's still snow.

The Grand Staircase means you start at Bryce's, step down to Zions, then down to the Grand Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Travis and Agata in Zions

Now we're in Bryce Canyon. We have about an hour until sunset.

It was cold and windy, but so beautiful.

Kind of like looking at the ocean.

Zion's Canyon

Shots of Zions

It was a hot day (notice the head gear)

I think this was the start of the second (hot) hike

More Zions beauty

St. George

Here's Agata and Travis at St. George Temple

And we say goodbye at the shuttle in St. George. I wonder what their ride was like to Las Vegas....

Happy Birthday Agata!

March 10---what a nice day for a birthday. On my calendar it says that today Lent begins, and it's Commonwealth day. And Agata's birthday. Jenni said Agata and Travis were working very hard. I wish we were there to make a special dinner and have a party. We love you, Agata, and hope you are happy and well. We look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

It was so fun to have Danny here and Tommy. We did have a run to Instacare for Tommy's foot. But his Ultimate team won every game at the U of U in the tournament. Sunday morning he couldn't walk, and by evening he was doing quite a bit better. It's pretty sickening the way it got crunched.

We saw Tyler at home and then Dawn at the Gateway. Okay, I've never paid much attention to Gateway. It's huge! And it was full of people. But the stores are pretty much the same old mall shops. We had hot chocolate (Dawn's treat) and looked through books. Tyler and Dawn have been painting their apartment. It looks so good. The colors are great and really suit the old house with wood floors. We also went to Jason Sandal's wedding. We visited with Jeffer Hunt and his wife, Joni (the cakemaker). It was fun. Jason's wife, Stefanie, was still laughing about the cake. She is definitely in my Hall of Fame. She has a cute smile and seems like a happy person. Danny's "mean story" doesn't involve monsters. It's all about a foot massage pillow.

Jak is into telling "mean stories". I think adults do that all of the time. Only his are about tigers and bears and eagles instead of store clerks, neighbors, other drivers, and bosses. This is a game I could really get into. He better not outgrow it before I see him.

We enjoy seeing all of you and talking to you on the phone. In the meantime, life is good, what with working on the house (the project that doesn't seem to end) reading good books, visiting with friends, (what do we do now that Spring is coming??? Outside projects!) anyway. Thanks for all of the good visits and fun. Thanks for living through it and surviving, sharing your stories with us. We love you!

Alex writes tomorrow night!

Happy Birthday, Agata. We're glad you're here.

Web Site

Hello famille! Its been an extremely long time since I posted here. Many apologies. I do read it and enjoy hearing from those that do occasionally post.

Seattle blossomed unexpectedly the last two weeks of February; a long bout of sunshine and warm weather apparently convinced the plants to come alive. Now the rains are back again and its cold, so I hope they will survive. It makes the rain much less dreary though. My studies are plodding along, Im trying to balance the realities of my time, energy, and motivation with the demands of research. Ive also been tutoring a lot, which is a nice change of pace and rather lucrative, though it does make me feel much busier.

But with the money weve been able to save, well be able to do something really cool: were going to Mexico! Agata's best friends from Poland are going to be there for a month on a vacation and we will be flying down for 9 days to travel with them in April, along with one of our Polish friends from Seattle. We are extremely thrilled. Well be flying into Mexico City then winding our way to fly out of Cancun. Well be gone from April 4 to April 14.

Ive been screwing around on the web and recently made a website out of one of my class papers. Check it out at http://students.washington.edu/currit/

Winter Camp

Hello all,

Here is a link to a website with photos and videos of the winter camp I went on with the scouts this weekend. Let's just say that igloos are really hard to build and kids are really dumb sometimes. That about sums it up.

http://web.mac.com/thecurrits/Site/Paradise.html

Love you all,

Danny

State of the Family

Thanks for all of your contributions to the State of the Family letter Grandma wrote. I guess Dad did our contribution in a phone call. It was really fun to read what everyone is doing. I thought Rich and Jane's Enchilada Party sounded like fun, and Leah is going to get a degree in Hindi. Studying a language can be intriguing. Nobody can do as much as Travis and Agata in one year, and I think that was the short version of their adventures.

We made it to Jenni's brother, A.J.'s, mission farewell in Draper. He did a very good job. He talked about families and family prayer and family home evening.

Dad is fixing a crooked wall or two in the basement. When he's done, I'm sure it will look nice. We are going to Tyler and Dawn's for the day (tomorrow) to help them paint. Dawn and I are doing a little maternity shopping.

Saturday I was invited to three parties. It was exhausting. Just when I decide that being a house mouse is a wonderful thing. Spring is coming (inspite of the storms due this week.) We have really enjoyed staying home this winter (when we could) and watching it snow. We have learned to play cribbage. At first it was just tedious, then the strategy became clear, now we quite like it.

We saw Tommy yesterday and had a good, good time with him, watching a mystery on tv, eating strawberry shortcake. We surprised him with the destruction in the basement.

Soon we will be gardening. It will happen. If you have anything to put on our summer calendar, let us know. July is baby month, and Alex comes home in August. In between all of that we would love to see all of you as much as possible! All I can say is Oliver had better still be crawling when I see him. That wonderful stage is all too short....

God bless you all in all of your efforts. We love you!

yurt trip way back when

So I thought I'd post pictures of my yurt trip that I went on in December. Or January. Yeah, January. Anyway, I think that we should do this sometime as a family. it would be stellar. we went to a different yurt this time and the trip in was cake. It would be fun some time to do it with every one.

Happy Birthday Danny

Happy Birthday Danny! Today is a windy, stormy day. Two storms are blowing in. Danny was born during a big snowstorm. We had an old blue Dodge Dart (yes we did) and our driveway was on a hill. We slid off the driveway into the snow on the front lawn. Eventually we got out of that mess and made it to the hospital. The maternity ward was pack with women delivering due to the big snowstorm. (something about barometric pressure....) So today the weather remembers Danny's birthday. Or maybe Feb. 7 is always like this.

We hope you have a wonderful day and a Wonderful Life! (hear that bell ringing????)

We love you,

Mom and Dad

Happy St. Agata Day

Today is Agata's Name Day. Congratulations to all of the Agata's all over the world. (and especially our Agata.) I wish we could all get together tonight and have a big party. Maybe we will soon. I hope.

Alex writes tonight. Hopefully his email account will work. We went to La Frontera last night. It was very cold outside. We got plates of hot spicy Mexican food then came home and read and enjoyed the night. Today is sunny, but tomorrow it snows. I'm trying to catch up on all my reading before Spring comes with all of the wonderful work outside. I've dreamed of reading a book for so long that I'm really enjoying it.

Tommy's feeling better. He was pretty sick. Dawn's Mom came through her surgery. It was successful. We're grateful for that.

I wonder what the weather is like in Poland and how Barbara is doing this winter?

Happy Birthday to Danny soon!

Recipe

Here's a new recipe from Sunset Magazine for a "healthy" dessert. I think it sounds delicious, but I haven't tried it. You put peeled grapefruit pieces in an oven proof dish, sprinkle brown sugar on the top, broil until sugar is warm and bubbly, then top with a dollop of Greek yogurt. It reminds me of Jenni's dates with Greek yogurt. I was going to try it today, but ran out of time to search for Greek yogurt.

We hope you are doing well. St. Agata name day is this week. Congratulations, Agata, and Danny's birthday is Thursday. Tommy is here recovering from a week of influenza officially diagnosed by medical experts. We have two snowstorms coming in, one tonight and one tomorrow. Keep 'em coming. I don't want to hear "drought" again.

Dawn's Mom has pretty serious surgery tomorrow. We hope all goes well. Dawn and Tyler tried to be there for her surgery last week, but it literally got cancelled at the last minute. That's got to be rough. She had to wait a week. Please remember them in your prayers. I don't think they will make it back for this new scheduled surgery.

Alex finally got his emails. For two weeks he wasn't receiving anything. I kept thinking maybe I was hitting the "send" button wrong. I guess he got five copies of his newsletter. He will write Tuesday night.

Our whole city has been paying their respects to President Gordon B. Hinckley. His funeral was today. The spontaneous love and reverence has been beautiful to see.

We miss all of you and hope you are doing well!

Dawn and Tyler

Here's some photos of Dawn and Tyler. They are on their way to Arizona to help Dawn's mom through some surgery.