Curtis Famiy Reunion 2010

Mike has this huge awesome tight-knit extended family. They still get together for reunions every year. I love it. My extended family has never been that close. There's a couple of them I see at Christmas, but I have cousins out there that I've never even met. The Curtis family just grows and grows, but no matter who "joins" they just extend their arms and envelope you right into the clan like you've always been a member. This year we went up to Indian Creek. It was a beautiful campsite high up above Joe's Valley. It was a long drive, but it was worth it.

The annual talent show/auction. Sadly some of us don't posses enough talent to participate, but we enjoy watching those who do have it. This isn't even half the group.....
One of my best memories from this year's trip was going out for a 4 mile run by myself. I don't get the opportunity to trail run very much, but I love it. It's so peaceful to be out there running through the beautiful scenery. My heart just swells with gratitude for this amazing place we live in. I was out running and I happened to look back in the trees and see something.....later I took the cousins out there to show them. It was a tepee made of sticks!

Where is this baby's mother? Would somebody please feed him? The poor child is eating bark for heaven's sake....bark!

Mike's sister Mellinda...

More cute boys....

Some wonderful person brought up pinatas for the kids to break. They had a blast!

Tanner had such a swing on him! He was in the younger age group and he was the only from that group who could make a dent in the pinata without parental help. I wasn't suprised at all....he's an expert at breaking things!

We took a short drive up to Potter's Ponds to canoe and fish.

Seriously! Where is this baby's mother? Every picture of him he's putting something dirty in his mouth!

Mike took Caeden out for some one-on-one fishing time and Caeden caught an Albino Trout. He was so excited! His daddy caught a rainbow trout, but Caeden kept saying that the Albino's were the hardest fish of all to catch. I wish I would have got a picture. It was a pretty big moment for him.
I think they might have had TOO MUCH FUN! It sure made for a nice drive home though.

A Weekend of Bliss!

This is one of those "catch-up" posts I warned about. We actually took this trip in June, but our summer has been so busy and so packed with fun stuff I didn't get most of it blogged. My wonderful younger sister took our 3 boys for a whole weekend and Mike and I got to go on a trip just the two of us. We went up to Causey Reservoir (love it there!). There's nothing more romantic than paddling across a lake in the twilight. It's so peaceful and quite. The fish jump, the night sounds are beautiful, the stars are amazing!

We were so wrapped up in being with each other that we didn't take very many pics, but the day we were headed home we decided to go on a "short" 6 mile hike up to Mt. Lewis Peak. I used to hike it growing up and I hadn't been up there in years. It wasn't too long before we realized that it was 6 miles up and 6 miles back....not 6 miles round-trip. We're in pretty decent shape right now (not trying to brag) so the distance wasn't a problem, we even ran quite a bit of it, but we got back lots later than we had planned (we also hadn't packed a lunch! I was soooo hungry!)

This view was worth the 12 miles!

Mike said I had to get a picture of the canoe strapped to the vehicle to prove that we did in fact canoe. I love having pictures from my trips, but I also don't always mind when we're having too much FUN to take many pictures!

I love having time to reconnect as a couple. We come back feeling like newlyweds. We hold hands more, tease each other, flirt, laugh, and remember how much we love each other. I'm already thinking of trip ideas for next year. Shhh! I might be planning a suprise that has to do with:

1- a labyrinth

2- complete isolation

3- and a guide book by Thomas G. Rampton

Primary Bike Parade

I just had to post a couple of pictures from this great Primary activity. The kids loved it, but the best part is this guy.....

see that smile?

He just barely (finally!) got the hang of riding his bike without training wheels and he's had his bum in the saddle almost non-stop ever since.

And this one......

is a speedy terror on his scooter, watch out!

Sweet rewards!

Family Reunion at Crystal Hot Springs

For Mike's family reunion this year we went up to Crystal Hot Springs for the weekend. It was tons of fun for everyone. If you haven't been there before it's a water park resort. They have a hot springs and a cold springs that run within 50 feet of each other (it's 1 of only 2 places in the world that have a hot springs and a cold springs running that close together). They pipe the springs into different pools, add in a water slide and PRESTO! family fun for everyone! We camped in one of the sites right behind the water park.

Rule #1: Don't take pictures of me in a swimsuit. Mike took a bunch of horrible pictures of me on vacation once. I was in a suit that was too big and packing some baby weight. I was horrified and refused to scrapbook them. Now he's scared to ever get another swimsuit picture of me.....so, this is the only photo of me from the trip and I'm okay with that.

This cute kid is excited to go swimming, can you tell?

This is my wonderful, amazing, kind, sweet, generous mother-in-law. I know the stereotype is for women to dislike their MIL's, but I really lucked out in that department. She's someone I look up to and I love her so much! Mike's oldest sister and one of her two cute boys........

Second cute boy....
Can you believe that this beautiful girl was just barely born when Mike and I started dating? She's all grown up now. Time goes so fast! Tanner loves, loves, LOVES Tia and her older sister Morgan. He asks all the time if they can be his sisters. They are so sweet with him. They spend a lot of time playing with him, it's great!

The kids all got a kick out of standing underneath the "waterfall".....can you guess who that is?
I don't have any pics of Mike's other sis, but this is her hubby. Jake and I worked together and that's how Mike and I met. Jake and Mellinda are body builders, can you tell? They have four sweet girls and one boy.
This sweet little guy was cutting molars on the trip. He was pretty crabby, even in the water. I thought I had some really cool waterslide pics, but when I got home and dowloaded them most turned out really fuzzy. I'm not a photographer so I'm not sure why. These are two of our nieces. Caeden and his cousin Dylan claimed that they went down the waterslide a million times. I think I believe it. For at least 3 hours straight they ran up the stairs and went down the slides over and over and over. He slept good that night! Tanner went down once, but was too scared after that. This boy? No fear!This is one of the hot mineral pools, hence the color. I love these handsome guys!

Sisters Trip 2010! Whoot! Whoot!

My sisters and I have sporadically taken Sister's Trips together. We've always had tons of fun, been as silly as teenage girls, and had lots of heartfelt talks.....the kind only sisters can have. Life has gotten in the way for too many years now and we haven't done one in forever! My oldest sister lives out of state so she wasn't able to come, but me and my baby sis decided that we need to start the tradition up again....even if it means just going somewhere close for overnight. Our wonderful hubby's took the kids and she and I headed up for a two day one night canoeing trip at Causey Reservoir. She'd never been canoing before and loved loved loved it. It's a beautiful place to paddle and we had an incredible time together. We fished, swam, talked (and talked, and talked, and talked) made s'mores, hauled the canoe up and down the beach (we are women hear us roar! yes, it was heavy and hard, we even lifted and strapped that thing to the top of my Toyota!), laughed (and laughed and laughed and laughed), and "cliff" dived (well, our version, which consists of a rock 2 feet up from the water, there are a lot of people who do real cliff diving there though and it's exhilirating to watch!) We had a wonderful, amazing, memorable time.

When I get together with my sisters we are the biggest bunch of goofballs. Seriously I think we would put a pack of 12 year old girls to shame. My sister Cherie always strikes the corniest poses in pictures. It's a family joke. Luckily I know she'll always love me no matter what and that she'll forgive me for sharing these on my blog he he he.




I love this girl and I'm so lucky to have her. She's my best friend and a wonderful example to me. She's big-hearted, fun, supportive, and strong. The only thing that would have made the trip even better is if my oldest sister, Tonya, could have been there. We missed her tons, it just wasn't the same! I have a photo of me and my sisters in the kitchen, the frame reads: Having a Sister is Like Having a Best Friend for Life. So true.

Our trip could have ended on a real sour note because just as we were getting ready to finish loading up and heading home we realized that I had accidentally locked my keys in the car. Causey doesn't have cell phone reception and the nearest gas station is 20 min away. We had a nutso who was determined to break one of my windows, but luckily a nice couple intervened and drove us down the mountain. These people were incredible! I had locked my purse in the car and so I had no money, no cell phone.....I felt so helpless. They offered to buy us drinks and lunch (we passed, we were both starving, but we already felt we were putting them out so much!). Cher had a girlie emergency (worst timing in the world!) and the woman handed her some cash to help. They drove us to the gas station and when there wasn't a city phone book they drove us to the ranger station to track down a sheriff, then they drove us back to the gas station to meet the locksmith. They guy even tried to talk me into taking his cell phone, he lived in the same area as I did and said he'd just pick it up from me the next day. I declined, but I couldn't believe he would offer that to a complete stranger. They were so sweet and so nice. The locksmith was great too, he drove me up to the top of the mountain (he could only take one passenger, Cher waited at the gas station), made me a spare key in the back of his vehicle, charged me the "city" price (just to be nice, he didn't want my vacation ruined), and helped me strap the canoe on before I headed back down to get Cher. It went about as well as a bad situation could have. We felt very blessed and watched over. There really are some wonderful people out there!

Mike's 24th Birthday!

We celebrated Mike's 24th birthday (that's what age he's claiming this year) by dining al fresco in our backyard. The weather was just too beautiful and perfect to pass up! We had one of Mike's favorite meals: fresh baked French Bread, homemade Lasagna, a green salad, and a Chocolate Mousse Crunch cake for dessert. For his birthday the boys and I got him a new biking outfit and helmet and an Ipod gift card. He's been biking to work on Wednsdays every week (all the way out to Cottonwood) and we wanted to show our support. He's a great husband and father and we love the opportunity to celebrate him!

School Begins!

Here's my big 2nd grader! I can't believe how grown up he's getting! In a couple of months he'll be baptized and joining scouts. I'm so proud of him! (He would be SO embarassed to read his mom's gushy posts).