growing up - and more picture overload

Somehow Laine the Hurricane has turned 6. (I know, I know. I can hear the audible gasp out there from all of you that thought she was at least 13 but she is not. She is only 6 but don't you try and tell her that or ELSE!)
I think we are good parents. We really try, but no matter what we say to her she keeps growing. It is really frustrating. If you have a solution please let us know.

Tonight in Lainey's bed time prayer she said, "please bless me that I will not have bad dreams. Please bless me to dream about butterflies, flowers, corn on the cob, Hello Dolly, and The Secret Garden." I love knowing what constitutes a happy dream to her. (I actually wrote this a few days ago and since then she has just made this one of those repetitious things she says every night.)

We marked Laine's vanishing youth at the cabin again this year. This is really a great way to go. It is like a present for the parents and for her. For the parents, they don't have to throw a party where she would insist on everything being covered with pink feather boas and would probably also involve a lot of rhinestones. Instead, we as parents, can get a way with just hauling a pinata up to the cabin to hit with a stick.

For Lainey, she gets to be in one of the most beautiful places in the world, go to the beach everyday, take a ride on a boat, and wear her swimsuit pretty much 24/7. What could be better?

This year there were some great additions as well. It was a killer season for huckleberries so we spent a little time each morning enduring the mosquitoes and filling our buckets with yummy plump berries. We also had to make a lot of noise just to be sure we didn't run into any grizzly bears who thought that we looked plump and yummy. We did come across some VERY fresh bear scat. Rom and I dissected it to see what the bear had been eating. It was very fun but it was obvious the bear liked berries too so we had to be careful - lucky thing for bear bells and noisy kids. (my bro and sis-in-law saw three griz one night not too far from the cabin and on a main road! crazy!)

Lainey also agreed to some new things this year. Now that she is six and everything and so OLD she thought she would be willing to try water skiing with Marie. We have some cousins that have the kids sit on the adult's lap so we finally talked Lainey into trying it. Lainey didn't really sit on her lap so it looked to me a lot more like one of those water skiing shows you would see in Florida or something. They were a pretty good act I thought. (My two absolute favorite pictures of the summer are the one of them skiing together and the one of the victory muscle flex below.) We also talked Lainey into trying wake boarding but the cold lake water got the best of her on that one so after 2 tries and a face plant she was done done done. We were proud of her for trying though and that night when I was putting Romney to bed I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. He answered immediately that it was "when my big sister tried wake boarding. I want to try wake boarding when I am six." It was really cute.

We celebrated on Saturday and had a big fiesta. Lainey had also requested a very specific birthday cake. She said "Mom, I want my cake to have a beach, and the lake and maybe a boat in the lake pulling a water skier." At first this was a little distressing to Marie but she totally came through. Along with a little help from her super stylish sister they made an awesome cake. It included the cabin, a bear, a moose, a boat and skier, a sail boat, fish, a lake, and a beach. It was pretty impressive. They made it all out of tootsie rolls, taffies, and dots.

(tangential note - does anyone out there actually like dots? they are terrible. Our theory is that they stopped making dots sometime in the 60s but they have not been able to sell them so they continue to disperse them in mixed bags of candy just to get rid of them. I can only recommend dots for people with no teeth. If you have teeth you will not be able to taste them because they will always be stuck to your teeth but if you don't have teeth I can imagine that they would be okay to just gum away at for an hour or two.)

As always leaving the cabin is a travesty that comes complete with tears and tantrums. Why would anyone want to leave?



(credit to most of the pictures to Cath! thanks Cath - see some more here)

TIMP

For Christmas this year in Marie's family we gave each other the gift of an activity planned for the whole family. Many months ago for example you may recall that I almost killed Romney on our Merry Christmas family sledding activity and Marie considered not talking to me anymore.....but let's not dwell on that lapse in fatherly judgment.

Marie's sister Catherine gave us the gift of a family hike up Timpanogos. We each were given assignments for the hike as well. I, for example, was the "official time keeper - because everyone deserves a second chance." My assignment was a reference to one of my first attempts at a Curtis family activity which was hiking the full length of the narrows in Zion. The only problem was my alarm didn't wake me up in the morning and didn't wake up anyone else either so we were REALLY late getting to Marie's parents and siblings and her dad decided he didn't like me and I had this pit in my stomach that almost made me puke in his car which would have made him like me even less. It was not one of my finer moments.

Marie was the offical "dispenser of snacks." You see, one of Marie's jobs in life when it comes to taking care of her sister Cath is to always be sure to have snacks on hand at a moments notice. Cath needs a lot of snacks and as the parentified child, Marie feels it important to fulfill this need. She did not dissappoint on the hike.

We were so excited to have Peter and Marv on the hike with us. They are in about the same physical shape so they both had to bow out early. Peter held on a little longer than Marv but in fairness to Marv, Peter was being carried up the mountain.

This part always scares me on the way up...and the way down. (if you click on it you can see the trail switch backing along the side if the mountain)

Here we are on top. See how I'm hanging onto Marie? that is not an attempt at affectionate hand holding. That is an attempt to hold on to something, anything, that will keep me from falling off of the top because even though I'm smiling I feel like my stomach is dropping out. (author's note: I did not write the words "feel like my stomach is dropping out. I wrote something much more descriptive but my editor told me that no one wants to know what I wrote so it had to be deleted from the post. I just wanted you to know that I felt much worse than simply my stomach dropping out. thank you.){editors note: trust me. It was too much information.}

This is where we chased the mountain goats. These things can climb up into the craziest places.

On the way down we decided to ride the glacier rather than hike. We thought for sure this would save some time. It didn't. But it was more fun. And more wet. Here is Ben showing how it should be done. (notice the nice hat grab when he goes over) The rest of us went on our butts.

picture overload

So I've been trying for a month to write this post...seriously. I finally figured out the problem I was having uploading the pictures and it turns out that although I wanted to blame it on my suckity suck internet it was actually....operator error. Why does it always turn out to be my fault in the end?

BUT anyway I'm glad to finally share with you some of our recently taken family photos! They turned out great even though we cried just a little before the pictures. Well, maybe a whole week before the pictures. Do you ever fight a lot before your family pictures? I still remember exactly a family photo that is hanging in my parents house from back in the '80s when my mom though it would be cool to have big ball-y hair. We fought SO much that day. I laugh when I see us smiling in the picture because I remember that we were NOT happy.

So, yeah, we cried. We cried that none of our clothes matched and that we didn't have any style and that we had to wear old clothes and that our kids didn't know how to smile and that we had zits and that we were bald and.....you know....the usual stuff. Since it has been so long since I have blogged I think I'll have to be really honest and tell you that we cried because we felt like we didn't have any nice clothes and that we were not cute. It is hard with so many other cute people in the world. They all have style and grace. Why can't we have a little? LUCKILY, however, it turned out that at a minimum our kids are cute (at least we think so) and even though we are bald it is okay because being bald isn't so bad.

Another thing we have working for us, as well as against us, is other super stylish family members. The good thing about having super stylish family members is that they can come over and help. They will get out ALL of your clothes, along with lots of theirs, and they will put them all on the bed and then they will help you choose what to wear. This seems like a really good thing because since you are un-stylish and they are super stylish they will be able to find the exact combination of pants and socks and shirts and skirts to ensure that no one notices you are bald because you are dressed SO good. Another good thing is super stylish family members may also be willing to loan you their nice clothes because after visiting your closet they will agree that you don't have any nice clothes. There are some draw backs to having super stylish family members as well. Sometimes, for example, ignorance is bliss. My life was just great before I learned that I couldn't wear this shade of khaki next to my son who is wearing a different shade of khaki. Sometimes it feels great to just say - "Yeah, this shirt will go nicely with your skirt and we'll all look great." Sometimes it is not helpful to find out that your idea of what to wear is embarrassing and that the photographer might be laughing behind that camera at my lack of coordination. Sometimes I just want to not match and not know about it okay? Is that too much to ask? When having the only family photos you have had in a really really long time....yes. That is too much to ask.

I had a hard time deciding which pics to post so you get to see a lot of them! Plus I know my Grandma wants so see a lot of them so I'll blame it on her. (click on them to enlarge)


















































all photographs by Alli S. Miles - allismiles.blogspot.com you should email her right now to schedule your family shoot. She was really great. allsmiles.photography@gmail.com
(also - the quality and size of these pictures was greatly reduced to accomodate the blog. actual photos were much higher quality)

Super Peter

Little Peter turns one today! What a year, what a year, what a journey for this darling little one.

(Don't be deceived by the double candles on his birthday waffle. It's just been such a big year, one candle wasn't enough.)

He stopped by for a birthday visit to his adoring cousins for a customary and patiently endured session of mauling/loving.