The Curtis Clan - Summer 2013
Summer Solstice to Fall Equinox
The first week of summer we sent to the girls to “French Camp” at the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools. We had visions of this bringing them a nice first taste to the language but it didn’t quite turn out that way. We were told that that there would be lots (half) of the kids would be similar newbies but instead the girls were half of the four kids in about a hundred that weren’t already in school there. Hence they skipped all the basics words and concepts with no instruction writing or reading the language. It was a craft and field trip camp in another language. The girls were pretty frustrated with the experience but hopefully not to the point where they won’t try the language out again with others at their skill level.
The second weekend of summer 2013, as VP of the St. Louis alumni chapter, Bethany attended the Pi Betta Phi convention in San Diego along with the President Elizabeth Deal. They had a lovely view of the Marina from their balcony at Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina but didn’t have time to do any sightseeing or border hopping to Tijuana. Based on her Facebook posts, the food and desserts were delightful.
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Bethany and Elisabeth at Pi Phi Convention
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Grant's Farm
While Bethany was away, Randy pulled Dad duty for a few days. So he and the girls rode their bikes along Grant’s trail to Grant’s Farm, having proven they could go the distance a few weeks earlier. The enjoyed the familiarity of the attractions: feeding the goats, riding the carousel, the bird show, feeding the camels and enjoying a refreshing beverage or snow cone at the end.
| Jane feeds the goats |
Cate feeds them too |
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| Cate won the Sea-Horse |
Jane is the Pale Rider(?) |
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The standard family pose in front of the beer wagon
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Camping in the Summer?
Not a fan of trying to sleep in 80+ degrees inside a tent, we’ve avoided camping in Missouri in the summer for…well for about forever. However with exceptionally cool temperatures (highs in the 70s), Dad decided to take them camping at Onondaga State Park to take advantage of it (Carpe Diem!). They took Gussie along for her first camping trip and extended car ride. The Benadryl pill appears to help her with her motion sickness problem, as she made it home fine. The trip down was a bit more eventful due in hindsight to Jane using a heaping spoonful of peanut butter to hide the pill in. At $13 for the night, the well manicured camp grounds with showers and flush toilets at Onondaga were a real bargain, but were almost too posh.
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Jane and Gussie camping
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Cate with fire poking stick
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4th of July
After a two year of being in the WG 4th of July Parade with the school, we actually just watched it this year. This had something to do with Randy not volunteering to chair the school’s entry again and no one else stepping in to fill the void. The parade was noticeably shorter in this non-election year with only a few candidates coupled with the annual Pro-Life and Pro-choice camps separated by a dozen or more other entries. Lots of car clubs, scout troops and local business but no Shiners for the first time I can recall and continued lessening of anything that might be regarded as an actual float. The fewer entries may also been a factor of the 100+temperatures last year lingering in peoples’ minds.
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Jane and Cate wait for the parade to pass them by
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The girls particularly noticed that during their parade watching hiatus, they aged up a notch, reducing their cute kid quotient two notches and reducing their candy / SWAG intact by three notches. They did get the free Snapples, while the 3-6 year olds around didn’t which provided much appreciated relief. We followed the up the parade by going to a former neighbor’s (Lucy and Dave Burns) annual pool party on the way home to catch up with the other neighbors from the street the invite too. Traditions.
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Candy hustling at the parade
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Jane and Cate take a break from the "oohs" and "aahs"at the fireworks
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Rule #2
For years Randy has been doing his best to brainwash the girls with Rule #1: “Stick Together” whenever the girls disappeared from our immediate presence. Rule #1 was notable for its simplicity, repetition, and the absence of any other explicitly repeated instruction since most really bad trouble would be avoided by not losing the other. It remained the only numbered instruction with the exception of Bathroom Rule #1: Keep the water in the bathtub, which eliminated the approval of drinking, splashing or squirting the water which didn’t keep it in the tub. Summer 2013 brought about Rule #2: Don’t touch each other, as frequent togetherness had turned much of our lives into what seemed like a constant family car trip with the siblings provoking the other out of boredom, resulting in a comparable level of family tension and anxiety that became all to regular . We’ve given the question of why this occurred as it was certainly different than our experiences growing up and feel that much of it is that they are each other’s nearly constant playmate, as a result of age proximity, both being girls and not having nearby friends to hang out with, without the other. So even though we didn’t take a major trip, it felt like one. And yes the duplicity of the two rules between not touching one another and sticking together is not lost on us.
Swim & Dive Team – Webster Waves
Encouraged by stories of other parents and looking for something to keep the girls busy this summer hours during the day, we convinced them to sign up for the Webster Waves Swim and Diving Team at the Recreation Center with Jane selecting swimming and Cate choosing diving. The groups met consecutively at 8 am and 9 am, so for a couple hours Bethany had them busy and separate, which we were glad of. Most of the other kids had been doing this for several summers so both Jane and Cate struggled with feeling inadequate. Jane really worked at it and improved her swimming strokes quite a bit. By the end of the session she challenged her dad to swim the length of the pool and she readily beat him fair and square. This was the first time where she was able to legitimately beat one of her parents at something that wasn’t a game of chance like Chutes and Ladders. Clearly just the beginning of many things as her skills increase and ours continue to wan with age.
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Jane doing the breast stroke
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Cate on the other hand mentally gave up trying early on and only barely attempted what most of us consider a dive without prodding. She was generally content with perfecting the forward and backward “pencil” dive, which consists of merely jumping in straight and thus avoiding the potential of belly flopping. In part, her comfort at plateauing appears to result from the lack of a sibling doing it better than her and prodding her to try harder. Also, as a team sport and not a class, there was minimal personal instruction at the sides of the pool with the basics before doing it at the end of a board. Her parents tried to help but were met with the hallmark resistance that marks most of our instructional attempts with her. Anyway, the pencil dives served as two of her three required dives during the meets. Hence she was also required to make an actual dive as well. By the last dive meet, all 3 of her dives counted and were scored as "satisfactory", which was coming a long way for her. Still she didn’t reach a proficiency of beating her parents at this, which was a skill bar that we thought was pretty low. While trying to encourage her practice, Randy dove off a board several times for the first time in three decades, with no significant pink belly resulting. It was mostly a disappointment as knowing her willpower and determination, she could have done well had she tried. Bethany did pick up dive judging as a skill, which didn’t lend itself to taking photos her achievements (picture from an earlier dive meet). Cate did not plan on continuing again but perhaps she will change her mind.
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Cate's 1st Webster Waves dive meet
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Innsbrook 2013
Four our fifth summer in a row, mid-summer took us out for a 5-day vacation to Innsbrook, the A-frame resort about an hour out of town with the Sage tribe. It started as a tradition to honor Bethany’s parents 40th Wedding Anniversary, who had a place at Innsbrook for 17 Years (from 1982-1999). This year was less of a reunion than in the past as only the St. Louis contingent of offspring was able to make it. It also saw a shift of venue from Innsbrook 1135 to 1137, as the previous owners sold their place but the neighbors next door seemed to be willing to share their home with our annual family reunion (actually we like the new place a bit better).
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Innsbrook Group at the dining room table
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Amy and Rosemary
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Bethany, the girls, her sister Rosemary and the nephews went out on Wednesday morning to be joined by Alvan and Amy that evening. The grandparents arrived late as it was Alvin’s 66th birthday, which saw him continuing his seventh annual play-my-age-in-golf-holes marathon. At least the weather was cool and rainy so everyone wasn’t as concerned about his keeling over with this mid-summer tradition that will surely kill him one day if he keeps adding another hole each year on statistically one of the hottest days of the year.
| Alvan at the grill |
Googing around on the links (only picture we have of Patrick NOT smiling) |
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Randy drove out on Thursday after work, bringing along Gussie for her first Innsbrook adventure. Despite the Benadryl, after about 20 minutes she succumbed to motion sickness and lost hear little brown crunchy balls in her crate in the Chesterfield Valley during the thick of rush hour traffic. Once we got there, Gussie did have a grand time out in the woods, being off the leash with her cousin Hank. She came back each time and we thought we crossed a line of doggie maturity until Sunday, when she didn’t come back. As usual, she was only recaptured when she found some other guests that needed her love and attention (her Kryptonite when playing the game of chase with the family). Between that, a return car ride with more stops to clean her crate out and the five ticks we found on her, this could be her only mini trip.
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Henry, foreshadowing as the life of the party?
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At dinner, Gwen and Van shared their news they were expecting, thus providing an explanation for her lack of wine consumption before she was confronted with questions about being on the wagon.
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Van, Gwen, Patrick and Bethany chatting on the deck
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Randy and the cousins paddle boating
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The weekend was filled with leisurely conversations, lazing about and paddle boating with the kids. Quiet moments in the shade on a lounger in the relative quiet, reading, listening to Antonio Carlos Jobim and writing on the laptop before a nap was Randy’s favorite activity (hard to argue he’s not ready for AARP). The best group activity was cannon balling and playing in the pool. A fun weekend.
| Cannonball! - Jane |
Cannonball! - George |
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| Cannonball! - group |
Cannonball! - Randy |
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| George and Gramy at the pool |
Cate at the pool |
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On the way home Sunday, Cate asked her Dad about getting a cat or perhaps a turtle as a pet and what she would need to do to make that happen. And then as if God was listening to her wish, we came across a box turtle in the road. How could even the atheist say no to keeping it for a few days after such divine timing? Besides she would certainly get tired of it after a couple days of responsibility and want to let her go on her own, right? Wrong! Cate named her Luna Lovegood, and quickly fell in love with her three-toed box turtle (Terrapene carolina triunguis), the official state reptile of Missouri). For the next couple days she was very smitten with her new pet. Tuesday was a day of nearly non-stop weeping as Randy insisted it was time to set her free, which they did in the woods behind Nana’s house. If we had held off another couple days, we could have released Luna in the courtyard of Nana’s new skilled nursery facility, Manor Grove which has a couple of box turtles roaming the courtyard. At least it wasn’t a kitten in the road.
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Cate and Luna
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It must be awfully important, like a party or something! - Alice
Randy’s 50th (Un) Birthday
After a 13 Year Hiatus (and not by popular demand), Randy decided to have another Un-Birthday party where he was the primary party planner, as opposed to Bethany. He had mixed feelings about having a party but after a few of his favorite people from out of state asked and implied they would come into town if there was a party, he decided what the heck. Of course they weren’t able to make it on the selected date.
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Randy at 50
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The attendees were an eclectic mix of neighbors, old fraternity brothers, co-workers and family. During the mingling, there was a random slide show mix of old Randy pictures with a mix of swinging 60’s music providing a fun atmosphere. The slide show was heavy on 1960s pictures of a blond toehead Randy, as he had scanned in his Mom’s family photo albums.
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Cate demonstrating the slide show
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Added to the mix were movie posters from the AFI Top 100 in association with a request for everyone to be prepared to tell other people what their favorite movie is of all time was and most importantly why. The answers were:
• Gettysburg – Laurel
• Alice in Wonderland & She’s the Man- Lauren
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – Jane
• Miracle - Henry and George
• It’s a Wonderful Life- Randy
• All the Harry Potter movies – Cate
• Kelly’s Heroes-Amy
• The Graduate- Alvan
• The Searchers - Dan
• Blade runner – Brent
• Birdcage – Rochelle
• 2001 – Steve
• Shawshank Redemption – Van
• Gladiator – Patrick
• 16 candles and Ferris Bueller’s Day off – Sheila
• Love Actually – Ann
• My Favorite Wife and Elf – Lisa
• Animal House – Chris
• Juno – Lisa
• Hellfighters – Rhonda
• Finding Nemo – Clarice
• Band of Brothers – Rosemary
• Forrest Gump – Barry
• The Breakfast Club – Gwen
• Sliding Doors & White Christmas - Bethany
• Best in Show; Schindler’s List; Anatomy of a Murder; Lars and the Real Girl; Waking Ned Devine; Being There; Seabiscuit; Hoosiers; It’s a Wonderful Life; To Kill a Mockingbird; ET; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; Field of Dreams Pete
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50th party Group Picture
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The favorite movie theme continued over to the Jeopardy Game on the flat screen TV with everyone participating. It went over well despite such categories as Randolph Scott, Childhood, Randy Favorites, Westerns and Directed By. The game was very well received and people generally got the answers except for the John Sayles movies question (he directed “Limbo”, the movie where Randy Met Bethany across a crowded room). Despite no one really knowing anything about Randolph Scott, the answers were written in such a way people learned about the B Western namesake of the party honoree.
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Neighbors on the balcony
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Randy-in-his-30s party staples such as human pyramids, a batch of home brew or t-shirts SWAG advertising them failed to come to fruition as did the plans for mix-CDs honoring Johnny Mercer (not sure anyone else really regretted the last one). The Tomato-Basil Pesto SWAG was mediocre as was the wine pull of questionable Nancy wines.
| Bethany sporting her 1960s Zou Biso Biso look |
Zou Biso Biso |
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The party ended by eleven-ish with last group including kids staying up too late and no one even suggesting the trek to the Newport RR Bridge Overpass to drink Schafer while the trains roared by.
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Gussie is one pooped pooch
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Cousin Camp
Jane has had a lingering idea that she turned in actuality this summer, Cousin Camp. The plan for the camp was that cousins George and Henry would come every day for a week of fun. She may a detailed PowerPoint in May to sell Bethany and Rosemary on the plan, detailing all the activities for each day and the overall merits (Cate helped some with the ideas). How could they say no? The moms determined that the last week in July worked best for both families schedule. Each day had a theme: Monday - Outside Play with them goofing out in the yard and then making the field trip to Margaret Park, five blocks away.
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Walking Across Tuxedo at Cousin Camp
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Tuesday was "cooking day". And the kids, with more than a little help from Bethany, girls for working with the boys to prepare delicious meals for both families complete with cookies (in actuality, the whole camp happened with more than a little help from Bethany).
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Tye dye shirts
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Wednesday was Game Day and the kids played Star Wars Xbox and made some "tie-dye" shirts using Sharpies and alcohol (easy and less messy). The camp ebbed a bit at the end of the week as they skipped Thursday due to piano lesson make ups and some other due outs. Friday was suppose to be a full day of swimming at the Webster pool but it changed a bit with the girls going to the Shaw’s and their community pool for a few hours, as Randy and Bethany had a funeral to attend. Still as Bethany observed “It would have been nice to have grown up with cousins, as this is what I always imagined it would look like.”
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At the Avery playground
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Six Flags
The first Sunday in August, Randy and girls spent the day at Six Flags, after failing to find a suitable day sooner to go with our friends on our annual pilgrimage to the Disney World wanna-be. The girls earned their tickets at school for reading as they have the last few years, so going was essentially “free”. That is “free” if you don’t count the $40 discounted adult ticket, $20 parking, $15 endless soda cup and $25 for over-priced lunch of junk food for three. Then again, do we think the fun we had was worth $100? Definitely! We got in the park before it opened by a few minutes and managed to be first in line to ride the Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Scary Swamp in the morning. Blasting the ghosts and ghouls is a true pleasure and is a great update to the original Injun Joes Cave, which was hokey after a time or two. We immediately rode it again which proved an astute move in retrospect as Scooby Doo typically has the longest lines (particularly on a hot day as it is air conditioned). We had lunch in shifts so everyone got what they wanted at different locations though “wanted” is on the adjusted scale as the food choices and their execution is uniformly bad. Really how hard would it be to offer a veggie burger option? I’m sure it would be equally disappointing but better than the cheese pizza and nachos we got.
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Randy and the girls with Scooby Doo
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The girls continued to shy away from the mainstay roller coasters despite much prodding from the Dad preferring the Scrambler (Shazam), Thunder River, the Sky Screamer swings and the Moon Antique cars. We did stay long enough so the crowds died down allowing us to ride the Mine Train roller coaster a few times in a row without getting out, prompting Cate to declare it her new favorite ride (partially because it wasn’t her sister’s). The family favorite remained the Log Flume where we got to stay in our log for ten laps in a row without getting out of the boat (and many times before that). We capped off the day with a final visit to Scooby Doo as the park closed and not leaving until 9:20 (an 11 hour day at the park). There’s probably another year or so left in them wanting to go with their Dad but tweendom is here and episodic teen independence on the near horizon.
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The girls taking laps on the Log Flume
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Jane’s Birthday
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Jane at 11
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On Monday we celebrated Jane’s 11th Birthday. Bethany went all out on giving Jane a Harry Potter themed party for the family. Twelve hours too herself the day before and having the girls in a YMCA day camp on Monday had much to do with her Martha Stewart-ing it up. She prepared Jane a Hogwarts invitation letter, which you could see in Jane’s eyes for a few moments that maybe, just maybe, her dream that she was actually magical and was being invited to goto Hogwarts might be true (Harry gets his letter on his 11 Birthday, as did the other kids). The youthful innocence gleam is all too rare. Bethany also made a Hogwarts cake, a collection of potions and mock Gryffindor ties for the guests.
| With the Sage Gryffendors |
Poitions |
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Janes 11th Bday cake
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On the Saturday after her birthday, Jane wanted to ride bikes with a couple of her friends to Grants Farm (4th bike ride to that destination and 2nd time actually in the park this summer). We packed the Sienna with bikes and made the “arduous” 1.25 trek along the paved bike trail with the girls. Watching the animal show and feeding the goats were fun, but as many things the magic is diminished with repetition.
| Cate with goats |
Jane with goats |
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Obligatory family photo with the beer wagon
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That Sunday Bethany joined her friends Elisabeth and Maria at Half & Half for a Birthday Celebration. The trio’s monthly lunch outings are a continuing source of pleasure for all of them.
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Bethany Elisabeth and Maria at lunch
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Cate completed Harry Potter and the Order Phoenix (#5) after working on it all summer, so we celebrated by watching the movie that night. She quickly started Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (#6) a few days later, knocking it out 2 ½ weeks. While a shorter book, she read it a 3-4 times faster than the previous one when she had WAY more free time. The only excuse we could come up with was the interaction of her school peers pushing her own, trumping her sister’s prodding. As the custom, we watched that movie following her completion of the book. Other movies the family watched this summer included: Pink Panther (1964), Ironman 2 & 3 and Star Trek – Into the Darkness.
Back to School
The girls went back on Tuesday 13 August; the earliest date yet. Jane is in 5th grade, which will be her last year at the WG Computer School. Her teacher is Mr. Melanson, the only male teacher in the school. His low key, calm approach we believe will be good for our overly dramatic eldest, though she is much less drama outside the house. Cate started 4th grade with Ms. Hoffman, who was Jane’s Kindergarten teacher before taking a few years off to have kids. She retains her very perky, up-beat nature which is giving us some pause after the retired 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Gibson, compassionate but reality and responsibility based approach we grew to love. Cate has taken to her quite readily though and we realize that teachers are most effective when their passions are allowed to blossom (though don’t we all fit into that category). Either way, it’s a definite change from Mrs. Gibson last year who we were really thinking would be good for Cate. Gussie isn’t going to school though she could use some improved manners (i.e. minimally not jumping and coming back when called would be good).
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First day of school 2013
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Bethany’s Birthday
After dropping the girls at school, Randy and Bethany went to their favorite corporate greasy spoon for breakfast: Denny’s. Waffle House is right up there too, with definitely more of a floor show of fellow diners but there’s really only one choice on your birthday with the free Grand Slam! We puttered the rest of the morning and treated ourselves to our favorite restaurant House of India for the buffet lunch, making ourselves uncomfortably full and ready for naps. We topped of the evening with a trip to the Skyview Drive-In in Belleville, IL for the girls first time at the drive-in. The movie, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters was only adequate but then again perhaps it was a good thing as you don’t want it to be a great movie at the drive in as there are too many distractions to focus on high end quality. We continued our gastronomic celebration with a Pointer’s pizza and peanut M&Ms. Oddly, we all wore fleece jackets and the girls were under blankets…in August…in St. Louis! As Bethany put it: "Totally crazy weather this summer - more like what it was in the olden days when I was growing up in St. Louis in the 70s & 80s! I remember needing to bring a jacket to watch fireworks at night. I'm trying to savor this one since it's unlikely to be this mild again in summer for a very long time..."
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At the Skyview Drivein
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Labor Day Weekend - As is our family tradition, we did nothing of note on the bookend weekends of American summer. Mostly it’s an aversion to crowds so we skip anything that would appear to attract them. We took in a Rascals single A Baseball game and a movie at the 2nd run Keller theatre (Monsters U)\
That Thursday Bethany put in her last shift in the WG YMCA Gym as they’re closing it. A bittersweet feeling as Jane & Cate had a lot of great times there but not all the kids were well behaved. Still the once a month gig gave Bethany a Y membership and some hefty employee discounts to Camp Lakewood and Trout Lodge. It’s unclear that she’ll be able to pick up other shifts at the Y to continue but it was nice while it lasted.
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Saying goodbye to the YMCA Kid's Gym
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Trout Lodge FDW (Father Daughter Weekend)
Bethany and a couple of the other WGCS moms and principal decided to do the St. Louis Challenge Urban Scavenger Hunt/race again this year on Saturday on the first full weekend in September. They finished 27th out of 153 teams. That, a flier from the YMCA and the potential end of the employee discounts inspired Randy to take the girls to Sunnen Lake for the weekend and let B have a quiet weekend to herself but not before Randy taking his last furlough Friday and celebrating by having breakfast at Denny’s with Bethany following dropping the girls off at school. Can you tell that breakfast out has become one of our favorite things.
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Bethany, Kristen, Erin and Kristen at the Arch
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The trio left directly from school stopping en route in Potosí explore the exotic wonders of the Dickey Bub farm store and getting half-priced water shoes on clearance. We arrived at the lodge just in time for dinner and were delighted to have hummingbirds enjoying the feeders outside the windows of the dining hall for each meal. The weekend was filled with a number of pleasures: putt-putt golf, a playground, horseback riding, bike riding; the Nature Center; zip lining, pirate pontoon adventure; archery (4 sessions) capped off with campfire songs and skits, shmores in the evenings.
| Jane and Cate enjoy the tire swing |
Don't you want some schmore? |
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| Cate climbs the Pine Zip line tower |
Jane climbs the Pine Zip line tower |
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Of note on the trail ride, the wranglers required that all riders swat the numerous horse flies that were spooking the horses a bit. Jane bailed but Randy and Cate made a contest of it with Dad winning 8 to 5 for the weekend.
| Pontoon Pirate float |
Getting squirted by the girls |
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On Friday, the 13th Bethany and Erin led the 5th WGCS Girl Scout Troop on a camping trip in our backyard. A mini 90 plus heat wave broke and it was a perfect day of mid-70s day of sunshine and evening in the 50s. About half the troop had soccer games before hand, so the parents set up the tents up for them (avoiding the tension that would go with it). The girls grilled pita pizzas (think calzone) over the fire followed by a Dutch oven cherry cobbler for dessert and the obligatory schmores for more desert. Of course ghost stores were a must, with the girls improvising stories with limited success. Bethany’s Bloody Fingers tale went over will and the six girls were ready for sleep by 11pm all bunking in our 8 person tent (you maybe could get 8 kindergarteners in there but even 6 11 year olds was tight). Bethany and Erin slept in the tent next to them and Randy went inside to avoid any creepy dad potential (the scouts are super sensitive about that stuff). The girls got up at 6:30 the next morning, had breakfast of pancakes and veggies sausages for pigs in a blanket and were gone by 9. A successful cheek-off on the Scouting to do list.
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Morning of the Jr Girl Scout camp out
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WGCS Cardinal Game
On the ides of September, we rode the Metro link down to Bush stadium for the annual WGCS outing. They upped the price to $15 for a seat, dog and soda from $10 but it was still a deal (that and the kids got to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Park during the 7th Inning stretch). It was an overcast day and we got shade at the top of the stadium allowing for blissful comfort as the Cardinals routed the Mariners but it hardly mattered to us.
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Singing Take me out to the Ballpark (Jane and Cate are in back row center)
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| Rand and Bethany at Bush Stadium |
Curtis family at the top of the ballpark |
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WGCS Grandparent’s Day
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Jane and Gral at WGCS
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Gral joined Gramy for the annual WGCS Grandparent’s afternoon, his first time. Gramy took a nice and in focus picture of him with Jane along with Jane introduction collage. Her picture with the girls wasn’t so good. They did get one of Cate introductory teaser that read:
Who am I?
My favorite color is green.
My favorite food is Indian.
I love Harry Potter books.
I don’t like my sister.
I’m afraid of Dolphin Do reminders
The fifth lines say a lot about the bumpiness on the home front for the last half a year. At times summer seemed like a never ending road trip with the girls playing the touching/not touching game in the back seat. It’s a blessing and a curse that they spend so much time together.
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Jane's introductory collage
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With the end of summer came another end. Cate finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in very short order, so we watched the final films on back to back evenings. We don’t see an end to their HP mania anytime soon but it would seem we’ve peaked and are on the downward slope. It’s hard not to see this as bittersweet as they pass another step through childhood innocence and the awareness that not all experiences or people are good. The path onward to adulthood is filled with hard truths and responsibilities. Still it is pleasant to talk with them about heroism; choices and bravery; the interaction becoming more peer related and less parental lectures.
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