Climbafamilytree123: “Spring and Summer Sauntering”

31 August 2010
Dear family and dear friends,

I have not dropped off the map, exactly.
I am and have, however, been perusing maps in efforts to keep up with the reaching and stretching of family members.

After our "come-along" gang conquered half a dozen dead or dying front yard quaking aspens

and while my youngest brother's family was adding a wonderful nearly two year old member

to join their lego club menagerie,

the cousins

sensed a noticeable glow about Kristen.

Soon we learned from Kristen and Zach that their little family would grow.

Kristen, Zach, Amber, and Maria

joined us in Spring City early April, where our friends Su & Mike shared their mobile-home

view of the valley as we watched conference and played games together.

A few days later, Val acquiesced to Maria’s wish for a more exotic spring break, where she learned (uphill, barefoot, in the snow) to drive a stick shift to help drive to Burbank, California, where he could worked and we could play.

Visits to Santa Monica Beach,

The Getty,

the Huntington Library,

with singing fountains at a nearby eatery,

culminated in a peace-filled Saturday morning

to remember Grandpa Starkey's Cheshire England family.

Maria then found a friend along a costal pier.

The visit connected us with Cousin Michael

via hike to the Griffith Observatory

and Korean barbecue at a farmer’s market.

Having left only minor bumper paint with a tight U turn in a narrow squeeze and chalking up merely one red-orange light (still awaiting the infamous mail-order traffic tickets)

the copious miles we covered generated gratitude for our nearby less-traveled Legacy Highway.

Maria helped me drive home;

Val stayed and returned for further bolt testing.

Later in April, we watched Zach and Kristen march in cap and gown

to Pomp and Circumstance

with friends from Kristen’s Food Science Department

after an invocation from Dallin Dance, valedictorian and son of dear friends from Bellevue.

Kristen finished up another class or two, arranging flowers with Sister Amber,

who chose to stay spring and summer terms and lived three blocks away.

Interspersed between Kristen’s human development and technical writing courses and Amber’s classes to explore careers and edit/circulate BYU’s Leading Edge science fiction magazine,

the Starkey and the Gee families gathered at Grandma Pearl’s childhood home in Paris, Idaho

during the third and fourth weekend of June.

Happily for us, an eight-year-old grandson came and joined for the second (Gee) reunion,

staying in Kaysville for another week to share a 4th of July parade,

fireworks, and a grandpa’s offer of swimming and learning to fish.

He also helped Grandma bury Maria’s goldfish that expired during Maria’s visit to Washington, where Maria assisted an aunt, made new friends in Tacoma with BYU’s Especially for Youth program, and checked out Woodland Park Zoo, bonding with Sammamish cousins.

As Zach’s plans for graduate school were postponed; joyfully, in June, he was offered and accepted a position with Goldman Sachs at their U of U campus in Salt Lake. Zach’s training included a visit to New York City and allowed a happy, pregnant companion to join up to experience Mary Poppins and a variety of interesting sites together prior to returning in time for a U- haul move (with many appreciated helpful hands) north to Sandy in early August.

Upon wrapping up summer grammar and usage classes, Amber joined Maria, Val, and Laurene on a Delta flight east; then navigating toll roads from Orlando to Tallahassee, Florida,

we found an amazing three month old Spencer,

who glows and smiles any time his hands are clapped together.

Between farmers and fish markets, lap swimming, beach bumming,

walking Tallahassee tree-filled trails and trying our hands at Lanae’s Ethiopian lentils, shrimp, and grouper, our time was celebrated and cherished.

(Thank you to persistent Patrick for patient and prompt suitcase repair!)

Val returned early to his Kaysville Boeing home-office to certify an airplane and specify bolts, top priority.

Since before the June reunions, Val has wrestled pain from three herniated cervical discs.

So when daughters campaigned to visit a newly opened Hogwarts castle in Orlando, he happily and easily passed on any roller coasting.

Now, it is their mom who continues to watch the room spin upon reclining! An end of spinning is not in sight,

with beginnings of AP classes for a Darting to Davis Junior

and a budding anthropology major who is presently charting the whereabouts of Visakhapatnam.

Can you say it three times fast?
Or can you find it on the map?

For Kristen and company, an autumn trip to Washington approaches (to celebrate Brianne’s bringing us a 6 pound 9 ounce Zoey in July)