Well, What Do You Know...

...even squirrels like chocolate. I can't say I'm surprised. But it was pretty humorous to see this little guy find a Hershey's Kiss on the ground and scurry up to his hole with it. I guess it smelled too good to store it away for later. He ate it right away.

Our Summer Vacation Will Be At...

OK, after seeing the comments of how many of you do not want us at family reunion...just joking! Actually, I would have chosen the trip to St. Johns US Virgin Islands over China. However, I would never want to miss family reunion. I mean really how many of you that responded "China" would actually want to be in a plane for 16 hours straight trying keep 3 kids from going insane. Sure, I know that several of you would respond "that's nothing that sedatives wouldn't cure."

With all of that being said, we will be going to Utah for family reunion. We would never chose anywhere else. After family reunion, we will fly up to Calgary & make the five hour drive up to Jasper, Alberta, Canada. We sure look forward to seeing you all in Utah in a couple of months.

Also, if anyone is interested, I found a cabin up in the mountains about 11 miles from Heber City that can hold up to 25 people. It sounds pretty exciting. I could reserve it for a couple of nights after family reunion. It rents for$300/night, so we could get it for less than the cost of a hotel room if several families wanted to go in on the cabin together. If interested, just let us know.

As for China, St. Johns, London, Poland, and the Greek Isles, we can do that hopefully in the future.

Toby

Way To Go, Toby!

Twice a year, Toby's company sponsors an incentive contest for the Investment Reps. Anyone who wins the contest gets an all expense paid vacation for two to one of several exciting locations. This year, Toby worked really hard and won both contests! So we get to take a family trip for four! (Luckily Emma is still free.) We are very excited!

Here is the puzzle: We could go to Beijing, China during the third week of July. Obviously a thrilling, exotic location, but we would miss the Henrichsen Reunion. The other choice is to go to Jasper, Alberta during the fourth week of July. While the destination may not seem as exciting, choosing this option could have significant financial advantages. We could probably tack on a six-day layover in Salt Lake, thus getting plane tickets for Reunion at little or no personal cost. I'm sure there are great things to see and do in Jasper, but how often does a person get a chance to go to China? It would be my first opportunity to step foot on another continent. Of course, it would be a bummer to miss Reunion.

Thrill or thrift? What would you do?

You Should See the Other Baby

Yes, that is my baby girl. With a shiner. Emma Joy only cried for a moment after falling down the deck steps. I wanted to cry a moment later, when I saw the bruise blossoming. The worst part is, I'm afraid this is not the last of such injuries. I think it's still too early to call Emma a tomboy, but she is definitely adventurous. She wants to run and jump and climb, even though she hasn't mastered walking without stumbling! Toby has taken to calling Emma his little Black Eyed Pea. (Mafia alias: Bruiser.) 

Pretend it's April 5th

I had an exciting day of firsts yesterday. Besides setting up my first blog, I also solved my first New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle. COMPLETELY! I have come close in the past, but this was my first total success. I knew it was a good puzzle when I saw the clue for One Down: What is the psuedonym for musician Peter Schickele? I think this should ring a bell for some of you.

A series of unpredictable events

Two weeks ago, I was enjoying reading and commenting on all of my family's blogs, but not remotely interested in starting one of my own. I didn't feel like I had the time, and moreover, I didn't feel like I had much to say. Then ten days ago, in an innocent attempt to make a comment, I accidentally set up this blogspot. I might have pretended it didn't exist, and continued as I was, an anonymous non-blogger. Most of you probably believe that is what I have done. Maybe you have all given up on Strickland Street, and no one will even read this. But the truth is, the night I set up my blog, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I thought of three different posts, and I actually felt excited at the idea of learning how to post them. So the next day I eagerly read the blogger tutorial and found my dashboard. But it was not to be.
The technology gods tested my desire to blog by wrinkling the page so I couldn't click the add button! I didn't even know a page on the computer could be wrinkled! Next I tried to use Blogthis! This got me as far as the posting page, but apparently another small wrinkle, which I am blaming on Compuserve, prevented me from clicking on anything but the title window. I attepted to write a post as a very long title. But that didn't work. Then I tried to make a comment on my own blog, to explain my difficulties. The message from Blogger? An unexplained error has occurred. This command can not be completed. After I got that message 3 times, I gave up for the day.

Sorry if this series of events has already gotten tedious. It was for me too, and that wasn't the half of it. Let me condense a bit by saying it cost me several hours and thousand bucks, but I think (I hope) my technical difficulties are over. (Note to self: if this post doesn't work, we really are giving up. for good!) My desire and patience were tried, but the unbelievable result of these events is that I am now an eager blogger! I would never have predicted that 10 days ago!

Oops! What am I doing here?