The Solari Sentinel, February 7, 2009

It's time again for the next edition of the Solari Sentinel, a way for us to strengthen family bonds and celebrate joys, challenges, and memories.

Thank you for your letters and pictures! It's always so much fun to see the events that are being described. I hope this February edition, in the month of love, brings to you a love and appreciation of family.

And remember:

"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses."
~Joyce Brothers

The Cooper Clan

What a busy few months it's been since the last edition of the Sentinel. Now that we are living in South Florida, it seems like there is much more of a draw for people to come visit us than we had in dry, dusty West Texas.

First, in October, Stephen's brother, Jordan, flew out for a visit. We had a great time at the beach, swimming at our pool, and going out to eat. Kyle loves his Uncle Bando!


It was hard to believe that Halloween was just around the corner, seeing as there really is no "fall" in Miami. We put out our pumpkins and dressed up, anyway. We even had a few parties to go to, and Kyle had his first "official" experience with trick-or-treating.


In November, Kyle and I flew to Utah and actually got a taste of some fall weather: changing leaves, cool breezes, fresh mountain air. If only we could skip the 12-hour travel day!

For Thanksgiving, one of my very best friends (since Jr. High) and her husband came to spend a long weekend with us. It was my first time ever to host a Thanksgiving feast, and it was nice to have some company to spend the holiday with. The boys got to go fishing, deep in the Everglades, while the girls and Kyle went to a tropical garden. We all went down to the Keys and spent some time on our closest beach, as well.

In December, Stephen's parents came to spend some time with us before and after their Caribbean cruise. We were able to take Kyle to meet Santa and to have an early Christmas celebration with them.


Stephen had a 3-week break from classes, so we decided to have some Floridian adventures while he was on vacation. We went up to Palm Beach and took Kyle to the zoo. We went all the way down to Key West and ate some real Key Lime Pie and stood by the southernmost point in the U.S. We also found an Ancient Spanish Monastery, right here in Miami! That is the last major break from classes Stephen will have for the next 2 years, so we really wanted to make it count.

For part of our Christmas vacation, we were able to spend time with family in Utah. Boy, what a change of scenery and climate from the beaches and Key West to the snowy mountains! We were definitely welcomed to winter:


We had a wonderful Christmas and are so grateful that we got to spend it with all of our Utah family and with Grama Sue and Auntie Deb, as well. It was also great fun to get to talk to Matt, who is still serving a mission in Guatemala.

Once back in Florida, Stephen got right into school. He's in his most challenging semester of the entire program, with the most course-work and 2 days of in-hospital clinicals. We hardly get to see him, but know that his sacrifice will pay off soon! He's doing SO well in all of his studies, and we are quite proud of him.

Kyle turned 18 months old on January 18th. This means that he is officially old enough to attend the nursery program at our church. Sadly, he HATES IT!!! We're working on the separation anxiety stuff and trying to find a way for him to enjoy his Sunday School......otherwise, Mom and Dad aren't going to be able to enjoy theirs!


Our most recent visitors just left the Casa Cooper Hotel a few hours ago. Granna and Gramps Boulter were able to fly down to visit Kyle and to soak up some sun. We took a trip into the Everglades and spent some time on the beach. They enjoyed the fresh seafood, the warm weather, and getting to spend some time with their grandson (and daughter and son-in-law!)

We look forward to hearing from all of you. May the next few months be full of fun and great memories. Until then, take care. And, if you're ever in South Florida, there is a spot open for you here!

Love,
Stephen, Mel, & Kyle

Sue's News

Dear Sentinel Readers

Can’t remember where we left off so I’ll start with Christmas. Deb and I drove to Utah to be with the Boulter Bunch. We didn’t have any trouble with the roads, but the next day it started to snow, and we enjoyed a white Christmas. I discovered that I would not do well in a cold climate. You have to get up early and start your car and then scrape the ice off your windows and watch where you are walking so as not to fall. I must admit it is beautiful. It was fun to be with everyone and a great time was had by all. It was especially fun because Kyle was there. He loved all his toys. We left for home on the 29^th and Deb drove all the way (16 hours). It was a long drive, but we were glad to get home without incident.

My gourmet dinner club met at my house on New Year's Eve. It was great fun since we all brought our traditions. I did turkey and dressing, and they brought the rest. We had 14 people. We even lasted until midnight and then had champagne and black eyed peas.

January started with a bang with meetings of all the groups I am in. I kept a young man from Kansas who came for the National Young Artists contest for our symphony. There were young people from all over the U.S. It was fun to listen to them. A Clarinetist won. She will come back and play with our symphony next January.

Then 2 weeks later four of us (Bea Cooper, Jane Samples, Maridell Fryar and I) went to Dallas. We left Friday and got there in time to go to a wonderful soufflé restaurant. We then went back to our motel and played bridge. We got up Saturday and went shopping at the Mall and then on to the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum. That night we went to a fondue restaurant and then went back and played bridge. Sunday we went to a crazy restaurant (Dick’s Last Resort) for brunch and then on to the Dallas opera Robert Devereux. It was fantastic and we really enjoyed it. Then we went to dinner at P.F. Changs and yes we went back and played bridge.

The next weekend was the annual Habitat Tool Box Bash. It was great fun but lots of work. Then Sunday morning Maridell and I flew to California to help Larry work on his book. It was great fun and they treated us like royalty. Now I am trying to catch up and looking forward to traveling to Florida in March to see the Coopers and then on to Kate’s wedding.

Hope everyone is doing well and taking good care of themselves. I look forward to seeing all of you this year.

Love, Sue Solari

Julianna

The Christmas season for me was fun-filled and busy, as usual. My family decided to escape the cold winter weather and head to sunny California! And, even though the weather wasn't exactly sunny the whole time (a cold front came through while we were there), we still managed to have a an excellent time. Dad, Mom, Brandon, Bryan, Lacie, Emmy, and me spent a few days at the park and had an all-around good time! Then we came home just in time to spend Christmas Eve with the Coopers, Grandma Sue, and Auntie Deb. Oh, and to top everything off, we had a VERY white Christmas. Not too shabby, eh?

The pictures are:
1) "Family photo" on Tower of Terror. (Mom wasn't on this one, unfortunately.)
2) Mom and Dad in the Tarzan tree.
3) Bryan and Lacie in line for Tower of Terror
4) Emmy, Brandon, and Jules on the pirate ship.



I hope all is well with you! Mwah!

--Jules

The Boulter Bunch

February 2009

Howdy, all you Sentinel readers! I hope all y'all are doing fine. I can't believe how fast time flies and how far hehind I get. But, that's one of the reasons I'm SO grateful for the Sentinel so we can catch up on everybod's "comings & goings"! (Thanks for keeping it going, Melodee!)

We had a wonderful & busy holiday season. We were able to fly Mom out for the Mo Tab Christmas concerts with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Edward Hermann. I didn't get to see much of her because of the concerts & filming for the PBS special, but I think she had a great time with Mike! After the concert weekend, she flew back to Midland, and we headed to Southern California the next weekend. It was just a quick "Christmas" trip to Disneyland, so that's all we did. (We'll have to go back sometime when we can actually visit family!)
It was great to have Bryan and Lacie with us as well as to have Brandon take some time off from studying at Law School. We had lots of good times, so wet, rainy times, some wild rides, some good food, and some hotel stories to add to the Boulter Family Lore. The really good news is that we did NOT have any bad vehicle stories-the Suburban ran great the whole trip-YEA!

We got home Christmas Eve to find Mel, Stephen, and Kyle already there (having flown in from Florida two days before) and Grama Sue and Auntie Deb on their way there, driving from Texas. So it was a wonderful FULL house! It was so nice to be together. And we got a BIG snowstorm on Christmas Day-lots of snow for Kyle to play in.

I was able to "convince" my children to sing "Be Still, My Soul" together in church that Sunday, so that was a highlight for me. Mom and Deb had to leave on Monday, but the Coopers got to stay through the next week which gave me lots of time to be Granna-I loved it!
Then we kind of went into "hibernation" for a few weeks with lots of snow, ice, inversions, and cold. But joyfully, Mike and I were able to do a Florida Getaway last week and "thaw out." We had a GREAT time being with Mel, Stephen, and Kyle and getting to go to the Everglades, Key Biscayne, Hollywood Beach, and eating lots of fresh fish!

(Check out Mel's blog for the best report on our trip!)


So now we're back to the snow and cold, but at least it's not January anymore-spring is just around the corner! The next thing we have is Mark and the "girls" coming for a ski trip in March so that will be fun.
We're looking forward to Emmy in West Side Story in April and then her graduation at the end of May (Woo-hoo-we're almost done with the public school system!) She will go on a New York trip in June with her high school Drama Club. And she's working on scholarships and financial aid and trying to decide where to go to college. So, she's got a lot on her plate. Hopefully, the rest of the kids have sent a Sentinel "entry", but if not, just check out Facebook for their info!
The only thing on the horizon right now is the Tabernacle Choir tour in June. We're kind of doing a Midwestern Tour: Cincinnati, St. Louis, Des Moines, Omaha, Kansas City, Norman, OK, and Denver-Red Rocks. If any of you are going to be around those cities in June, try to come to a concert! It makes it so much more fun for me if I know somebody in the audience!
So, that's it for now. Know that the Boulter Bunch think of you all and we wish you well!

Shel, Kurt, Greg & Taylor

Happy 2009!

The holidays were spent on the road attending soccer tournaments before and after Christmas. We did enjoy a nice relaxing Christmas Day - went to Steph's for dinner and saw the movie Marley & Me (we have decided that we own the female version of Marley). I am embarrassed to admit that our tree is still up - Kurt thinks I should just leave it up and be ahead of the game for next year! I could, since we never use the living room.

Soccer seems to encompass our lives at the moment. We are in the middle of high school soccer - Greg's team won 6A Districts again and are headed into Regionals this week. He clanked heads with a teammate in the District final and ended up with a gash in the side of his head. Didn't want stitches, so it ended up being glued together. Not pretty! Made for a good article in the paper, though. He is still undecided about which college to attend - he hasn't yet found the perfect fit with soccer and his major. I have a feeling that his major will win out and he may try to just walk on. He's leaning toward Engineering or Pre-Med.

Taylor is so busy with school, dance and her social life that I feel like I need to make an appointment to catch up with her. She could use one extra day in the week just to sleep. She is beginning to look at colleges and has her sights set on out of state. She is also interested in Engineering and would like to continue with her studies in Spanish.

Kurt is busy, busy, busy at work. In these economic times, I guess that is a good thing. He did get to take a little break and attend an acoustic Bryan Adams concert with me, which we both really enjoyed. He was torn on who to root for during the Super Bowl - has always loved the Steelers, but thinks Kurt Warner is a class act. I'm not a huge football fan, but I have to admit it was an exciting game.

The weather has been beautiful with just a few cold snaps. We're trying to finish up some landscaping that we started about five years ago. We never could decide what to put in, so the grass would re-grow, we'd kill it again, it would re-grow - you get the picture. We finally made an agreement with some friends - Kurt helped them put up some crown molding in exchange for her expertise in landscaping. Hopefully we will be done in time for Greg's graduation. If not, we may put guests to work spreading mulch.

We hope everyone is doing well. Come see us if you're in the area!

Love,

Shel, Kurt, Greg and Taylor

Mark & Terri

Mark Solari

My place in the tree: Youngest son of Joseph C. Solari and Sue Solari, Married to Terri Solari, Brother to Michael, Debra, and Dianna.

Father to Michelle and Rachael.

Place: Midland, TX for 9 yrs.

Work: Sr. Production Engineer for Energen Resources Corp. - 3 yrs.

3 greatest Joys: Jesus, My Wife, My kids

3 goals for 2009: 1) Make my samurai and dune buggy trail ready 2) Take my samurai and dune buggy to the top of the Guadalupe mtns. 3) Shoot a 7x7 bull elk with a bow and arrow (maybe from the samurai).

Surprising Facts: I play indoor soccer at lest once a week. I have sung at the White House. I love to Windsurf.


Greetings All,

Welcome to 2009. Not much has changed here since 1/20/09. Hope all had a good holiday season. We had a great time having everyone home for xmas in Midland. Terri and I took the girls to Costa Rica at the beginning of January and had a blast. We did zipline canopy tours, horse back riding through the jungle, climbing waterfalls, and hanging out at a really cool beach. One highlight was seeing about 60 Ridley sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean about 60 yds. away. We also felt the big earthquake while we were there. We were about 75 miles from it and could feel a slight rolling. I recommend this place to anybody. Todo bueno! Pura Vida!!

There has been a lot of hunting this season. Deer, dove, quail, turkey, hogs, and even elk. I got to go on my first elk hunt in New Mexico on Dec. 18th. My buddy and I hiked in 18" snow across the Sangre de Cristo mtns. near Red River. We each shot a cow elk and filled the freezer. Man, it's goooood eaten. Even the girls like it. Y'all have to come down for a quail hunt sometime. Terri even got into driving the hunt vehicle thru the mesquite while hunting quail. It's been fun.

The girls are back at school and we're home alone. Rachael's back at A&M for Mechanical Engineering and Michelle enrolled at Texas State in Environmental Sciences (our tree hugger). I'm busy with new work projects and Terri's busy with helping at Safe Place, Meals on Wheels, and Family.

Via Con Dios!!!

MS

Matt, Kristen, Riley, & Kate

Hello All!

Summer found us at the beach and by the pool. In June we spent a great couple of days in Laguna Beach to celebrate Mare and Pops birthdays. July was lacrosse and church camp. In August we were off to our home on Whidbey Island for a couple of weeks. We hiked, kayaked, fished, clammed, crabbed and spent time with friends and family. (Then over Labor Day weekend we went up to our friends Vineyard in Northern California and spent time walking the vineyard, atving, swimming in the creek, playing on the lake, wine tasting and picking out grapes to make our own wine!

Riley started 8th grade and Kate started 5th grade. Riley has been busy with school, lacrosse and guitar. Kate has been busy with school, ballet, soccer and piano. Matt has been busy with work, coaching Kate's soccer team (which came in 1st place), and making wine with a friend. I have been busy with the kid's schedules, volunteering on the PTO, classroom room mom, playing tennis, putting on our (last elementary - yee haw) school fall fundraiser and other mom stuff.

We had a quick visit from Amy and Joe this fall. Amy was touring some west coast colleges so it was wonderful to see them! We hope she comes west! Then we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving at Pops and Mare's eating yummy food, fishing, riding the quad and sandrail and relaxing.

The holidays were fun, festive and busy. Kate was in the Nutcracker Ballet this year and of all years her soccer team went to the playoffs! That kept us busy and my car became the official dressing room! We took 2 quick trips over the holidays. Our first trip was down on the train to San Diego to tour the USS Midway (aircraft carrier), Seaport Village and the Gaslamp district.

Our next trip was to visit friends at their Lake Arrowhead cabin. We spent a few days sledding and playing in the snow.

Now it's back to the daily grind, but all is good!

We wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Love, Kristen, Matt, Riley(13) and Kate(10)

Marie & Ange

All is going well here in sunny Carpinteria. The holidays have come and gone. The Frary's had us for Thanksgiving then it was take off to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji for Marie and Carolyn. We had a wonderful 24 day trip. At the Great Barrier Reef we were fortunate to go to the farthest one. It took us about two hours to reach where we tied up to a floating barge. Carolyn really enjoyed the snorkeling while I enjoyed the glass bottom boat, another boat with port holes (like Disneyland only this was real) and watching the fish from an underwater auditorium on the barge. We did all the tourist things like visiting a Mori village, out-back cowboy ranch where we had a cattle demonstration and barbecue dinner, a park where we saw crocodiles, koala bears and kangaroos. Road the Sky Train through the rain forest, had a coffee cruise around Sydney harbor, visited the opera house, Carolyn walked the famous bridge in the rain, bought some opals. Then it was on to Christchurch, a beautiful clean town. We were fortunate to have our home stay in an architect's home which was on their Riviera. Even though it was their summer the home was decorated for Christmas. From there we had an all day bus trip to Queenstown. The day went quickly as the country was so green with wild lupines of all colors, sheep, cattle and red deer that are raised commercial. Carolyn spent at day at Milford Sound while I took a tour to see where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. She also took a jet boat ride and we both went on the Steamship across the lake to a sheep station where we got to be right out there with them. In Auckland we had a morning sail in the harbor. It was onto Fiji where we spent 3 days at a hotel resort. We went to a school performance, had lunch in a private home, snorkeling, glass bottom boat and Carolyn went horse back riding on the beach. To me the high light of the trip was the 3 night cruise around different islands in Fiji. We were taken to different beaches twice a day for snorkeling and swimming. The water is so warm and clear. It only rained at night or during lunch when we were on the boat. We were also taken to visit a school, dinner on an island with more entertainment. We both were glad we went and enjoyed the trip immensely.

We were home two nights when Kenny and Devin surprised us by arriving Christmas night. They just wanted to be with us on Christmas. We knew Devin, Karen, Nicklaus and Karen's Mother were coming the day after but the men decided Christmas Eve they wanted to be here earlier so that was a surprise. Kenny is getting a divorce so his new lady friend joined us too. Six house guests. We all went over to cousin Nelson's to see the birds, like when they were growing up, going to the beach, checking out the town, riding on all the ranch stuff, etc. We had 15 for dinner one night and they did it all. I just sat an relaxed as I was still tired but what a wonderful way to end Christmas. They went on to Disneyland.

Since then it has been back to the old grind. We do have house guests again. Our friends from Washington state that come every year. Carol goes to Mammoth with the ladies group. They use to live in Santa Barbara so have lots of friends. They just come and go. We will be going together to a Super Bowl party. In our Christmas letter we mentioned we were putting our place at Mammoth up for sale. The day after they received our papers we got a call from the realtor saying our neighbor's unit just went on the market for $35,000. less than we were asking. It made us mad so we canceled our contract. The unit sold right away and has closed. Carolyn, Dale, Jared and his friends were there last weekend. Dale had 4 days of handicap skiing and has really taken to it. Now we are in a quandary as to whether to sell or not. March 1st is when my ladies group goes up for 5 days. I will then be checking things out. We have not been up since the end of September.

We will be looking forward to reading the next issue of the blog. Melodee you did a wonderful job with the last one.

Our love to all,

Marie and Ange

Delbe & Mic

Well, where to start. It's been a while except for a Christmas letter. Things are moving along and I can't believe we'll be starting the second month of 2009. Funny, but I didn't even fumble with 2008 on anything I wrote. Our weather has been strange since the first of the year, one day nice and balmy and then a few days of northern temps. It's cooler again today but at least we're getting some rain with this front.

We're getting excited for Kate and Randy's vow-renewal ceremony and the family members who will be coming. If you recall they got married 2 1/2 years ago in Fargo. Randy had finished his Army training and they decided the Army might as well pay for moving Kate to Texas with him. This will be a church ceremony for them. He is due back from Iraq any day.

Next week our master bath is getting an overhaul, gutting and the whole works. Only thing we're keeping is the shower doors because they're in good shape. We've done very little in there since buying 33 years ago. We still can't decide what to do with the floors. One day I'll want new tile and some carpeting and the next I'll want carpeting and some wood. Decisions decisions. Shel and Kurt are having the same problem.

I was hoping one of the other altar guild members would take over as directress but no luck so I'm it for a third year. I'm on the vestry this year and Fr. Norman asked me to be senior warden. Good thing Delbe' is very supportive of all my activities. They do keep me off the streets and out of trouble. He can't say too much after working all these years and going in some week end mornings and being on call 24/7 many other years.

Nothing much else to write about but I'll try to do better next time. We should have some pictures to send, too.

Love to all,

Delbe' and Mic

Steph, Nick, Shelbë & Marc

The four Spurlocks had a great Christmas and are hopeful that the rest of the Solari clan can say the same. We welcomed an addition to our family in December: a black miniature poodle named Beckham. He's now housebroken, understands the "sit" command, and is getting pretty good with "stay." He will start obedience classes soon, and we're looking into training him to be a therapy dog. Other than the annoying habit of partaking of the doggie delicacy also known as cat poop, he's perfect.

Marc and his school's Lego Robotics team have been practicing the entire school year and had their first competition a couple of weekends ago. It was an all-day affair with lots of snacks, dancing, and general silliness to help ease the stress of the competition. In the end, his team came away with the "best presentation" trophy.

Shelbe has traded soccer for tennis and track. Practice for track and field has begun, and she seems to be enjoying herself. She turned fourteen this month and is an inch taller than her mom (which, as some of you know, isn't saying a whole lot!).

We hope the New Year is off to a great start for everyone, in spite of the economy. Can't wait to get caught up on the latest news from the family.

Love,

Steph, Nick, Shelbe and Marc

Joe, Wendi, Piper, & Finley

Happy New Year from Sunny So Cal!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve/Day. All three were amazing for us.

The beginning of November brought us a visit from Gran, Aunt Shel, and Aunt Steph in honor of Finley and Piper's baptism. It was great to have them here for such a special occasion and to see Fin for the first time. Piper loved all the girl attention!

Thanksgiving was spent in Arizona with my family. It was intimate and quiet...fine by us!

Christmas was even quieter. We opted to stay home this year and let Finley and Piper experience Christmas morning in our house. Santa brought Piper what she asked for. I guess he figured she deserved it as she was brave enough to YELL her requests to him from a distance after refusing to sit on his lap 3 times! See the Santa photo....that was the 3rd time visiting Santa...after a candy bribe...still no lap! The day after Christmas my parents came out to stay for a few days. We went to the snow one day and we all had a blast. Finley was a sport in the cold. Joe and I got a day of snowboarding in at the local Mt. Baldy. So much fun.

On New Years Eve we turned in early but Joe was kept up by a nearby party. He woke me at midnight and I immediately fell back to sleep! New Years Day we got up early and headed for the mountains again. We enjoyed another fun snow day.

Since October Joe has been working on a tv series called "Zeke & Luther". It will be on the new Disney Channel called Disney XD. It sure has been nice having him home on weekends and having a steady paycheck. Joe turns the big four-oh this year...youngest looking 40 year old I have ever seen. Good genes!

I am constantly fine-tuning my job as a mommy of two, which I still insist is night and day from just one child! I love watching the relationship and love between our two girls develop and grow every day. I hope they have this close relationship their entire lives.

I am still working for a retail brokerage team at CB Richard Ellis (commercial real estate). As you can imagine, retail commercial real estate has been hit pretty hard with the state of the economy. This is the time that we get more creative than ever with our marketing as well as look for new opportunities among the rubble.

I was ecstatic and enthralled with the presidential election as well as the inauguration. I found it to be amazing as I watched history being made. I am overwhelmed with optimism, truly happy about the future, and glad that the past is in the past.

Piper is 3 1/2 years old and has been in pre-school since September. She is learning so much and seems to have made some good friends. Whenever we ask her what she did at school she always responds, "read in the book center"...good answer! She also takes Gymnastics class and has been in that since she was 18 months old. As long as she likes it, we will keep going! She talks a lot about dance so we may have to check into dance class soon. Piper is a wonderful big sister, very witty, energetic, and talks non-stop at a mile-a-minute!

Finley is 8 months (on Feb 2) and recently started babbling "ma-ma's" and "da-da's". It should be no time at all before she can keep up with Piper! She is not much interested in crawling at this point but she loves to stand with our help or while in her "exersaucer." She is sleeping 12 hours at night with one feeding in the middle of the night. She is about 18 pounds and we are never worried that she is starving! Finley believes that Piper golden. She watches her big sister intently and smiles at everything she does or says! It really is the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

We hope this finds everyone healthy and happy. We hope the year ahead proves to be one full of blessings.

Love,

Joe, Wendi, Piper, and Finley Solari