Category: McUpdate

We had tons of fun tonight on Utah lake, thanks to our friends the Drapers. We really, really enjoyed it. Chase has been a little sick so he was very quiet, and he didn’t like the cold water. I think the engine kind of freaked him out but he didn’t cry he just sat there very serious. Pace got up on the wake board after trying 29 times, and Dustin showed us how easy it is to ski on choppy water. We had a blast, so a big thanks to the Drapers!! Check out the full album of pictures and feel free to comment on how hot Joy is.

(That photo over there isn’t necessarily a photo of Ryan and Tina, but maybe it could be.)

Okay, I know that Pace just did a little update, but I just wanted to add my 2 cents. I think that’s how the saying goes. Anyway, we had a great time in California for Ryan and Tina’s wedding. Thank YOU to Dad and Mom T. for letting us stay and play for a while there! You are always so good to us, we can’t even believe it.

Chase and I flew out there on Tuesday so we could spend a little extra time with the family. The flight could have been much worse. Actually it was okay; I had bought some dinky toys at the dollar store to entertain Chase for the duration, but those got old after about 10 minutes. So then we just explored the plane for half the flight.

When we arrived: It was a little chaotic, especially for TMom because she was basically the wedding coordinator/decorator (despite having just started classes again at SSU). But it was so much fun, also! Unfortunately Chase got sick right in time for the wedding, so he wasn’t quite his normal self, but we made the best of it. Chase loved following Grandpa around outside, eating new treats from Grandma, splashing in the pool, playing with everyone including the silly dog, Heidi (he could say her name)!

It was also great to get to know Tina and her family. They were so warm and sociable! I felt guilty because they were asked me so many questions and had me talk about myself– I could hardly turn the conversation around to learn something about them! That’s how great they were. The wedding went well, I think; there was an Indian “mandap” which consisted of four pillars, some fancy chairs and stools, and some beautiful ornamentation. They had an LDS bishop marry them in front of that, then Jessica and I sang (Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan), and then they had the Hindu ceremony, which was interesting. Rachel got to “tie the knot” for them, and she was slipped some money, of which Jessica and I were jealous. 😉 We got to see lots of people from our old ward and we even got to see Dan, Jamie, and Bryson who just moved out to San Francisco!

I was really surprised at how calm and collected Ryan and Tina both were throughout all the festivities! And Tina is gorgeous and easy to talk with. I loved seeing this hottie (Tina) with her arms around Ryan and all. They are so great together and I am ecstatic for Ryan. He deserves this! Overall, we met lots of people, tried lots of tasty multicultural foods, and had lots of fun. Thanks, family!

Ok so I posted new photos, but have yet to have time to post the videos. Sorry. We’ve been having a great time in Utah with the weather cooling off it is a beautiful place. We are excited for the long weekend. Mainly b/c we don’t have any plans (except yard work). Joy wishes she could go to Connecticut to Ryan and Tinas party.. but at the same time she’s glad she isn’t flying 6 hours with Chase. In other news, I got a new keyboard and mouse at work. The Logitech WAVE, it’s sweet. Very comfortable… now if only I could get a nice chair.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

With almost all the yard changes done, we decided a nice big project that we don’t have time or money for would be a great way to end the summer. So we have decided that Chase needs a safe place to play, meaning a place we can throw him and not worry he is going to wander into the street. So We are going to put up fencing and a gate on the sides of our back yard. We are also going to take down the part of the deck we don’t use and use that area for a sandbox and play area. I don’t plan on finishing it before it gets cold, but I do plan on taking the deck down and finishing the fence before it gets cold. Any ideas of what should go in this new area? Or what kind of ground cover should be there? (there’s gravel there now.. but that’s not kid friendly, and grass isn’t dad friendly)

Yesterday was such a fun Sunday. Well, the time AFTER church was the fun part (just because we had to chase Chase around –haha– for the whole three hours). But anyway. We had a really great day. We got to go to Rachel’s house for dinner (at the new townhouse that TDad and TMom have purchased). She lives really close to us now, which is enjoyable. We hung out with her, her roommates, and Jason for a while there, then we went back to our house and played fun games with our neighbors Jeremiah and Trena while we tried to hook Jason up with Trena’s younger sister, Brittney. (Sorry if that’s confusing.) I think that Jason and Brittney hit it off; we’ll see what they think after they go on a date later this week. We played games for like 3 hours and had brownies a la mode. Pace and Jason are so funny together that everyone almost split a gut! Everyone’s definitions for Beyond Balderdash were also hilarious; you should ask Pace what SCSA stands for, and you should also ask Rachel about the Magical Shoes movie plot that she came up with. It was quite inventive!

Well thanks to the internet we are getting a new tv today. It is supposed to arrive today between 1-3pm. We are pretty excited to finally sit on our couch and watch a movie again. It’s a 50 in plasma, I’ll give a full review after the unboxing today. Hopefully there aren’t any problems from the shipping process. After extensive research I decided on this one b/c of price and feature combination. I found a great price on SuperWarehouse.com. And have been very happy with their process so far. We’ll keep you updated.

As soon as I think Google is the coolest thing around, I find out something else they offer for free and I think, Google RULES! So I had heard of Picasa and I know that Brad and Tiffany use it to upload their photos. Well I had 42 images i wanted to add to our system. The thing is I have to crop and resize each one so they don’t take up a ton of space on our server… anyway this lead me to think how bout I try out Picasa. Anyway 90 seconds later, I’m watching this sweet application (that seems to do everything the application I paid for) scan my hard drive and grab photos from everywhere. Then 40 seconds after that they were uploaded to Google’s server… so now I’m torn… ever though I only get a gig on Picasa… it was SO easy… what do you guys think? Picasa(view the album) or McPhotos? why?

Oh and lets try this…

OH, looks like it doesn’t work.. j/k wait for it, that’s pretty cool… I could prob do something with that…

Pace organized the garage this morning. He is the MAN! It wasn’t too bad before, but it looks super great now! I also reorganized the freezer so we can actually find everything now. In addition to all this cleanliness, our cars are shiny clean as well because I had the myriad of Beehives over for a car wash service project –which definitely included washing our two cars! Clever, I know.

Yesterday I was startled to find that we had about 4 yellowjackets in our family room downstairs, just hanging out by the window. Don’t ask me how they got in. They seem to prefer staying right by the window and they’re slowly dying off, so I haven’t really done anything to speed that up for them. They can be our temporary pets. Other than that, we never need to have any pets, ever.

Also, Chase has been hitting his head a lot lately. I try to prevent it, but usually it’s just inevitable because he is so active! To add to the mix, he is getting 4 more teeth in, to make 16 total. I think that’s why he’s been whiny lately. Or maybe he’s just lonely since Gretchen and Tyler left. But at least we have more company coming this week; TDad and TMom will be here in just a few days to close on the townhouse! So Ikea, R.C. Willey, Target, etc. — here we (they) come!

Tonight Joy and I are going on a date. I’m very excited for this date b/c it’s going to be my company party at Seven Peaks. The company has rented it out for the night. We get a BBQ dinner from Wallaby’s, ride as much as we want on the slides, and they are goign to play a movie projected over the wave pool around 8pm. If we don’t have fun tonight, maybe we are dead. Also of mention, Joy’s uncle..?.. Is getting married! Yeah congrats to you two love birds, sorry we couldn’t come out to the wedding. And in other other news, Chase is getting very clingy, any ideas on how to get a 1.5 year old to not yell mommy all the time and cry when he doesn’t get what he wants? Oh and yet again I’m trying to please this odd feeling in my chest that I need to change stuff on the blog, watch for future changes and comment on them please.

The other night we played a game of RISK 2210, I really enjoyed it after all the whining stopped. It had been about 4 years since I played, and I remembered how fun it was. I just wanted to publicly thank Jason for not bidding three tokens to get the first turn away from me, that was the only reason I won! THANKS can’t wait for the rematch. I also found this flash demo that clears up some thing on how to start the game… and other things, like getting cards when you take over three territories. Guess we’ll all have to read the rules before the next time.