The McGarry Minutes

Some Recent Visitors

We have recently had a lot of visitors out here to see the McGarry clan and Mom and Jerry. Here are just a few pictures of the great people who have come to call:

 Uncle Cody, Aunt Amy, Jude and Elena: 

 

Tessa Jean (with her sidekick Elena):   

Uncle Rob:

 Aunt Pam, Aunt Kay, Aunt Susie, and Aunt Deloma:   Aunt Susan (featured here in a photo of beautiful daughter-in-laws):

Sam (featured here in a picture of Charlie's Angels)

Cousin Kelly (a picture from her trip in January...my camera did not work on this trip):  

Cousin Niki: Picture a beautiful blonde with cute freckles and a great smile. (I didn't get any shots of her while she was here).

 A Wizzard:

Uncle Mark (all the way from Japan!): Indiana Jones:  

Matt Kenseth:

Mexico Memories

About a month ago, Mitchell, Jack, and I went to Cancun for a vacation. The first week long break Jack has ever taken! It was decadent, relaxing, and wonderful. Here are a few shots of our trip.

Mitchell and Jack had some cool pool tricks:

Dr. Dunkenstein showed up and created some trouble:

There were some pool hugs:

And plenty of spells:

Lots more Mexico to come, and also some new pics of GaGa and her stay here in Colorado. Stay tuned!

Fun Family/Birthday Weekend Part II

A few more pictures of our weekend with the family:

John and Coleen at the Morrison Inn for dinner:

The crew on the sled hill at the Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA (minus Elieen who was in the lodge studying for the SAT! Good luck!)

Here is the whole clan sledding down the hill:

Jack and Mitchell get ready to slide!

Mitchell has been asking to Ice skate the entire winter. He finally got his chance on Saturday. Here he is on the ice with his Daddy "just helping a little bit".

It was a fun and entertaining weekend. The Connors clan made it home safely yesterday. We miss them soooo much!! Come back soon!

ZANNY'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! I turned 40 on Thursday. Jack's sister, Kathy, and her family just happened to be in town. Her husband John had a business meeting, and the girls had school off, so the whole family came out with him. We had a great weekend. On my actual birthday evening, we went to John Elway's new eatery downtown to celebrate. They brought out this really cool sparkler/candle and a plate with birthday wishes written in chocolate.

Here is a picture of me on my birthday taken by Mitchell:

Here is a picture of Mitchell on my birthday taken by me:

Here is a picture my sister-in-law Kathy calls "The Faces of 40":

On Friday, we got together with Aunt Kathy and the girls. We only had the afternoon, as the girls spent the morning with Uncle Jack at his office, so we chose a mountain activity that was close in to town.

First we went to Golden, Colorado and had some pizza at Woody's, a true local hangout. Mitchell, Kate, and Aunt Kathy played some pretty intense games of Ms. Packman in between slices of Pizza.

Then we went to Lookout Mountain to the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave. We were lucky enough to be there when Bill Cody himself was there to check out the current exhibit! He was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to take a photo with Mitchell.

The Kids each took a turn as a cowboy/cowgirl and tried to rope a calf:

Or, in Kate's case, she tried to rope her sister:

We paid our respects to CWFC/BB:

Did some shopping at the gift shop:

And we took in the beautiful view of the city:

As we were leaving, we took photos of the many faces of Annie Oakley:

As well as some cowboy that was just hanging around:

More to come tomorrow. This cowgirl is just plum tuckered out!!

Crookshanks the Cat Comes Home

A picture of joy and excitement of hearing that you get to go pick out a new pet

Shopping for the new pet...

Picking out just the right one (found her!)...

The meet and greet at the pet store:

Bringing her home:

Hope you got a good look at those last two pictures because the rest of them we have are much like these:

Mitchell and Mojo look for the kitty under the chair...

Mitchell looks for the kitty behind the entertainment center:

Jack looks for the kitty behind the table...

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Mitchell thinks he see the kitty under the....Well, I think you probably get the picture. We will give you an update if things improve

DAYTONA DAY!!!

Mitchell and I woke up pumped up for some racing yesterday for the 50th running of the Daytona 500. We put on our team colors, made some cool banners, and had a race with our match box cars.

Mitchell wore in NASCAR jammies to bed in preparation for the event:

He then got into his race fan uniform in order to properly cheer for his favorite driver, Carl Eggwards. Notice the authentic autograph on the shirt. That ain't just a dirty shirt baby. That's the real thing!

I had trouble deciding what to wear myself, as my driver has switched teams, sponsors, and number for this racing year. I settled on a vintage Mountain Dew tee with some long undies underneath. (The basement where the big screen TV is can get kind of chilly.)

Mitchell and I made some signs for our favorite drivers. His, were quite precious of course. Here is the one that he made that has many of the different flags you might see during a race and the words "99 Zoooooom!!". Notice the "D" in the middle of the "9s". I didn't get it at first, but just say"99" out loud and I think you will understand why he writes it that way.

This one was pretty neat too. When Mitchell met Carl Eggwards, Carl told Mitchell to "Never give up!". Mitchell has not forgotten those words, and tells me often that not giving up is the "key" to success in many different areas of life (particularly in getting to the next level in a video game.) Here is is writing those words on a cheer sign for Carl.

It was a fun race. In our matchbox challenge, Eggwards beat Jr. by a nose. In the real race, Jr. finished better than Eggwards. Neither one took the checkered flag, but both had decent points days. On to California next week! Congrats to Penske and Grandpa Smith's driver's second place finish!

First Visitors of 2008

Recently, we welcomed our first guests of the New Year. Aunt Pam and Cousin Kelly came out to spend some time with us. It was great fun to see them. The visit was much too short, but we were so glad to have them here. Mitchell learned about Christmas traditions around the world. We were asking Cousin Kelly about Christmas Crackers and if they really do them in England like the books say. Well, not only do they really do them, but she taught us the "proper" way to crack a cracker. (I just happened to have some I bought on after Christmas sales.) Here is Kelly showing us the technique:

Here is Aunt Pam wearing her crown prize she won in her cracker: We took an afternoon drive in the mountains one day and ended up in a tavern in Nederland, Co for a bite to eat. Here is Aunt Pam and Mitchell playing a game while we wait for the food: Cousin Kelly and Mitchell became good friends during her visit: It was the perfect way to start off the new year!! Any takers for our second set of visitors for 2008?

Little Tidbits

Mitchell got some silly putty in his stocking for Christmas. He then decided to make a Harry Potter scar out of it. Incidentally, when you forget to take the silly putty off of your kids head before he goes to bed, and then he falls asleep with it still there, and then he wakes up with his bangs stuck to his "scar", and each time you try to touch it he screams because you are yanking out his hair at the roots, a little peanut butter and an ice cube will do the trick.

By the way, Happy New Year, everybody! Here is another helpful hint for you.  Next time New Year's Eve rolls around, just get some silly glasses, party blow outs, and some crazy hats and you'll have a hopping party.  Works everytime.

"Hairy" Potter Update

Mitchell recently decided to update his look. He was watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix and noticed that Harry had a new short haircut. He is Potter obsessed, so he found a picture of Harry with the new short cut and brought it to the "haircut store" so he could update his look

BEFORE:

AFTER:

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Mitchell does some "unusual" things:

Recently Mitchell has done some kind of "unusual" things we thought you might like to hear about...

Mitchell actually sailed a cruise ship on the Lake of the Ozarks:

Mitchell loses his skin for one very spooky night:

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Mitchell pets a zebra:

Pre-flight, Mitchell actually reads "the saftey card located in the seat pocket in front of you":

Mitchell has a birthday party for his stuffed animal Tillary:

Mitchell drives a stock car:

Mitchell goes out to eat with Aunt Susan and his cousins and does not vomit:

Mitchell eats ice cream in Manhattan while dressed as Harry Potter who is wearing Quidditch goggles:

What have you done that is "unusual" lately?