Celebrating Mom's Good Day! 8/24/07

Here's the whole J.Mac Clan at Chili's last Friday night celebrating mom's good news! Even a "little raise" at work is worth a huge celebration! Way to work it, MA! We're happy to celebrate the good times with you!
Pip and Jeff -the newlyweds are still smiling after ten months of pure bliss in paradise. (left)

The proud uncle of Brookie-Brooke and Caden and Caleb's Daddy.(right)

The famous four McKendrick gals! (below)

The Ranch in Jackson, California 8/5 - 8/11

We spent a week at this great ranch near Stockton with some of Stephen's siblings and their families. Mark and Tracy's Family, TJ and his boys, and Eric all went up to Tracy's grandparents' ranch. Our days were filled with lounging in the pool, frequenting the local bead stores in town, assembling giant jigsaw puzzles, feeding the horses, and venturing out on wild truck rides. In the evenings we shared delicious dinners (and desserts of course!), played games, and watched movies!

Here's a front view of the main house with the big square pool in the front. It was filled with this milky blue "mystery water" which did not get circulated through a filter making it completely opaque.
Here Stephen and his brother Mark attempt an intense afternoon workout by the pool combining a swim with some good ol' push-ups. Mark is training for a marathon and Stephen- well - he just likes to show off!

The boys also like to play a king-of-the-mountain type game in which they would see who could last the longest on the floating raft in the center of the pool. The would run to different corners and try to push eachother off, then see who would be the last man standing. Dangerous? Yes. Competitive? Of course! Were the moms all worried that the kids would be tossed aside and gone forever or at least permanently and frightfully injured? Most certainly.

One of the games got so rough that the flat carpet got torn off the raft. If you look closely in the center of the middle picture, they are in the middle of repairing it with needles and thread!

Another Day at the Beach 8/4/07

Before heading up north for a week, our family went to the beach with T.J., Michelle, Brandon, Mason, and my parents.

Here Tina and Brooklyn are watching Desirae and Stephen ride some waves!

Arizona, Here we Come!

Brooklyn and I decided to visit Arizona for a week while Stephen was hiking the Sierras. We stayed at Mark and Tracy's house while they were on a cruise. Evelyn and Rosalia were there watching Drew and Alyssa. Brooklyn loved getting to know her cousins better. They too enjoyed face time with the baby. Here are some pictures of our adventures.

Saturday at Santa Monica Beach 7/14/07

We made our way to Santa Monica beach on a hot Saturday in July when Stephen was lucky enough to not have a weekend class at USC. He probably should have been writing one of the four papers that were due in the following weeks, but oh well! It was a great stress reliever for him, and we loved every minute of the immediate family time! What's that over there? I'm sure that kid needs a friend like me! :) Come on, Mom! Let's go! I'm ready, why are you holding me back?
Enjoying the ambience

July 2007

Hey Everybody,
I've started a new free blog to keep everyone updated on what's going on here in Cali. My apple account ran out, and I didn't want to spend $100 a year to keep it up. I think that free is better anyway. Maybe everyone can link into this, and we can all share our photos and stories! Just an idea. These are few pictures that we took in July when we were over at Calvin's apartment. I'll try and update this blog atleast once a month. (Maybe I can convince Desirae to take it over and it'll be even better)