SUPER MEN

For like the 5th year in a row

Bryce's dad, Greg, was nominated by fellow attorneys

and named a

Super Lawyer

(an annual prestigious award given across the state)

AND

Bryce got his grades back

and he met not just one, but BOTH his goals!

He graduated on the Dean's List

and

Cum Laude!

Wow! Those Mackay men!
But probably the best part is that neither of them would want me to put this up. Oh well :) 

PORT LUDLOW GETAWAY

For Bryce's graduation gift, his mom had the most magical, tremendous, stupendous idea EVER: to send us on a little getaway!! Considering we've only left CJ over night once, and never left both of our kids (heck, we hardly ever even get babysitters for a few hours!), and we had just had a stressful few weeks with finals and graduation and buying a house and moving, it was music to our ears and THE BEST gift we could have ever gotten! So here's where we went:

The Inn at Port Ludlow

We took a ferry from Seattle

Inside the ferry...

...crazy-windy outside on the ferry

I guess the ferry was a metaphor...

Our room

with a view of the pier

The first day we:

Explored

Kayaked

And ate at Port Townsend

The second day we:

Enjoyed the town of Poulsbo

Took a ferry back into downtown Seattle

And headed home.

Ah. Nothing like much needed R and R.

MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

- We went to CJ's first carnival! CJ rode the ferris wheel, the train, and the swings. Mattie rode the swings too and cried when we took her off. And the last time CJ rode the swings he decided he was done before the ride was over, so he tried to get off while it was still going - he stopped the whole ride! Thank goodness it was just a kiddie ride!

- (5/27/10) CJ started saying the C-word, as in c-r-a-p. Yes, Bryce and I both say it, but I think he got it from Bryce :), especially because he's only repeated it after Bryce has said it. In fact, I haven't even heard him say it...yet. Hopefully we can nip this one in the bud.

- If I haven't already mentioned it, were the last to move away. All of our friends moved right after graduation, but we stuck around until the end of the month. We have totally missed them, so it was so great to see Misty this week! She came back for a few days for her job, and was able to stay at our place while we were in Utah, and then we went to dinner with her the night before she left. Love that girl!

- Mattie has become our little copy-cat. If CJ, or anyone for that matter, is laughing, so is Mattie. When CJ dances or shakes his head, so does Mattie. At dinner this past weekend, CJ was singing the Fruit Salad song. Mattie doesn't sing the words, but she started to sing the song, raising her mumbles at just the right moments. There was no mistaking she was singing the same song. Then, at the same dinner, Bryce burped, and sure enough, Mattie stopped what she was doing, looked at Daddy, and proceeded to fake burp!

- Mattie does this interesting thing where she pokes all her food with her index finger before she eats it. Pretty much anything that we give her in pieces: hot dogs, pizza, bananas, etc. I don't know if she's testing the consistancy or what, but it's pretty funny regardless.

- We packed up this weekend and moved today. Did I mention that? What a fabulous way to spend Memorial Day weekend. Blah! Anyway, as we were moving, a small key fell out of our chest of drawers on to our stairs. It looks like one of the keys to the girly diaries I used to have growing up. Obviously, not much of a key, and we had no idea what it went to (especially because our drawers were supposed to be empty). Anyway, we gave the key to CJ and he was seriously obsessed with his "tiny key" for the next 5 hours! He would throw it up and then try to find it (which got kind of old for us since half the time he really couldn't find it and we would have to), walking around saying, "Key? Where are you?" Then he would turn to us and ask us, "Hey, where's the key go?" Who knew such a tiny thing could give such entertainment?!

- I think manis/pedis were designed for recent movers! My nails have taken a major thrashing and I could really use a good hour or two at the salon...

- Speaking of moving, considering all the major changes in our kids' lives right now - being ripped out of the only home they've really known, losing all their friends, having their routine/schedule completely change, and moving away from all their familiar places - they have done so well! We've only had minimal meltdowns and no trouble-making. Mattie does have her tantrums, but I have a feeling those have nothing to do with moving. Hmmmmm...

- (5/31/10) Mattie was full of lots of funniness on our move over to Seattle from Spokane: playing peek-a-boo and hiding under her blanket for seriously like 3 minutes; licking her feet (which actually started last week on our roadtrip back from Utah); eating through her legs, as in legs spread-eagle, feet by her ears; rubbing her eyes with her feet. Oh, and I think we figured out that when Mattie is saying "doggy," I think she's really saying "JJ," who is Bryce's family's dog, because it sounds like "jee-jee." At least something entertaining came out of our move!

INSIDE OUR NEW HOME

For anyone interested,

but more importantly,

for our own family history,

here's what our new house looks like

(hopefully our old, student, hand-me-down furniture won't take away from how new and nice everything looks):

The Great Room

The Front Room

The Bedrooms

The Bathrooms

The Laundry Room

The Yard

click on any collage to enlarge

MY MOTHER READ TO ME...

...and now she reads to my kids

Love it!

CASCADE ELEMENTARY CARNIVAL

While we were in Utah we went to Cascade Elementary's carnival with Paige's brother, Nathan, and his family.

Bryce rode the train with the kids...and CJ rode it with his cousins, Jonathan and Abram, too

Mattie and CJ rode the swings a few times

(the last time they rode it CJ tried to jump off while it was still going!)

Mattie wasn't very happy when her turn on the swing was over :(

We stood in line for almost an hour to ride this:

When he finally got on, CJ was a little freaked out...

But I guess riding with his cousins made him feel pretty comfortable since he started standing up while the ride was still going!

We all enjoyed ourselves

The evening was beautiful and the carnival was just the right size for our kids. It was a pretty fun way to end our trip to Utah!

click to enlarge

TO: BRYCE FROM: PAIGE

Happy Graduation!

For his office

To remind him of what this country was founded on

And more importantly,

To remind him of what to always include in his profession

DISCLAIMER:

Due to graduating, buying a house, trip to Utah, moving to Wenatchee, AND to Seattle, taking a little getaway, and testing for a job, our blog has been neglected the last few weeks. Please bear with us as Paige catches up (hence, the Monday Night Musings will not be current).

MONDAY NIGHT MUSINGS

- CJ says, "Let's do it" all the time and last week we finally figured out where he got it from - Bryce! Bryce actually says it all the time too. Just more proof that CJ idolizes his daddy.

- (5/19/10)  Mattie got enough courage up last week to walk all the way down the stairs! She was holding my hands, of course, but it's the first time she didn't insist on turning around and crawling down.

- (5/19/10)  Mattie started nodding her head "yes." Grandma Forsgren tried so hard to teach her while she was visiting, and sure enough, Mattie started doing it on her own just after Grandma left :) 

- (5/23/10)  Mattie said "doggy" last week and even started woofing. It's more like an airy grunt, but we know what she means.

- As you may already know, CJ is pretty much obsessed with outside. It doesn't matter how hot or cold or windy or rainy or whatever the condition may be, CJ wants to be in it. It was so nice to visit my parents in Utah, who have a big backyard, that's fenced. CJ was in heaven! And as seems to be the case lately, Mattie followed suit (she loves to be doing whatever CJ is doing), even out into the rain. It was great to watch CJ teach Mattie how to stomp in the puddles. I had almost as much fun watching them as they did playing!

- CJ and Mattie have been holding hands lately and it makes my heart melt! It mainly happens when they're in close proximity, like the car. But sometimes CJ will just take Mattie's hand and lead her. That doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I just want to freeze time!

- Man, I've been exhausted this week! I got up at 5:30 AM both Wednesday and Thursday, then we drove down to Utah Friday morning, and I ran 12 miles Saturday morning. I hate it when I'm tired and on vacation!

- Last week CJ called his cousin, Zack, "brown Zack." Then when he met his Aunt Courtney's fiance, Madhav, who is from India, he said he was brown too (thank goodness he said it after we left). I hope it doesn't offend people. We think it's actually really great that CJ recognizes the difference and we look at it as an opportunity for him to learn that yes, they look different, but that's ok. They are great  and we love them!

- So the biggest thing this week is that I had a total meltdown, something which I never do...and then we bought a house! Ha ha ha. As most homeowners could've probably told me, we experienced some unexpected last minute details of our loan contract. The final amount of our monthly mortgage payment was about $200 more than we were expecting and as soon as I heard the number, I burst into tears. "How are we gonna make this work?" Bryce kept telling me it would be ok, and my response was, "How is it going to be ok with our budget?" After I took a breather, I reviewed our budget. I felt better about it, but still not totally convinced we were going be able to make it work. But the funny thing was, I still felt good about the house. Amidst all my tears, I never felt like we shouldn't get the house. Deep down, I felt a sense of peace that we would find a way to make it work. I kept thinking about Bryce's dad's advice about buying a house, that it should be a sacrifice, and I just felt like we were supposed to be in this house and that if we were faithful and willing, we would find a way to make it all work. So we took possibly the biggest leap of faith of our lives...now I'm just hoping to land on solid ground.

GRANDMA'S BABY GIRLS

Mattie and Samantha, being themselves

It's a tradition: every time these two girlies get together we have to get a picture of them in matching outfits. Since they're only two months apart in age, it's been fun to see their growth. But now that they're getting older, it's not so easy to get a good picture. Case in point:

So cute!

REMINISCING...

While we were at Paige's parents', we enjoyed playing Parcheesi with her mom and dad (and getting whooped by Paige's 75 year-old  dad who can barely see!). Paige went downstairs to get the game and found this old ditty:

That is her prom dress from her junior year!

Twelve years and two kids later and

IT. STILL. FITS!!

(ok, maybe not perfectly, but the zipper is closed and that's all that matters)

SPLISH SPLASH

While we were visiting family in Utah, we experienced 3 of  the 4 seasons - winter, spring, and summer - all within a matter of 48 hours!

This is what we woke up to Monday morning:

It actually snowed more than this (we couldn't even see the green grass), but by the afternoon, the sun was out and ALL the snow was gone!

Just the afternoon before, the kids enjoyed playing in the rain:

So glad CJ is showing Mattie just how to be a kid :)

ZACK'S BABY BLESSING

The day after signing on our new house in Wenatchee, we headed down to Utah for Bryce's nephew's baby blessing. It was great to see so much family!

Three Generations of Mackay's

Back row (L-R): Greg, Sheila, Gaby with baby Zack, Tyler, Kelsey, Mattie, Paige, CJ, and Bryce

 Seated: Grandpa and Grandma (Boyd and Gayle)

After the blessing, Mattie decided it was time for her photoshoot

This is what you get when you try to get the grandkids/cousins to take a picture together :)