McKay Corner

New uses for same old pants

2010-09-22T20:21:00.001-06:00

Because parenting takes lots of time, we decided to have Riley dress herself while I made breakfast and Viv got ready for work.

It's been a while...

2010-08-26T20:06:00.004-06:00

So Mike usually updates our blog, but he has been super swamped with school. However, the end is near! He graduates in May and we have a fun time imagining what life after school will be like. But for now, we are in the process of adjusting to life after a fun 2 week vacation to Utah to visit friends and family (Wow, I am realizing how hard it is to organize your thoughts on paper when the last time you wrote an essay, or anything for that matter, was back in college.) While we were in Utah we decided to go camping. It was our first camping trip with Riley and it went better than I expected. We played a lot of games and "swam" in a nearby pond. The backpack and jogging stroller that we brought were lifesavers! The last photo is of Riley and her cousin Calvin. Every night before bed, Mike would take them on a jog to put them to sleep.

That's all I have for now. This blogging thing takes me forever!

Bunny Trail

2010-04-04T10:40:00.005-06:00

I decided to take over postings from now on since my parents never give any updates. Yesterday was my mom's big event at the Children's Museum. She's in charge of all the events there so Dad always brings me to visit. Bunny Trail was great because I was big enough to explore a bit on my own.

There was a bubble machine which I didn't understand at first. I thought you were suppose to eat the bubbles. They didn't taste good.

Then I sat on the Easter Bunny's lap. My serious facial expression is because I was contemplating how he gets eggs to all the kids in the world in one night. My dad just looks creepy.

The best part of the event was the Radio Disney performers. I think I was the only one dancing.

Basket Case

2010-03-16T20:47:00.003-06:00

Riley is learning stuff all the time. Its crazy. She never ceases to amaze us with new talents. It seems like she learns by paying attention to everything we do.... even how we hold the phone.

Sometimes she does things on her own without seeing us do it first. I promise I don't do this. Can't say the same for Viv though =)

Walk this waaaay.

2010-03-08T16:57:00.001-07:00

Riley began walking officially a few weeks ago and we still aren't sure if we should be excited or fearful. Now she is able to find the end of the isle at church and tries to make a break for it. She has a taller reach which means nothing is safe on the end of the kitchen table anymore. The good news is she will soon be able to get me a soda out of the fridge.

Roadtrips Made Easy

2010-01-14T23:25:00.005-07:00

After much deliberation, we decided to spend the last part of my school break in Dallas with Viv's sister Sarah and her family. We always enjoy going down there, but we had done quite a bit of traveling for Christmas and it was going to be a 16 hour drive with Riley. AHHHHH!!!! Luckily we had some ideas to make the trip easier for everyone involved.

First we acquired a free portable DVD player through some mail-in offer. After purchasing a $5 Blues Clues DVD we had part of the trip covered. She watched intently, except for a moment to pose, and when Blue would pause for Riley to guess his next clue she would smack the DVD player with irritation. We still need to work on her patience.

On the trip back Riley was very good for the first 4 hours of the trip. She slept and played with her toys without crying once. As a reward, we let her drive.

Here she is backing out of the gas station.

She is quite the driver and we may utilize her skillz more in the future.

Riley's Posse

2009-12-31T10:06:00.006-07:00

We successfully (success is a relative word) completed our 2 week trip to California and Utah where Riley was able to hang out with family and friends. The two people she seems to get along best with was Emma, her cousin, and McKay, her life long best friend. As Riley is the oldest she felt entitled to ALL the toys; especially the ones that Emma and McKay were holding.

About the only thing Riley shared in California was her Grandpa Sturgis' lap. As Riley is 2 months older than Emma she took this opportunity to mentor her.

Riley and McKay spent the first few minutes just catching up on the last few months.

If you are so lucky as join her posse, DON'T tell her about the importance of applesauce in a diet.

Proudest Monkey

2009-11-25T23:17:00.004-07:00

In preparation for T-day Viv went to Walmart to pick up essentials. I'm not sure what kind of food isn't essential tomorrow and everyone else seems to feel the same as the crowds were crazy big. As a result the bananas were gone early on and the ones used to restock were way too green for fruit salad. Then Viv found these little gems. They taste like normal bananas, but are much smaller. Our proudest monkey seemed to like them quit a bit.... until she bit into the bitter peel.

Dancing Nancies

2009-11-05T20:05:00.004-07:00

So Riley has learned a new skill this past week..... Crawling! Is it good or bad? She can now get where she wants, but that means she goes where we don't want. We have to keep an eye on her now cause she'll get into anything and everything.

Here's the end result of crawling. Like I said, I'm not sure if we are excited or anxious.

Three faces of Halloween

2009-11-04T23:21:00.005-07:00

Since mom and dad went to bed early, I thought I'd give you an update on how Halloween went. Basically all you need to know is 3 things: dad ate all my candy, I hated all 3 (YES 3!) Halloween costumes, and dad ate all my candy. Bet you can guess how much I love this holiday.

You are also probably asking why I had 3 different costumes. Well my mom is in charge of the Halloween event for the Children's Museum of Denver. It is a 3 day event called Trick or Treat Street. (Which was a huge success by the way!) Since it took her so much planning and she was at the museum all day for 3 days, dad thought it would be a good idea for me to wear a different outfit each day. Here's a peek of what I went through.

Here I am in my favorite pink bear outfit. You may remember this one from before. As you can tell by the look on my face I'm excited to be here.

I was so excited that I dropped the candy from my first house on the floor.

Day 2 brought on the lady bug outfit that was hiding in a box in the closet. It could have kept hiding as far as I was concerned.

Finally here is my spider outfit that I borrowed from my friend Spencer. I'm actually smiling because I don't have to wear these things for a whole year. This was taken shortly before I found out that dad ate all my candy. When that news came the smile quickly disappeared.

Maybe next year won't be so bad if I get to go trick or treating by myself so dad won't eat my candy.

Snow Schmo

2009-10-29T20:31:00.008-06:00

For those of you who have never been to Denver let me explain something. When it snows, it snows a lot. I mean a lot. For example, over the last 24 hours we have gotten about 1 1/2 feet of snow. Normally this is a major drag, but since many things shut down, including school, it makes it an official snow day! I went all through elementary - high school with no cancelled days. I went through 4 years of college and no snow days. Now that I'm in grad school I have had at least one snow day for the second year in a row. The best part is that it will be melted by Monday.

Here you can see the depth of the snow on the neighbors powerwheels truck.

Here you can see the gloomy day from our porch this morning... ie halfway through the storm.

The best part of a snow day is staying home with the Cutie Pie!

Check me out!

2009-10-24T10:44:00.002-06:00

We got excited when Riley learned to sit up on her own. However, I think it is Riley who gets the most excited. The first time she did this we clapped and cheered. She got so excited she fell over backwards.

Riley's new tooth!

2009-09-14T22:14:00.005-06:00

Today, Riley's first tooth broke through! It's a sharp little thing! It's one of her bottom front teeth. Our friend Ashley, who watches Riley while I'm at work, first discovered it and helped it to come through her gums by applying a little pressure. Ashley is so good with Riley and is good at finding out what's bothering her. She gave her little tablets to help with the pain and recommended some baby Tylenol.

Also this week, Riley went to the doctors on Wednesday. She is now 16 pounds and 6 ounces (78th percentile), 24 and 3/4 inches long (36 percentile), and her head circ. is 16 inches (16th percentile).

We sure do love our little girl!

Riley's new bows

2009-09-08T22:01:00.004-06:00

While we were in Utah, my mom and I couldn't help but go to a few of our favorite places.

1. Macy's

2. Robert's Arts and Crafts and

3. Kneaders (yum!)

After Macy's, we wandered into University Mall where we found a great deal on Utah baby headbands. We are talking Big Fat Utah headbands. They were on sale for a dollar so we got one of every color--nine in total. Then, we went to Robert's to pick out some ribbon so Grandma could make some bows to stick on Riley's new Big Fat Utah headbands. Now, I wanted Grandma to make Riley's bows for two reasons.

1. Big Fat Utah bows are not cheap! and

2. Big Fat Utah bows are just that...BIG and FAT.

Although I think the big fat bows are cute, they are a little too big for my taste, especially since Riley has a little head. (Last doctor's appointment we found out that Riley's head circumfrence was in the 36th percentile).

The bows that Grandma made turned out so cute that I even stole one to wear to work last week. :)

So anyway, here are a few pictures of Riley wearing her new yellow headband and bow. (Note that the headband is so fat that I folded it in half...she'll grow into it someday!)

P.S. Thanks to Tenille for Riley's cute little green shoes!

More headband and bow pictures to come...as I said we have one of every color! (She wore the pink one yesterday and even Mike had to admit that it was adorable!)

Who dat?

2009-08-19T14:57:00.005-06:00

Riley has a new discovery. Who would have guessed? A girl who likes to look in the mirror?

A word from our sponser

2009-08-17T22:41:00.012-06:00

My name is Riley. Believe it or not I am the actual reason for this whole blog thing so I figured I would make a post of my own while my parents are sleeping. What they don't know won't hurt them... right? This is a good opportunity for me to rant about a few things.

1. My pink bear jumpsuit.

- You may think that this looks cute on me. My parents sure do. We went to Rocky Mtn. National Park last weekend, which was cold and windy, and they decide to put this on me instead of my hoodie and a pair of sweatpants. While it does keep me warm, it is big, bulky, and doesn't make riding in my carseat very fun. Not to mention the oversized hood makes it difficult for me to see anything when I turn my head left and right. Cute or not, this thing has got to go, but with winter around the corner I think you will be seeing me sport this a lot more.

2. This Backpack thingy that I have to ride in.

- During our weekend we did some hiking. Just because I can't walk yet, it seemed like a good idea to my dad to stick me, in my bearsuit of course, in this backpack thing facing him instead of where we were going. I admit it is a very comfortable ride, but come on dad, I would like to see where I'm going for once. After getting slightly motion sick it just seemed like a better idea to go to sleep.... which I did.

3. It sucks to be little.

- This wasn't much of a hike to this lookout point, but due to the altitude (over 2 miles) it was very cold and windy and I was forced to stay in the car with my aunt Mary. You can see Grandma, Grandpa, and some random dude in a green shirt looking down into the valley below. Had I not been so small I probably would have gotten a first hand look instead of this picture.

4. Hooked on Phonics didn't work for my dad.

-Here he is, OFF THE TRAIL, on the tundra which, as I informed him later, there was a sign specifically instructing him not to go off the trail. I perhaps could have pointed this out earlier, but...... you guessed it, I was in the car.

Again here we are feeding the animals when we were not suppose to. Great example for me. I suppose I don't really care too much because potato chips hurt my gums. The squirls can have them.

5. Tourists -- Enough said.

- The windy roads through the canyon means that you need to drive slow because you don't know what's around the corner.... LIKE TOURISTS WHO PRACTICALLY PARK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD TO TAKE A PICTURE!!! Yes people parked on both sides of the road and walked back and forth to take pictures of a Ram. Now it is understandable that you have never seen a ram in the wild, but when people are coming around a corner at 40-45 mph you probably don't want to be standing in the road taking a picture.

I just want to point out that I'm in the middle of a walking trail, while I observe nature.... not a road.

That's all for now and until next time enjoy the view.

Oh and I want to say Happy Birthday to my friend McKay who turns four months in a few days. Eat a piece of puree cake for me =)

One month older and wiser too

2009-08-07T17:03:00.018-06:00

On Tuesday Riley hit the big 4 mo. mark. Not a usual milestone for celebration, but we figured we bombard a post with pics from her last four months anyway.

Her birthday! (actual birthday)

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

One Sweet World

2009-08-04T14:18:00.011-06:00

As part of our trip back to Utah for the break we decided to actually get away by staying at the Zermatt Resort in Midway. I know what you're thinking. "Midway huh?...... Nice getaway." Well this place was pretty sweet.

This was the view from our balcony...

And this is a view of our balcony.

Riley also got to go on her first carousel ride.

Even going for a walk was really nice with a stream, pond, and mountains in the background.

There were lots of delicious looking things in the bakery. I wish I could tell you how good, but we forgot to buy something before we left. We did try the gelato though. mmmmm

The only thing I wondered about was the goats. In the evening they seemed to become possessed.

Grandpa's vistit

2009-07-18T19:49:00.005-06:00

Grandpa Tom came to Denver to meet little Riley. He took the train from Sacramento to Denver where we picked him up at Union Station. After a relaxing trip with beautiful scenery, he was ready to meet his new grandaughter. Riley sat on Grandpa's lap and smiled while he talked and played with her. We barbequed hamburgers, made homemade guacamole, and ate ribs, strawberry shortcake, blueberry coffee cake, fruit salad, artichokes, Costco chicken and lots of chips. We also made sure to get in our afternoon naps. Grandpa Tom has to leave tomorrow morning. The time flew by! Hopefully Grandpa Tom can come out and visit us again soon! Here are some pictures of Riley and her favorite Grandpa.

Thunderstruck

2009-07-11T11:02:00.009-06:00

This lightning storm lasted for about an hour last night. It was far enough away that we could just sit out on our porch and enjoy it.

I spent way too much time trying to take a picture of lightning striking.

And because we need a pic of Riley I thought this one was fitting. Just think of Riley singing Thunderstruck by ACDC. Da na na nahhh na na nahh na na Thunder

Onesie courtesy of Ryan and Jenna

This one's for you Buddy, compliments of Stacey.

2009-07-03T22:08:00.003-06:00

"Beaverette"--the next generation

She learns quick

2009-06-26T15:56:00.007-06:00

We try to make sure Riley is always learning. Last night we decided it was time she learned how to play Skip Bo. Here she is helping Vivian play her hand.

No matter how hard we tried, Tayler and I couldn't beat both Vivian and Riley in this game.

I did, however, get Riley to show me a few of Viv's cards. It still didn't help me win.

Stacey's visit

2009-06-10T21:56:00.006-06:00

Here are some pictures that we took when Stacey came out to visit. These were taken May 17th.

Riley has been growing so fast!

Daddy daughter dance.

Stacey and Riley.

Stacey took this picture because her arms are the longest :)

Mommy & Daddy sleep when Riley sleeps....

2009-06-05T22:16:00.002-06:00

Here are some photos we took while Tiffiny was in town (April 28th-May 5th).

2009-05-22T13:45:00.006-06:00

Before Tiffiny left, we dressed Riley up for a little photo shoot.

Riley at 4 weeks old. She is wearing one of her newborn outfits that no longer fits her.

Tiffiny and Riley became the best of friends.

Riley just got home from an outing with Mom and Auntie Tiff.

After Riley eats, she is content and likes to sprawl out on Mommy's lap.

Our Luscious Garden

2009-05-07T22:31:00.002-06:00

I was determined to grow something this summer. Here are 2 tomato plants on our porch that resemble marajuana more than tomatoes. Updates to come. I know everyone will be dying to hear how they do througout the summer.

Baby Riley

2009-05-04T15:40:00.002-06:00

I think that Riley is so adorable in this photo!

Her face says it all

2009-04-29T15:09:00.007-06:00

Riley has some great facial expressions. Unfortunately not all of them have been captured by Kodak yet. Here are a few.

Waking from a long nap.

Recovering from a bath. There is nothing she hates more than bath time.

A new clean diaper. Oooh yeeaaahhh!!

Sometimes it is the hand gestures that let us know how she's feeling. That's why we keep the mittens on.

And then there is just plain cute...

Riley's Big Day!

2009-04-04T13:17:00.002-06:00

I am trying to figure out how to put this slideshow on so the pictures are bigger. I believe to can link off of this to the web album to see them in a larger print.

2009-03-26T21:43:00.002-06:00

This was at my baby shower in Denver. Virginia is measuring my tummy with ribbon for a game. Everyone cut ribbon depending on how big around they thought I was. Everyones string was too long except for the Ilyssa's (Mike's cousin) who won--her ribbon was a little short.

2009-03-26T21:39:00.002-06:00

These ones were taken on March 18th.

2009-03-17T19:46:00.001-06:00

This one was taken in February.

2009-03-17T19:33:00.003-06:00

These two below were taken on January 19th.

A Lesson on Sin

2009-02-09T17:08:00.005-07:00

One night last week we hungry; very, very hungry. So we started driving down Federal Blvd. looking for something good to satisfy our empty stomachs. That's when we saw Panda Buffet. It didn't look that good, as you can see by the neon sign, but to our empty stomachs it seemed like a good idea.

Now we all know that chinese buffets are never a good thing to give into, but like I said, we were terribly hungry. We pulled in slowly, knowing that it wasn't the right thing to do. As we went inside all feelings of wholesome food left at once. We immediately looked over and saw a row of American food. You know, things like pizza, mac and cheese, and deviled eggs; all of them looking like they had been sitting out all day. It wasn't too late to turn around and leave, but we were so hungry. This was just so easy. We were shortly seated when I saw mexican hot sauce on the table. Hmmmm. Long story short we ate a plate, made ourselves sick, ate the sour soft serve ice cream, made ourselves more sick and left. Moral of the story: when you are starving...have a plan otherwise you will be too weak to resist the chinese buffet.

Baby Calivn

2009-02-02T18:53:00.003-07:00

While we were in Texas for Christmas, baby Calvin was born. We were so excited that we could be there! It made us all the more excited for when we have our baby because Calvin was so dang cute!!

Our Apartment

2009-02-02T18:48:00.003-07:00

Here is the T.V.--we bought it when we moved in after realizing that we couldn't live without it. Mike watches a lot of sports (I kinda regret getting it).

I have been working on decorating the house. I wish my mom were here to do it for me!

Our narrow kitchen. There isn't much counter space, but we make due.

And this is the best part. Our kitchen table is a mini!

Here is Mike's favorite study spot.

Already a Trouble Maker!

2008-12-13T12:25:00.006-07:00

Wednesday was suppose to be the big day. We were suppose to find out whether the little one was a boy or girl. Unfortunately the baby was face down taking a nap. Viv told me the night before it was causing quite a ruckus which evidently caused it to feel the need to sleep all day. The doctor tried to get the baby to roll over, but we had no such luck so the doctor never got a good look. This little trouble maker is already starting bad habits.

This ultrasound photo is of the leg and foot. The long white bone is the femur.

Let it snow, let it snow.... NOT!

2008-12-02T17:47:00.004-07:00

Sunday started out as a good day. (considering our vacation was over) We got an early start on the road with only 8 hours of driving ahead of us... or so we thought. Debbie did call me in the morning warning me of the poor Saturday conditions which closed the highway, but the conditions were suppose to get better on Sunday. Plus I figured we left early enough that we could get past Vail (the worst part of the drive) before the sun started going down. The first 6 hours went exactly as planned. We were on track for a 7 1/2 hour trip. Then we hit the snow. We moved inch by inch as all the holiday traffic condensed together. Long story short, the I-70 closed at Silverthorn which meant we were stuck with thousands of other people in a small resort town. Hmmm.... not good.
After making phone calls and realizing there was no way out and all the hotels had been booked, we took out last option... the local rec center. The red cross set up a relief there providing cots, blankets, and girl scout cookies. So with a bunch of other people, seen below, we set up camp.

Just when you think things couldn't get any worse... they get better. After about an hour of gym time, a local highway patrol officer announced the highway was open again and we had the first notice. We quickly packed back up and got on the road again.
We left at 9 a.m. and got home at 11 p.m. Fortunately, I procrastinated an assignment due on Monday and had to work on that once we got home. Smart.
We also learned our lesson about snow in the Colorado Rockies. Don't mess with them.

2008-11-16T20:59:00.004-07:00

It's Denver art week and all the museums were FREE on Friday night. So we decided to brave the lack of downtown parking situation and go. This the Denver Art museum in the background. It has a lot of modern and contemporary art. Most of it was pretty interesting considering it was modern art. One of the artists never had anyone who loved him. His art was either extremely depressing or something Brit would see in one of his "freaky, freaky dreams" with David Bowie. Unfortunately the other building, with Europeon art, which was supposed to have some stuff from the Louve, was closed. Afterwards we hit up the museum of Nature and Science. It is huge. We were there for an hour and a half and only saw about half of it.
Now to complain about doing anything downtown. Parking is stressful. It really isn't any worse than any other big downtown city, but it still is open to critisim. One reason it's so bad is the layout of the city. Most of the greater Denver area is a grid with streets running north, south, east, and west. Sounds easy enough. Then you get to the 10 or so square miles of downtown where someone thought it would be funny to twist it so that all the streets run on angles making it easy to get turned around. I'm on 20th ave., take 2 left turns and then I'm on 9th ave. That math doesn't seem to add up. So finding parking isn't just a matter of just finding a spot on the street that's open, it's also knowing how these streets all fit together. Last night I wanted to circle around until I found a spot. Not so easy. So I finally just parked not really knowing which direction the museum even was. Luckily it was only a couple blocks away. Not too bad. I guess I'm just a whiner. Maybe we'll take the bus next time. -Mike