Insomnia, Part II

Not technically insomnia, because staying up all night was my choice.

Insomnia is what I'm looking forward to tonight. I didn't mean to sleep all day, it just sort of happened.

So tonight I won't be able to sleep.

I think I got more sleep today than I get most nights. Depressing.

Ugh.

Cheers
McKenna

Another Video

Proof that six hours is far too long for eight people to spend together in such a small space as our van.

Cheers,

McKenna

And We're Back

Arrived safely at home around 5:30.

After the funeral on Saturday, everybody went out to eat together, a family reunion of sorts, which proved to be a good photo taking opprotunity.

Lots of pictures for you, I think I took about five hundred. Here are a select few:

Kathryn, cousin, with Aunt Ellen, our dad's dad's sister.
Aunt Karen (who'd have thought that there would be two Karen Parishes, in the same immediate family anyway) with Shannon.Dad with his good friend Palmer Muntz. We spent Easter Sunday with his family, in Indiana.
The five Parish siblings- Mike, Diana, Steve, John and Jeff
Parish Siblings with the wives- Karen & Mike, Diana, Steve, Louise and John, and Karen and Jeff
FINALLY!!! A picture with all eight of us.

Half of the Parish cousins, with Aunt Ellen. The only one you may not recognize is Katie.

Come on, smile.
This one's worth more than a thousand words.
He-man and Riley
Let's pretend to be thoughtful, shall we?

Ummm . . .

Ummm . . .

Shannon claims that this is the 'best picture on the blog yet!' And no, I'm not going to spend the rest of this post quoting people. I have about two hundred more pictures of Shannon and Kathryn, similar in character to this one. If you really want to see those, or some of those, leave it in a comment. Or whatever.

So, I don't really have any quotes to give you from this trip, sorry Anna, but I do have a couple of funny stories.

Story number 1:

En route to Ohio, we stopped at a car wash. Turns out that was a mistake. Apparently, our back doors leak. And the sun roof drips. It really was entertaining watching Shannon and Wes keep the water and 'psychedelic' soap off the luggage. Try to keep it off, anyway. I only thought about getting video of that as we were exiting the parking lot. Oops.

Story number 2:

So, soon after we checked into our hotel on Friday, Mom and Dad suggested going on that 'fun-filled family ride'. Please note that Shannon and I were both unwilling to go along, but the promise of ice cream persuaded us. Humph. Ya'll know what happened after that.

And no, we didn't get ice cream.

Story number 3:

Not really a story. We played Apples to Apples for quite a while Friday night. I won!!! By quite a bit, about twice the score of Kathryn, in 2nd. Yay me.

I think that's about it.

Cheers,
McKenna

Still waiting. Right now, we're just sitting in the hotel lobby. Dad should be back with the van soon. We may be nixing the Harding Memorial plan. None of us are quite sure how we're going to fit everything in the van. It seems like we're bringing back about twice as much as we came with. And it doesn't help that we had to bring the instruments with us.

I'm bored.

Cheers,
McKenna

Still in Ohio. Going to the Harding Memorial. Hopefully, we'll be back tonight. We just got the call that the van's been fixed.

Checking out soon.

Cheers,
McKenna

It's Official

The Parishes have the worst luck in the world.

I'm sitting in a hotel lobby in Ohio. I'm just glad there's a computer I can get to, with halfway decent internet access, because I'm going to be stuck with it for a while.

You see, yesterday we went for a 'fun-filled family ride'. Really, Mom said that. And when we were about half an hour from our hotel, our van broke down. And it won't be fixed until Monday. So. At least I have reading material.

Happy Easter to us.

On the upside, so far I've taken about three hundred pictures. Can't put them up yet, but I've got them.

I'm depressed.

Cheers,
McKenna

Random and Funny Things, Part II

I pace when I walk.
Shannon

Junk in an organizer. Woot!
Shannon

Wesley, call regular attenders to the egg factory. The Southards, the Nathans . . .
Shannon

Wesley, get off of me. My feet can't breathe.
Shannon

If all the money in the world was going to explode in two days, what would you buy?
Wesley

'Cause they get ten pound balls chucked at them every day, all the time.
Wesley

See that bright blue car right above us?
Wesley

What country do you think has more talent, England or Britain?
Wesley, misquoting Simon Cowell

'Cause if she does anything, she has to clean it up ten-fold.
Wesley

Cheers,
McKenna

Ugg

So, I guess it's been a while. Let me try to remember what's happened since last I posted.

Well, our grandma passed away last Thursday in Alaska; the funeral will be in Ohio this weekend.

That music festival-thingy happened. Ri and Aislinn were unable to participate (lucky!!!), the former because of a case of the flu, the latter because of an injured finger. Ergo, the quartet was unable to play, as we were celloless. Yippee! We all did reasonably well. And then went out for lunch (at McDonalds, very high class, huh?) and had an . . . interesting time. Pictures, or at least one pic, will be coming soon.

Umm . . . We went to the Borah's today to be in a newspaper picture in our 'fighting word poverty' shirts. You can see those shirts here: www.busyshirts.com Well, only Wes, Shan and I (and mom, since I still can't drive) went. Lucky Riley got to stay home and watch Aislinn, Janelle, Jackson, Ellie and Maggie for nearly three hours.

Easter Cantata. On Palm Sunday. Yeah, I know. I can't really think of anything else to say about that. Well, I can, but nothing I would want anyone else to see.

Oh yeah. Riley has braces. I'd post a picture, but she won't let me take one.

I'm supposed to be posting a video, but that will have to wait.

Cheers,
McKenna

An Interpretation of Gandalf

Yeah, yeah, I know. Yet another video of Wesley. But Shannon won't let us put anything of her on.

So, tonight was supposed to be of the quiet, popcorn and a movie variety. But if you actually do know our family, and are not just someone who was flipping through blogs one day and thought ours was worth looking at, you'll know that things don't often go as planned or expected.

During dinner, Aislinn was cutting an orange with our new, rather sharp knives, and it slipped. The resulting cut wasn't nearly as bad as you might think, seeing Mom's reaction, but it did warrant a trip to a neighbor's for a second opinion and then a short excursion to the ER, where a very nice nurse told us she didn't need stitches and gave us some special kind of bandaids and stuff to clean it up. So, while we're waiting to finally start that movie, I'm typing this. And, lucky me, I get to listen to Riley singing 'Start All Over', originally performed by Miley Cyrus. Fortunately, the Dies Irae movement from Mozart's Requiem is doing a pretty good job of blocking that out.

Next week, most of us will be playing at a music festival-thingy, four of us doing solos, Shannon doing a duet with Laura, and the quartet is doing something. Aislinn just got out of it, because her injury is on the wrong finger. Or the right finger, depending on which way you look at it. After a quartet lesson today, some of us went over to the Southardses, and then some more of us went to the mall. Anna, Shannon and Laura bought what one usually buys on a trip to the mall: clothes and shoes. I bought a book. Go figure.

Wesley getting a haircut.

Janelle. 'Nough said.

Oh, how we impose upon Laura.

That shoe was so much cuter in person. Or however you'd say that.

Cheers,

McKenna

Another Random Video

Wesley thought this video was 'genius' . . .

Didn't he do a great job holding the camera?

While we were on Marco Island, Riley made these 'awesome' videos with her new Flip Ultra camcorder, shown below:

Riley would 'recommend it to anybody' because of its small size. She claims 'it saved my life' when 'my other camera broke'. Riley thinks 'it's really uncool how McKenna is typing out everything I'm saying' and that 'McKenna's taking advantage of me.'

Well, duh.

Cheers,

McKenna

Wesley's Rapping

Here's Wesley . . . being himself.




Because some of you seem to be unable to figure out what, exactly, Wesley is saying, here are the words:

Woah, woah, now
We're sittin' on the dock,
In my boat
It's, like, twelve o'clock
And the cops
Are comin' right now
I think we're gonna
Hafta
Run now.

This is so stupid.

Cheers,
McKenna

Poll

Just something random to see which letter is most popular. And I couldn't think of anything better. If you come up with anything, leave it in a comment, or whatever.

Cheers,

McKenna

Random and Funny Things My Siblings Have Said Recently, Part I

Yeah, but I have to be your sister!
Wesley

We're going to church?! But I thought we were on vacation!
Aislinn

If you buy some beef jerkey I'll share it with you.
Shannon

Me and Wesley like to play Super Secret Marine Spy.
Riley

When you're in a small this town . . .
Wesley

And the wind can be the guns they're shooting us at!
Aislinn

Well, since the island faces North-South . . .
Riley

And no, there wasn't anything I have said that would fit into this category. Really

Cheers,

McKenna

We're back!

Sorry this took so long.

I found out how to put video on here!

This is what happens after an eighteen hour car drive:

Shannon's attempt at supermodeling which was kinda working until Janelle interfered.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

Shannon and Janelle showing off their new shades.

Random picture of Wesley taken while I was suffering from bad luck fishing. I did manage to snap a bit of seaweed, but that's about it. Fortunately, no one else was doing nearly so bad as I was.

Shannon, right after we bought tickets for High School Musical.

A picture of a picture (like I was bringing my camera) of us parasailing at Fort Myers. Left to right, back row, me, mom, and her friend Susy; front row, Shannon.

If you don't know who this is by now . . .

Janelle doing well in the two day poker game . . .

. . . and Janelle doing not so well, some time later that night. The 'later' might have something to do with that mood swing as well. Shannon ended up winning, with $5.60, followed by myself at $4.85 and Janelle in third with $4.35. Everyone else had lost their loot before then.

After the first day of fishing. Can you identify the one in the middle? Elizabeth couldn't :P.

Aislinn on the beach in Naples.

Yup, that covers just about everything we did this trip. Well, I read quite a bit, but who wants a picture of that? Yeah, I go on a vacation in Florida and I spend all my time reading. I've already heard all the arguments for me finding something else to do, no need to waste your time trying to persuade me of anything.

10245 pages read over thirteen days.

Cheers,

McKenna