in the evening chad and i met up with the family at cabana's tres amigos restaurant. with chad leaving in just two days, we tried to spend as much time as possible with him before he left. jill and tim were even able to come without the kids. they quick got a babysitter and met us there. we just talked and ate and enjoyed the time together. the food was good too!
familia
in the evening chad and i met up with the family at cabana's tres amigos restaurant. with chad leaving in just two days, we tried to spend as much time as possible with him before he left. jill and tim were even able to come without the kids. they quick got a babysitter and met us there. we just talked and ate and enjoyed the time together. the food was good too!
surfing with chad
after seeing the kids, i went to panera bread to get on the internet. with chad home i hadn't been able to use the computer much since it was it in his room. i figured i wouldn't bother him, so i brought my computer to panera to play. oddly enough, as i was there, chad shows up! he bought a new laptop for himself over break to take with him where he is stationed next. he was having some problems getting it to log on to mom and dad's internet connection, so he got the same idea as me! we spent the afternoon sitting next to each other messing with our computers. i played on the internet while he tried to download patches for his new system. it was really fun, as we were sitting there we would periodically turn a computer toward the other and show each other some crazy internet video we had found. it wasn't anything special, but for some reason i really treasured that time together, just the two of us.
hula girls
one of the 'great' gifts we got from the dykhouse christmas party was a box of two hula girls (thanks julie and mike...). i thought it would be funny to stick one of them in diana's sisters car! she thought it was pretty funny, but then when i got to my car that little dancing girl was staring me back in the face! aaah! she got me back! i decided to just keep it in there, and diana took the other one and put it on her bookshelf. what fun!just jackson
it may be a little self serving, but i always try to get my sister's kids to love movies as much as me, especially jackson. every time i give him a gift, its a movie. i've given him 'monsters inc.', 'the incredibles', 'rattatouille', and 'robots'. for his birthday this year i got him 'kung fu panda', and for christmas i got him 'wall-e'. as a part of this indoctrination, i picked him up tuesday to go see 'the tale of despereaux' in the theater!i picked him up around 10:30am. his mom didn't tell him what we were going to do, she just said that uncle mark was coming to do something with him. just him. his sisters weren't invited, it was just guy time. he was pretty excited! i got there and told him what we were going to do and he was thrilled. it was a lot of fun going with just him to the theater. we got some candy and found seats all to ourselves. i dont think he quite understood the movie, but he certainly enjoyed it! (my not-so-favorable review here) afterward we headed back to his house and i hung out with the kids for a little while.
at his age i always wonder how much he will remember, but i know i'll remember the fun time we had with just the two of us, uncle and nephew!
more travel
monday we decided to spend some time at diana's place. we went down there in the afternoon and spent some time with poco, he had certainly missed us and we didn't want to neglect him. we took him for a walk and played with him a bit.for dinner we went to one of my favorite places: hacienda! we stuffed ourselves with chips and salsa, then it was time for me to go back home again.
when i got back in to town i met up with aaron, bethany, and freddie at bdubbs to hang out.
poco's gift
one of the funniest things when we were opening gifts with my family was the fact that my mom and dad got a couple gifts for diana's dog poco! he will also be my dog soon, so they must have thought that he is as close to a grandson as they will get from us for a while! they got him a little tent to sleep in, and a lovely sweater! my mom was a little confused about poco's gender (he's a boy) and got him a pink one. diana didn't mind, she actually preferred it. and i'm pretty sure poco doesn't care due to the fact that dogs are color blind...the dykhouse's
sunday night we raced from the allen christmas party back up to grand rapids so we could go to the dykhouse christmas party! after we took a few minutes to get a family portrait, it was time to see all the aunts and uncles and cousins. and all the cousin's kids (there sure are a ton of them!). we had dinner, then it was time for some gifts! my mom had a great idea to keep the action moving: all the little ones opened their gifts at the same time! genius! it only took about five minutes for all of them to dig in! then we sent them all to the nursery room to play with their new toys. that left the rest of us to exchange white elephant gifts. it was a good time, and ended in many of us (including myself) getting new underwear! (mine had a super sexy homer simpson in them...). after mingling with everyone for a couple hours, it was time to call it a night! we headed back to my parents place and took it easy the rest of the night.a family portrait
at the dykhouse family christmas my mom wanted us all to get together for our first family portrait. we rarely get to see chad, so having him around and now having diana soon join our family, it was the perfect opportunity! my cousin kelley took some shots of us so we could have a photo of all of us together, since it so rarely happens.aw, isn't everyone so cute?
(more pics: 1, 2)
the allen's
on sunday we had a couple more christmas parties to go to, the first of which was the allen family christmas, which is diana's dads side of the family. we went and picked up her dad on the way and were actually the first to arrive! the place was empty when we got there! just a couple minutes later everyone started to show up. we helped unload the food while the house warmed up. soon after, everyone was there and it was time to dig in! i hadn't met all of that side of her family yet, so it was fun to meet them all at once. her dad and her uncle both have a strange sense of humor, which made for a great time! after dinner we exchanged white elephant gifts, and some of them were... um... interesting. one involved a couple of kidnapped monkeys and a ransom note, another included some righteous bling from state farm, and the highlight had some very disgusting photos of her uncle phil's colon. yikes!over all they were a lot of fun. i'm glad i got to meet the rest of them, that way when they show up to the wedding they wont be complete strangers...
the other family
because of the terrible weather on saturday morning i was late in getting home. i quickly showered, and headed out to see diana, but by then it was already almost 5:00pm. i was supposed to be down there at 4pm. oops. by the time i had finally made it to her mom and step-dad's house, the family had already eaten and opened gifts. wow, i felt like such a jerk for being so late. diana was frustrated with me, and made sure that i knew it. her grandma, aunt and uncle stuck around long enough to say hi, but then they headed home, they had a three hour drive ahead. we had spent so much time up in grand rapids with my family, and now the one time we go to see her family i'm three hours late. i guess with the crazy weather these past couple weeks i shouldn't have been surprised. i felt terrible, but there was nothing i could do about it. shoot, now i owe diana big...the cabin '08
its that time once again, that time when the guys and i take our annual trip to the cabin. we've been going for years now, and this is our 6th annual trip (archives: 5th annual, 4th annual). we go up for a night and do manly guy stuff. most of it i am sworn to secrecy about, but some of it i am able to share. we got up there just before dark this year, we broke with some traditions and went to a different place to eat. when we got back we did our usual cabin stuff, including some great new inside jokes ('are you done with this?', 'like a hurricane', and something or another about a guy named ted). by morning we exhaustedly woke up and head back to the civilized world, some how changed by what was experienced, and somehow closer friends then when we arrived. even though we were missing a few of the usual members (adam and zagman), we made the most of it and had an amazing time!the main event
with dinner done, that means theres only one thing left: presents! (or as my family calls them: prizes!). we all found a spot to sit and started to dig in. we let the kids go first, and then they were in charge of bringing the gifts to whoever they were for. it was a great time, everyone was pleased with what they had gotten, including myself and diana! we both made out pretty good- my family always spoils us! a great time was had by all, and we certainly felt loved.christmas dinner
downstairs we had set up the basement for dinner, just like thanksgiving. the two tables were set up and filled with tons of great food mom and jill had prepared. by the end we had full bellies and a great time. the kids even behaved themselves very well during dinner. maybe its because they knew more presents were to come...(more pics)
just one
before we knew it, jill & tim and the kids were there and it was time for the party to start! all of us were hungry, but the food wasnt quite ready yet, so we allowed the kids to open one gift before dinner. my mom had gotten all three of the kids their own digital cameras! jackson got a pixar 'cars' camera, tweets got a 'hello kitty' designed one, and aves even got one too!taking it easy
christmas morning we all slept in and enjoyed the fact that we had so little planned. we lounged around all afternoon doing as little as possible!christmas eve
my mom wanted to go and get her nails done, but she waited around for us to drive up wednesday morning so diana could go with her. i dropped the women off to get pampered, and i went and finished my christmas shopping. i came back a bit early, so i stopped in at the kregal bookstore and listened to a few new cds. i found a couple good ones, and ended up buying a short sampler from a band called 'the myriad'. its pretty cool!at 6:00pm we went to the candlelight service at kcc. they always pull out all the stops for the christmas eve service, but i was really questioning their strange music selections... that night we went over to tim and jills and hung out with them and talked for a while. its always good to spent time with them, and we actually get a chance to talk and enjoy each others company when the kids are in bed!
rain delay
tuesday morning i woke up on time to drive down in the bad weather and take diana to work. she didnt work until 12:30, so i was able to make it there in time. we went for lunch at logans, then in the evening we had planned to come back up here because she had the next two days off. unfortunately, the weather was not willing to cooperate! while i was playing at panera and getting the last of the christmas presents for my family, it started raining on top of the two feet of snow that had accumulated over the past three days! the temp was hovering right around 30 degrees, so i didnt want to chance the rain turning to ice by the time we were ready to go after she got out of work, so we were stuck down there for the night. wednesday morning we felt pretty certain that the roads would be ok, so we headed back up to grand rapids.
a small milestone
wow! this is my 500th post on this blog. its a small milestone, but i thought i could use it to reflect on this whole blog thing. my first post was on september 29, 2005, and quite sarcastic. when i started all that time ago, i remember thinking that there must be something to it since so many people seem to be doing it. i told myself i would try it for a month, if i liked it i would continue and start to share my blog with others. if i didnt like it, i would delete it and move on. from the tone of those early posts i certainly didnt think i would enjoy it, but i guess i was wrong! i started off posting a couple times a week, if i had the interest or time. today i eagerly look forward to the time each week that i can spent updating and improving this little slice of the internet i call my own.from those first few posts it has grown into a whole collection of blogs! i started with just the 'poke it with a stick' page, but i quickly expanded to include pages on music, movies, critiques, an image gallery, a page for odds and ends, one defining some strange words, a page dedicated to a tv show, a strange inside joke, and a page for everything else! this is my 500th post on this main page, but i've actually racked up over 1600 posts all together on all my different pages! (yikes, it almost seems like an unhealthy obsession when i put it that way...) doing this blogging thing has changed me quite a bit: i have been challenging myself to write better, i examine the events of my life more and try to express what positive things have come from them, i take a ton more pictures (which not everyone seems to think is an improvement...), and i have been able to share my life a bit more with those who know me. not too bad for some dumb online journal, huh?
ive got more planned, so stay tuned for the next 500!
movie madness!
yesterday i was able to fulfill a dream i have had for a long time. as a big movie lover, i have always dreamed of wasting an entire day at a movie theater. monday i made that dream a reality! when i shared my vision with the guys, they wanted to be a part of it as well. so monday rex, jeffry lee, and i met up at the movie theater and proceeded to watch 5 movies in a row. no, you did not read that wrong: we saw five movies in a row!the day before i had carefully orchestrated our plan of attack, a way that we could fit all five of them in during the course of one day. we started at the theater on knapp's corner, there we saw 'slumdog millionaire' (my review). diana had dropped me off and then took my car back to her house, so the three of us guys had to scrunch into jeffry lee's tiny truck to make the transition to the next movie. we then drove to the woodland theater and watched 'eagle eye' (my thoughts). after a quick run to the mall food court (chinese food, yumm...), we were back and ready for 'rocknrolla' (my review). after a short break, and the addition to our ranks of aaron and freddie, we strode back in and saw 'role models' (my review). after that it was off to the rivertown theater to catch a late showing of 'punisher: war zone' (my review). one day, five movies, and it was glorious.
living the dream, brother, living the dream.
booger king
the other night diana and i drove through a burger king for some food. it was quite a wait for some reason, and as we were sitting there we noticed this sign. look closely, its missing an 'r' in the word 'burger'. diana and i got quite a good laugh at that- buger king? booger king?!? i know its really lame, but it was hilarious at two in the morning...
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