Wordless Wednesday

where oh where....

so i've been missing in action. i blame it entirely on the people of beijing. because first of all, they had to set up their country in a time zone 12 hours ahead of mine...then they had to go and throw a kick-ass 2008 olympics! so when i should've been tending to my blog, instead i was up until 2 or 3 or 4 or 6am watching the olympics live from beijing! (i mean...because nbc is lame, we all know that i watched the prime-time "good stuff" recorded....but then the late-night thrillers like archery, badminton, shooting, sailing, equestrian and the likes, i watched into the wee hours of the morning.)

anyway - i've regained some semblance of order in my life again...and i'm back and ready to catch you up on what's going on. but luckily, the past 2 weeks that i've been missing can be summed up in the above paragraph.

and as a welcome back....let me show you MY favorite competitor and events from the games this year. it was a little known romanian gymnast who really brought her A-game - but sadly, we heard nothing about.

enjoy! and thanks, KLAIR, for sharing the magic of this video.....you = super!

GYMNASTIQUE PEKIN 2008 (REMI GAILLARD)
Uploaded by nqtv

wordless wednesday

the rest of the wedding trip

so after 18 hours of driving, alternating between michelle and i every few hours, we made it home and i feel somewhat revived. what you will find below is just a collection of photos from the 2-5th days of the great wedding trip of 2008. we had a great time with tammy...and it was fun to share her big day with her and her family and friends. even with a couple of setbacks along the way (please see 'dented bumper' below....), we survived and had a riotous time doing it! we ate some amazing food...we met some incredible people (thanks for the fun, pat & ann!) and we spent a lot of times laughing and catching up! best of luck, tammy and mitch! and thanks, michelle, for being the best road trip partner EVER! you rule.

our stop on thursday night in saint louis took us to amy and chad larson's house. amy and i are friends from way back in the days of high school speech and debate. this is their son, jack. he is awesome.

jack loves to smile.

i'm trying to imitate jack's smile skill. he's not impressed. it was awesome to catch up with amy!

michelle and jack hit it off well.

our drive from saint louis to kansas city took us through columbia, mo - where we stopped for lunch at buckingham's bbq. how was it?

does THAT answer your quetsion?

OR that? seriously....so gooooooooood.

for jill: i saw this and thought you needed to know and see that they have new wrappers. but same great taste.

i took the picture because of the sign that says MATT! luckily, or unluckily, i also got a picture of michelle's foot.

we made it to kansas city and met tammy and her good friend, tina, at the hotel to head over to the church for rehearsal.

here is michelle, at the dinner, reacting to the gift that tammy gave her.

the joke is revealed...and michelle and tammy share a moment. (evidently, when tammy and michelle lived together, a guy showed up to take michelle on a date once...said he had something for her...and pulled that little stuffed bunny out of his pocket. and since then, the bunny has been traded back and forth between the two.)

tammy and michelle pose with ann, the wife of the best man, pat. and one of the coolest people we met all weekend. this lady is incredible...and we got to spend friday night at the rehearsal and saturday night at the wedding with them.

pat, matt and ann...saying good bye at the rehearsal dinner.

patti showed up saturday morning...and evidently, she brought her own candy.

patti enjoys a krabby patty.

THE WEDDING! michelle, patti and rachel morrissey strike a pose.

i'm not sure what is going on here...but i love this picture. their expressions are hysterical.

michelle, tina and myself, at the end of the ceremony.

rachel, patti and michelle group hug with the new bride...tammy!

and then i decide to get in on the lovin'.

hahaha. another unclear shot...but i love patti's expression.

so what do you do at a wedding reception while you're waiting for the bride and groom to show up? MOTORBOAT, of course!

michelle gives it a shot.

rachel brings home the MOTORBOAT gold medal! genius!

still waiting? move on to the loose-jaw head-shake. patti did.

a couple of times, actually.

rachel has a mean entry here, too.

not the way you want to start 'the morning after'. the morning after the wedding, before we were to head home, we came out to get in michelle's car to head to a brunch, and THIS is what we saw. evidently, our friend, tina, had a bit of trouble with her car, a pole and michelle's bumper. not a fun morning.

we got everything taken care of and then headed to meet tammy's family for a nice brunch. post-brunch, tammy's sister peggy and her family and i do a motorboat attempt.

then her nephew and 2 nieces try their hand at loose-jaw head-shake. pretty impressive.

mitch and tammy...the happy bride and groom...get in on the action.

tammy's newphew, andrew, and his girlfriend, jaqueline and i say good-bye at tammy's apartment.

mitch and the girls share one final good-bye before everyone heads off.....

a note

sorry for the delay. i'm sure you're wondering...so i'm reporting that we did, indeed, make it to and from the wedding weekend in kansas city. the 18 hour drive home - straight through - was an event of marathon-proportion. so i guess it's perfect we did it during the run of the olympic games. and although i haven't finished reporting on the trip, i have every intention of doing so. along with a fun report on a night out with the tour guides of CST last night!

tonight - after a tour - i'm hopefully going to put up a report to dazzle your senses. or atleast to keep you from being bored when you visit during your work day!

in the meantime, click HERE to read the latest scandal associated with the beijing games. shame on you, china!

day 1 - road trip 2008

so friends....it was a long driving day...but it was full of so much fun, that we didn't even care. we rolled into st. louis last night - a full 15 hours after leaving washington dc! the day was beautiful - the drive was good - and the adventures were plentiful. i snapped pictures all day and am happy to share them with you here. my apologies to maryland - for missing your 'welcome to maryland' sign. it was early - traffic was bad on the beltway - and honeslty...i've seen it a thousand times, so it wasn't even on my mind. and also to missouri....for the blurry mess that is your sign. end of the day, and all.

anyway....my day went a little something like this:

what a treat to drive almost completely through the beautiful state of west virginia. for those of you unaware, this is where i spent 2 years as a mormon missionary - from 1993-1995. so basically, forever ago.

a trip through west virginia meant a trip through huntington...which meant a chance to see mom & dad sizemore! (my good friend, chris sizemore is from huntington...and we did the willy wonka tour together. and his parents, ricki and roger, were huge folllowers of the show!) and where BETTER to meet up with them than at hillbilly hot dogs in downtown huntington.

looking good, sizemore's! thanks for taking time out of your day to come visit!

michelle shows off the magical place.

a major draw to stopping in huntington was marshall university...which is where the true story movie of 'we are marshall' is based. and since michelle had just seen the movie, she was extra-excited about the stop.

the memorial fountain placard...and some various shots (dare i say 'art shots') of the fountain:

michelle found her dream training program in huntington!

then it was on to kentucky.

michelle found red velvet twinkies! of course i had to try them.

in theory....excellent idea. in execution...not so well done.

the fun continued on into indiana.

we stopped for gas in griffin, indiana....and found the most antique gas pumps i have ever seen in use.

art shot 1 from griffin, indiana.

art shot 2 from griffin, indiana.

not much was happening in southern illinois.

my pathetic attempt at the missouri sign.

but we reached our final destination safe and sound!