Lisa and Emily take a break from skating.

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Burried deep in the damp basement of McClellandFamily.com we keep a box of old archived blog posts. Every so often we dig them out, blow off the dust and publish them here on the new and improved blog. (They were originally posted in that sappy old blog with that racist logo.) Rather than leaving them there to perish or simply bringing them forward to this blog and filing them by date where you would never see them (honestly, does anyone really read posts from 5 or 6 years ago?) we file them here under a catchy title usually with the word “archive” in it. That’s a hint: For you regular blog readers, search the word “archive” and you may see stuff you’ve never seen before. Here’s what we’ve brought out of that damp basement lately:

To my wife Lisa on Valentine’s Day 2005: A lover’s day poem written by Steve and a photo or her lipstick-written response! Originally posted February 14, 2005

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We are sad to say we are leaving Steve and Emily home. Love you and we’ll miss you!(Steve’s note: Patrick got to go this time to make up for missing the trip in March of 2004 (he was too young, we deemed.) The whole family also went in December of 2006.)

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We made the trip to Fog Willow Pumpkin Farm for the second year in a row and met Mike and Jody and the kids. We also ran into former neighbors Staci and Kyle Karnow and their three little ones. The farm’s annual free event is getting quite large, and while it’s barely worth fighting the huge crowds , the magic hour just before sundown makes for some great photo op’s. I’m glad we went.

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Serene Lakes Days is a standard for this family. Once a year Serene Lakes families all get together to participate in events from horse shoes to three-legged races to running to cycling. This year was no different except for the fact that we didn’t participate in much. The adults spent the weekend working on the outdoor shower and refinishing the row boat.

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Independence day was celebrated at the cabin with the Wassermanns and Petterle’s. Also Les, Dan, the Killers (Honestly, Amy when all three of us are together in one place at one time, can’t we manage to get a photo together?) Eva and Roger joined us with the kids for a couple of days too. It was a full house, but we had a fun week. We entered the usual float pulled by Mike’s jeep in the parade. Steve road the unicycle in the parade for the first time.

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On father’s day, I could think of nothing better to do than to spend the day at Folsom Lake with my two kids and 5 other father’s, all family and close friends. We had a blast and the day went by way too fast.

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No prizes here. The winner gets bragging rights for the dirtiest nails after 2 days of camping and NO SHOWERS!

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I thought it was going to be simple to sum up our second day here: breakfast, beach, scuba class, dinner, sleep. And in fact the beginning of the day started out just like my summary. By dinnertime though, the action heated up with a tear-filled dinner, a father-daughter moment of a lifetime and some high-tech shenanigans that turned Emily into a ghost.

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The first day of our week-long vacation to Beaches Resort on Turks and Caicos was an extremely long travel day filled with anticipation. The kids were on edge constantly with an energy that overcame their lack of sleep. Patrick slept on the plane, probably more than anybody. The adults slept when and where they could: Beth on the hard

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