If you've been reading any of my other web pages so far, you will realize that I try to put up a short quote that quickly summarizes my feelings on the subject being displayed. On all these other pages the quotes come from someone other than myself. Well, I figure if Henry David Thoreau and Mark Twain get to make appearances on my web site, I get to be quoted too. So here goes:

• Christmas 2008
  Nothing quite like Christmas at the McCormick household. There's gambling, drinking, tons of family, everyone shouting in joy, and family everywhere. This year I also threw in a little bit of ice fishing, saw some old Pedro cocktail waitresses I used to work with (Bryn and Cheryl), and spent New Year's Eve in Chicago with my friend Michelle and three random people I'd never met before. In short, it was a memorable and great Christmas!

• Fourth of July - 2005
  What would the Fourth of July be if it wasn't for the McCormick clan gathering at my parent's place, my dad grilling some chicken and brats, and Dressler showing up to race my little nephew down the hill on a big wheels type suicide machine. How did I get so lucky to have friends and family like this?

• Fishing in Canada
  One quick word of note here: the McCormicks and Robertses are great hunters but when it comes to catching walleyes in another country, well, we suck. Never the less, we had an absolute blast! On top of that the northerns always seemed willing to bite so we never had a problem catching enough food to get lunch and dinner every night. Oh yeah, if the apocolypse comes tomorrow, you'll be happy to know a McCormmick man (or Roberts man). This is the part where I beat my chest and make an animalistic cry into the wilderness. Lucky for you that last part doesn't come out so well over the internet.

• Brother Ben in Town
  The one thing that could make the city of Seattle luckier than having one McCormick within its city limits to have two of us. That's right, my brother Ben was in town for a weekend. While I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with him as I would have liked (and, obviously, he got to spend but a sliver of the time he would have like to spend with his older, wiser, wittier, and better looking brother), it was great to have him in town and show him around. I only have a couple of the pictures from his trip (someone forgot the camera in the car when we went for a hike into the mountains), but never the less, we had a great time.

• Holiday Season 2004
  Another holiday season back in Wisco, and I have to tell you, the family is starting to get big. First, my brother Ben and his wife Keri had their beautiful daughter Maddie with them (who was super sick - which I'm chalking up as the reason she cried when her uncle and name sake Matty held her), my brother Andy now has two little ones that are an absolute blast (or terror depending on whether or not you actually own the things they're breaking), and, to help complete the redneck cicle, the parents are now the proud owners of a new dog. Yep, it was a great year!

• Saying Goodbye to Grandma
  This trip home marked the celebration of the life of my Grandmother who passed away on April 23, 2004. While it was a sad reason to journey home, it was amazing to see all the remarkable people she was responsible for bringing into this world: 8 daughters, 26 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. So many people, in fact, that this set of photos can only show a small portion of all them all. But this trip home also marked the beginning of new life: it was my first chance to meet my new niece Madeline (little Maddie, how cool is that). It was also the first instance of my two nephews Dylan and Aiden waking me up in the morning - just like their dad used to do when he was their age.

• Holiday Season 2003
  Thanksgiving and Christmas brought me back to Wisconsin twice in a month - once to shoot a deer and eat turkey; and once to open presents. You'll also find my two nephews making their debut on my web site in this link. You definitely have to check out the full sized photo of Dylan (the one you see at the right) caught red handed stealing a candy bar that my grandma had been given. And yes, I sat right there and watched - we know how to raise them in the McCormick family.

  If you're interested in the other shenanigans that went on at the McCormick ranch over the holidays, be sure to check out the pictures of seven rednecks firing away at clay pigeons on Christmas Eve morning at the McCormick ranch. You can check it out under the Shooting Guns - Part II link off of the Friends page.