Great Grandma Alice Nicholls

Today we finally made good on a promise to take Mac up for a proper introduction to his great grandma. The chaos crew descended on her and she was a good sport! I think our favorite part was hearing all about her recall of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as Ike had taken all of his "I Survived" books on our little roadie, so it was a good conversation starter.

Grandma Nicholls has lost a lot of short term memory but boy, her long term memory is pretty amazing.

It was awesome to hear her share those life events with Ike. Drew and Mac were good for a few Kodak moments, but overall their attention span was lacking. So, I had to be content with second hand recaps of her recall.

Most of the time, I was out doing laps in the backyard & down the sidewalks in front with Mac, Drew & TJ.

That enabled Ike, dad & grandma to visit more effectively with great grandma. I call that 'taking one for team Johnson'.

There is the cutest caretaker at Grandma Nicholl's place. I do not know what her real name is, but her nickname is "Cookie" and the boys call her "Cookie Monster". She isn't blue or furry, but she is downright loveable.

It's merely a flesh wound!

Quote of the day is from Drewbie (again): "STOP being rude to my neck!" 

Oh, we had a little bit of fingernail gouging going on here on the sabbath day. True that. I know: I've got to get them to stop wrestling, stop playing basketball, stop harassing one another on the sabbath.

By bathtime, Drew had lip-lickers irritant contact dermatitis all around his oral cavity. Both Drew & TJ were sporting band-aids (see TJ's? It is a flesh-colored bandage on his left cheek).

We're a regular hospital ward.

Despite their various injuries, they do look happy to pose for posterity, eh?

I know what is on my holiday agenda for tomorrow (as I am off): cut some fingernails.

The thing is...have you ever noticed how those nails seem more deadly than ever after a good clipping?

Still, we will have to do something.

And, I promised the big guy I'd work on getting Christmas put away. It is tough to be living with the Grinch.

My parents have moved down to my sister's as it is closer to the interstate and their aiming to bolt across the state line tomorrow. Sadness.

We will ALL miss having Gram & Granddaddy in our midst!

Kylo Ren

TJ got geared up by his cousins, the Browns, with a stocking cap on Christmas morning.

Most of the year one doesn't need one in Tucson. But, today was one of those days where a kid needed an extra something to stay warm & toasty.

Oh yeah, problem solved!

By the way, this knucklehead would rather do ANYTHING than wear long pants...or shoes and socks, come to think of it. To each his own, eh?

Should I be alarmed that TJ absolutely LOVES it that he is sporting the bad guy on his stocking cap? Kylo Ren. Not my friend.

I suppose as long as that stocking cap doesn't carry an aura of evil, we're good. Hmmmm, know any way to check that...?

Saguaro National Park East

We had all kind of over-indulged for the day, but the pies were still untouched.

So, we fled the house for a brisk stroll through the saguaros.

Cherece is still cold all the time, as her thyroid is wiggity wacked from the radioactive iodine. So, she is playing the Mexican drug lord/bandit here in this shot.

Both the Rincons and the Catalinas were pretty mountain backdrops!

Drew got a guitar

It is rather funny sometimes to me what gifts tend to be the best hit and why. This one I think I will live to despise. It is a VTech guitar for the 4 year old, but his older brothers clearly are fascinated by this headache inducer as well. 

I do not know if you can make out the bookshelf behind the boys. But, there is a silver letter "Y" from the word "JOY" from which some stockings were hung. 

When santa went to fill said stockings, santa discovered that because mom had neglected to get Drew's name properly sewn on his stocking, it had been written on his stocking instead with PERMANENT marker. 

Santa really wanted to withhold filling said stocking.  Alas, he instead tried to scrub and scrub out the mess. Hence, there is one of mom's turquoise polka-dotted socks hanging up on the bookshelf instead of Drew's legitimate stocking. Classy, eh?

Adidas in army green!

The boys got some new "soft shirts" from G&G for Christmas morning. I don't know what they were more excited about: the new shirts OR being able to match their uber cool cousin BK.

All I want for Christmas is...

For my Gram to live with me forever and ever and ever more...!!! Is that too much to ask?

I look for her immediately upon waking from sleep, and she & I can read one another like books. When it is time to eat, she feeds me. If I'm poopy, she can fix it before my mommy even knows I've got a problem. If I wear green on Christmas morning, she compliments me with red. It does make a kid wonder by she is my Gram and not my actual mama.

But, I'll take any relation, just so it really does endure forever.

The camera is not nearly as effective in capturing my rapturous mood as my Gram's face. Can you see that?

L-O-V-E.

All I want for Christmas is another day with my gram.

And speaking of that: thanks to some weather patterns that look sketchy in New Mexico, I think I got my wish! She and granddaddy are NOT pulling out of the drive tomorrow morning as originally planned! Nope. They're staying through Monday.

Speaking of granddaddy, I love him, too. But his sneezes scare me, so gram is still my fav.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mac can be endearing. It usually isn't too difficult to con one of the nieces into owning him for a spell. They even shared all kinds of Christmas spoils with him, bless their souls.

Here is Stephanie babysitting for free. It looks so mutually beneficial, does it not?

I didn't have the heart to break it to my little man that though his cousins were certainly willing to share Mickey ears with him, he is definitely NOT getting an invite to actually go to Disneyland (the theme park) with them--ears or no ears.

I am fairly certain he would ruin that venture (were he in tow)! Nonetheless, it made for some fun Kodak moments to be sporting ears for a spell.

Oh, if only....

Our former nanny & her husband (Jenna & Nick) visited us before Christmas & brought not only their daughter for the boys to bond with but also their yard art.

Yep. Darth Vader sporting Christmas accessories.

Had my boys been the slightest bit cooperative for at least 1 minute, we could have had a photo that matched our letter!

But as it was, these are our best 2 shots from that night.  Ike's tonsils (exhibit A).

And then Drew sticking his tongue out at the world (exhibit B). Exhibit B also happens to feature Ike with obvious lip licker's dermatitis (since he is NOT showing us his tonsils in this pose). Oh, and let's not forget Mac's belly button!

Oh well.

Sorry not to be able to include you, Darth.

When I was growing up we had a neighbor named Garth. Suddenly I want to see Garth dressed up as Darth Vader...or I guess I should say 'Garth' Vader. I am going to have to track that man down! Ha!

Christmas card contenders

Todd already posted the sitting shot of the boys that we ended up using on our Christmas cards/mailers. Every year I have such high aspirations for getting some professional photos taken in October so we have all sorts of perfectly picturesque shots to choose from when it comes to our Christmas cards. Alas....again this year, we were scrambling around last minute to try & capture a decent image. Todd found the matching PJs for me, as we obtained those rather last minute also (local stores sold out).
Can you see what is different in this shot here? It's our best backyard fluffy green tree as a backdrop.  Isn't that nice?

Except the kids do not look quite as happy or looking in the same direction either.

I think they were quite done with mom's camera at this point. And poor Mac was never too welcoming in the first place. He just wanted to be settled down for a long winter's nap at that point in the day....

I think in this shot, dad had Mac's one arm and Ike had Mac's other arm, and he is suspended in front of the Christmas tree.

Nevermind his shoulder joints. They can be popped back in their sockets, right?

We will stop at NOTHING for the perfect backdrop. And what could beat Christmas tree lights? Only, with his outfit pulled to the left and right, he looks like he is as wide as the tree, eh? Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ike and TJ look rather stoned in this shot. And then there is the dreaded outlet in the background. Not such a nice touch. Next year--2016, baby--may it bring some professional photos.... (do NOT hold your breath, folks)

Merry Christmas 2015

Christmas Eve

It was nice to hang with both sides of the family this season. Since we opted to combine both the Johnsons and all the Powells who were in Tucson, no one really had adequate dining accommodations for everyone. I think there were 31 people all in, if I counted right.

It is one thing to be that many under one roof if the majority are children. But, there were 16 of us above the age of 20 & another 5 fairly decent sized teenagers (again, if you trust my stats). So, we were glad to spread out a little at the stake center to enjoy our Christmas Eve feast & entertainment.

We did a potluck-style meal which didn't leave anyone too stressed out, and that was nice. Uncle Nelson & Aunt Julie were in charge of games, and our boys sure enjoyed that part of the evening the most.

Here is Drew, sporting his "reindeer antler rack" (i.e. panty hose stuffed with balloons).  Whichever team that could build the largest rack by blowing up balloons and stuffing them into the panty hose leggings within a certain time frame won.

I don't have a photo of the drawing event, but for that everyone had to put a paper plate on their head and draw a Christmas scene without looking: complete with tree, ornaments, star on top of tree, fireplace mantle, fire in fireplace, stocking on mantle, etc. You got points for having your drawing of various things semi-intelligible without having been able to see. It was fun/funny.

Then we got flushed outdoors.  They had sprinkled Cocoa Puffs all over the lawn and each kid was paired up with an adult and whoever could collect the most "reindeer poop" (without touching it with their hands) within a given time frame won that event.

The food was great, too. There was one skit after dinner (the 12 days of Christmas), and then we did a nativity.

I think I would have rewritten a nativity with more speaking parts for the children if I had to do it all over again.  As it was, we used an old nativity script that I had done several years ago (when I did NOT have so many restless sons). It seemed to drag on for a couple pages too long...  

Official present opener

Mac.

Isn't he about the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Who needs anything else but this healthy chap to have a Merry Christmas? OK, well, I suppose Ike, TJ & Drew are not going to buy into that.

Still, he has been our greatest gift this year. We are thankful he is with us, that he is healthy despite his premature arrival. Go ahead & blow him kisses. He likes that. Come on now, do not leave him hanging...

Did I mention that he is the cuddliest baby we have ever had? That isn't really saying a lot, since we have never really known cuddly. It's fun (well, except at 2am... Ha!)

The Force Awakens

Check out TJ's shirt! The rest of us didn't exactly ooze Star Wars fandom (at least not outwardly). And truthfully, even TJ's shirt is a hand-me-down from the cousins. But we are fans, alright. Todd had gotten us tickets to the first showing Monday morning. It started at 9:35am and he insisted that we leave the house a whole hour ahead of schedule. I thought he was being crazy, but it turns out that if we wanted to sit together, that was the right move, alright.

The flick did not disappoint us.  It was so fun to view the new generation of Star Wars films with the old generation of Star Wars fans (my parents, Todd, myself, Uncle John & Aunt Cherece).

And, it is good we're training up the new generation.

Ike & TJ got to enjoy the big screen and learn more about the light & dark sides of 'The Force' with their older cousins Kiersten & Brayden.

Ike & TJ were fighting over who got to sit next to Brayden (BK) when BK finally just agreed to sit between them in order to keep the peace. Don't worry, I didn't slit my wrists because I held no appeal to my own progeny. Granted, I thought they'd at least be preteens before they wanted nothing to do with mama, but I've been steeling myself for this. But I won't say it didn't sting at all...

Joy to the World

Here we are with the 3 older boys sporting last year's Christmas attire. I never got out of the house this year to make any new wardrobe acquisitions. So, don't look too closely at the older 2 boys' sweater vests. They barely fit. And, if they raise their hands up, the wrists on their sleeves strangulate the blood supply to their fingers & you could probably see their belly buttons. Yes, I heard plenty of complaining, but don't they look festive even if they were torqued at their mama?  I think Drew's sweater vest was on the big side last year, so his actually looks pretty good.

TJ has had an AWESOME primary teacher this year. I'm rather in awe of her, actually. She always has the cutest hand-outs/take-home messages for the class. It is like her only goal in life is to impart her testimony to the 6 year olds.

I think TJ is sad that he has to move on to a new teacher in January. Hopefully he will make the transition without too many meltdowns.

Here is part of his haul from today: an edible sleigh. This was a bonus item, as it really didn't have anything to do with his lesson. It was just a "Merry Christmas" gift. Sister JoAnn Provencio, you sleigh me with your creative genius!

Drew has been a handful in Sunbeams. Today after church, Todd got the following text from his teacher:

"Today we were talking about the shepherds being visited by an angel and seeing a star. Drew turns to me and says, 'Yes, it was the death star.' I said, 'Are you sure?' He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said: 'Yes, for sure it was the death star.'"

961

Here we are after church. I feel kind of silly, as I wore my nice red top last Sunday to church. So, I didn't really look terribly Christmas-y today.

But do you see that there are snowflakes around the bottom of my sweater? And, I used a red necklace as an accent piece....though granted, that is probably too little too late. In my defense, I was getting 4 boys dressed so I had to rally in 2 minutes or less.

In case you have not heard, we have started drawing up plans to actually build a home on the lot that we bought several years ago. I don't know. 961 has been home for 10+ years. And if this construction project materializes, we will go from odd to even in house numbers. I grew up in 1622, so it isn't like I am against even numbers. But, we ARE odd. So, odd seems to suit us. I know what you are thinking: just the very fact that I feel trepidation and anxiety about flopping from odd to even confirms that we're odd, eh? So there you have it.

Blackmail material!

Ike had tucked his shirt in just moments after our group photo session in order to play capture the flag.

Does he not look hilariously awesome?

Oh, and while I am at it, let me just state for the record that the yard at Owl Hollow is awesome.  Can you make out the volleyball court down behind Ike?  Yep, one evening we had a volleyball tournament, even--complete with matchy matchy wristbands!

It stays light in Idaho until around 10pm.  So, we made good use of daylight & all our boys got derailed from their normal schedules & appropriate bedtimes.

My team lost at volleyball, but we totally captured the flag!  Oh yeah! (No thanks to me.  Thanks to my younger & nimbler niece, Kiersten Kaye)

A-R-I-Z-O-N-A

You notice how we are all in UofA gear except for Drew? Ahhh, Drewbie Doo....he is nothing if not good for a little drama.  "I want to wear my flag shirt."  Period.  Nevermind that he is the only one outfitted with a flag shirt this year.

Even little baby Mac has a UofA onesie.  It might not be navy blue, but you can't be too picky, ya know?!?  It says "smallest fan" under the "A".  Technically, I don't think he qualifies as the smallest fan anymore, but for at least a few days of his life (before he fit into this onesie) he probably was the smallest.

This is probably one of our better impromptu family shots that we've ever taken.  That isn't saying much.  But, still.  

Hail! Hail! The gang's all here!

I think the 4th of July has become my new favorite holiday.  It is a good time...hanging with my family.  I wish we all lived on the same cul-de-sac.

Grandpa & his legacy

For having only one child that survived into adulthood, and a grand total of only 4 grandchildren... this gathering of great-grandchildren is not too shabby for our patriarch, John Francis Morgan! Baby Luke is not in this photo, but 2 extra foster kids are. So, the current accurate tally is 17 great-grands. STRONG. I'm sure Grandma Veda wishes she could tickle some toes.  

HELP! I need to shed 20 pounds!

Oh, but heck---sure I'll have dessert.  It makes the day easier to swallow.

Today is the anniversary of the passing of Veda Jensen Morgan, my grandma.  It is hard to believe it was 22 years ago.  I was up for the weekend visiting them in Idaho (from campus at BYU).

I will never forget how panicked my grandpa was when he woke me, "I cannot hear her breathing.  She's not breathing!"  Even though my grandma had adenocarcinoma of the stomach and a terminal prognosis... And, even though we knew her passing was the only way to end her suffering... It was a dark day in 1993.    

My grandpa, the widower, is now 96 & still living independently & he always has the best of attitudes. And it isn't just that he lost his wife earlier than he'd have liked.  He only has one child that lived into adulthood.  I am named after a son that died of a high fever at age 3, Terry Lee (my name is Mindy Lee).  And, my grandma had many many miscarriages.

I like to think my mom is such a good egg that she makes up for the lack of other wanted posterity. And it goes without saying that since my mom is grade A, the 4 grandkids John F. Morgan had to his name had a good start in life.  Love love love these peeps.  The birth order in my family: Kammi (to the left of my dad) is eldest, myself (far left in photo), Cherece (next to me, sporting the skirt), & finally my baby bro George Erick (far right).  And in case you are confused, the white haired man in the white USA shirt is my dad while the baldie next to Cherece is my grandpa, and the saint between them is my mama, holding down the center of this shot.  Mom, I hope I grow up to be just like you!  

Soda Springs

Small town America is just a grand place to be on the 4th of July.

They have a hum diggity parade in Soda Springs, Idaho, featuring more candy than you care for your children to collect...plus bonus frisbees & mini beach balls & some little footballs.  Needless to say: everyone had a blast!

And, Ike...check out his jewels!  Gram brought enough 4th of July beads to please the masses.  He drew the line at a headband, though.  The firework headbands "look too girlie, mom"...(but beads don't?!?)

You can make out cousin Carter just behind & to the left of Ike's noggin there.  (Hi, Carter!)

For whatever reason, I just love it that Clara has her hands over her ears. Yes, the fire truck was showing off its siren & all...but we had 19 children including 2 infants under 6 months of age at our rental home....so none of us were stranger to a little volume, ya know? It just cracks me up that this happens to be where Clara draws the line: at a fire truck in the 4th of July parade.  Good to know when you've gone too far, eh?

It was Mac's first parade ever.  And, he was a super good sport.

One funny little tid-bit: we totally should have left the house earlier than we did.  There was a kids' fun run prior to parade time that Carter was dying to run in (he did make it in time, but just barely & only because he literally leaped out of the car & sprinted to the fun run starting point). Anyhoot, we all got kind of split up.

Long story short, Drew ended up spending his parade time with Megan, Aunt Cherece & Uncle John, gram & granddaddy & grandpa great.

Todd & I & the other 3 boys were off closer to the end of the parade route.  I'm not doing justice to how discombobulated I felt without all my charges in sight.

But, it is all good--I think Drew had more fun without us (as no one was telling him NOT to eat candy as fast as he could collect it :)

Watermelon wonders

Cutting up a watermelon into simple bites is messy enough. Picture yourself using a little star cookie cutter & making your fruit salad patriotic. Cherece is a STAR, nevermind the watermelon wannabe! Making the reunion food top the festivities was her goal, I think. Mission accomplished!

Foam in the Park

As part of the 4th of July festivities in Soda Springs every year, they host an event called "Foam in the Park".  Firemen are there squirting water out on the grass in the park.  And there are enough suds to really make it memorable. Literally, a sea of suds... I don't know what they use to make the suds....should have asked.

When you had had your fill playing in the foam, you could go get hosed down by some friendly firemen and then dry off.

I did not remember to pack our goggles, so I felt a little retarded (as the same thing happened to us 2 years ago). But, some family members took pity on our boys & let them borrow pairs.  As you can see here: TJ's borrowed goggles were doing him a lot of good (NOT).

Out of all our boys, I think Ike had the best time. He had to get hosed down 3 separate times. He kept telling me he was done, only to dive back into the mayhem!

See Ike playing zombie?  You know you are scared! (Trust me, I was--not the kind of bear hug I was looking for. HA!)

As for the adults, Uncle Erick Powell gets props for being the best sport.  He was doing "snow angels" in the suds. Good stuff!

I love this shot of Drew.

It looks like he is chillin' in a bubble bath, eh? (nevermind all those pieces of grass...and nevermind that the foam looked more brown than white in the end, with all the dirt mixed in).

Grass blades & dirt....that kind of stuff is the stuff that little boy dreams are made of, don't ya know!

We enjoyed BBQ hotdogs & hamburgers in the park after. The Hancocks were in charge of our reunion this year, and they outdid themselves on the fun food items.  I guess I need to acquaint myself with Pinterest.    

Portneuf River Float

A couple of years ago, we had a rather traumatic experience tubing down the Portneuf River. Specifically, mom lost her glasses, Cherece got badly scraped up, and Todd bruised his tailbone. This year (older & wiser now), instead of using our individual floating devices of various degrees of effectiveness.... we rented them.  Or more specifically: grammie & granddaddy spoiled their brood and rented them FOR us (thanks again, mom & dad!)

And just like that: 4 hours of joyriding down & back and down & back again.

We had 2 four seater tubes & also 2 two seaters.

We arrived to the launching point early & scored ourselves some great shade.  Then, we went downstream in shifts.

We weren't about to subject Mac to this particular event. Grandpa great was a good sport to come along & not participate. He made a great little babysitter!

Before we hit the water, obviously our boys had their fair share of fun on land.

We own this cool waterproof digital camera, but it was our first time using it.  I spent a lot of time hiking here & there to get video footage.... and then came home to excitedly download it all... only to discover that the video feature on this little waterproof camera does not get activated the same as our other camera. Drats. So, my efforts were all for naught.

It got increasingly crowded on the Portneuf as the day wore on.  Also, the crowd got a little less kid friendly as the day wore on... (by that I mean, there were F-bombs flying and Coors cans being cracked).  So, we wisely turned in our rentals & hit the park in Soda Springs.

I never went downstream on the two-seater.  Normally, we had 5 out of the 6 of us in our family all together on the 4 seater, with Drewbie in the center holding on for dear life.

The older cousins thought they were super big time getting to float downstream without parents!  See Carter in this shot, giving us the peace out sign?  Kyle is with him, but he is playing bashful.

All around, no one really got sunburned except for TJ, and even then, he only had trouble on his upper arms, where his sun shirt rode up a little.  He got a strip of red....  Next year he is definitely going to be strong-armed into the long sleeved spf shirt.  It is just too bad you cannot just inject some natural spf into his veins or something. Alas, he is as white as white can be.  They say the palest little homo sapien out there has a natural spf of 4.  The darkest has a natural spf of around 13. TMI?

Stiffed by the rainbow trout

The fact that Drew insisted that his glow-in-the-dark neon bracelet was his fishing rod explains why did didn't bring home any fish to fry.

The rest of us?  Well, heat waves in Idaho don't bode well for reeling in the rainbow trout....particularly if you are so packed with reunion activities that the only time you have to get out and try casting your line is at 8pm at night...

Still, it was a fun outing.

Grandpa thought we were crazy for fishing at night (the experienced fisherman among us knows to get up at the crack of dawn).

I have so many fond memories of fishing with my grandma & grandpa in Idaho during my childhood years.

I haven't actually been fishing in ages. I discovered that I don't particularly like baiting my hook. Murdering worms that way... it is unsettling... especially when we're trying to stretch out our worm supply by severing them in half before we load up the hook.

I have never thought of myself as squeamish. At work I see a lot of blood. But it is different somehow.... as I know I am helping people at work (or I like to think it is helping, at any rate).

One of my most vivid memories as a child is collecting worms with my grandpa.  He had these electric prods that you would stick into the earth in his yard and it would shock the worms underground to the surface.

Oh, we had some good times collecting worms on Oak Street. Worms themselves don't bother me. Makes me wonder if I ever baited my own hook back in the day.

Do you see Brayden in the background sporting a fisherman's vest & all? Too legit to quit. And yet, we had to give it up, eventually, at around 10pm when the sun finally set. There is always next year!

Desert hamburgers

Very convincing, eh?

The "beef patty" was a brownie. The buns were made of yellow cake mix.  And, there were even toppings!  Some colored icing posing as ketchup & mustard. Oh, and did I mention that the buns actually had sesame seeds baked into the tops? Truly.

So so fun (if a little time consuming to create)! So, we had some yummy basil something or other flavored chicken on the grill and salad for dinner, with burgers for dessert.  

What a week!

Ike participated in the "Sean Miller Basketball Camp" this week down at the McKale Center.  He enjoyed hanging out on campus like a big dog from 9am-3:30pm every day.

They got given a "one size fits all" t-shirt today to commemorate the end of an exciting week (just in case you are wondering about his attire).  It is a pretty cool shirt, even if it does take him 5 years to grow into it.  HA!

This recruit's name signing Ike's ball in this photo is Kadeem Allen.

I thought that all the players that showed up off the roster for autograph signing festivities were SUPER good sports about it.  Picture hoards of sweaty kids invading your personal space. Yuck!

But I suppose it helps that these collegiate athletes were probably all once in Ike's shoes at various camps. So, it comes full circle for them. And who doesn't love it that their autograph is in demand?

This is Ryan Anderson, a forward.

He played 3 years at Boston College before transferring to Arizona. He sat out during the 2014-2015 season, so we are all excited to see him in action this coming year.

I think he is originally from California.

I'm sure Boston winters were rough on him. Tucson has got to be an improvement over his earlier undergrad grilling, weather wise at least...

This is Dusan Ristic who is originally from Serbia though he went to high school in the states.

I think he is 7 feet. Ike is glad that all these players were seated for this signing event.

Dusan Ristic has dropped a lot of weight in the off season. And, I think with our young team, he will probably see more playing time.

Kaleb Tarseuski aka "Zeus"... all 7 feet 1 inch of him.  I don't think he has one ounce of body fat on him! (Do I sound jealous? I am.)
Parker Jackson-Cartwright here.

I had decided to stand in the next line over to hold Ike's spot (so we could expedite a departure, you know?)

My intent was to snap a photo of Ike with our point guard from my vantage point of the other line.

Then, this dad rained on my parade/blocked my view of our little basketball fanatic. There has got to be a chance of rain on every parade...

Well, that is a wrap with Ike's walk with the rich and famous (OK, at least the famous) here at the McKale Center.