Remember when McClellandFamily.com looked like this?

I had several different versions of this header and the photo would change based on where your mouse was on the page. I thought I was pretty slick. In retrospect, it was a clean interface that tied in well with the

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Patrick’s never been one to be short on words–short on forethought before the words come out, perhaps. Fortunately we’ve managed to gather several of his more amusing musings and put them all in one place to save forever.

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Kids say the darndest things, and Emily is the darndest kid. It’s remembering the things that they say that is the hard part. We’ve managed to keep most of the true gems here on McClellandfamily.com and we’ve finally gathered them all into one post for your enjoyment…

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On April 15, Tax Day, a 108-page booklet arrived from Norma’s travel agent. They don’t want us to miss a thing. They tease us with descriptive Madison Avenue copy on several packaged itineraries for each and every port of call. I had to give up reading my Paul Theroux Pillars of Hercules for one night to study the options.

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Gretchen and I are healthy, all things considered. I await knee replacement but prefer to play with pain as long as I can. Gretchen, the smoker, walks the dog every monrning before work. In my eyes she still looks good.

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The Killers made it up to our cabin for a fun-filled weekend of skiing and sledding. All of the kids took a lesson for a few hours and then joined us on the slopes at Donner Summit for the rest of the sunny day of skiing. Sunday was spent sledding just down the street from our cabin. We had a great hill with some super-fast runs all to ourselves.

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I don’t claim to be a fantastic photographer, but I was quite pleased with my efforts recently to capture this moonset over the lake at our cabin. I used a 2-minute exposure and the timer mode while taking the 20 or so snapshots in 20-degree weather at 4:30 in the morning.

Click the photo(s) here to see a larger version.

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Patrick and Emily entered their latest Pinewood Derby cars and finished near the back of the pack. They may have finished dead-last in most heats, but you can’t say they didn’t have the coolest cars. We rallied for a new category in next year’s event–coolest car– but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

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I Am…
I am adventurous and shy.
I hear birds chirping in the morning.
I see a steep mountain I’d like to roll down.
I am adventurous and shy.
I pretend my life is a story.
I touch a soft cloud in my bed.
I am adventurous and shy.
I understand that I have to grow up.
I dream tomorrow will be a better day.
I am adventurous and shy.
I am Emily.

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Happy Birthday to the two women that matter most in my life: my mother and my wife. Whether it’s a blessing or a curse that these two share the same anniversary of their birth, one thing’s for sure: It makes it easy to remember. So while I’m currently “on the road” and unable to take place in the celebrations of these two birthdays, I can’t help but think of the two woman who have most helped make me who I am today.

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