Sweet 16 for my sassy sister!

Hmmmmmm....what to say about Rylee Bean?  More like what is there not to say about this girl?  She is quite possibly one of the most hilarious people on the face of the planet earth.  I love how every time she calls me her sentences start out with "OH MY GOSH, GUESS WHAT?"  I know I'm always in for a dramatic tale that will no doubt have my cracking up by the end.

We are different in pretty much every way possible.  She can find things to talk about with complete strangers while I tend to be more shy.  She is always dressed cute and all done up when I would much rather put on some basketball shorts and a t-shirt.  She knows everything about everyone when I am completely oblivious to everything going on around me.  She can sit and watch Project Runway and Say Yes to the Dress when I would rather stick forks into my eye sockets, but these differences are what make our relationship so magical.

It wasn't always that way though.  When we were little Rylee would follow me around everywhere I went.  She always wanted to be right there with me and my friends, listening to all our conversations and playing games with us.  It drove me insane.  I would complain about it to my mom almost every single day.  Finally mom was tired of hearing me whine about it and told me that "one day you will be grateful to have a sister that wants to be my friend."  That day came a long time ago.  She became the person I could talk to about everything, my personal hair stylist for all the high school dances, and was one of my biggest fans.  I only wish that instead of complaining all those years about having her follow me around that I would have enjoyed the time we had because I would kill to have her by my side constantly now.

Love ya kiddo.  Have fun on your first date tomorrow and tell Trent that if he pulls any funny business I will have to hurt him :)

Car

Anticipate the pass!

I have decided that blogging and college don’t really mix, especially when your major consists of writing all the time.  So basically the last thing I want to do when I finish up the day is write a blog post.   However, today is special.  We are celebrating yet another birthday at the McKeon house and since I’m in a completely different state, I am sending my partying love via the web.

I won’t tell you exactly how old my dad is…but he is one year older than the Super Bowl if you want to figure it out.  I have had the grand privilege of being his daughter for the past two decades (which have been the best decades of his life I’m sure).

I was thinking of what I could write about when I started to reminisce about some of the best conversations me and my sibs have had with my dad.  I can still here him yell from the stands to anticipate the pass while playing defense, but here are other convo's I have yet to forget:

Convo #1: This stretches back to when we lived in AZ.  My dad firmly believes that a family that works together, stays together.  Even when it is 157 degrees outside.

Me: “Dad, how come we are the only kids in the whole neighborhood who do chores?”

Dad: “Why would I pay someone to mow the lawn, clean the pool, weed the yard, or do the trimming when I have 4 José’s who live under my roof?”

Me: “Well how come we are the only people who mop our garage?”

Dad: “Because it looks nice.”

Queue our neighbor, Bernie Zepper.

Bernie: “Hey Howard, I’m going to call that child services on you for working these kids like that.”

Dad: “How can I not work them like this when they do such a good job?”

Bernie: “Good point.  Send them over to my house when you are done.”
Thanks, Dad, thanks.

Convo #2: This little gem took place after Rylee discovered my Dad was rockin’ the cul-de-sac.

Rylee: “Dad why don’t you just grow out your bangs to cover up your bald spot?” 

Dad: “Good idea, Ry.  I will try that.”

Convo #3: Derek and I enjoyed torturing Rylee when she was little because she only weighed like 38 pounds until she was 12.

Derek: “Hey Car, lets tie Rylee up with a jump rope and put her down the laundry chute.”

Me: “Yeah, ok.  Good idea.”

We proceed to capture our prey, tie the rope around her body and begin to lower her down the laundry chute just as Dad came walking down the hall.

Dad: “Hey what are you doing?”

Me: “Ummmm, playing with Rylee.”

Dad: “Where is she?”

Derek: “We are trying to lower her all the way down the laundry chute.

Dad looks at us for a second.  We start to get nervous because we are for sure getting in trouble for this one.

Dad: “Well pull her up, you are doing it wrong.  Let me show you how to do it.”

Dad then proceeds to help us get Rylee stuck in the chute.  Good times, good times.

Convo #4: Following a basketball tournament, my dad let me drive his precious Acura home.  I didn’t have my license yet, so I was still learning how to drive before taking the driving test.

Me (referring to basketball): “I’m not very good at driving down the middle of the lane.”

Dad (referring to who knows what): “I think you are doing just fine.”

Me: “I missed like three.”

Dad: “On your test?”

Me (getting irritated): “No, I missed three different times when I was trying to drive down the middle of the lane.”

Dad (very confused): “How did you miss three?  Did you go over the line?  Like three points on the test?”

Me (mad because he is NOT listening to a word I am saying): “What test? What are you even talking about?”

Dad: “Well what are you talking about?”

Me: “My basketball game!”

Dad: “Ohhhh, sorry I thought you were talking about driving….cars.”

Only you understand the magic of this one, Dad.

                As demonstrated above, the man is way cool.  He always wanted the best for us, worked hard to provide for our family, and made us laugh along the way.  Whether you know him as Coach, Boss, Uncle HoWEIRD, Hitler with a Heart, or ‘The Blanket,’ he has always been one thing to me—my Dad.  My life is going to forever change here in a couple of months and I don't know everything the future has in store, but I do one thing.  I will have my dad on my side, preparing me along the way, and helping me "anticipate the pass."  Love you, Pop.  Happy Birthday and go Cougs! 

Following in the footsteps.

I taught this kid everything he knows.

He's legit.  Hands down.

Thanks a Heap, Jake Hypes

Dear Jake Heaps,

I know you have gotten a lot of crap the past couple of days for transferring, so I figured one more blog post wouldn't hurt.  I am just curious as to what you were thinking when you decided it would be a good idea to abandon your team right before the bowl game.  It is one thing if you realized BYU was not the right fit for you, but to quit on your teammates during the season says a lot.

First, it tells me you don't care about your teammates at all.  Yeah, you know, those guys who have busted their tails to try to make you look like a semi-decent quarterback.  Of course you were struggling all year to get the offense going...your teammates can't even respect you because of the little drama queen you are.

Next, it shows that you are a straight up quitter.  Look at ANY all-star quarterback and you will see that they had to work for their spots, they weren't just handed the starting position because they were a top recruit out of high school.  Cam Newton who won the Heisman last year played at a JUNIOR COLLEGE for two years before heading back to Division I ball.  Steven Young sat and watched Joe Montana win time and time again with the Niners.  Tom Brady sat behind Bledsoe and Aaron Rogers sat behind Favre.  And now look at them.  Newton won the NCAA Championship last season, Young won the Super Bowl 3 times, Brady also won it 3 times and was named Super Bowl MVP two of those times, and Rogers won it last year and is on his way to do the same this season.  You had the prime opportunity to grow and develop as a quarterback at BYU, but you just couldn't stand the heat which is rather ironic.  Riley Nelson, the very man who replaced you, refused to give up after having been the backup for basically his entire BYU career.  He still put himself out there, worked hard, and took what you virtually threw away.

Lastly it shows that you won't be able to make it in the NFL, which I am assuming was your ultimate goal.  If you can't handle what BYU has thrown out you, there ain't no way you can take what the league's top defensive players would have in store for you.

I most certainly do not want you to go to another school and fail, but looking at your history it looks like that is what you are going to do because when things get a little tough, you will quit and blame everyone else for your problems.

Good luck playing somewhere else that isn't famous for producing quality quarterbacks.

Sincerely,

A true BYU Cougar

I got it from my MOMMA

Since all I do these days is write and write and write, I have been horrible at keeping up my blog.  But this week something super special is happening.  On December 2nd, the most monumental event in world history took place....my Momma was born!  I know everyone thinks their mom is the greatest so I'm not going to post a whole thing on why she is the best mom in the world, but she is the greatest mom in the world for me and my sibs and this is why:

1. She always let us be ourselves.  Most little girls like to dress up and play barbies, but she let me rock ridiculous outfits and play with my Buzz Lightyear action figure instead.

 

2. She supported us in whatever we wanted to do. From soccer to basketball to football to piano to water polo to male stripping, she was there for us through it all.

3. She always made the holidays fun. She literally decorated our house for every single holiday and did it while wearing hip 90's workout attire.

4. She has a great taste in pajamas.

5. She held our hands when we were nervous for the first day of school.

6. She always took us to do fun things.

 7. She makes us laugh.

8. She is a dang good cook.  I can't even really remember having a calm and quiet evening dinner because we always had friends stopping by to eat her food.

9. She lets us tease her about being a granola/utard

10. She was always a mom first, but I can call her a best friend too.

And there are so many other things that make our mom awesome.  As I have gotten older (yes, I'm no longer a teen so I can call myself old) I have noticed all the things I have picked up from her because I look up to her so much.

I now:

- refrigerate my batteries

- cook with the dish towel on my shoulder

- drive like I'm competing in a NASCAR race. Always.

- speed walk everywhere even if I'm not in a hurry

- stiff arm the person in the passenger seat when I slam on the breaks

- find running enjoyable

- hate the word 'surreal'

- love Bon Jovi

- refuse to get in water below 80 degrees

- like watching HGTV

- will not drink out of a restaurant cup without a straw

- and so much more.

Basically, mom is the greatest.  She is soooo beyond patient and I love her so much.  Happy 28th birthday Mom!

I'd timp that...

Yeah that's right, we hiked Mt. Timpanogos...again.  It was a pretty epic day, not gonna lie.  First this little missy opened her mission call...

...she is off to Brazil.  I'm going to "hecka" miss her, but she is going to be the best Sister missionary ever.  Anyways, we packed up our bags and headed up to the mountain.  The weather was PERFECT, but we started at 3 in the afternoon so we knew we would be hiking in the dark.

This was our little group at the start of the trail.  Literally five steps into it we made a wrong turn and unfortunately it would not be our last.  Our first stop was at this beautiful waterfall...

We hiked around it for a little while because it is probably the coolest things (besides the peak) on the whole hike.

You get to pass the falls twice on the way up, so here we are standing at the top of the falls...

We did work after this stop.  We knew we had a loooong way to go so we didn't stop much for pictures after this point.  We made it up to the lake when it started to cool off and the sun started to set.  We lost half the group to fatigue, but Porter, Mel, R-beck, and I kept going.

We had to straight up walk across a glacier to get to the trail to take us to the peak.  It was nuts.  First R-beck would slip, then Mel would pretty much fall clear off of the mountain, and then I would get my leg stuck in rocks.  That part was all kinda miserable and you had to go slower than a snail to get across it.  However, when we got over the saddle it made it all worth it.

You can tell it was getting pretty dark at this point, but I did not hike for 5 hours to not finish the last leg and make it to the top.  I thought it was only going to take 20 minutes or so from this point...it took an hour.  BUT...

WE MADE IT!!!!

It was a pretty solid accomplishment...you can tell by the look on R-beck's face just how amazing the whole experience was.  Well we made it 7 miles to get to the top and we had to turn around and hike the 7 miles back down.  That is when we got lost and injuries ensued, but we made it out alive.  Barely.  We got off the mountain at 1 a.m.  Yeah, do the math.  That is like a billion hours of hiking (or 10, but pretty much a billion). It was awesome and super pretty, but I think I'm done hiking it...until next fall.

As cool as Timp was, it is not the best thing that has happened this fall.  Football is.  I seriously love me some football.  Not like most BYU girls do though...you know the ones who just go to take pictures to put on FB so people think they are having legit college experiences.  I love the game...watching it, talking about it, predicting what's going to happen...all of it.  My inspiration is this guy....

He had me hooked when I was about that ^^^ age.  I sorta kinda used to brag in elementary school that my dad was this stud football player who knew EVERYTHING about the game.  We talk on the phone every Friday afternoon and predict the scores of all the big games and talk about what players we think will do well.  It is the best...you would think that the two of us combined knew more about the game than Bronco and Doman.  It's probably because we do.  If we were coaching the Cougs, we would have a 6-0 record instead of a 4-2 record.  We love us some BYU football and one of my favorite vacays was when we came to Provo as a whole family my senior in high school to watch BYU dominate.  It was good times...

Haha Rylee and Kirk were so presh.  The only thing I dislike about being in Provo during football season is that I am missing this kid's season.

He's a pretty big deal.  He scores touchdowns...a lot.  It is weird to think that my "baby brother" is an animal on the football field.  It was just yesterday he was our cute little grizzly.

 Now he is a little all-star...and all grown up.

Such a stud.  I love it.  And I love him.

He is prolly the cutest grizzly ever.  Here is K-dawg in action....

Gotta refuel.

Such a beast.  I wish I could watch him play.  I'm pretty sure next season I'm going to have to introduce Porter to GB football and take him out to one of the games.  They are the best.  Any GBHS alum will agree.

I'm also missing this one tear it up on the soccer field.  I guess she is doing this little cross country thing and the word on the street is she is alright.  She like runs super fast and stuff.  She's "totes" amazing.

Well that is what's going on with the McKeon's.  My mom comes up this weekend to help me find a wedding dress...that should be interesting considering I HATE shopping with a passion (unless it is for running shoes), but I love kickin' it with my momma so I'm pumped regardless of the circumstances.  I'm so thankful for her and all the work that she is doing for me...she is the best mom in the history of motherhood.  That is all for now.  Oh and remember to cheer on them Cougs and Niners!   --Car--

Re-re-re-recap

I got real bad at this blogging gig once I got back from D.C. so here is the reader's digest of what happened in my life the past few weeks.

Well I was reunited with my fam bam in L.A. for the infamous McKeon family Christmas card picture.  The pictures took days.  Literally, it was never ending.  However, it was really fun to see the whole family even if it was just for a 24-hour stint. 

After L.A., I made it back up to Granite Bay and anxiously awaited for Porter to fly up.  I could hardly sleep the night before...it was like Christmas.  But the time finally came and after 2 ridiculously long months we were once again back together.  And the first thing we wanted to do?  Hit up Folsom.

Port got a little loose out there at the lake...

It was so nice to be back with best friend and my family again.  D.C. was legit and all, but I was so happy to be home.

The whole time we were out in Granite Bay we were either at a lake or in the backyard swimming.  The sun picked on us that week though...we got soooo sun burnt, but that didn't really stop us from going.

We took one day and went up to Donner.  I told Porter about all the creepy little exhibits in their museum and he got real into it.

Can't help but to include EVERY grizzly picture I can...

We kept our tradition alive by taking our regular trip to San Fran to go to a Giants game (where we got engaged), but we made a pit stop in Fairfield and went to the Jelly Belly Factory.

We had to get a pic with the man that made Jelly Belly famous...President Ronald Reagan.

When we finally made it down to San Fran, we walked around Pier 39 to look at some of the sights...

We found this little treasure...Princess Diaries is seriously one of the greatest movies ever.

Gotta stop by the creepy wax museum when in The City...

After we had dinner at Wipeout, we went and watched the Giants lose again...we should stop going.

Going one whole day without going to the lake caused us to suffer from sunshine withdrawals.  I decided to see how much my dad trusted me and asked him to let us take his precious boat out on Folsom all by ourselves.  Thank goodness we have such a studly dad who will let us play with his toys...

Who couldn't love that face?  I mean honestly.  He did however give us a stern talking to before we left...we got the point.  I was scared to death the whole time we were out there...images of us crashing the boat into something flashed across my mind literally every second.  We did manage to have some fun though and we had our favorite engaged couple with us..."The Taylor's."

Chaff and his buddies came along with us.  It was weird being out there with them for the last time since they have been like brothers to me.  I miss little Zack and Mitch already...

However I'm not really gonna miss this...

Basically, California was legit but we were all pretty pumped to get back to Provo and start school again.  Mostly I was just excited to kick it with these lovely ladies again.

Life is pretty busy...I'm writing for the Daily Universe and it seems to consume my life, but luckily I have Cougar football to get my through the week (if only they could turn their season around).

Other things that are going on:

-wedding plans are going great (at least I think so, my mom is working her magic...I haven't really done much.  I'm only concerned about the dance at the reception)

- I'm writing about sports everyday...it's legit.

-I love having my little brosha up here at school with me

-I have the coolest cousins ever who through bumpin' McKeon parties

-Rylee is tearin' it up in Cross Country...varsity as a sophomore!  Kirk is a football star and my dad is the greatest coach/grizzly supporter ever.  As usual mom is holding everything together...we would be so lost without her.

Until next time...Car.