out of town — Kristie & Tom McConnon

Tanner Family Reunion

July 4, 2010 By Tom 1 Comment

This week we got to take a trip up to Boise for a Tanner Family Reunion. We left on a Wednesday and stayed through Monday (since the 4th fell on Sunday, and we got that day off at work). It was a blast…I’ll let some of the pictures do the talking:

Thursday: I had to catch up on some work during the day, so I missed out on a trip to Uncle Steve’s pool. It looked like everyone had a blast, though.

Sisters at the pool

Jeff, with his and Angela's new baby, Emily

The Tanner girls

Caleb, observing

Friday: Among other things, we got to go iceblocking at Simplot Hill, and Lilah got her first bath.

Going up...

...and sliding down

Classic Cole

Kristie, soaking up some sun

She handled it pretty well, until we washed her hair ;)

I can't remember if this was a protest or yawn.

Saturday: Some fun yard work as a fam, and then the big kids got to go out to dinner.

Projectile spit-ups -- this one was epic. #newdad

There's always the circus if things don't pan out...

Cheescake Factory with the Fam

Sunday: Lilah and Emily’s baby blessing

Tanners, Stevens and McConnons!

Baby girl and her baby daddy

Proud parents

Yellow dress and pretty eyes

Filed Under: family, holidays, out of town

Holi: Festival of Colors, Utah 2010

March 27, 2010 By Tom 4 Comments

For years I’ve seen pictures, advertisements and promotions for this springtime event at the Krishna temple–and every year I’ve missed it for some lame reason or another. Well we finally made it. And, yes, it was everything I was hoping it would be, in case you’re wondering.

If you want to learn more about the history and origin of Holi, read this cop-out Wikipedia entry. Otherwise, understand that it boils down to a friendly Woodstock-like atmosphere where it’s socially acceptable (in fact strongly encouraged) to toss brightly colored chalk at complete strangers. Especially after a climactic countdown that follows the burning of a witch effigy (and chanting “hare krishna” a million times).

We actually would have blown it again had it not been for Leah and Jonny, who kindly invited us the night before. Luckily for us, Jonny was a seasoned veteran, who not only knew the back roads to avoid the ridiculous traffic, but also knew where to buy chalk at a fraction of the price they charge at the event.

Within minutes of arriving my white shirt became a multi-colored canvas. We settled into the crowd, took pictures and participated in some “hare krishna” chanting along with the crowd, MC and band. I can tell you now I’ve never been so grateful for nose hair and eyelashes. For all the chalk that was thrown around, however, it was remarkably bearable. We ran into a bunch of old friends and enjoyed ourselves immensely…it’s easy to see why the event gets steadily bigger every year.

[before]

[after]

Filed Under: entertainment, out of town, religion Tagged With: festival of colors, holi, krishna, utah

Weekend at Solitude

February 15, 2010 By Tom 4 Comments

The Wagstaffs (family friends of the Tanners) invited us up to their beautiful cabin at Solitude ski resort this weekend. Being the ski bum that I am, I was beyond excited for another opportunity to get out this season. So Friday night we picked up Houston and made our way up a snowy Big Cottonwood Canyon, arriving at our destination just after dark. It wasn’t long before we settled into deep couches to watch the Vancouver Olympic opening ceremonies with a big group of family and friends.

The next morning a bunch of us struck out early to the lifts, hoping to get in as many runs as possible. It had snowed a bunch the evening before, and it snowed the entire day…so conditions were perhaps the best I’ve ever skied. Since Denny had been coming to Solitude his entire life, he and his son Drew were able to take us directly to the best stashes of thigh-to-waist deep powder. I decided to forgo lunch and ended up skiing for seven straight hours. Pure bliss.

Kristie “I Don’t Want to Squish the Baby” McConnon wasn’t feeling quite up to skiing, so she decided to run 9 miles at their home gym and play with Therese’s adorable nieces back at the cabin instead. That night we watched moguls, short-track, luge, biathlon and a bunch of other awesome Olympic competitions, taking a few breaks to play Scatagories and some other fun games. Watching Apollo and Kearney take silver and gold respectively were certainly highlights.

[check out that gnarly curling iron burn on Kristie's neck. That has to be some kind of record, poor girl]

On Sunday we went to church at the Brighton Branch, which was literally at the base of a ski hill. It was one of the prettiest churches I’d ever attended. Later on we had a big family dinner and dessert, complete with a Valentines Day party put on by the little kids.

We were planning on heading back that evening, but one of Kristie’s client’s rescheduled and I didn’t have work, so we didn’t have to take off till this morning. All in all it was a wonderful weekend escape with great skiing, great activities and really great company.

Filed Under: exercise/sport, family, holidays, out of town, outdoors Tagged With: cabin, skiing, solitude

Celebrating 2 Years

February 5, 2010 By Tom Leave a Comment

Our actual anniversary is Monday the 15th, but since we’ll be away that weekend with other plans, we decided to stay the evening in SLC tonight and go to The Melting Pot for a pretty amazing 4 course fondue experience. I had the hottest date in the whole city.

Filed Under: food, out of town Tagged With: anniversary

Weekend In Eagle

January 31, 2010 By Tom Leave a Comment

On Thursday night we took off to Idaho to visit Kristie’s family. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend hangin’ out with the fam. It was a particularly big weekend for Cole, who was celebrating his 16th birthday, getting ordained, etc. He had actually planned his own surprise party for Saturday with a couple of friends, where he wanted to surprise all the people that had come to surprise him. But in a classic twist, his mom told his friends switch the date of the party to the evening before, so he was completely confused when he walked into a yelling room of friends on Friday night.

[Yes...that's Cole's head]

We also got to see Kenny, Mari, Grandma, Grandpa & others at the Tanners on Saturday night where we watched BYU stomp on Utah in a great men’s basketball game.

Filed Under: entertainment, family, out of town

Christmas Cruise

December 25, 2009 By Tom 4 Comments

This year we spent Christmas with the McConnon family. On a boat. In the Caribbean. It was so, so much fun.

After Coleman wrapped up his finals, he drove down from Rexburg, and the three of us flew out to Orlando on Saturday morning. Mom, dad and Andrew met us there and the next morning we boarded a massive, decked-out-for-Christmas Royal Carribean cruise ship, to set sail for 7 days. Arriving on the boat :

Our rooms looked over the 5th deck promenade that you see behind us, which was filled with shops and stretched from one end of the massive ship to the other.

Monday: Coco Cay, Bahamas

We were the first passengers to arrive on the island (excited much?) and spent the day exploring the island. We saw stingrays, starfish, and all kinds of other cool stuff. After lunch we joined a volleyball tourney and layed out for a while in the island sun.

Sunrise on the beach

Florider surf park on the back of the ship

Cantilevered hottub...look below and there's nothing but ocean

On the way to dinner

Late night surfing

Tuesday: At sea

We spent today running around and exploring the ship. The enormity of the boat, and the quantity of available food, still had us in awe.

Dodgeball tournament on deck.

Kristie and Tom on the ship's climbing wall

Wednesday: St. Thomas

Afternoon at the secluded Lindquist beach

A McConnon family portrait

The boys

Thursday: St. Martin

Philipsburg, St. Maarten (Dutch Side)

A huuuuge live lobster that was about to end up on the grill

Kristie, island fairy

Coleman leaving the runway

Kristie lee

Sunset on the pier

Singing carols on Christmas Eve

Friday: At sea

The dining room

Custom-made cookie sandwich

Candid shot

Saturday: At sea

Mom, conquering her fear of heights

Filming "On a Boat." L-R: T-Pain, Andy Samberg & Kiv. Don't ask.

Our excellent wait staff

Brothers

Andrew "Sprinkles" McConnon

Pharaohs Lounge

Filed Under: family, holidays, out of town Tagged With: christmas, cruise

Apart

November 13, 2009 By Tom 1 Comment

This week I got to/had to attend a conference in Las Vegas for work. While I was really looking forward to the opportunity to connect with some brilliant individuals, Kristie and I were not looking forward to being away from each other. Four nights marked the longest stretch we’d been apart in two years.

I left Monday night, so Kristie decided to head home Tuesday night to spend time with her family. We each had good times on our respective trips. I spent the majority of my time attending conference sessions by day, and sponsored after-parties by night. At the Rok Nightclub in the New York, New York hotel, they catered to the tech-oriented partygoers by displaying a Twitter hashtag on the scrolling jumbo screen. Geek awesomeness:

Fun fun…but we couldn’t be happier to be back.

Filed Under: out of town, work

Kristie’s Birthday

October 27, 2009 By Tom 1 Comment

Tonight we got Thai at our favorite restaurant in Park City, Bangkok Thai on Main. It was two years ago today that we had dinner at the same spot, hours before I proposed. Happy 24th baby!

Filed Under: food, holidays, out of town

Celebrating with Bobby and Kathryn

September 25, 2009 By Tom Leave a Comment

Kathryn did a righteous thing and got a bunch of us on board to meet up for dinner at Simply Thai in Sandy to celebrate Bobby’s birthay. Only later did we learn that it was Kathryn’s birthday as well, so it was twice the party. It was so good to get that group together again, even though a few key players were certainly missing (you know who you guys are). Here’s a few shots from dinner:

Then a few of us headed to the Beck’s in Alpine for some serious rock n’ roll, cake and ice cream and good conversation. Check out these animals:

And Bobby blowing out the candles as he finally turns 37:

Filed Under: food, friends, out of town

Birthday’s In Rexburg

September 19, 2009 By Tom 2 Comments

Since we missed Andrew this summer at Cape May, he thought it would be fun to fly out for Coleman’s birthday. Kristie and I were already planning on heading up to Rexburg, so Andrew flew out a few days early and spent some time down here with us and friends till we took off Saturday morning.

Friday night we went to a documentary film and art gallery about the Bahia…the state in Brazil where I served. It was an exploration of art from that area, put together as the capstone project of a few BYU seniors. If you have a second (and the desire) check out a video of the trailer here. I loved it, and it brought back some awesome memories.

Saturday morning we drove up to Coleman’s dorm, and Andrew walked in with me like it was no big deal. When Coleman came around the corner his jaw just dropped…it was so funny to watch him try to process what was going on (“wait…Andrew lives in North Carolina…but…”). This was followed by a big brotherly bear hug. It had been too long since the three of us had been together.

That afternoon we went out to lunch at Bajio’s and brought Lacey and Coleman’s roommate Dallan. Here’s a couple shots from the restaurant:

Then we headed to the park to play football and kill some time till the BYU/FSU game. I don’t want to talk about the FSU game, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves up until that point.

After the game we squeezed in an hour of racquetball…it was a first for Coleman, and a blast for everyone. We looked particularly sexy posing in the goggles:

That night Andrew crashed at Coleman’s dorm and Kristie and I got to stay with Tiff and Kolby. Their hospitality was unmatched, they’re such a cool couple (thanks again guys!)

And many thanks to Mom and Dad McConnon for making this weekend happen for us…the flights, the dinners…everything. We love you guys!