Roughing It

Well, in a few hours Bailey and I leave to Girls Camp.  Let's just hope that this year's camp involves fewer disasters.

Last year:

The UHaul truck with most of the gear and all of the food and supplies caught on fire and burned up on the way to camp.

There were flash floods on two days - our campsite turned into a river and tents were literally washed out.

Most of the girl's clothes and much of the bedding was wet.

Lightning strikes (nearby) put us at risk as we frantically tried to trench and divert the river of water away from our tents.

Sewage from the bathrooms backed up in the campsite a few feet from us.

Quite a few lovely young women refused to sleep . . . at all.  So, we sleep-deprived leaders got more and more grumpy as the days went on.


Despite all that, it was a really good experience. Bailey says it was the best year ever and reminded me that sometimes the hard times are the most spiritual. She is right.

But is it okay for me to hope for not QUITE as hard a time this year??  (Wish us luck)

Happy 14th Birthday, Bailey!

Bailey asked me yesterday why I hadn't recorded anything about her birthday yet. The answer is that I am running basically 3 months behind on blogging. I am still trying to catch up on events in March (with a few recent exceptions), but I now interrupt this look back in time to record some of the celebration of Bailey's 14th birthday.

The fun started two days before her birthday, when she invited 59 or so of her bestest friends over for a party (okay, there were 14 girls, but who's counting?)  The morning of her party Kara and Dave and family left after visiting us for a fun one day whirlwind trip. (A post on this is forthcoming - maybe I'll get to it in August?)  After they drove off we left to Joseph's Tball game. Afterward, Dan and I drove straight to Costco to load up on goodies and dinner for the party. We basically bought a carload of food, including 5 or 6 pizzas (which, it turns out, was 4 pizzas too many).  By the time we got home there was less than hour until the 4 p.m. start of the party.  We went into big time cleaning/party prep mode, making special treats, setting out food, cleaning up the house and getting activities ready. Bailey's good friend Nina came over to help us prepare/decorate. I was in focused party prep mode, ordering the two girls around and working as fast as I could. 

4:00 p.m. came and went and no one else arrived at the party. The pizza was getting cold, the strawberry dip was getting warm. I was having flashbacks to a party Brandon had hosted his freshman year when only one friend showed up. Finally I asked Bailey if anyone had texted her that they would be late.  She looked at me confused and said, "Mom, the party starts at 5:00."  Oh. Well, that would explain it - somehow I got my wires crossed.  

At 5:00 thirteen more girls showed up and the party began. We reheated the pizza and kept everyone supplied with food and drinks. Other than that, Dan and I did our best to be around but not in the middle of things. Bailey was adamant that she didn't want us to run any party games, etc. When things seemed to be slowing down too much Dan did offer to play "name that song" with the kids for awhile. 

 There's an inside joke which explains the shirt gift above. If only I really understood the inside joke so I could explain it to you!

Below, all the guests do what we affectionately call the "Bailey face."

Bailey's main gift from us was money for her to use for clothes shopping. The weekend before her birthday she and I shopped at Clackamas Mall and she bought a few shirts and new sparkly Toms shoes.

The next weekend when Ashlyn was in town, Bailey and Ash spent the day at the mall and found more fun summer things, including jeans which were actually long enough and thin enough.

The morning of her birthday she woke up to breakfast in bed (homemade biscuits and gravy) and opened a few presents before school.

Despite her protestations, I snapped a few pictures of Bailey as she left the car to walk to the bus on her birthday morning (wearing her new birthday outfit).

After school we all watched Joseph play a T-ball game and Bailey was able to hold our friend's baby (what a great bday present!)

After the game Joseph hung out with his good buddies and the rest of the family ate a wonderful birthday dinner at Olive Garden.

 Bailey and Aubrey ate their favorite - fettucine alfredo.  We all ate . . .

 way too much good food!

Once we were home Bailey opened a few more presents, including the sparkly black Toms which she had already worn that day (we put them back in the box and wrapped them up. She acted appropriately surprised).

 Below, doing the "Bailey face" and normal smiles. 

  

 It's tradition - every time someone opens up presents Joseph finds a way to be silly and goofy. Trying to garner attention perhaps?

 In honor of your birthday, here are 14 things I love about you, Bailey:

1.  I love your wit - you make me laugh every day and your sense of humor helps other people feel comfortable around you.

2.  You have a gift for empathy and understanding others. You very rarely are negative about others, but usually try to figure out why they might be acting in a certain way.

3.  You are great with children - that is a real gift.

4.  You have really good taste in music. I love to listen to the playlists on your ipod.

5. I love that we read a lot of the same books and you are careful to choose appropriate books. 

6. It's fun that you pore over food blogs and cookbooks to find new recipes for us to try. And you are really, really pushing yourself to try new foods. (I'm still going to get you to try Thai food - maybe this year?  You will thank me.)

7. I'm proud that you chose the high school you thought would be best for you, even though almost all of your friends were going to different schools.

8.  You do a great job staying on top of your schoolwork. You schedule your time wisely so that you are rarely working on papers or projects at the last minute. These habits will really help in high school!

9.  I love your lists. What would we do without Bailey lists to keep us organized?

10.  You make great faces for the camera. They are so . . . you!

11. I love that you work really hard to find modest clothes (and it not easy to find longer skirts when you are tall).  I can't think of any time when you asked if you could buy or wear something immodest.

12.  I'm glad that you enjoy everything about Young Womens - mutual activities, Girls Camp, hiking for Girls Camp, everything. You are always enthusiastic about YW activities and never want to miss.  I'm thinking about renaming house cleaning as "YW Home Beautificiation." I'm thinking it might help you enjoy it more?

13.  I love the way that you try hard to have a good relationship with your siblings.

14.  I appreciate the way that you tell me often (verbally and written) that you love and appreciate me.  That means everything to me!

Happy birthday, Bailey.  You will have a great year!

Strawberry Heaven

Yesterday morning I had a 30 pound bucket of strawberries straight from the grower (already hulled, washed, and sliced and bought for a really reasonable price - living in Washington/Oregon has its perks)!

We turned our kitchen into a strawberry jam making factory.

By evening we finally reached the bottom of the bucket (we took a 4 hour play-at-the-park break).

60 jars of freezer jam, 8 freezer bags stuffed with strawberries for smoothies, and 6 jars of strawberry sauce for ice cream.

First day of summer . . . . success! (Anybody want some strawberry jam?)

Porterisms

A few moments I thought I would record.

We always buy the bulk Costco brand TP because it is the most economical and I am cheap. Awhile ago there was a coupon at Costco for Charmin TP, so I bought it instead. At dinner one night soon afterward Bailey said . . . "speaking of toilet paper, did we win the lottery or something? Why do we suddenly have thick and soft and fabulous TP instead of our normal boring, scratchy, thin TP?"

Joseph told me yesterday that his new career aspiration is to be "the security guy at the airport who makes sure you take off your shoes right and put them in the big Xray thing." I asked him why he would like that job and he said that he likes their cool uniforms and would like to tell people what to do. (Well, he could just try being a parent someday. Then he could tell people what to do all day long!)  He does still concede that even the security guard job isn't as cool as being a cop who "pulls over people who break the speeding law." Nothing is cooler than pointing a "gun" at people to find out how fast they are going and then flashing your lights to make them pull over.  Awesome.

Dan and I were out one night when the kids realized that a big box of Otter Pops was leaking all over the carpet.  The girls scurried to try to clean it up. Joseph said, "Oh, Mom is going to kill you!"  Then he said, "will you tell me when she is going to kill you so I can hide somewhere, because seeing all the blood might make me sick!"

Father's Day Fun

We did our best to spoil "King Dad" yesterday (Bailey made him the crown and the title).

Joseph always makes present opening time interesting.  Here he tried on his Dad's new dress pants.

And tried "flying" with Dad's new shirt.

Aubrey gave Dan a special candy card and an awesome proclamation (which she read - with Joseph's help - atop the piano bench).  It reads:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye
King Dad - the best dad in the world - has declared a decree that all Porter family shall not whine or yell for one week - any week he chooses and all citizens who do not obey this order on the week Kind Dad chooses must do one extra deed (chore) for Kind Dad or his queen,  Queen Mom. 
That week shall be: starting today
AND
King Dad has requested and will receive a back rub from peasant Aubrey Porter.
AND FINALLY
All peasants would like to tell you that they LOVE you King Dad soooooooooooooooo much!

Aubrey D.P.

Bailey gave Dan a special card as well, but didn't want it read out loud (or presumably shared on the blog).

For dinner I made Dan a meal which turned out amazingly well!  I just got a new cookbook called Our Best Bites, which is based on a great food blog (ourbestbites.com). Because Dan and I both love Thai food, I tried the recipe for the Thai Peanut noodles.  Oh my goodness . . . . SO good.  To me it tasted like something from a really good Thai restaurant.  Click here for the absolutely amazing recipe!  We paired it with the Coconut Rice from the same cookbook Click here for the recipe.  

I was happy for the chance to spoil Dan and tell him all the reasons that I am the luckiest woman alive to be married to him. He is the most loving, selfless, family-oriented, intelligent, and thoughtful man I have ever known. Happy Father's Day Dan!

Girl Getaway 2011

Every year I look forward to the time I board a plane and head off to a place where I can just be with the girls (my Mom and sisters) for a few days. During girl time I am Tiffany, not Mom. We laugh, we talk all night (well, Ali and I do - it's tradition), we shop, we eat good food, we bask in the blessing it is to be good friends with our sisters and Mom.

This year's getaway took place the third week of April. We met in Utah and drove to a condo at a ski resort near Salt Lake. The condo is owned by Ali's husband's company, so we were able to use it for free. Mom picked us up from the airport and drove her car, so we didn't have to rent a car. The snow this year was still VERY plentiful, even in mid-April. You might think that we would take advantage of our proximity to the snow by strapping on skis and hopping onto the ski lift (which was right outside our door). But, no, that would have been WAY too much exercise for a girl's weekend. Instead, we lounged in the condo, watching movies and talking until we left to do something productive like shop or eat at a restaurant.

One of the days we drove down to Provo and met up with Brandon for lunch at the Wilkinson Center Food Court.  Brandon was in the middle of finals, but was able to squeeze us in for a few hours. It was so much fun to see my awesome son on his "home" turf. Ali and Kara said goodbye, as they wouldn't see him again until after his mission to Ukraine.

We girls spent some time shopping the clothes in the BYU Bookstore (I found four skirts long enough for my tall daughter Bailey!)  The guys,  Brandon and Grandpa, were patient and bored.

 
Afterward we ate Creamery ice cream . . . . . brings back memories!  

Later that night Dan talked to Brandon on the phone. Brandon apparently said that he was a little "weirded out" by the experience of seeing me hanging out with my sisters. When I asked him about this later he said that he isn't used to me being so giddy and happy.  He's right - most days I am in "Mom mode," meaning that I am responsible and reliable and focused and productive. But not on my once-a-year girl trip, Brandon, so deal with it!

It was actually a beautiful day on the BYU Campus, with the temperature in the low 70s! People were sunbathing everywhere, enjoying the respite from a long and brutal winter.

Dad showed me the newly renovated Joseph F. Smith building. Most of my college classes were in the old building on the site which was torn down for the renovation. The new building is amazingly gorgeous!  Dad showed me the spot at the bottom of the staircase where he had attended Brandon's award presentation a few months prior. Brandon won $500 for producing a work of art (a movie) which illustrated an aspect of BYU campus life.

We tried to get a picture of the Y on the mountain behind us, but we were facing the sun, so it was painful!

Hanging out at night, checking out pictures on facebook, etc. Very unproductive and relaxing.

We ate some good food during the trip. Below, Sweet Tomatoes, a family favorite. Right, MY favorite . . . Cafe Rio.  The first night we arrived we ate at the fabulous Mexican restaurant, and I bought an extra meal to keep in the fridge at the condo. I ate off my leftovers for the rest of the trip, finishing the last of the burrito in the car on the way to the airport for my flight home!

I am going to include these next pictures (and video, too, if I can get blogger to let me upload it) because I have absolutely no pride. One night we played "Grenade" by Bruno Mars on my laptop and we choreographed (I use the term loosely) a music video to the song. I haven't laughed so hard since . . . probably since last year's girl getaway! Mom and Dad (who visited us for one night as an honorary Girl's Getaway attendee) took the pictures and video of their crazy daughters who apparently still think they are 18.

I really tried to get the totally embarrassing video to post. I need my technologically intelligent son to help me figure out why the server keeps rejecting my videos (oh, wait . . . Brandon is unavailable to help for a few years!)

Packing up and leaving on Sunday morning. Once we were off the mountain Ali and I met Dad at church (we were able to sit in on the teacher improvement class he was teaching, which was really fun). Kara left straight for home. 

 

I can't wait for next year!  But maybe we will go somewhere sunny next time??