Dancing and Bouncing

When life gets really crazy and busy, what do the Porters do to relax and de-stress?  We dance.  Or we bounce.  Mom captured a few pictures of us dancing to "Just Dance 2" the night before Brandon's farewell/open house.  

 "Wake me up before you go - go" . . . . what a great 80s dance song!

 Aubrey and Joseph do the "Monster Mash".

 Grandpa and Joseph rocked out to "Funkytown"!

 

 

Aubrey and I groove to "Hot Stuff."

 

Joseph and Brandon spent a lot of time bouncing on the trampoline.  Joseph tried REALLY hard to bounce Brandon, but couldn't get him to budge!

 

When things got really crazy on Saturday, Grandpa helped out by taking Joseph for a walk/g/bike ride to the nearby park. Except Joseph thought it was funny to go really fast and leave Grandpa in the dust!

Saying goodbye to Brandon

Brandon said goodbye to his sisters on Monday evening (May 16th), as he was set to fly to Utah before they got home from school. He said goodbye to Joseph as we dropped him off at a friend's on our way to the airport.

For Monday evening FHE we had "Brandon Appreciation Night."  We looked at pictures and watched home videos from when Brandon was little.  And there is a LOT of video.  Because he was the only child until he was almost 5 1/2 years old, Dan and I had lots of time to follow him around with a video camera.  We have lots of good blackmail footage of Brandon doing everything, including some shots of him playing in the bathtub and singing on the toilet.  So funny!

We ate Brandon's favorite dessert, chocolate lava cake. Then Dan gave Brandon a very sweet and wonderful father's blessing.  He was blessed with many things, including the ability to learn the Russian language quickly, the ability to get along with sometimes difficult people, and the patience to recognize "seeds" of the gospel being planted when missionary work is challenging.

This was a lot of talking for our six year old.  He started out hiding in a blanket and was cuddled up asleep on the floor under the blanket by the time the blessing was done.  (Note his new favorite outfit.  I think he calls it his "policeman suit", and it includes black Sunday vest and pants, soccer black socks, and black sports shirt.) 

After the blessing and family prayers we shared big hugs with Brandon.  For years now he has had the tradition of giving a crushing bear hug to each family member after family prayers.  We will miss those (painful) wonderful hugs!


 Finally, before bed he said goodbye to each of his siblings (lots of tears were shed), and then we had the official "handoff" of his cell phone to Aubrey and his laptop to Bailey. 

 

 

 

Bailey and Aubrey are happy to keep his electronic devices busy while he is gone to the Ukraine!

Tuesday morning Brandon said goodbye to his room and all his "stuff".  Dan and I had strongly encouraged him to pack up the things that are meaningful to him into big plastic bins (which we purchased and conveniently stacked in his bedroom) in preparation for us redoing the room for Aubrey.  But, somehow the room never got cleaned out.  Eventually we will need to tackle it, but right now the door is shut because it seeing and smelling the room makes us miss Brandon too much!

Leaving to the airport on Tuesday afternoon.  Notice the sun?  It has been a rare occurrence in Washington this Spring, but this day was dry and beautiful.  Little did we know that it was pouring rain in Utah!

 

Working backward

I once read an article about journaling which said that when you have fallen behind it's best to start at the present and work backward.  I am only a few months behind in our "family journal", but a lot has happened.  To keep it from being overwhelming, I will work my way backward.  Just pretend like you are watching a movie in reverse. 

The weekend before we dropped off Brandon at the MTC we were lucky to have both sets of grandparents visiting us for Brandon's missionary "farewell."  We appreciate all their help in getting Brandon ready for his mission (labelling all his missionary clothes with his name, finding simple recipes he will be able to cook in the Ukraine, sewing a red X on the toe of each of his socks so he will be able to distinguish them from every other missionary's black sock, etc, etc!)  We especially needed and appreciated their help in pulling off the open house. We invited friends and ward members to stop by Sunday evening. There was a great turnout and it was so much fun to see everyone.  Grandparents kept the food replenished and the garbage emptied.  (Thanks Mom for taking pictures of the open house - it didn't occur to me, but it is so nice to have them!)

After church we had taken pictures of all the family and then we immediately started making Sunday dinner (ham and all the fixings).  The moment dinner was done we all launched into full speed, preparing the house and food for visitors.  Above, Brandon makes yummy strawberry dip and Grandpa made batch after batch of Molasses Crinkles (Grandma Lucile Springer's recipe!)

 The spread of treats.  Several friends also brought goodies to share.  

 The grandmas, helping to prepare (and maybe getting a bit of that yummy carrot cake?)

 

 I am positive that Bailey was cutting herself a piece of cheesecake before the visitors arrived.

 Dad (Grandpa Springer) was tireless in his dish cleaning and garbage emptying.  Both crucial components of a successful open house!

 

 Elder Porter, holding his official missionary booklet and looking so handsome.  Right, we hung two Ukranian flags in the house.  It's a pretty unimaginative flag, don't you think?

Below, Brandon with friends of our family.  They gave him some great advice.

I'm so glad to see that Grandpa sat down at some point!

It rained off and on for most of the day (thwarting our plans to take some family photos outside) but it cleared up in time for the open house.  It was cool, like a typical Washington May evening, but nice enough to sit on the deck outside.      

Our kids want to have an open house every week. Seriously - what could be better for a Porter child. All your friends come to visit on a Sunday night, when normally we would be doing boring things like Family Home Evening and talking to each other. And the adults don't care or are too busy to care when you jump on the trampoline and run through the yard and house like wild banshees on Sunday. Lots of food to eat, including a plethora of sweet goodies. And if you are Joseph and awaken from a late nap, you get to skip dinner altogether and just eat cookies. Awesome. 

 Here is proof.  I did sit down at least once during the open house. 

Brandon greeted many people in the living room, where he had laid out a map of the Ukraine with his mission outlined.  The living room was a popular teenage hangout all night.

       


The kitchen and family room were packed with people visiting and eating.

Brandon and his good friend Calvin.

When Grandma and Grandpa left our home Sunday evening to return to the hotel, they said goodbye to Brandon for two years!

What a fun day.  I didn't mention yet what a wonderful job Brandon did giving his talk in Sacrament Meeting.  He talked about why he believes in Jesus Christ.  I know I am biased, but I thought his remarks were easy to understand, well spoken, and filled with true testimony.  I felt the Spirit very strong as he was speaking. I was so proud to be his Mom!  (In typical Brandon fashion he didn't tell us anything about his talk beforehand, formulated his talk in his head with only a few written notes which he scribbled down the morning of the talk, and gave us all a scare when he didn't hop into the shower until 8:40 . . . . and church began at 9:00!  But, it all turned out great.)

Monday morning both grandparents flew home. At 11 a.m. Brandon was set apart. What a beautiful experience that was. Afterward Dan, Brandon, Joseph, and I ate at Olive Garden.  Big news . . . Joseph decided he likes some of the food at Olive Garden, so we have added another restaurant the whole family can enjoy. (The girls were in school. They were much more mad about missing Olive Garden than missing the setting apart.)

The rest of the day on Monday and early morning Tuesday we worked hard to finish packing.  Packing a missionary is really a challenge.  They are so limited in what they can take by space and weight constraints, yet it's important to take everything that will be needed for two years (it is really expensive to send packages to the Ukraine and not everything is available to buy there). So, we worked and worked until we all felt that he was as prepared as he could be. During this time, Brandon came down with a cold and felt lousy.  I'm sure the stress of the week finally broke through his defenses.  

Regardless, we finally were prepared, and we had arrangements for each of the other kids at friend's houses while we were gone overnight to Utah.  Next stop, MTC!