Porter Reunion 2012

WARNING:

If you are not a member of the Porter family or a participant of the 2012 Porter Reunion, you will probably be bored to tears by this post. This is a very long, overdue post. I began it once last August and got frustrated when the pictures didn't load correctly. Then things got busy and I never got back to it. Unfortunately, waiting a year to post means that I have forgotten most of the details. But, by loading the pictures to the blog I can someday dowload them to a blog book and thereby document the fun trip for our family history!

Our Porter Reunion trip started with a flight to Phoenix where we rented a van. Our first stop after that: Cafe Rio, of course. We loaded a portable cooler with 5 burritos to take with us to the reunion! That just might have been my idea. I really miss my Cafe Rio. We ate most of the burritos on the 5 hour drive to Springerville and then munched on the rest over the next few days.

 Hanging out with cousins is always the best part. Here is Aubrey and Sarah . . .

 and Bailey and Nate
 
All the boys doing bubbles

 

 Joseph and Jeffrey on the big red merry-go-round, which is equal parts terrifying and exhilarating.

 

 Squeezing a bunch of cousins in our van to drive to Springerville. Nate had to sit between the seats!

 

That is an awesome look, Dan!  This was our traditional dinner at Booga Reds. Pretty unimpressive Mexican food, but that's all they've got there in Springerville. (Thank goodness for leftover Cafe Rio in the fridge at the cabin!)

 Cute little Olivia with Bailey

 Talent show night

 

 

 

 

 There was lots of time to hang out and visit

 

 

 

 

 Hiking a nearby mountain

 

 Love the bandana, Joseph!

 A water gun war with Grandpa!

 Dan helping the boys play baseball

 

 

 Sitting in the pavilion, where we ate all our meals.

 

  Family picture day

 Aubrey and I tried to get a snapshot together, but couldn't quite get it to work

 Goofy girls!

 

 

 

 

 

 After the reunion, we spent a few days at a hotel in Mesa while we saw movies (Amazing Spiderman!) and swam in the pool with cousins.  On this day Jenny and family joined us.

 

 

 

 

 Look at Dan doing pushups by the poolside!

 

 Dan is such a patient swim teacher.That's good, because swimming is one thing I won't teach.

 

 Superman!

 Getting some Arizona sun.

It was a great family reunion and vacation!  And now I have finally caught up on the reunion post . . . only one year late! 

Today's Porter News

Bailey bounced into my room last night at 11:30 p.m.and shared her super exciting news: she passed her AP World History test!

Woohoo!!

The AP World History class was really difficult, which makes sense when you realize that it covered history from the beginning of time to now . . . throughout the entire world. I love history and I thought I had a reasonable good understanding of it, but I knew very little about the things she was studying.

The day of the test she was positive that she couldn't have passed the test, primarily because she wasn't sure  how to answer two of the three essay questions.

I found the questions online:

Analyze similarities and differences between the role of the state in Japan’s economic

development and the role of the state in the economic development of ONE of the

following during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: China, Ottoman Empire, Russia.

and

Analyze how political transformations contributed to continuities and changes in the

cultures of the Mediterranean region during the period circa 200 CE to 1000 CE.

I'm guessing that the essay questions were challenging for many students. Congratulations Bailey!  You can do hard things! 

In other news, I am on day 3 of eating no refined sugar. Does that not sound impressive to you? This might be the first time in my entire life I have gone 3 days without eating sugar. 

Why am I torturing myself like this, since most of the good foods in this world are made with sugar?  It's a combination of two factors:  a conversation I had with my sister Kara and penance for the indulgent way I overate delicious food during our Utah vacation. Including the pound and a half of BYU fudge I consumed.  Oh, and the week before we left to Utah I was at the beach where they had a really delicious fudge shop, and I may have eaten a pound of fudge then, too. Then there was the camping trip we went on immediately after the Utah trip, during which we ate a steady diet of Mint Oreos, Oatmeal Fudge Bars (Aubrey's specialty), and s'mores. 

Last night for family night Joseph wanted me to make cookies. I told him NOOOOOO - I could not make cookies because I'm trying to avoid sugar for awhile.  He said, "Well, just don't eat the cookies, Mom." We all know that it is impossible to make cookies without liberally sampling the cookie dough. And I definitely do not have that kind of self control.  So, instead we piled in the car to get the kids an ice cream from McDonalds. 

So, I'm trying something new. I'll see how long I can hold out. I can do hard things too!

Facebook wisdom

I'm not a huge fan of facebook, for lots of reasons I won't list today. But one of my facebook friends just posted a quote that really struck me, and I want to remember it so I'm going to add it to a post.

You will never have this day with your children again. 

Tomorrow they'll be a little older than they were today. 

This day is a gift. 

Just breathe, notice, study their faces and little feet. 

Pay attention.
Relish the charms of the present. 

Enjoy today;it will be over before you know it. 

Recently I read an article in which the author (a mother of small kids) ranted against older parents who remind her to enjoy the moments with her kids as the time with children will go by ever so quickly. She felt like this advice is insensitive to her feelings as a mother caught in the throes of the exhausting role of caring for young children.

I understood her argument - I remember being at that point and feeling like I would never sleep through the night again and never have more than two minutes to myself again. I thought I would always need to carry a diaper bag with me everywhere, stocked with wipes, diapers, extra clothes, snacks and toys. I thought we would never see the day when a child didn't crawl into bed with us sometime during the night. I couldn't even imagine a day when I wouldn't need to drag a stroller with me or visit the pediatrician regularly to deal with early childhood checkups and illnesses. I also remember feeling so busy with the physical mothering tasks that I had to remind myself to just look my kids in the eyes and enjoy the time I was spending with them.

And they really do grow up. And it really is going by so fast. I don't feel much older than I did 20 years ago, but somehow my kids are growing up so quickly.

It really does feel like they were my babies just the other day. But I haven't carried a diaper bag or hired a babysitter in many years. We no longer own strollers or carseats. We visit the pediatrician infrequently, mostly for well child visits for Joseph. Most nights all kids remain in bed all night (Joseph is the sometimes exception, but that is getting more and more rare). I do have some time to myself and these days it's only early morning Seminary which cuts my sleep short.

It's not that every moment of mothering has been easy or even fun, but I have completely enjoyed the process. I feel lucky that our kids came to us spread over 13 years because I've been able to enjoy each kid individually.

I think these kids are great. I like helping them with their challenges. I really like listening to them, laughing with them, watching them become wonderful young adults.  (I even like the fact that Joseph wouldn't change out of his pj top for this Mother's Day photo shoot. He just pinned a tie to the pj shirt and pulled on his suit coat. That is just so Joseph).

I am very cognizant of the need to enjoy the moments. Brandon is off to college and real life and will never live at home again. We only get Bailey home for two more years before she is off to her own college adventure, and I know she will get increasingly busy these last two years of free education. Aubrey starts high school in a year and is so busy with theater during the school year that we rarely see her in the evenings. And Joseph is halfway through elementary school. Thankfully, he and his buddies are still hanging around the house most days.

I will never have a baby again. Nor a busy toddler or an inquisitive preschooler. I'm precipitously close to the end of elementary school years, but we'll have teenagers many years to come. It will continue to go by quickly. I will enjoy today.

Begin Again

In honor of Taylor Swift, I'm titling this post "Begin Again." I'm going to do my best to start blogging again at least somewhat regularly.  I've told myself for months that "once things settle down I will catch up."

Things have finally settled down, as of July. It's summer and we have a blissfully uncomplicated schedule. No school, piano, no theater, no baseball, no drivers ed, no basketball, no tennis, no early morning seminary, whew. We spent a wonderful 7 weeks with Brandon after his mission and, as of last week, successfully set him up in his apartment at BYU.

So, now it's time to catch up on writing about our family and I find myself completely overwhelmed. Where to begin? What to leave out? What to include?

The problems are this. First, if I go back to where I left off and cover things chronologically, there is so much ground to cover that I'm afraid I'll get discouraged and bored and stop trying. Second, if I choose to skip over everything that has happened in the last six months and start today, I will have missed documenting some wonderful events in our family.

I really love reading well-written, insightful, or cleverly quirky blogs, especially ones which don't try to cover every family event and include pictures as proof. But, I can't bring myself to strive for this type of blog myself. That might work if I was also scrapbooking or at least keeping a journal. Sadly, my journal keeping is lackadaisical and scrapbooking nonexistent. So, the blog books I print out are the only tangible evidence of the events of our family, with a few of my own thoughts and observations thrown in. I really don't care if anyone else reads our blog - its purpose is to record all the events that make up the whole of our family life at this point in time.  And I am totally aware that this is not the most exciting reading for others, and that's okay.

This is my compromise and my commitment to get back into blogging. I am going to begin today with today. I'm going to try to add something to our family blog at least 4 times a week (in the summer - I can't commit to that regularity in the school year).

As for today, it was a simply stupendous summer day. This is what we did:

•  Today Bailey went on her first date (a double date with cousin Mianna and two boys in Utah) while staying with the Sullivans in Sandy, UT.
• Today Brandon had a job interview for a position behind the scenes on Studio C at BYUTV.
• Today Aubrey curled her hair pretty in the morning and then spent all day with a friend and friend's mom shopping.
• Joseph and I attended the Reptile Man show at the library, bought a few groceries, and then hibernated in the AC at home for the rest of the day. Joseph invited two friends to play, and they made elaborate forts, huge messes, and invented exciting games to play in the sprinklers outside.
• Today I didn't clean anything or do any laundry. I didn't do any dishes or iron any shirts. I didn't even pull the weeds in my front flower beds (tempting fate since the HOA loves to ding us on weeds) or sprinkle slug bait around my hostas and zucchini. Instead, I spent a lazy afternoon reading part of my book and working on the computer while the boys ran circles around me. Tomorrow I will regret doing nothing productive today, but I'm all right with that.
  
  I love summer!

 As I ease myself back into blogging, I will start to include some of the events I missed recording.  Such as . . . .

•  Springer Girls Trip April 2012 (It's been so long, but I still have notes on my phone with all the funny moments from this awesome trip to Vegas)
• Porter Reunion 2012 (I completed this blog post once and then blogger blipped and lost it and I have never had the heart to do it again)
• Aubrey's re-done room
• Our countdown chain to Brandon's return
• Easter 2013
• Trip to Puerto Vallarta for Spring Break
• Joseph's cute toothless grin- Spring 2013
• Aubrey's 13th birthday and fun pedicure/pizza party with friends
• Joseph's 8th birthday, baptism (both sets of grandparents in attendance), and Cub Scouts
• The pinewood derby. Oh my.  Wow. I'll have to think about how to make this one a positive post.
• Joseph's experiences in baseball and basketball this year (here's a teaser: he has decided to be a NBA basketball player. Hopefully he inherits the Springer height)
• Bailey's tennis, Honor Society, volunteering at Boys and Girls club activities
• Aubrey's awesome school projects
• Brandon coming home from Ukraine
• Aubrey's vocal and theater performances, including Little Women
• Our trip to Palmyra and Kirtland (Brandon, Dan, and me)
• Joseph's end of year award ceremonies and parties (including Main Street) and the rainiest Zoo trip EVER.
• Bailey's annual birthday clothes shopping trip with Mom
• Bailey's 16th birthday and birthday trip to Cannon Beach with 5 friends (and Mom)
• Last day of school parties
• Trip to Utah (the day after the last day of school) with the family (sans Dan for the drive there) and Bailey's friend Nina, caravanning with Brandon's car and stopping along the way in Boise, Rexburg (BYU-I tour), and Shelley, Idaho to see Kara and family
• Getting Brandon settled into the dumpiest apartment complex in all Provo that houses the most social and fun group of people in Provo 
• Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Springer in Utah and seeing their beautiful new mountain home in Heber - June 2013