Winter Wrap-Up

My blog posts seem to be coming quarterly now which is an indication of how much free time I really have and how much time we have spent in the Hospital.  Here is the scorecard for posterity sakes.

ER Visits: 4 (Britney twice with Chrohns, Lucas once for getting caught under the tractor trailer (not kidding), and Scott once for 5 stitches from a picture framing accident)

# of Days Hospitalized:  I think about 15 over 3 visits, all thanks to Britney and her Chrohns.

# of Prescriptions Filled: I lost track, I swear the pharmacist thinks we sell the stuff on the side.

$ Spent out of pocket: None, thank you Microsoft!

Here are a few posts to catch us up from the past few months.

We spent Thanksgiving in Georgia with Britney's family and had some good rest and fun.  The highlight for the kids was the rope swing at Dave and Andee's cabin.  The highlight for me was watching Britney's older sister Linzee try and pull her back and launch her on the rope swing :-).

Most of December Britney was recovering from an intestinal re-section, equivelant of fixing a bad section of sprinkler pipe for all you do-it-yourselfer's, so we did most of the Christmas traditions without her.  Here are the boys and I (not sure where Grace was?) waiting for the Santa Train.

The train ended up at an old train station where the kids got to meet Santa.  He was the real Santa, not the imposters they have at the mall and other commercial establishments.

I also just realized that we didn't take a single picture of Christmas Day, but we did get one shot a few days after while returning some stuff to the store. 
Parents will understand this, but sometimes you just have to pick your battles and on this particular day Charlie was adamant about wearing what you see below, and we gave up the fight.  Yes, we shopped the entire day like this and he was the happiest kid in Seattle.

Jack's new bed

Jack has always been a peculiar sleeper and once again he didn't fail to disapoint. I went in to tuck him in and at first glance thought he was missing......... until I looked up on the bookshelf.

More Lake Pend O'reille

Click on the picture of us at the top of Schweitzer Mountain to see the rest of the pictures from the trip. The lift ride to the top was the highlight for the kids, but not for our friend Lauren who dropped his camera from the lift on the way down :-(.

Lake Pend O'reille Treehouse

We did a family vacation to our friend's house on Lake Pend O'Reille (Sanpointe, ID). The weather was perfect and the accomodations were even better. They just bought the property next door to them and 'merged' the two lots. They inherited the most amazing tree house by buying the lot next door. Check this out, Brit and I stayed in it for a night while Becky took the kids :-).

I did a screen grab of an online book that the treehouse was featured in, the pictures don't do it justice but lets just say it was amazing.

Charlie and Chocolates

Britney got some chocoloates from a friend for her birthday and this is what we found the next day. He didn't care for the ones with nuts, good boy Charlie.

Hike to Twin Falls

I'm not sure if it is the fact that I have gotten older and have learned to appreciate nature more, or if our kids need to learn that there is more to life than the Disney Channel, but I love family hikes.

We did this hike (Twin Falls) with my Brother about a year ago and went again in August on a warm day. Charlie loved the river and the kids all were champion hikers.

The Yard

After spending nearly a year working on our back yard we reached a nearly completed status! We put in the beds, planted a garden, built a deck, etc. etc. It was WAAY more work than I had intended but we are really happy with how it turned out.

I used a PVC decking material that should be pretty low maintenance. No slivers for the kiddies!

4th of July

We stuck with the traditional events this year for the 4th of July. Started with the kids parade in Kirkland. The kids parade is always very cute, but the actual parade was a bit of a dud. Mostly politicians campaigning, but not in any interesting sort of way, it was is they thought they didn't have to put in ANY effort to get my vote? I would have totally voted for whoever had the best float, but instead all they did was march with signs in their hands. It felt more like a protest than a parade?

Despite the politicians, the kids had fun.

Porter Palooza 2009

Marc and Paige came into town for the week of the 4th of July so there were plenty of activities.

We started with a magic show in the back yard. He was perfect for the little kids and Jack was in AWE the entire show.

Then up to Anacortes to catch the ferry. We got there plenty early so there was adequate time to throw rocks in the Puget Sound.

Jack got to steer the ferry boat on the way to San Juan Island (ok not really but he thought he was).

The whole family stayed at a few homes on Garrison Bay where we pretty much relaxed, did some clamming, played a family Olympics and ate good food.

Snoqualmie falls with Grandma Thorpe

We had a visit from Grandma Thorpe and managed to make it to Snoqualmie Falls, it was a perfect day. I have to say I am pretty proud of the second photo, it is from a cheap 'point and shoot' camera, not too bad.

Trip to Asia

I have no good excuses for not posting in ages except for a backyard remodel, vacations, a 4 day hospital stay, work stress, and it is summer.

Now an attempt to catch up.....

I spent a week in Asia (again) for work but got a day to check out one of the palaces of some king (I made no attempt to really digest the historical significance).

The trip was brutal as far as travel goes but at least this time I saw more than the inside of conference rooms and hotel rooms. Some highlights.

I think the palace could use a new costume designer. I am sure this looked like what they wore back in the day, but his mustache looked real fake and I think he had "shoe sleeves" that are supposed to look like boots (you know like the lame Santa's wear?).

Finally, one of the most entertaining parts of the trip was reading the Engrish. Read the second menu item after clicking on the pic.

Surprise trip to Disney World

What do the Porter's do when the world is melting down with fear over our deteriorating economy...go to Disney World!

We surprised the kids and told them as we pulled up to the airport that we were going to Disney World. Our cover was they thought we were just going to find 'something fun' to do before church. Once they noticed we were getting quite close to the airport we had to say we were going to watch the planes take off and land. This only lasted a few minutes before we spilled the beans, they were ecstatic and couldn't believe it.

We ended up doing 3.5 days of parks and wore the kids out. In fact on the last day at Animal Kingdom they were begging to just go home and swim, gladly. Britney's parents and her sister Linzee joined as and all had a blast. Click the picture for the full gallery.

Houston, we have a problem

(confidential post, not to be discussed with Lucas....play dumb)

I know that at some point boys and girls start to explore the world of "Boyfriend/Girldfriend", but at age 6? Here is what I found in Lucas's back pack after catching some hints from Gracie that there was a little love in the air. I will translate for those of you who don't understand first grader penmanship and spelling.

"Dear Courtney- Right when saw you at the meet and greet I just loved you and I don't know how to tell you this But I'm your boyfriend. I've loved you from the start you really opened up a new world to me. Love Luke you boyfriend."

What would you do? Rip it up? Let him take it to school and enter the world of love? I decided to let him play his game and learn for himself. I did alert the teacher there was an incoming letter that could create some drama. I have to say that my gut was to tell him he was too young and freak out....breathe in....

The outcome....Lucas reported today that Courtney declined his boyfriend demand and said she is not old enough. (I like her already) He seems ok with it and I'm sure will get his game back soon and try again. As for me we will be invoking a blackout on all 'tweener' shows in hopes to curb his desire to find a mate.

White Christmas

We had a very white Christmas....we have had about 12-18" of snow and still have 6" on the ground. The kids have had a blast and have sledded outside nearly everyday. Here are a few highlights from the season.

This is Jack getting ready to decorate the tree. He was very into the ornaments and was very good at clustering his all together.


Grace and Lucas making cookies, well more making a mess and hoping to get some cookies out of it.

Charlito in the snow. We ended up having so much snow we couldn't use the stroller as a babysitter while the other kids sledded.


These shots are from a 2 horse open sleigh. We were invited by some friends to go on a sleigh ride which led to a great sledding hill. Perfect winter activity for the fam.