Porter's Birthday in photos (lots of them)

Balloon launch... attempt

 

For the July 4th we decided to head out for the Balloon Launch. Porter and Bridger love balloons so much and they were so excited to see the huge balloons. I couldn't believe how many people showed up for it... I definitely don't remember that many people in past years.

The boys loved it.

The weather wasn't very cooperative though, and we were a little worried that they wouldn't be going up.

We watched as the balloons all inflated, and Porter's eyes were glued to Darth Vader. It was a pretty impressive balloon, and Porter stayed like this the whole time he inflated.

Then a big gust of wind came through and all the balloons were deflated within a few minutes.  I was disappointed that the boys didn't get to see them take off, but they were pretty tickled just watching them inflate.

We headed out on a nice drive with G & G Marsing... a nice drive that ended with Bridger vomiting all over Papa's truck. I'm not sure what caused it... he ate about half a pound of gummy bears (he loves gummy bears) and we were driving for a couple hours on winding mountain roads... go figure.

After we hosed him down and sprayed out the truck, we headed to Kari and Craig's for a little BBQ and then to the splash pad for some fun in the water. 

After the splash pad we headed back to Kari's to watch some fireworks. 

The little boys played in the basement and watched Tangled while the adults chatted upstairs.

I started to hear shrieking from the basement, so I headed down to see what was the matter. Bridger and Ian were laughing and squealing while dancing to Tangled... it was so cute I wanted Kari to see it. So, Kari came to the basement and we backed up the movie so they could dance again. 

During the encore performance, Bridger got a little too into the music and stumbled into the coffee table... eyelid first.This led to Bridger's second ER visit for the year and his first stitches ever. But, he did so well and held so still for the stitches, I was so proud of him.

We headed back to Kari's to pick up Porter and we were able to catch the last of the fireworks.

It was a fun day... hopefully next year will involve more launching of balloons and less vomiting and stitches.

while going through my summer photos...

I was trying to edit all the photos of this past summer, and I don't know how I missed this batch. Back in May we went on the Marsing family camp-out. We had good food, good company and a really good time. I really didn't take a lot of pictures. But tonight, this one caught my eye.

I love so many things about it. 

That's my Daddy with four of his grandchildren. I love the smile on his face. 

I love whatever it is that Porter and Sophie are doing. To the untrained eye, those are walking sticks (not golf clubs as some of you may have guessed). I don't know what those two are doing, but I find it hilarious they are doing the same thing and they didn't even notice that the other one was doing it too.

I love that Bridger is trying really hard to maul his cousin Miriam, but she isn't having any of it.

I love camping.

Scout Falls... attempt

A few days after our success with visiting the Grotto, we decided to head to another waterfall. We wanted to hike to Scout Falls. Neither of us had ever been, and to make it more exciting we asked Kari and her boys to join us. I printed off some information on how to get where we wanted to go and we headed out.

It was a beautiful drive up AF canyon and we got to the trailhead just fine. However, I figured that I had read the directions well enough that there was no need to take them with us.

After a while we came to a fork in the trail. One fork led down to a meadow and the other fork continued to head up the mountain. I was pretty sure we were supposed to go to the right and that would take us up the mountain further. After a while we noticed this view across from the trail.

Pretty confident that those were the falls, we decided we must have headed the wrong way, so we turned back and headed down to the meadow.

BUT, after getting into the meadow, we realized it was not going to be an easy way to get up to the falls... and maybe we had been headed the right direction in the first place.

The meadow was so beautiful though, and the stream running through it was calling to the boys. So we decided to change our destination.

Kari and I sat and chatted while the boys kept themselves busy. Kyle initiated the building of a dam and all the little ones were more than happy to help out.

When the dam was properly built, the boys kept themselves entertained by digging out the snow that was left and throwing snowballs into the stream.

It was a beautiful day for a hike, and even though we never made it to the falls. The boys were all exhausted by the end of it, and Porter and Bridger fell asleep quickly on the way home.

Thanks for the fun time Kari... we'll have to try it again and see if we can actually make it to the falls!

The Grotto

Before I get into showing you my beautiful little home (unless you want a personal tour, which I am more than happy to show any of you), I want to do some catching-up on all that we did this summer. 

Our first little excursion took us up to this little hike up the Payson canyon.

 The drive up was beautiful, it had just been raining (and continued raining during our hike) and it made everything so green.

 These two boys just love to hike, it's so nice to be near some beautiful trails.

 You have to cross several little man-made bridges and after the first couple, Porter and Bridger were good to go. No needing help from Mom or Dad.

 The waterfall was beautiful, and I'm sorry but the pictures just don't do it justice. There were a lot of people there at the end and it was a little bit of a challenge to get in.

 

My favorite shot of the day. 

 

It was a fun hike and I'm sure we'll be going again.

We're here, we're settled and we love it. 

So many projects and so much to do... but it's so nice to call it ours.

More photos to come.

July 21st, he turned 4.

He loves corndogs, snow cones, swedish fish, and he will eat his own weight in watermelon if you let him. Oh, and he will do almost anything for the promise of a cookie.


He has allergies just like his Daddy.

Ketchup, he loves it on everything, and he literally licks it off his plate if there's any left when he's done.

He loves the movie Tarzan and thinks the "grillas" are the best part. 

Porter quotes movies constantly. Half the time he's talking it's quoting something he's heard or seen. His memory is so keen, he can quote something that he saw only once, several months ago. Kyle and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out where he gets a lot of the things he says.

He loves to climb. Climb mountains to be specific. He loves it, and he would do it all day. The steeper, the better. And he really loves climbing-walls.

"Porter what do you want to be when you grow up?"
"I wanna be a doctor. I wanna help the kids."

He's very particular about the way he eats. He has a system for eating anything. It's always entertaining to watch him eat.
Corn-dogs: Eat the cornmeal first, then the dog.
Sandwich: Eat all the crust off first, then the middle
Rainbow snow-cones: Green first, all the way to the bottom of the cup, then yellow, then red etc.
Pizza: pepperoni first, then the cheese and the bread. Then, after every last bit of cheese and sauce has been nibbled away, he will eat the bare crust.
Ice cream Sandwich: Top cookie, then ice cream, then bottom cookie.
Sugar coated doughnuts: Lick off all the sugar... then eat the doughnut.
Vegetables: Store in cheek like a chipmunk until forced to swallow and take another bite.
Apples: Nibble the entire peel off the apple, then eat the middle.
Cereal: Eats according to color. Most colorful first and on down the line.
I promise, I do feed him good food.... I just realized that this list makes it seem like I feed him mostly junk, so I think you got the picture... moving on.

Favorite Primary song is Primary Colors.

Favorite color is always up for debate. He loves red, purple, green and blue, and the occasional yellow. It all depends on the day.

Loves to ride his bike, and it probably won't be long before he gets those training wheels off.

Pretends he's a pirate on a daily basis.

This kid is darling. I'm so lucky to be his Momma. He's so full of energy and he gets so excited about everything. He's so much fun.
He's four. I can't believe that it came so quickly. And this kid is sharp. He's a sweet and handsome little redhead.My sweet and handsome little redhead...
Happy Birthday Porter!