Visitors

We have been so lucky to have family come and visit us this year! In March we met Sarah and Scott and their family at Disneyland.

Then in June, Hannah and Kendall and their family came and stayed with us a few days during a work trip in San Fran for Kendall. The arrived on a Saturday, only minutes before CJ and I kidnapped Hannah and took her to a Justin Bieber concert.

A 12 hour drive for Hannah and then another couple hours to the concert. Boy was she a trooper! I probably would had fallen asleep during "Baby, Baby, Baby oh!". The men were left home with 7 children to take care of.

They were triumphant and amazing!

The next day, Hannah and Kendall came to church with us and Hannah got to go to Young Womens as Ben introduced CJ to the Young Women (it was her first Sunday). Everyone came home from church and the kids played while the men slaved away in the kitchen.

We took them to Newhall Park and fed the ducks, played tag, had races, and tried to do cartwheels and backbends. By the way, Kendall can do a wicked backbend. You should ask him to do one for you!

Hannah and Kendall explored San Francisco the next day on their own. We met up with them on the following day at Golden Gate Park. Pretty much the funniest park around! The kids rode the carousel, slid down the cement slide and climbed the spider web.

I loved hanging out with Kendall, Hannah and their boys.

Dodge was so tiny and cute.

Everytime I tried to take a picture of Brigg, he would make a silly face. I must have caught him off guard in this picture.

Luke amazed me with his, "I wonder. . ." thoughts. "I wonder how this works. . ." "I wonder if I do this. . ." and so on. I think he is going to be an engineer someday.

Sam is the big brother and leader.

All of my kids had a ton of fun with the Andersen boys and couldn't stop talking about them for days! I hope they come visit again!

And a month later. . .

We were blessed to have Andy, Joe, and their kids come out to visit us. Woops, I should also include Reggie, their dog. She definitely was a highlight!

They arrived on the evening of Livy's birthday! What a fun birthday gift! A trip to see her favorite Asian aunt, and movie maker uncle. We made cupcakes for Livy and sang "Happy Birthday" to her!

The next day we went to San Francisco. We did the favorite Golden Gate park.

And carousel.

We then headed to Oceanside beach.

Watching the excitement of Joe and Andy's kids as they played in the water was entertainment for me! They had never been to a beach before and were having a ball!

The next day, we took them to Muir Woods to see the Redwoods. I think the walk from the car to the park was longer than our walk inside the park!

The next part, was probably the favorite for everyone!

Stinson beach was magnificent! It was a beautiful day and we spent hours playing there (and I guess an hour finding parking! JK). I loved watching Ben and Joe, two big tough guys playing in the waves.

It was seriously a perfect day at the beach!

We were going to go to Adventure Playground the next day, but we were not prepared and so the men decided to make marshmellow guns for the kids.

We took the kids to the park and had a marshmellow fight and then ended with a waterballoon fight.

The next day, Ben gave them a tour of Pixar and we ate at Burger King which was a first for the Joe Porter kids! Later that evening, the kids put on a talent show. It was darling to say the least!

I think Jes' talent should've been this:

I love each of their kids!

I wanted to record Mira's little voice. It is the cutest thing to hear! I loved hearing her speak.

India is a little sweet girl! She has got such a cute personality.

Addie worked her magic and knew she could ask me for anything and I would just give it to her. How do you say "No" to her?

Jes is the man! His IPOD touch was a hit with my kids and they keep asking me for their own now.

Livy is the kindest most geniune kid around! I WANT TO KEEP HER FOREVER! If I want to feel good about myself, I just need to ask Livy to say the family prayer. She'll thank you for everything!

We hope you come visit us again!

My Scars

This is what I looked like on the Fourth of July. Within minutes upon arriving in the Marin Headlands to hang out with some friends, I tripped over a horseshoe pole while catching a frizbee and tore up my leg. It didn't even hurt, and felt more like a scratch. In fact, I didn't even look at it and continued to play. When I decided to look at my leg, I was surprised to see my flesh hanging out.

Literally.

I've never cut myself so deep that I could see the flesh. I wish I had taken a picture. I could have made some of you reading this faint. Ben looked at it and said to me, "You are really a banana. Yellow on the outside and white on the inside." Leave it to Ben to be cracking jokes!

Luckily, everyone who was there had their first aid kits handy. I mean, I have one in my car, but for some reason everyone brought theirs to the picnic area. One of Ben's friends' friend was a Resident and cleaned my wound and patched me up with butterfly bandages nicely. He said I didn't need to go to the hospital that I would be fine and that I could go see the doctor the next day.

I told Ben I could just go to the hospital and he could stay with the kids, but he insisted that the whole family should go. I didn't want the whole family to spend the Fourth of July in the ER and so I took comfort in knowing that I could see the doctor the next day. It didn't even hurt or give me any discomfort.

I called the doctor the first thing the next morning and no one answered. I continued to call all day and finally decided to actually go there and see if anyone was there. The door was locked and so I called the Urgent Care telephone number.

The woman who answered the phone told me to call the doctors back after 2:30 p.m. and if no one answered still, that there was an on call doctor who I could talk to after 5:00 p.m. So I called at 2:30 p.m. and no one answered. I didn't think this was an emergency now and so I waited until 5:00 to call the on call doctor.

I never got the call from the on call doctor that night.

So it is the next day and I am surprisingly emotional. I just want to talk to a doctor! I call Ben's mom, who is a nurse and ask her about it. I take pictures of it to show her what it looks like. She tells me it is too late for stitches and that it looks healthly.

I call Ben and tell him what his Mom says and start to get emotional! Why am I crying??

This wound is causing me absolutely no pain, why am I so upset?

I pull myself together and think about it. I'm upset because I am going to have yet another scar on my poor leg! Getting stitches would have helped it look better and I missed the chance to get them!

For some reason, I scar very easy. I can get scars from a mosquito bite. And for some other reason when I fall, my right leg takes the hit.

I've always liked the shape of my legs and that they are strong but ever since I was young, I remember trying to hide my leg because I was so embarrassed of how it looked. It is darker than my other one because of the amount of scars that are on it. If I were sitting down, I would put my good leg on top of my ugly one. If I were standing I would stand sideways so no one could stare at my leg.

I've actually made it worse since being an adult if you can believe that! Some of my biggest scars are from roller blading, rock climbing, and other activities like that. I could tell many stories and use my leg as a visual.

I've gotten better at no worrying about others looking at my leg as I have gotten older,but I am still self conscious about it. I will probably always be.

I'm finally over my leg and the scar that I am going to have. I'm still a little bummed, but whatever, right?

Now, I am just waiting for it to heal so I can continue my training for my triathlon. I was on such a roll: swimming, running and biking, that I can't wait to start again!

I wonder if they take pre-orders for the Resurrection. I would like to pre-order beautiful looking legs with no scars!

And while I'm at it. . .I think I'll order size B boobs!

Two, but Three.

Zoey turned two on Monday but if anyone were to ask her how old she is, she would say that she was "three". I think that is her favorite number.

Zoey's birthday is always filled with activities that I don't even have to plan! I love it!

We went to the ward breakfast in the morning and played with friends. After her nap, Zoey opened her presents.

Favorite?

Water table.

Best invention ever.

We then headed up to the Marin Headlands to hang out with some of Ben's friends from work. Zoey did surprisingly well and stayed in the area we were in.

We ate, played horse shoes, Kubb, and shot waterballons with a slingshot at Jacob, whose birthday is on the 4th too! I guess every year they do this and they never get him! If you look in the picture on the right, my kids had to get in on the action. Instead of running away from the flying balloon, my kids did the opposite and tried to get wet.

While her older siblings were trying to get hit by balloons, Zoey yelled at them to come back. I didn't catch it on camera, but she cups her hands around her mouth while she yells. It's so cute!

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Zoey and she sang along. It was the cutest thing! She sang, "Happy, happy, happy" over and over.

There were some old army bunkers that we played around in for a little. It was beautiful to watch the sunset.

When it got dark, we headed up into the mountains to watch the fireworks. My kids had been bugging me all day about seeing fireworks. I'm so glad we were able to come through for them.

I just took Zoey to her 2 year appointment. She is 38.2 inches tall and 28.6 pounds! She's as all as a 3 1/2 year old. She has grown 5 inches since her last appointment and has only gained a pound! The doctor always gives me advice on how to fatten her up!

I love that she is putting words together to make phrases. Just the other day she told me, "Don't want too." I would have fallen out of a chair if I were in one. Zoey has usually just said one word at a time and to say 3 out of nowhere was cool to hear.

We love you Zoey!