Utah April 2014

I had enough Southwest Rewards points to buy a one-way ticket between Portland and Salt Lake City. So Porter and I tagged along home with the Speth's after their trip. Porter did fantastic on the 11 hour journey. Never cried, liked having me and Miranda in the back seat with him to play with, and was a pro at being patient being pinned in a car seat for so long.

It was a really nice week to be home. We got to celebrate JaNae's birthday on the drive, and Sye's birthday. I was able to see a lot of my Clarke cousins at Kylie's bridal shower which was SO much fun. We were able to see all the great grandparents, lots of friends, and played outside lots. Porter liked having so many people to play music to him and sing with him, feed him, and play with him.

We missed JD, but with how crazy things have been with the semester winding down, it was probably good to be in Utah and less of a distraction for him and we were able to probably have a little more fun before going back to get serious about packing. Another bonus was with so many sitters, I was able to find where we will live and get everything arranged while we were in town. Kind of scary not seeing the place in advance, but JD and I feel good about it and the pictures on the internet look nice-and the internet doesn't lie right?

Our flight home was fun, this was the first time Porter realized something was going on. He was mesmerized during take off watching the lights and wings moving. Then after about 15 minutes he fell asleep until we landed. I will miss the days that traveling with him is this easy. With how much my family worked on crawling with him, sometimes with success, I don't think we have long until we will have a mover on our hands.

Family Visit!

Grammy Karen, Dennis, Jeff, JaNae, and Miranda all came out for a visit over Miranda's spring break! It was so nice to have family in town and to have someone to do things with. JD has been crazy swamped with a very hard semester of school so unfortunately he wasn't able to do much with us, though he did make it one night for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (and of course went right back to studying as soon as we got home).

We crammed a ton into a very short time:
We went to the coast, checking out Seaside, Ecola State Park, and Cannon Beach. We ate at Mo's before heading home.
We did an afternoon in Portland checking out Pioneer Square, Powell's Book Store, Waterfront Park, Voodoo Donuts, and enjoyed some people watching before we went to the International Rose Test Gardens, and got an amazing view of Mount Hood from Pittock Mansion.
We hiked in the Gorge: we were able to see Vista House, Latourell Falls, Shepherd's Dell, Wakeena, Multnomah, and Horsetail Falls. Jeff was awesome and carried a very happy Porter almost everywhere.
We checked out the Woodburn Tulip Festival, shopped at the Columbia Sportswear Employee Store (and came out with lots of goodies).
Miranda stayed with us so that she could have her own place to sleep. It was fun hanging out with her while the family was in town. We had a relaxing night with Porter while everyone else went to the Portland temple.

As usual, Porter was a champ, putting up with doing all of this with a smile. I think he likes having so many people who pay attention to him. Love my family and grateful they were able to make it out for a few days.