So many numbers......

Porter and I have been giggling all night.

He had a cute little embarrassing moment this afternoon and since then, every time we think about it we just laugh.

Porter had to call the school this afternoon to ask his teacher a question about a book report that is due in the morning. His teacher was in a meeting and so he had to talk to the school secretary. This is how the conversation went:

Porter: Hi, can I please speak with Mrs. Hancock?

Secretary: Mrs. Hancock is in a meeting right now. Can I take your name?

Porter: Yes, my name is Porter.

Secretary: And your number?

Porter: My lunch number or my library number?

Secretary: Ummm..... your phone number so she can call you when she is done.


At this point in the conversation, Porter just went bright red and started giggling so hard that he could hardly give the secretary his phone number and say goodbye.

I'm just glad he can laugh about it. I keep telling him that he will have plenty more embarrassing moments like that if he is related to me :)

FRIENDS

Bill and I have decided something.

We don't ever want to leave our church callings at the University. Bill has said for some time now that it should be illegal for a church calling to be this much fun.

It's true.

The people that we have had the privilege of working with and growing to love are absolutely amazing. They inspire me. They inspire our children. We stay up late at night talking about them. They have full control over our heart strings. We will shed many tears when it is time to leave them.

One thing is for sure. When it is time to leave, we will take with us MANY lifelong friends.

Friends who have shared the last three years of our life:

Sick.

For two days now, I have been sick. It's a cold. But one of those colds that really takes everything out of you...even my voice. I can't talk. I sound ridiculous. I have even had people hang up on me because they don't recognize my voice over the phone. Well Evelyn has been so cute through it all. Every time I cough, she coughs too. I love her fake coughs. It makes me laugh every time she does it.

She has also been noticing that I sound really funny. When she is sitting on my lap, she has been looking up at me and then laying her head on my chest as if to say, "I know you're not feeling well Mom. I love you."

Boy, she sure knows how to make a mom feel loved.

Buckets and Tap Shoes

We went to Rexburg this weekend for a number of reasons:

#1. So Porter could go on a date with his Grandma. They went to a concert together on the campus of BYU-I called Buckets and Tap Shoes (or Tap Shoes and Buckets). When Porter came through the door at 9:45 that night with his grandma, he had a huge smile on his face. I asked him how he enjoyed the concert, to which he replied, "It was AWESOME!!!!!". I knew it must have really been awesome when he crawled in between both Bill and I the next morning at 6:30 a.m. to give us a play-by-play of the concert. It was 4 guys who, I guess, could really power tap and also used buckets for drums. There was also some magic involved. Porter loved every minute of it....except, he said, the screaming college girl who had a seat right behind him :) Here is a picture of them just as they were leaving for the night:



#2. So we could help Grandma with some much needed chores including: installing a new gas water heater (which the guys did downstairs), and moving her firewood next to the house right outside her back door. I only got pictures of the firewood movers. Sorry men.



#3. So I could attend the President's Club Dinner at BYU-I with my wonderful mother-in-law! It is a tradition that she takes turns taking one of the adults as a guest with her to this event. This year it was my turn. I had such a great time! I had the opportunity to shake Pres. and Sis Clark's hands. Pres. Clark is the president of BYU-I. What a neat man. Then, my mother-in-law and I went into dinner. The food was SO GOOD. We had:

• lots and lots of delicious appetizers
  
• a yummy salad and a roll
  
• steamed broccoli
• a baked potato with sour cream and butter
  
• filet mignon (with the best sauce)
  
• filet of salmon
• and a piece of pumpkin pie

But the climax of the evening was getting to take home a box of Florence's Chocolates. There was a box for every guest right at the table. I love Florence's Chocolates. Sometimes when we are in Rexburg, I talk my husband into taking me to Florence's and getting me a small box of the mint meltaways. Sometimes Bill does it on his own to surprise me. Well, let me just tell you, I have been savoring these chocolates over the last couple of days. Evelyn and I just shared the caramel, which I have been saving for last.

Chocolate is good for the soul. Evelyn agrees.

Labor Day Weekend Getaway

We were able to escape for the Labor Day weekend and travel down to Capital Reef National Park in Utah to visit my husband Bill's oldest sister Cathy. Cathy is a park ranger and we were able to get a first class tour of the park in the short time that we were there. It took about 7 hours to get there, and when we came into the park it was about 10 p.m. So everything was dark. We couldn't see what the park looked like. When we woke up, we looked out the windows and saw many deer in Cathy's yard and a red rock wonderland. It was breathtakingly beautiful!:



We woke early to escape the heat and went on a morning hike to Hickman bridge:




After our hike, we went on a drive and came across a family of bighorn sheep:



Cathy took us to a secret place in the park that only a few people know about where there is a HUGE dinosaur fossil that had been partly exposed in the side of a cliff. Porter is standing in front of just a small portion of it:




We then drove to see a range formation that Cathy called The Biscuits:



On our way back from seeing The Biscuits, we stopped at the one room Fruita school house. Porter enjoyed writing on the little individual black board that was on each desk and listening to the ranger give a lesson out of one of the textbooks that they may have used:


Later in the afternoon, Porter received his Junior Ranger. (He now is a Junior Ranger in Great Basin National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and now Capital Reef National Park) Here he is being sworn in. They also announced his name over the microphone at the visitor's center where he got an applause:



My favorite part was going up to Sunset Point that evening. It was absolutely beautiful even if we got there a few minutes after sunset. Porter and Aunt Cathy are sitting at Cathy's favorite spot:



Here is Porter in the ravenous jaws of a gigantic rock lizard!!:



It was a narrow escape from the lizard. We had a fantastic time and our only regret is that we couldn't stay longer.

Summer, Part Five

A recent trip to my parents house was an extra special one for us, as we were able to spend a weekend there, before my youngest brother Bracken left on his mission. This will forever go down in history as one of Porter's favorite memories...EVER. It started out with Bracken and Porter doing a little putting practice into the old wheelbarrow in my parents backyard:



They literally spent hours, painstakingly altering the course that the golf ball could take to make it in the hole.



It morphed throughout the evening, and when everything was finally said and done, Grandma, Grandpa and I had to go out with a flashlight (because it was nearing 10 p.m.!) to see the masterpiece worked by Porter's and Bracken's hands:



The next morning, Bracken and Porter went to work again. This time they were a bit more secretive. It involved many trips inside the house and to Grandpa's shop to get random supplies and an hour or two in the computer room with Bracken's SWEET video editing skills, and many hysterical laughs coming out of both boys that could be heard frequently from down the hall. Needless to say, we were curious. When we got the OK to enter the computer room to see what they had been up to, THIS is what we were shown: (turn your volume on for the full effect...)






Bracken has got to be one of the coolest uncles on the earth.

Summer, Part Four

I am still trying to play catch up with posting our summer activities. It really is amazing to me how busy summer really is. We were able to visit Grandparents a few times this summer. This is always a treat for our family that NEVER grows old.

What would a summer trip to Grandma's house in Rexburg be without a visit down the block to the Splash Park? Porter and his cousin Brad splashed at the splash park for much of the hot evening.





Bill took Porter and his cousin Brad to the Nature Park in Rexburg to do some fishing. Bill's mom and I came over a little bit later with Evelyn in the stroller to snap some photos of these fishermen. They had some great success, catching several perch each. This fishing trip will go down in Porter's memory bank as the fishing trip that he was able to catch fish ALL ON HIS OWN. He was on a high for several days following, telling anyone who would listen to his fish stories :)

(look closely, there's really a perch there!)

I also couldn't help but take a picture of Evelyn and Grandma with their matching pink capri pants: