Back in the Day

Once upon a time...I had these friends (well, I still have them) that taught me how to ski. 18 years ago. Those were good, good times. They taught me by taking me up to some scary runs and making me go down. But I learned and loved it. Then I went away to college. To the land of even more skiing but alas, I had no money for skiing. And then more time went by and I still had no money. And then I got married and Kenyon isn't really a skier (but knowing Kenyon he is probably REALLY good even though he hasn't ever learned). And then I had kids. And somehow skiing never fit in. Until...the brilliant minds at Park City Mountain figured out the StartNow program. $25. Total. That is rentals, the lesson, and the lift pass. Seriously! (That's for you Heather). Needless to say, the kids (T and E) love skiing. We couldn't convince Gavin to join us. Friday we skipped school (and still Gavin didn't want to come- go figure) and went up for a lesson. I was actually very nervous but it came back to me quickly. Too bad I had this grumpy old ski bum as an instructor. I wish I had someone with me so we could laugh a little more. Too bad money is still the issue or I guarantee you we would be hitting the slopes again tomorrow. It really is amazing to be up on the top of the beautiful mountains and the feeling coming down is perfect!

Tulip Festival

It's over now, but you should still go. The Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point is one of my most favorite things to do in April. After living in London and I owning a pass to Kew Gardens, I have loved going to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. When I lived in Draper (and life was simpler), I owned a pass there, too. But even without a pass, I make a couple trips a year (thanks Aimee).

This trip was particularly good. The flowers were AMAZING. And the company was great - we were minus a few kids and it was so pleasant. AND they were selling super yummy fresh kettle corn.

Could it get any better?

Spaseba!

That would be THANK YOU in Russian. We have been spoiled by gifts, adoring visitors, and meals. I think I need to start doing my own cooking but it has been so nice. I have to send out a special thank you to my dear ILP friends. I taught English in Russia (Fall '95) with the greatest group of girls. The whole experience was a amazing (crazy, scary, fun, hard, cold, etc). A major part of the Russian experience - at least for us - was FOOD. And it wasn't always a good experience. I mostly hated the food but somehow that didn't stop me from coming home a good 15lbs heavier. I think it was all the nutella and bread we shoved in our faces. It was our way getting through the whole thing. My Russian mother would grab my cheeks to see if I was getting fat enough. To her - it was a sign that she had treated me well. A little too well. I have some pretty choice pictures of these amazing girls but they aren't digital and I currently don't have a working scanner. It is probably better that way. But, I am so grateful to them. They have organized meals (from Idaho), cooked amazing dinners, drove a ways to deliver them. Spaseba! Let's get together soon. December?

Different Subject: Craziness. I am one of those seriously crazy people who went to see Twilight at midnight. Who does that? The movie isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The District sold out all 20 theaters. All the showings started at midnight. That means there were about 4000 crazy females in one place. Aghhh! I am not a big fan of crowds of crazy woman. It probably is the easiest time for me to leave the house but it is also about the only sleep I am getting. And I gave it up! It was fun and I thought the movie was good. I am sure critic will rip it up. It certainly has some problems but as a Twilight fan - I was happy. I am too tired and brain dead to write a decent review but my die-hard Twilight friend, Andrea, wrote a great review. I thought the same thing, so I will call it my review too. :) Thanks to my niece, Annie, for getting us the tickets. And super thanks to Jen and her girls for going with me. (I think I said crazy too many times. I need to go to bed.)

Itty Bitty SLC

I have always wanted to to do this and never have. I am not sure it will happen this year but YOU should do it. I think it would be fun to split up with a bunch of couples and have a race around downtown looking for as many pictures as possible. Check out this article in the Deseret News. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700259065,00.html

Every year the Deseret News sponsors a contest in downtown SLC to find these places. They provide 20 photos - itty bitty snipits of things seen around SLC. You have to locate these pictures and document their exact location. I think it sounds like to the best thing to do on a perfect fall evening. Plus, I love going downtown. And, if you are really good - you could win some cool prizes.

PS - update on Kenyon - he is improving so they will not do the GVHD tests. It is/was probably a virus. We will go again Friday for a couple more tests to make sure the levels are alright.

Best TV Watching

How cool was Wimbledon this year? Please tell me that you did in fact watch the greatest match of tennis ever played. Due to rain delay and church, I had to watch this match later but it was so worth it. I wanted Federer to win but really - did it matter. They both played awesome. If you missed it, find a way to watch it. I have it saved on my DVR. Someday, I will actually go to Wimbledon and watch a match. (One day I took 5 month old Teague on a little adventure to Wimbledon. Unfortunately, no one was playing tennis that day.)

I know that is why you all come to the blog. You want to hear about tennis. But, I will tell you a little update on Kenyon. He had his very last dose of chemo yesterday. We hope he never faces that again. He has felt pretty miserable the last couple of days. No fun to be so sick and trapped. We hope that the upcoming days bring an increase in the blood counts and a decrease in the sickness and maybe even a few of the meds. We'll see.

Favorite Post

I just spent my evening reading my favorite post of the week (actually I did a few other things too but it does take awhile to read). My friend Courtney and her husband just participated in an Amazing Race in Utah County. First of all - they won a trip to Cancun so that is pretty cool. But, the race sounded awesome. Sign-ups have already started for next year. Kenyon wants to sign-up tonight. I am a little nervous - May doesn't prove to be our best month but things should be different next year - right? Anyway, if you like the Amazing Race or anything about Utah County - check it out!

In fact - I think we could create a couple good extended family Porter teams (Dayna, Annie, Lynsie, Angie....). We could have some serious competition.

Jealousy!

My nephew's wife, Dayna, posted these cute pictures of Teague on her blog. How fun to be in Fiji. We are all a little jealous. Can't wait to see more pictures and hear all the details. Seriously - don't you love that dimple. As painful as it was to get that, we are sure glad he has it. Such a happy kid - and cute cousin too!

Snowshoeing to Stewart Falls

On President's Day, Kenyon and I thought it would be a fun adventure to take the kids snowshoeing to Stewart Falls. They have hiked this trail so we were pretty confident they could do it on snowshoes. It was a gorgeous day.

I think we kind of forgot that snowshoeing is actually quite hard work. It took a lot of encouragement to get child #1 to make it. The other two really were pretty good little hikers but still a few complaints about the length.

The great part about it - even though it wasn't tons of fun due to the excessive whining and complaining - was that it was a great lesson in doing hard things and reaching your goal. Child #1 would have turned back at any time and quit. He was sure that he would not be disappointed if he never got to the waterfall. But I felt very strongly that he should make it all the way to the waterfall. We made it. And then going back wasn't so bad and everyone was quite happy by the time we made it to the Sundance Lodge and had hot chocolate, cookies and yummy suckers.

The sad thing is that my battery died and I have no pictures to document the event. I want the kids to be able to do hard things and feel good about their accomplishments. We'll have to keep coming up with activities like that (that is if Kenyon and I have the patience to endure the whining).