Sky Diving

On Friday October 21, 2011 I got to mark Sky Diving off my bucket list. I have wanted to do this for a long time.


After signing away my life and all the rights of me, and my dependents on a 4 page long waiver, I got strapped into the harness by my instructor. I shrunk at least 2 inches it was so tight.


Waiting with the girls until it was time to go. (Mariah is the one taking all the pictures)One last picture with the family before I climbed in the plane. Andrew didn't want in the picture, but I caught him before he ran off :)The plane fit 5 of us: the pilot, 2 instructors and 2 students. Here I am on the ride up to 10,000 feet. It took about 20 minutes to get the right altitude. I loved the ride. It reminded me of riding in my Dad's plane when I was litte. Good memories!

Getting out of the plane was the hardest part. I was not scared at all. The wind was so strong that I had a hard time lifting my legs out.

As soon as my legs were out the instructor says go and off we went! It happened so fast there was no time to think.

And then we were free falling. I was surprised at the wind force. As we were falling the wind force was about 130 mph. It was a little hard to breath. They told me before the jump that if I had a hard time breathing to yell as that helps to get the air out. So that is what I am doing in most of the free falling pictures.

I think this is my favorite picture from the free fall. I was loving it.

After 30 seconds of free fall the shute went up. It felt as though we were being pulled to a complete stop and then slowly we began to glide in circles back towards the airport.

Taking hold of the parachute. I got to steer for a little bit.

Floating down. What a view of Moab, Arches National Park, and Canyonland. It was beautiful.

Getting ready to land.

After a safe landing (on my butt!) it was great to see the kids run out to see me. What an awesome welcome back. I was relieved to land and only ended up with one bruise, a rather large one on my leg. I can't wait to go again! Who's going with me?

Here is the video of the jump if you want to see it. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fw8Cr454nAg

Grandma Porter

Grandma came to visit for the week. I did not take nearly enough pictures. Luckily I remembered as she was leaving to snap a few of her and the kids. I am so grateful for such an amazing Mother-in-Law. She is sweet, supportive, and loves her family.

Carving Pumpkins

After picking up our pumpkins we came back to our house for dinner of homemade potato soup and rolls. Then the kids each carved their pumpkins.

They turned out pretty good! My job was cleaning out the pumpkin guts so I could cook the seeds. Its a messy job, but someone has to do it!

Alyssa, Andrew and Caitlyn get started on their pumpkins.

Grandma helped Parker with his pumpkin.

Uncle Dan worked with William. Then he ended up carving faces in Cailtyn and Andrews pumpkins. He has the skills!

Carving pumpkins is so much fun to do as a big family event. I am grateful to have so much family around.

Pumpkins

October 8, 2011
Aarons Mom has been in town for the week. We took advantage of this great weather to go the pumpkin patch with the kids. We went to the Red Barn so we could get some of their amazing apple donuts. YUM!

The kids had fun choosing the perfect pumpkin. Our only rule is that you have to be able to carry the pumpkin.

Ice Skating

September 23, 2011
My sister and I took our kids ice skating. Most of the kids had not been before, the rest had only skated 1 or 2 times. We went at the perfect time as there were only about 20 other people on the rink. That is great for beginners.
Here is my crew at the end, plus an extra friend.
Parker only skated for about 30 seconds. He did not like the lack of control. He spend the rest of the time walking from the entrance to the benches to the time out section.

Mariah did great. She got right out and was able to skate.

Caitlyn did not enjoy skating as much as everyone else. She mostly hung by the edge. We got her to use one of the walkers for while so she could out by everyone else. I think she sort of enjoyed herself by the end.

Alyssa is just being silly here. She skates great and had a good time with her cousins and her friend who came with us.

These walkers make skating a lot of fun for kids Andrews age. He had a blast going around and around.

I did pretty well myself. I did not need the edge or any assistance. I got to where I felt confident enough to try some tricks. I could turn in circles fairly well. My sister tried to teach me to skate backwards. This is where I came into some trouble. As I was trying to go backward I did a combination splits and leg turn and fell. On my way down my legs flew above my head and I landed pretty hard on the ice. My toe pick hit my niece on the way down and scratched her up pretty good. I landed on my arm, which started to swell. I was in a lot of pain, but didn't want to scare my niece so I got back out on the ice for another 20 minutes. Then we took the family to dinner. At dinner I was in a lot pain. We ended up going to urgent care. Good news! It was not fractured but the bone was bruised. My arm was a nasty shade of green from my wrist to halfway up my upper arm for over a week. I am still in some pain, but it is healing.

I guess I am too old to learn new tricks!

County Fair August 2011

At Claytons invite we went with the family to the Utah County Fair. I thought Sacramento county fairs were small, but this has it beat. It was small. We walked through the entire thing in about 20 minutes.
Parker enjoyed the taxidermy display and wanted a picture with this guy.
Then each of the kids got to go on one ride. Taitt and Parker went on the motorcycles. Notice the huge crowd! I think most of the kids went on the rides by themselves.

Caitlyn used the last of our tickets to try her hand at rock climbing. She made it to the top without trouble. After she got down she asked me why I made her go since she was afraid of hights. I had no idea she was!