Crawling AND Standing!

Gosh, I haven't even posted anything about Christmas and I have cute pics of Clark eating his first finger foods, but I have to make a quick post because not only did Clark start crawling this week, but he also just stood up for the first time. Crazy! Here's a quick pic and a video. Enjoy!

Clark's first Thanksgiving (in Seattle!)

Gosh, I actually wrote this post before Christmas, but never got around to publishing it. Oops. Oh well, here's our Thanksgiving post. I promise I'll post something about Christmas before Easter!

We've now lived in Oregon almost 2.5 years and haven't ventured out of Oregon to the rest of the Pacific Northwest. We decided that this Thanksgiving was the perfect time to take a quick trip up to Seattle. We left Thanksgiving morning and spent most of the day traveling, sitting in Seattle holiday traffic, and checking in to our hotel in downtown. Since it was Thanksgiving and Clark's first one, we knew we wanted to go out to dinner. However, nothing was open! I had figured out earlier that most of the restaurants that were open were either serving fancy Thanksgiving dinners or Chinese. Chinese, here we come! We headed down to the International District to Ho Ho Seafood Restaurant (which we thought seemed a bit more Christmas-y!). It was delicious! Ben and I had the Peking duck and honeyed walnut prawns. So good! As you can see, Clark had a soup spoon for his first Turkey Day!

The next day we hung around the northern part of downtown, so we were able to walk everywhere. We first found Top Pot Donuts for a little breakfast. After finding out there was a pumpkin old fashioned donut, I was a happy girl! We then walked down to the waterfront to the Olympic Sculpture Park. This day happened to be bright and sunny, so the view from the park was amazing. We could even see the Coastal Range all the way up to Canada. After the Sculpture Park, we headed over to the Seattle Center and the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. I had fun, but Ben's mind was blown! Both parts of the museum had awesome exhibits. I think Ben particularly enjoyed the Jimi Hendrix one and the science fiction one with all of the movie stuff in it (i.e. a storm trooper from Star Wars, the captain's chair from Star Trek, and all the weapons from different movies). We decided to stop for a snack when we left the museum, so we walked over the International Fountain in the Seattle Center. This fountain is huge! It shoots water at least 40 feet into the air and the whole thing was set to Christmas music. The best part was watching little kids and even big kids run up to the fountain when the water would go down and then run screaming when it all came back on again!

After that we went back to the hotel to rest and feed Clark. That evening, though, was my favorite part of the whole trip. We barely made it downtown and barely found a parking spot, but we did! We made it over to the Macy's (along with thousands and thousands of people) to watch them light the Christmas tree. It was great! They did a whole count-down and then there were fireworks afterwards. I loved it! We then fought the crowds and made it to our restaurant for dinner. We had some yummy sushi at a table in the corner where Clark was able to stretch his legs and play on the floor. As always, Clark charmed the ladies and our server loved him!

The next day we drove down to Pike's Place. After paying and arm and a leg for over-priced parking, we wandered through the market. We feel a little spoiled because the market was a lot like our own Saturday Market (arts and crafts) and the Portland State University farmer's market. It was fun to see Pike's Place and take a picture with Santa, but I think next time we'll see some other stuff in and around Seattle. We took the rest of the afternoon to drive around downtown. We did stop at the library to take a look at the new building. It was amazing! It's all made of metal and glass and is totally open on the inside. That afternoon we went back to the hotel again to rest and take care of Clark. Then for dinner we went to a pub in downtown for some fish 'n chips.

On our last day we were pretty ready to go home, so we just checked-out and drove through the Queen Anne neighborhood before heading home. The Queen Anne area is north of downtown on a hill and is named so because of the style of the houses. Wow! There were some beautiful homes and some expensive ones. Rightly so because many of them had a view of downtown and of the Puget Sound!

We had a great trip and loved having Clark with us. He is so easy-going and did great while we were out-and-about. We love our little boy and look forward to lots more Thanksgivings with him!

All I want for Christmas are my two (bottom) front teeth!

Clark's got teeth! Which, I guess, makes the title of this post make no sense. Oh well!

I tried to get a picture of said teeth, but realized that when he smiles you can't see them. So here's a pic of his teeth while he's not smiling - two on the bottom and one more coming in on the left (your left) side. I also added one of the smiling pics since it's just too cute!

If you click on it, you can view this much larger for a close-up of those pearly whites!

Hey, party people!

Fog!

Why, hello, Mt. Hood. Lovely to see you today.

Taken from our office by my co-worker, Emily, this morning. You have to click on it - it's awesome.

A boy and his ball

Clark and his first ball. This is really for the grandparents since they'll watch anything with Clark in it, but enjoy!

Auntie Mimi & Uncle Chris!

I'm so excited that the newlyweds, Amelia and Chris, were able to fly up here this past weekend and hang out with us! We packed the weekend with tons of activities and had so much fun together. Clark loved seeing his Aunt and Uncle again!

We picked them up from the airport on Saturday morning, stuck Clark in his monkey costume, and headed to the Portland State Farmer's Market to check out all the yummy goodness. After Chris gobbled up the red pepper jelly, we picked up a few items and then headed out to the Stash Tea store in Tigard so Amelia and Chris could restock their tea collection. That night Amelia and I tried our best to make pumpkin, shallot, and sage pasta - peeling and cubing a pumpkin is hard work!

The next day we all headed out to Multnomah Falls, Hood River, and the Fruit Loop. Funny, the only fruit we partook of was grapes! We managed to visit five beautiful wineries - sharing tastings, of course, otherwise Clark was going to drive home! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! Clear blue skies, pretty leaves, and good company. We then went back to Hood River to Full Sail brewery for a tour and a tasting. Amelia and I couldn't resist the baked brie with preserves and a baguette. Oh, so good! We tried to go to dinner that night, but Clark decided it was time to go home and relax. That was fine with us! So after some Chipotle, we just hung out and watched our favorite movie, Just Friends.

Monday I had to go to work, so I brought Amelia and Chris with me. They hung out in downtown visiting Powell's and trying some of the food carts. That evening we went to McMenamins (of course!) and enjoyed our last meal together.

Thanks for coming up here, guys. We love you and miss you already!

Me and my little monkey!

 

 Multnomah Falls

 

Hanging out on the patio at one of the wineries.

 

 

Mt. Hood Winery

 

Dinner at McMenamins.

Another Strange Porter Tradition

Ben and Clark love to goof around.  Daddy loves to make him laugh and tickle him as much as possible.  And last night, Ben shared an old Porter tradition with Clark.  I guess the Porter kids used to enjoy running around the house with shirts on their heads. So here is the first of many times Clark will wear his shirt on his head.

Having fun playing on his blanket.

 

 Looking good with mommy.

Silly Boys!

 

  All hail the Great Sultan, Clark Alden Porter!

Up, Up and Away

Clark seems to have flown through the first six months of his life and just in the last few weeks has shown us that he is ready to keep on growing.  He started sitting up and holding toys in both hands after picking them up off the ground.  He is super talkative and chatters like a monkey all day long.  He even started eating solids today, which was followed up by his first big boy bath.  We just can't believe how awesome he is and how much he has grown over the last half year.

All smiles for his first meal.

 First Bite! Yum!

As you can see, he loved his food...and loved showing it to us as well.

No! It's my spoon! You can't have it!

The Big Boy Bath

Our son, the frog-butt boy!

Tons of fun in the tub.

Our baby is 6 months old!

Love you, Clark!


(More pictures from the pumpkin patch soon...)

Sitting!

Look what our little boy can do!

Leaps Tall Buildings in a Single Bound

Clark has learned to jump. Although he doesn't have much control and flails around like a crazy person, he loves having tiny jumping sessions where he goes nuts. See for yourself.

Just Like All the Other Boys

Boys love controlling the channel changer. There is something about having the power that we all love. But the one thing that none of us knew was that it is deep inside our genes that this desire for the remote comes from. Just see for yourself.

Catching Up: Part 2, Grandparents

As promised, here's our second catching-up post from the summer. About two weeks after we returned from California, my (Alli) parents came up to Oregon. Seems like the can't get enough Clark time. Weird. :-) Then a week later Bruce and Janice came out to meet Clark and spend some quality time with him also.

We had a great time with my parents, but they came up here during a record heat wave. Not too unbearable for people who live in the Central Valley, but we're on the third story and don't have air conditioning! We basically spent the whole time just trying to stay cool! We did manage to have a fantastic southern brunch at Screen Door complete with praline bacon and a huge pile of fried chicken and waffles. After that mom and I dropped off the boys at the Oregon Brew Fest and headed out to the Fabric Depot - quite possibly the most fabric I have ever seen in one place! We also visited with Uncle John and Aunt Alexis and enjoyed their a/c and a little Bachelorette. The rest of the week was just spent hanging out and spending time together. Their last day here we spent most of it in Starbucks before a trip to Costco to pick up an air conditioner. We loved having them here and hope the heat didn't scare them away!

Screen Door

Whoa.

The boys at the Oregon Brew Fest.

Being silly with Hillary's (my cousin) hair. He looks like Side Show Bob - ha!

The next week Bruce and Janice flew in from Kansas to meet Clark. It was so great to have them here and the weather was much better! We did tons of stuff with them around town and Clark was a total trooper. We visited the Rhododendron Garden, the Portland Zoo (where we got to meet Mark Sheppard), watched Coraline at one of the Portland city parks, and hung out downtown. Whew! We packed it in! It was such a great time. The garden was beautiful and so was the lighting so we got lots of great pics that day. The zoo was also fabulous; meeting Mark Sheppard was awesome and feeding the lorikeets was definitely a highlight! Mostly we were just glad to have them here and so thankful that they could spend lots of time with Clark.

The Rhododendron Garden

The Rhododendron Garden

Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Janice

Our little family!

Clark's got his monster feet on and is ready for the zoo!

This guy is HUGE!

Bruce got some amazing shots that day!

We all got to feed the lorikeets.

Watching Coraline in 3-D at the park.

Clark is so blessed to have the best grandparents!

Catching Up: Part 1, California

Holy smokes! Where did the summer go? We have barely posted since we got back from California, so here's the first of many catching-up posts!

We went to California at the end of June/beginning of July for my sister's wedding. Amelia and Chris were married on the Fourth of July and we couldn't be any happier! Ben and I love Amelia and Chris is a great addition to our family. The only drawback is that now the "balance of power" in my family resides on the male side. It used to be my mom, my sister, and I with just my dad representing the men - we even had a female cat and dog growing up! Ben came into the family 9 years ago now, but that wasn't enough to upset the balance. Now with Clark and Chris, us women are outnumbered! But I digress...

The trip to California was a big one! We were gone for over two weeks, in the car, with a newborn! Clark did great. He zonked out every time the car was moving. Except for stopping every 3 hours for 30 minutes to feed him, the drive was pretty easy. It was a very exciting trip for all of us, but especially Clark. With Ben's extended family mostly in and around Visalia and most of my extended family coming in for the wedding, Clark pretty much met everyone there is to meet - including all of our Visalia/Fresno friends. One goal of ours was to make sure that Clark met all of his great-grandparents. Mission accomplished! With a few special stops in California, Clark met them all.

Some highlights of the trip in no particular order:

• staying with Josh and Steph
  
• getting to visit with our old small group
  
• meeting the band guys and a few other friends at Edo-Ya
  
• the bachelorette party (sans Clark, thanks Ben!!)
  
• hanging with Jamie, Randy, and the kids
  
• going to Bakersfield to see Jenny, Phil, Ryan, and meet Jack
  
• the wedding (!!!)
  
• BBQ with the Porter side of the family
  
• tacos and donuts with Scott and Dave at Tacos de Tijuana and Foster's
  
• visiting all of the great-grandparents (with stops in Santa Rosa and Yreka)
  
• spending lots of time with my parents (first-time grandparents)
  
• our anniversary dinner at Henry Salazar's (thanks, mom and dad, for watching Clark)

Whew! We had the best time down there, but were glad to get home and put Clark back in his own bed.

Here are some pics of the trip. More posts to follow as we get caught up!

(Okay...so...I went to insert some pictures into this post and I picked out 41! There are too many good pictures! I had to create a slide show, so please click on the slide show and check out all the pictures!)

Alli's Birthday

On Monday, we got some friends together to celebrate Alli's birthday. It was lots of fun to celebrate another year with Alli and even more fun now that we have a son to celebrate mom's birthday with. We had a blast!

Beth, Alli and Clark

Sean, Susan, Clint and Nicole

Zack (who loved playing with Autumn's toys more than the baby toys) and Stephanie

Jake and Mackenzie

Mark, Zack and Stephanie

Ben and Travis

Clark really loves the new Bumbo he got over the weekend.

Clint also loved wearing it as a barbarian helmet.

The boys, Jake and Clark!