Our Summer In Pictures

This summer was crazy awesome and there's just too much to blog about, so here's a million pictures to show you what we did and who we did it with.

Mmm, elephant ear at the zoo with the Ogdens.

Cutie-patootie.

Loved the goats in the petting zoo.

In the tub with Jack and Ryan! (I'm sure they'll appreciate this in about 13 years.)

Fun times with the Ogdens!

Happy 7 years! Nothing says 'happy anniversary' like sushi, sake martinis, and Toy Story 3.

Happy 4th of July, Clint and Marla!

Happy 4th of July, Sean, Susan, and Jake!

Reading with Grandpa Bruce.

Mmm, thanks for the ice cream, Grandma Janice! Straight from the factory in Tillamook.

Great times with Grandma and Grandpa Porter!

Faster Grandpa Paul, faster!

Reading with Grandma Julia.

Serious business with bro-in-law, Chris.

Aunts and cousins at the Pittock Mansion.

The whole Abraham family! Welcome to the club, Daniel!

50 is the new 40! Aunt Cindy, Uncle T, and Uncle Phil at the McMenamin's Cornelius Pass pub.

Happy birthday to me! Rummy with my whole family and Papa Haydn's for dessert - perfect!

Playing cards with all my favorite people!

Ben and Clark with cousins Audrey, Isaac, and Violet at the splash park.

This kid loves water!

Seriously loves it!

Serious yumminess with Camp 18 cinnamon rolls as big as your head.

The great sand fiasco of 2010. Clark loves the sand going in, but not going out!

Whole Mack family (Ben's sis) at Silver Falls State Park.

Quite the bunch!

My good friend Stephanie came up from Fresno for a long weekend! We shopped till we dropped, ate yummy food, drank bubbly wine, and watched Dirty Dancing (the movie!) at the Bagdhad (on 35 mm film, no less). This pic pretty much sums up our whole weekend!

Ended the summer with camping at Fort Stevens State Park with the Cibolski's. I love this 'raspberry' action shot.

Three hour bike ride around the park, to the ocean, and through the old battlements. Clark was a trooper!

Pit stop.

Clark decided to rearrange the rocks while we cleaned up camp. What a good boy!

Whew! The Porter B&B is closed for the season and normal posts should return soon. Thanks everyone for the best summer!

All the Kids!

We finally finished our month long run of family visits. It has been great to see all of you. We'll post more pics in a while. But for now, here is a pic of all the kids at the zoo.

Some Catching Up

I realized that I haven't posted in a while and THEN I realized that I never even posted Clark's baby dedication photos. That pretty much convinced me that it was time to work on a blog post.

Clark was dedicated at church on February 14th (Valentine's Day!). Lots of our friends were in the service and Uncle John and Aunt Alexis came, too. During the dedication, Ben and I dedicated Clark to God and made a promise to raise him in a loving, Christian home. After the service, we all headed over to the Cornelius Pass McMenamin's for lunch.

All of us on stage with Pastor Ron.

Uncle John and Aunt Alexis at church with Clark.

Since Clark turned one in April, I wanted to take some kind of picture to show how he changes from year to year. My mom always took a picture of me in the same bathing suit every year. When I was little it just sort of hung there and was kind of cute, but as I got older (read: teenager) I was horrified each year that I had to put on this bathing suit. I decided to pick something a little easier for Clark. A men's t-shirt. It's huge and funny and has a Superman logo - SO cheesy, I know. That will probably be the thing that he complains about as I force teenage Clark to do this. However, in the end I will get 18 pictures showing how Clark has changed over the years. The other thing that I hope changes...having a kid that will sit still for a picture! I really wanted the picture outside, but Clark was going crazy and wanted to eat all of the grass, leaves, bark, etc. In the end, I think I got one or two that will work.

I know - we can't help it. :-)

Right after we took this picture, we took Clark to get his first haircut. Oh my goodness, he looked like Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) from Dumb and Dumber (and kind of looked like Harry before the cut!). The woman (girl) just cut around Clark's hairline in one foul swoop. Ridiculous! It was so uneven and not blended at all! The only good thing was that Clark LOVED, I repeat LOVED, being in the little car chair. He was bouncing up and down and spinning the wheel! We may need to take this kid to an amusement park someday. Anyway, we paid as fast as we could (bummer), and got out of there! When we got home, we put Clark in his high chair and gave him a bottle while Ben went to work fixing his hair. It's not perfect, but it's so much better and makes him look like a little boy!

Before, with wings and curls.

Why don't I have one of these at home?!?!?

After. You can't really tell in this picture, but TRUST ME, it was bad.

After, after (thanks, daddy!).

Later that week we tried putting Clark in the soft carrier on our backs on a walk through Noble Fir Park. He absolutely loves it and was being so goofy!

Trying to take a nice photo, but...this is the Tommy Boy face. (I'm so excited! I've managed to reference two of my most favorite movies EVER in one post!)

Happy birth day, baby!

Happy first birthday, Clark!

We love this picture - he looks so posed!

Wow, what a year! I can't believe that Clark will be one this week. I'm sure all moms say this, but it's true! Someone asked me if I was ok with Clark turning one and I told her I didn't even think about not being ok with it. We love Clark so much and even though he keeps changing, we love each new phase. I'm just so excited to see what this next year brings with Clark that I'm not really that sad about being done with this first year.

So, without further ado (and more of my ramblings), here's some pics of the big day!

Big boy birthday dinner - hamburger, cheese, and pineapple!

Before the cake was destroyed...

Oh, my goodness. Cake is good. (Check out the video in the last post below. Priceless.)

Hanging with Amelia.

Books!

He seems pleased. Such a funny face! Thanks for the pj's!

Taken at the park today. Happy birthday, baby!