Fall Break at the Cabin

This week for the kids Fall break most of us spent the week at the cabin, returning this evening.  All of came up together on Friday (9/28) as a family, then the girls went home on Monday (mostly because Kami had work and school).  It was a nice relaxing time for the most part.  Saturday several of us explored the rim and nearby lakes.  On Sunday we went to the Heber 3rd ward Sacrament mtg, then drove to the Snow Flake temple to walk around.  The rest of the week I worked everyday while the boys did a little work around the cabin for Grandma Severtson.  After I finished work for the day, we would do little fun activities like playing the ping pong paddle game (not sure what it was called), we went one night to the dollar store (fun, fun) and the other afternoons we visited a couple of the lakes for some fishing...we didn't catch anything and this boys kept saying how we need Grandpa Porter to come show them how to Fish better!  :-)  Even though I had to work, it was still a nice time, nice weather and nice to get to spend the week with Grandma.  Thanks Mom & Dad!

Caleb & Jonah Quarterly Awards Ceremony

Yesterday and today was Jonah & Caleb's school awards assemblies.  Both of them received awards this quarter for their grades and perfect attendance.  Jonah did awesome getting straight A's, so he made the Principal's list.  Caleb did very well too making the Honor Roll. Both of them are doing great in school!  Way to go guys...keep it up!

Happy 17th Birthday Porter!!

Another year come and gone, and here it is Porter's birthday again.  Big #17...only two more years and we'll be sending him off on his mission! I can't believe its been 17 years since Cindy and I at 4am in the morning, welcomed him into the world.  We knew he would be a wonderful young man...and sure enough that's exactly how he turned out.  Who would have guessed what he would become 10 years ago when some of the pictures below were taken?  :-)  But I'm sure proud of who he is and I know Cindy is shining with pride in him as well.  Porter couldn't think of anything he really wanted for his birthday, other than saving his money for the new Apple iPod.  So a big thanks to Lexine's creativity...she tied money to some of his favorite candies, then wrapped them up as his presents. After it was time to cut into the cake and sing Happy Birthday! In addition to his small family birthday party, we also took Porter to Texas Roadhouse where he chose to go to dinner...and we enjoyed a nice dinner with him there.  Happy Birthday Porter...you're doing great! I sure do love you...

Kami Update...

It seems like its been a little while since I posted anything about Kami, so I thought its about time to provide an update on how she's doing.  As you probably expected, she's doing great, always happy, helpful and excited to do anything.  She's not dating anyone steady right now, but occasionally she goes out on dates with guys (return missionaries - yikes) that she meets at institute.  She decided to take a break from the Single's Ward scene and come back to our family ward, so we love having her back sitting with us at Church.  The ward has already put her to great use as the primary pianist, which she loves.

Kami works all the time and is making some good money.  She's working to payoff her car and considering if she should buy a home and rent out rooms to friends. In between all her work, she still manages to find time to do great in School.  ASU recently sent her the post card below because academically she's doing outstanding...she's already a semester ahead with plans to graduate in December 2014.  She's also talked recently about the possibility of serving a mission as soon as she finishes her degree which would be one semester after she turns 21 (and if of course she's not married).  :-)

Other than that, she's just the same ol' Kami...a pleasure to have around the house and setting a great example for the rest of the family!  You're awesome Kambo...I sure do love you!

Caleb Starts Wrestling!

Caleb is our kid who is excited and enthusiastic about trying just about anything.  Even if he's never done it before, he'll give it a try, then keep working at it until he master's it.  Cindy always loved that about him and enjoyed watching him run up and down our backyard kicking goals as he practiced soccer.  This year Caleb decided to try out a new sport...Wrestling.  Every Tuesday & Thursday he's bused over to Newel Barney Jr. High school to practice wrestling with kids up thru 8th grade. Today was his 2nd time getting to go and he's giving it his all develop his wrestling skills.  I got to the school to pick him up a little early, so I got some good footage of him practicing that he and I put into this video trailer below.  I'm proud of you Caleb!  I hope you always have this great enthusiastic attitude of trying new things!

Maizey's QCHS Badminton Match

Today was Maizey's Badminton match. She did really good as you can see from the photos, but they hardly do justice compared to the video clip below. :-)  Maizey has gotten quite good at badminton now and really enjoys it -- calling it her new life!  We're so glad Maizey's found something she loves to do and are proud of how hard she is working at it!  Way to go Maizey!!

Porter Ranked #10 at Queen Creek High School!

Porter doesn't mention much of anything, let alone any of his accomplishments.  But every once in a while I get something out of him.  Today was one of those days.  I asked him how school was going and he said, "Oh dad, I forgot to tell you...last week I got called into the office and told that I am currently ranked #10 in my graduating class".  Wow...that's great Porter!  Way to go!  You're headed in the right direction for a great scholarship!  I'm sure proud of you and your accomplishments!!

Toby & Lexine's Bahamas Cruise & Harry Potter Land

What a wonderful vacation Lexine and I took on a Bahamas Cruise and Universal Studios (Harry Potter Land).  The best vacations are when you can completely relax from all the day-to-day craziness...and that I did!  We left on Sunday (9/16) around 2PM on our first flight to Houston, Texas, then caught a connecting flight to Orlando.  Surprisingly we discovered we were upgraded to first class for this second leg of the flights...which was extra nice since that was the first time Lexine flew first class.  After arriving in Orlando, we located our rental car company which was a fiasco since we booked a car online for ~$100 for the week, but when we got there it turned out to be $300 and they wouldn't honor the internet booking -- never use Payless Car Rental!  But we didn't let that bother us too much...  It was 11:30pm, so we then drove from Orlando to Cape Canaveral where our hotel was located that night.

Monday morning we got up at 8:30am (5:30 phx time), had a hotel breakfast then caught our shuttle to the cruise liner.  No problems checking in this time like we had when we took all the kids and I forgot Garrett's birth certificate!  :-)  We spent the rest of the day relaxing, dining in style, and exploring the ship.

Tuesday we got up and caught an excursion to Coco Cay Island -- a private island owned by Royal Caribbean.  There we snorkeled, got some sun, shopped and again just relaxed.  Although the island was nice, there we learned that the Bahamas were more like Mexico than they were Hawaii.  I don't know why I always had the impression they were like Hawaii, but now I know they aren't...  :-)

Wednesday we arrived at Nassau, Bahamas.  There we did some shopping in the crowded, overpriced stores.  Believe it or not we didn't find a single thing that we wanted to buy as a souvenir.  So we headed over to the Atlantis resort and beach to do some more snorkeling.  There the waves are fairly large and the water was too rough to do much in, so we cooled off in it for a bit, then walked around the resort before heading back to the ship.  That evening, we spent on the ship watching a storm roll in, enjoying some fine dining and watched a couple of the shows on board. I love standing at the front of the ship in the dark of night with the wind blowing in your face and no land in sight...

Thursday was an entire day at sea.  This was the most relaxing day of all for me.  We slept in, then went on the deck to get some sun and read.  I enjoyed some time in the scriptures and reading patriarchal blessings while Lexine also read and worked on her tan.  Later we took a nap, then had a nice dinner, and more on board shows.

Friday we had to rise early to disembark from the ship.  We got off much faster than we expected -- guess we were still thinking about how long it took the last time with 10 of us.  :-)  Before we knew it we were back in our rental car and on the road to Orlando and Universal Studios.  It worked out nice because we were able to check into our hotel early and catch a cab over to the amusement parks.  There we waited in the longest line of all -- the line to buy tickets to get in.  It took us almost 45 minutes to get thru it -- which I wasn't happy when I found out it was taking so long because they were trying to up-sell each customer.  I thought that was a fore-shadowing of lines to come, but actually the park was quite empty...only taking a few minutes to get on each ride.  The first ride we came to was the Hulk roller-coaster, which was a blast, but my strangely my stomach started to feel a little funny -- I must be getting old, it never has done that on roller-coasters before!  Next was Spiderman -- another fast, up and down ride...and yes, my stomach was even more sick.  Finally we made it to Harry Potter World -- Lexine's heaven.  We rode the ride there and that about pushed my stomach over the edge for the rest of the day. But we managed to go on a few more rides and attractions, as well as stop at the Three Broomsticks for some lunch and Butter Beer (non-alcoholic like root beer). To my surprise it wasn't bad at all -- like cream soda with more of a butterscotch caramel taste to it.  Finally Lexine talked me into going on the BIG Harry Potter roller-coaster...and I reluctantly agreed.  As we took the short walk over to it, we noticed some storm clouds in the distance.  There was no line, but by the time we walked to where we board the ride, they closed it due to lightning and stormy weather.  Whew...saved by the storm!  :-)  We ended up back in the Three Broomsticks to have another butter beer as we tried to wait out the storm.  But it was still raining pretty hard as the park closed, so we got soaked walking out to our shuttle bus back to the hotel -- I actually thought that was the nicest part of the day since it had been so hot earlier.  We enjoyed the fine dining of Wendy's for dinner.  :-)

Saturday morning we got up early, had our hotel breakfast, then checked-out to try to hit a temple session before heading to the airport.  My phone GPS took us to downtown Orlando on Church Street -- no LDS temple to be found anywhere.  :-)  So we tried Lexine's phone GPS which headed us in the right direction.  We no longer had time to do a session, so we decided to do sealings since they would take less time.  That was a wonderful experience in itself...we had a great time just meeting the temple patrons and others there visiting the temple that day.  The other couple doing sealings with us had just celebrated their 2nd anniversary...  So we introduced ourselves as just about to celebrate our 2nd anniversary, but would they believe that we already have 8 kids, neither of us divorces, nor are we sealed to each other -- then asked if they could figure out how we were able to be here in the temple?  They didn't figure it out and the sealer said "I can seal you".  We said, "No, you actually can't".  He gave us a confused look, so we told him "we've both already been sealed to someone".  He caught on real fast then...apparently he lost his wife not long ago as well, but they thought our story was so cool, we even heard them telling some of the others about us as we were leaving.  :-)  We took a few picture around the temple grounds, then stopped for a quick lunch at Five Guys, dropped off the car at my favorite rental car place <sarcasm>, then took the shuttle to the airport.  At the airport we were surprised to find we had been upgraded to first class on our first leg home -- and actually ended up being upgraded for both legs even though they told us that would not happen.  The flight home was uneventful, other then being stuff from the first class meals each leg, but we managed survive.  Dad picked us up at the airport (thanks Dad!!) then drove back home by 8pm to receive a nice welcome home from kids who were glad to see us, and us them. It's been a long time since we've had such a nice trip!

"War of 1812", Porter Style!

Want to learn about the war of 1812?  Porter and his friend partnered together with his video editing skills to put together this school project about the War of 1812.  They had been working on it for over a week.  Porter said they finally finished the video at 11:30pm the evening before it was due, then he stayed up until 1:30am completed the written portion of the assignment.  We were on our cruise and had no idea all the work he put into it, but I was quite impressed when I saw it, so figured it was blog worthy...enjoy!  Great job Porter...you are such a talented young man!  I'm sure proud to be your dad...

Caleb & Jonah's 2nd Soccer Game

Caleb & Jonah came home a little disappointed today -- some of the wind let out of their sales after losing to the Green team made up of several girls.  They started out strong with an amazing goal scoring corner kick from Caleb which turned out to be the only goal they scored the entire game.  But they played like champs and were great sports.  No fussing or carrying-on about it...they just talked about what they needed to do better and to practice for the next time they play Green.  Way to give it your BEST guys!!

Video Camera Fun

I've been wanting to get a High-Def video camera for years.  Even Cindy told me about year before she died, "stop researching them and just go get one!".  Well, I finally broke down and did so using a credit card promotion that gave me $300 for free once I spent $500 on it -- which is extremely easy to do with a family of 10.  So I bought it just in time for all the sports and school events to begin...and all ready its getting a lot of use as I'm sure you can tell from the latest blog postings.  This morning Jonah and Caleb  wanted to make their own videos, so I caught a little big of footage of them doing various things and then turned them into these fun video trailers.  Just enjoying some Saturday morning fun with the boys! :-)

Bentley - Master Centurion Scriptorian!

Congratulations to Bentley...who earned the Master Centurion status in Seminary today!  Last year Bentley beat Porter earning it, so she was probably just being nice letting him get it one day before her.  :-)  This is a great accomplishment...one that is not easy and requires lots of memorizing and learning the scriptures.  Now there are 3 total seminary students who have completed it..and all 3 are from our ward (2 from our family)!  Great job Bentley...there's not a better way to leave your legacy as a Senior at Queen Creek High School seminary!  We sure are proud of you for accomplishing hard things!

Caleb & Jonah's Soccer Practice

The boys are really into Soccer now and enjoying that its indoors.  Its a pretty nice field and not as hot as outdoors.  They look forward to Thursday nights when they have their practices and as you can see from the video clips below, they have a lot of fun with it!  Great job guys...keep practicing and you guys will be awesome!

Garrett's QCHS Swim Meet

Garrett had another swim meet today...he did great!  He swam both the 50M and 100M Mens Freestyle races and got 3rd in one and 2nd in the other.  He's really improved as he's had daily practices.  He seems to be doing great.  Always happy and carefree...always doing what he's supposed to.  I'm sure proud of him.  You can view his races below as well as a fun video we did with the clips from today's meet.  Great job little buddy!

Porter - Master Centurion Scriptorian!

Congratulations to Porter...he did it again!  Today he earned his Master Centurion status in Seminary for the 3rd year in a row.  This is a test of four years of seminary mastery scriptures...for accomplishing it, they get their name on a plaque.  His goal was to be the first person to pass it off this for this school year, but he was beat by his good friend Cal who is also in the ward...but he's good with the #2 position.  Good job Porter!  I'm proud of the great things accomplish!

NBJH Buccaneers vs Payne Panthers

Today was the big game Noah's been waiting for...the day Newell Barney Junior High plays Payne Junior High Panthers in Flag Football.  Newell Barney has been undefeated, but so has Payne.  Until today.  We won...barely...in overtime by scoring just a few more yards than they did.  It was an intense game, but landed them a spot in the playoffs next week.  Good luck next week Noah!

Noah "Brace Face" Clark!

Noah is the latest addition to the braces club in our family...at the moment we have Garrett, Maizey and now Noah in braces.  Caleb will be following in just a few months the Orthodontist says...more $$$!  :-)  Lexine pulled Noah out of school for a couple hours today to get them put on...then treated him to McDonald's for lunch before heading back to school.  Noah went with pink rubber-bands (that you can't see very well) in honor of Cindy & breast cancer awareness month in October.  He looks good in braces...at least he didn't have to have head-gear like I did!  :-)  Guess you'll have to watch for the follow-up post in about two years when he gets them off...

Quick California Weekend!

Talk about a short California trip...this weekend was the wedding of Kayla Clark (cousin) in the San Diego temple, but with so many things going on, we decided that just Lexine and I would go with Bentley and Maizey.  We got up early Saturday morning and were on the road by 6:45, arriving in San Diego at almost 1PM for the 3:00 wedding ceremony.  So we burned an hour going to lunch at Five Guys for some burgers and fries, then got to the temple around 2:30.   It was a beautiful sealing ceremony...one of my favorites from the things the sealer taught.  Then we were in family pictures outside the temple and off to Basso's for the wedding dinner and visiting.  Around 9:30pm we left to our Hotel to get some reset before leaving this morning at 7:30am to return in time to attend our Church meetings (or at least part of them since our ward starts at 1pm).  It may have been a fast trip, but it was really nice that we have a family and kids that can all come together to make sure everything is covered while we're gone.  Everything from getting kids to/from activities, chores, homework, scouts stuff, Sunday dinner ready for us all with Grandma Glasgow (thank you Kami!), etc.  Thanks guys!!

One funny coincidence, Micah had Caleb & Jonah spend the night on Friday evening to play and for Caleb & Trevor to attend the Life Saving merit badge clinic.  Micah also had another boy staying the weekend with them while his parents also attended a wedding in San Diego.  Turned out to be the same wedding -- they were on the Grooms side.  Small world!

Let the Games Begin!

Today was the first soccer game of the season for Caleb and Jonah.  They were both a little reluctant to play soccer since they've become quite used to playing flag football the past few seasons and Jonah has never played soccer before...but any of that reluctance is gone after today's game!  They have a really good team and won 10-2...Jonah scored one of those goals and Caleb scored two.  This is indoor soccer, so its not out in the hot sun and the ball can't go flying way out of bounds.  Both Caleb and Jonah came home really excited and called us in San Diego to let us know how they did. Wish we had a pictures to share, but Lexine and I were out of town this weekend at a wedding in California.   There's many more games to come, so stay tuned for pics.  It's fun to see them enjoying and looking forward to this soccer season.  Great going guys...keep it up!  :-)

Wednesday Morning Excitement - Caleb Scorpion Sting!

This week is turning out to be quite the exciting week for our family!  This morning Caleb was getting his backpack ready for school when he felt something sharp poke him -- only to look down at his hand and see that it was a scorpion that just stung him.  He said it hurt pretty bad, but I think the though that it was a scorpion scared him more than it hurt.  He's doing good now -- the poison control center told us to wash the sting area with soap & water, apply a cold pack, then give him some Advil (which ended up being the pediatric liquid version after he went thru 2 pills which he couldn't get himself to swallow :-) -- guess we have that to work on too).  His arm is tingly and feels like its asleep, but he's a trooper and going to school!  Hopefully that's the end of our fun for this week...  :-)