Tessa’s blog

My Aunt Sandy and Uncle Mike came to visit this past weekend.  We had a wonderful time, rode the DUCK, walked around in the Pike Place Market, and had a nice dinner at Ray's Boathouse.

We miss them already!

 

 

We had Kyra's 11th birthday party this weekend.  2 hours of climbing at Stone Gardens indoor climbing gym, then too much Sushi at Blue C Sushi, then cake and presents.  What more can an 11 year old girl want!!?

We had August's 11th birthday party a little early this year to ensure all his friends could attend.  His real birthday is August 14th.  It was a wild party, laser tag, pizza, cake, and presents.  It's good to be 11.

The kids went to their first concert.  It featured a number of bands:  Sarah Barelis (sp?), Jesse McCartney; Danity Kane, and One Republic.  They each got to bring a friend.

 

One Republic was the band the kids were most looking forward to, but when they finally came on stage, the lead singer lost his voice!  As a consolation, the band said they would stay and do pictures with anyone who wanted one.

 

We had a first ever (at least--in a long time) Porterfield extravaganza and it was SO fun!

I have posted the majority of the good pictures here, but there are more--which can be seen by clicking here.

 

Here's me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though the Dodger's game was, well, boring, we still had a lot of fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also took a boat ride along the coast which was beautiful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also spent a LOT of time hanging out at the beach and the house which was really fun.  Boogy boarding, reading, Wii, relaxing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are our beautiful children!

 

 

Can't wait until next time!

June 13th, we all traveled to Sun City West to celebrate Norm and Marilyn's 50th Wedding Anniversary!  The party was VERY fun, beautifully done and very touching.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate the fact that they have been together for 50 years...that's a LONG time!

Norm and Marilyn also had a nice brunch at their house the next morning with some out of towners.  Then the WHOLE family spent the day at the water park.  We also spent an afternoon with the cousins at the Biltmore swimming, a day with everyone at the cousins' condo and a day with Grandma and Pappa.  What a wonderful family reunion!  Here are the best of the photos. 

All the photos from the trip can be seen (and downloaded) by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was lucky enough to be sent to LA to take a class for work, and therefore got to visit my brother Chris and his wife Gina and their kids, Christopher (6) and Maya (9).  It had been way too long, and it was really nice to spend a little bit of time with them.  Maya had her first little league baseball playoff game and her team won!  Maya had two great hits and the team was really phenomenal! 

Leanne and I and the kids are all visiting them in LA in June--and we are VERY excited.

Here are some pictures of my brother's beautiful family.

 

 

 

Little League is upon us again, and August is playing with the Specialty Bottle Rockets.  This year he has been playing catcher quite a bit and is very good at it!

 

 

No time for parks, as we had an early flight.  Here we are waiting for our flight that was going to take us back home..how sad.

 

Disney's Hollywood Studios

We decided to let the kids decide where we were going on day 6.  We could either go back to any of the parks we had already been to, or explore the one park we hadn't been to which was Hollywood Studios.  We were surprised, but they wanted to see what they hadn't yet seen.  This was formerly known as Disney/MGM studios.

Best Rides:

 

Disney Factoid:  The tower of terror ride is rarely the same twice.  It's programmed to act in many different ways, falling at different times and different amounts, doors opening at different times, so rarely are two terrorizing rides the same terror experience.

Random Badness of the Day:

By this day, Leanne's upper respiratory virus hit her full swing.  After a couple of roller coaster rides and the tower of terror, she had had enough.  So we drove her back to the condo and the rest of us went for a swim and had some lunch.

After swimming and lunch, we headed back to the park without Leanne.

Honorable Mentions:

Indiana Jones ™ Epic Stunt Spectacular! 

This is actually a show, not a ride.  It was pretty entertaining full of good stunt action and effects.  They played out some of the scenes from the movie.  The only unfortunate thing was that no matter how much Tessa raised her arms and no matter how much noise and pointing the kids did, Tessa didn't get selected as an extra to participate.  Ah well...

Muppet Vision 3-D 

Don't tell anyone, but Tessa and Kat saw this twice!  Kermit looks so good in 3D!

 

 

Disney Finale:

We had read that Fantasmic! was supposed to be a pretty good show, outdoors in an amphitheater.  So we grabbed some dinner and got there early to get the best seats.  This show was awesome...maybe even fantastic! (sorry--had to).  It was a combination of water sprays, film projected on water, live action, lights, music.   it's loosely based on Fantasia.  We had a blast.  Can't say the same for the 4 year old in front of Kyra.  Poor girl spent most of the time screaming and crying and hiding behind her mother's back.  Guess mom missed this little warning: "This attraction may be frightening for children."

 

 We just wish Leanne could have seen it too.