Yoder Days

We had a fantastic time in Yoder, Kansas for their big parade and festival. Its a little Amish town very close to where we live. How fun it was to see all the horse drawn carriages in the parade along with other unique contraptions like the Horse Apple Transformer that followed the horses in the parade. Two guys scooped up the horse poop and put it in the manure spreader and candy came out the back chute. How fun is that? We laughed and laughed (but we didn't eat any of the candy!)A typical Amish buggy.
After the parade we mozied over to the buggy races. Of course we had to stop for a 50 cent snowcone - yum. We sat on the grass and watched as the Amish raced their horses along a dirt road (about a quarter mile track). Wow. It was truly amazing. Who says Kansas isn't fun?

Seeing Clark

We just got back from Ben and Alli's in Oregon. Of course, the real purpose of the trip was to see our new grandson Clark . It was fun to see Ben and Alli too, but Clark is the new kid on the block. My son kept asking us if we had enough "Clark Time." And we did. What a great addition to the Porter clan.

Janice and Clark

Bruce and Super Clark in training

More Clark Time for Grandma

Our favorite picture of the week!

We had a great time visiting the Portland Zoo and had a really fun evening out to watch a movie in the Park in 3-D - which was pretty lame but still a lot of fun. They had a high def screen set up in an outdoor park on a hillside and served free popcorn and shaved ice. Fun!

Had a great time with our kids for the last two weeks. Jamie, Randy, Audrey, Isaac and Violet drove out to Kansas for a vacation visit (we are always amazed at their courage!). We went to the Wichita Zoo (amazing - one of the best we've been to), rode the tractor, played in the sprinklers, rode bikes, went on walks, played with the dogs, and generally had some good mid-west fun. Next week we're off to Portland to see Ben, Alli and Clark! Can't wait.

Helping build our new deck.

Audrey and Violet learning how to milk a cow at the Hutchinson zoo. Ouch for the cow!

Best seat in the house!

Spring update.

So...we haven't posted for a while. We've been busy this spring with enjoying the weather (note the black hole cloud that appeared above our house last weekend!). Fun stuff. It didn't turn out to be a tornado, but it gave us something to talk about for sure.Janice was busy propagating plants for the annual city-wide garage sale. She managed to collect plants for several friends and then potted them for sale to benefit a young couple who is preparing to serve full-time with Campus Crusade. She sold them for $1, $2, and $3 and brought in $60. We're also enjoying watching our garden grow potatoes, cabbage, spinach and onions. Last week we purchased some tomato plants as well as several kinds of peppers that we'll plant this week when it dries out a little. It's been fun to see our property begin to really take shape. Now all we need is some real grass!
We couldn't pass up posting a picture of Bella with her (she thinks) new toy. It has since been hidden away in the front bedroom to be used for its intended purpose as a trash can. Bella is in her second session of puppy school right now - they call it Puppy Jr. High. It fits. What a zoo on Tuesday nights. But she's learning more and more and turning in to a great pet.

Welcome to Spring?

Spring? What's that? Oh yea ... time for snow - and lots of it! We had around 16 inches of wet snow last Friday and Saturday. It started with beautiful clouds and ended with Bruce on the tractor for over five hours helping neighbors dig out of their driveways. Yes, that's him on his little John Deere tractor. Although beautiful, it was a mess and still is. Our poor dogs didn't quite know how to handle it. But now its back up in the 50's for the rest of the week and the snow is melting fast - which means the ground is really soaked. Good for the wheat farmers but not so good for our little garden - we can't even see it yet! We love the mid-west! Gotta be flexible.

Garden Show

We went to the Wichita Home and Garden show last Saturday. Pretty fun. Since we still pretty much have a blank slate we're hoping to come up with some fun ideas to beautify our home. It was a fun day.How about this water feature for the back yard?

Janice makes the flora and fauna look good!

Bruce finished the window seat in the dining area!

What's Up?

We haven't posted anything for way too long. We are OK - just got a lot going. We had a good Christmas in spite of not being able to go to see our family in California and Oregon. We did get together with friends over the holidays having Christmas breakfast with our neighbors and having an open house for our church family. Over 100 people came! It was a lot of fun.

We got to see the grandkids on ichat for Christmas day which was a highlight.

Janice remains very busy substitute teaching and really enjoys it. She's also teaching a Monday night Bible study for about thirty women in the church thats going really well.

Bruce has finished a few more projects around the house - new window seat in the dinning room, the railing wall for the the stairs, and started on shelving in the hall closet. Since we got some warm weather he started our shed that we'll use for storage and gardening stuff (lawn tractor, etc.) Its framed out and the rough siding is up. He's hoping to get the roof on in the next week or two. Still lots to do though.

Here are a few photos of the Christmas season.
Our puppy Bela enjoying her new chew bone and just goofing around.



Christmas breakfast with the Banz family.

Our fall planted "forrest" in the back yard

Our view of the Christmas star on a church across our back street.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! What a beautiful time of year. We've had our share of snow lately and lots of freezing cold temperatures. Its gotten as low as 2 degrees (before wind chill factor!) We're not sure we will ever get used to that.

Here are a few pics.



Last night we had our first official "Open House." Lots of people showed up (close to a hundred in all!) Which was quite amazing given the fact that it was REALLY cold out side. But we had fun serving all of Janice's goodies and enjoying the new fireplace.



Before the open house, Bruce and his helpers worked hard to get the stair well wall built. Actually, it would have been better if the "Helpers" had opposable thumbs.



On our trip to California, Audrey had to show us her skills as a wall monkey.

Family

We recently went to California for Grandpa Bud's memorial service. What a great time to reconnect with lots of family and honor a wonderful man of God.

Here's the family (except Randy, who was at a job related conference and Alli who had to stay home for work)

Four Generations: Great Grandpa Porter, Grandpa Bruce, Ben (soon to be a dad), and Isaac (Jamie and Randy's son)

We had a blast trying on some of Grandpa Bud's hats (per grandma's request) 

We'll post some more photos from our trip soon. 

More stuff

Just a few more pics:

Our puppy Bella is getting Big. She's in Puppy Kindergarten and doing great. She "sits" plays with friends to get used to other dogs, is held by other dog owners to get used to other people, is learning to walk on a leash, and learning to "settle" (as in settle down - get calm). Its been fun to be with other puppy parents and see how other breeds react. 

Bruce had a chance to ride his motorcycle in the Buhler Frolic parade and hike a little boy from our church who doesn't have a dad at home. It was a lot of fun to see "the pastor" in his leathers riding bikes with 20 other riders.

Yes this is a gondola we saw in Boston along the St. Charles river. We didn't ride it but it was cool to see the couple riding along with an accordian player in the boat providing mood music. How great is that. We didn't want to pay the $275 for the experience. Ha!

Boston

We just got back from our trip to Boston in celebration of our 35th anniversary. We got to go with some friends who celebrated their 35th too. We found out they were married the day before us. We had lots of fun. Great weather too. Lots of history but mostly just a lot of beauty. The Kennedy presidential library and museum was phenomenal.
State House

Our friends Ed and Bonnie Zahn at the oldest restaurant in America


Hanging out with friends

Yes this is a Starbucks!




On the bridge in the Boston Commons park

Janice in 1994 and 1996

Gotta give equal time to Janice. Here's what she would have looked like as a '94 and '96 grad. I think she's pretty cute!

1994 - Jamie's grad year


1996 - Ben's grad year

Foe those who are wondering - this is what we really looked like our senior year in 1970 (Janice) and 1971 (Bruce)

If Bruce went to School when Ben and Jamie did.

So, what would Bruce have looked like if he was a senior in high school in 1994 and 1996 like Jamie and Ben? Bruce took his senior picture and downloaded it on to the site Ben referred to - Yearbookyourself.com Here's the results.


1994 - Jamie's Grad year


1996 - Ben's Grad year

Cartoon me

My son Ben (connect to his blog) told me about this site where you can make a cartoon image of yourself. What do you think? Does it really look like me?