Thanksgiving Festivities

All the family started arriving on Wednesday, and on Thursday we got the party started. The kids were up at 5am ready to go and the cooking began shortly after. After we got the turkey in the oven, we headed down to the beach to watch the waves crashing over the railings. As you can see, even though there were a ton of us, nobody was watching my poor niece Nickola. The water got her so quickly, she didn't even know what to do but stand there and take it. Poor girl.

After the beach, the guys took all the kids to a new park in the city and then after that, turkey was served. The food was great, the company was even better, and I never realized the cooking was so much work. I am thankful my mom and sisters and Lisa were here to help out.

On Friday we took all the kids to the zoo, and then caught the movie Enchanted that night.

If you ask all the kids, Saturday was by far the best day. After spending some time at the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman's Wharf, we were off to AT&T Park for ice skating. What a great afternoon. Everyone skated except my mom and dad and the babies. There was even a guy there teaching all the kids so everyone was skating circles around the ice quickly. Below are some pictures.

Here is my brother in law Darrin and my nephew Connor.

Andrew and Zackery in the middle of their lesson.

Me, Kira and Andrew

My sister in law Jennifer getting the hang of it with Molly's help.


This was the cool spot to hang out. Here are the girls with their uncle Jared.

My brother Jeremy and his son Merrick getting a lesson.

My mom and dad, cheering us all on.

48 Eastlake... Full Capacity

How many people does it take to fill up our house at 48 Eastlake? Well we put it to the test over the last 4 days, and it was 11 kids and 9 adults. I think we could have squeezed in a few
more but Tom disagrees. Below is a picture of everyone that was here for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Porter Family Home Evening

Here we are last night during family home evening, playing an intense round of go fish, Texas Hold'em style.

Andrew's college fund is mine.

Thanksgiving is Approaching

This year for the first time in a long time we are not going to Boise for Thanksgiving. Yesterday we were sitting around and I realized we would normally be in Boise with Grandma Porter and we all got a little sad that it was not happening this year. Mom we miss you tons and wish we were there.

Since we are not going to Boise, we are still going to eat a turkey and the party will be at our house. My family will all be arriving on Wednesday to start the party and we are very excited. It is times like this that cause me to stop and think about how much I love family, and how much I love being with them. I really am thankful for our own little family we have here in Pacifica, and for all the family we have spread out all over.

Andrew brought home a Thanksgiving present for the family today and was anxious to open it up and show it off. It was tray of some sort that had the design of a leaf in the middle. Andrew said it was a leaf holder (why we need that, I am not sure) but Tom thought it looked like an ash tray. Who knows, next time you see us will have either taken up smoking or started a leaf collection. You'll have to come visit to find out which one it was. This is a prime example as to why I love my family.

Bonds Indictment

I am so mad about Barry Bonds being indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, that I am GREEN WITH RAGE.

I will spare you my rant about why the country has not seen a less worthy prosecution since Nifong went after the Duke Lacrosse players.

It's just a game.

The Beach is Open Again

It's a good thing. For the last two days I have not gone running because with the beaches closed, the sea wall that I run on, was closed as well. I was using this as an excuse to not go, but with that out of way, I better back to it.

Our Beach is Closed

Andrew and I stopped by the beach on our way to school this morning. The weather is perfect here but unfortunately we can't get on the beach because of of the oil washing up. It's hard to let beautiful days like this go to waste.

Halloween Last Year

Jades the best when it comes to Halloween costumes. Here are the costumes she put together for us last year.

Oil Spill

The oil from the spill in San Francisco Bay has finally reached the beaches in Pacifica. The pier is closed for fishing and all the beaches are posted as closed. I guess it was only a matter of time, although the amount hitting Pacifica is minimal compared to other places. The oil comes washing up on the beach in coagulated balls like these (above top and below), which washed up on San Francisco's Ocean Beach.

The sad thing is that the winds have switched offshore and the waves are great.

It's not worth paddling out, though. I got this stuff on me in the mid-90's during a similar oil spill. Ruined the wet suit and almost ruined the board. The oil never comes off.

In Emeryville, where I work, the impact was much greater. Last week I took a walk around the harbour, and large rafts of oil were floating in toward the marina. Lots of oiled birds around, too.

Big Jim Kills Again

We all know Jim as the great hunter from the north, who walked into the wild near Yellowstone and bagged himself a large, trophy buffalo.

But what you dont know, is that Jim came to San Francisco and decided he needed another trophy to impress friends and family back home in Boise.

We took Jim and Vern down to Pier 39 where they saw all of the sea lions, and Jim knew exactly what he wanted.

Just after a short surf in Pacifica, Jim returned to the beach looking refreshed, well fed, but a little frustrated, saying that, while he got a taste, he could not bag the trophy. I thought he was talking about catching the perfect wave. But then I saw this little critter wash up on the beach.

The local fish and game authorities are investigating this as a shark attack on a local harbour seal. But if they look closely, I think they will notice that the bite circumference closely resembles that of a male, human adolescent.

ping pong for life

As we all know, ping pong is an appropriate metaphor for life and relationships. As we also know, Jade is a great lover of cats, especially Max.

So here is me and Jade, trying to sort out the intricacies of life and our blended family (Click on the picture to see all the action).

Your actually Viewing?

I am sooooo excited. There is 4 of you that actually logged on to view our blog. Tom was so convinced that none of you would sign in, but thanks for helping me prove him wrong. If you guys start blogs, send me your links. I can link your blog to ours and we can easily move through them all.

Kira at Her Best!

Here is a video of Kira rocking out.

Massive Tooth

Andrew lost two of his lower teeth, and one enormous tooth is coming in to fill up the space.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we did the usual nightly trip to Trunk or Treat in the church parking lot. Andrew was Jack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and Kira was a dancer from Dancing with the Stars. They both looked fabulous, and got WAY more candy then any single kid could eat in this life time. With Dad's help, the candy is now gone. I found some wigs I had in the garage so Tom wore a mullet (it looked like it had been there all along), and I wore a beehive. I have to admit we were stunning as well.

On the day of Halloween at the kids school, Tom and I participated in the school clusters and lead a class on the bones in our bodies. Talk about the blind leading the blind? We actually did pull it together and according to Kira we were, "just great". Thanks Kira, she is always cheering us on.

This is Kira in the school Parade.
This is Andrew in the school parade.

Boise Meets Pacifica

Early in October Tom's brother Vern and his son Jim came all the way from Boise, Idaho for a visit. There main goal for the trip was to spend sometime surfing with Tom, but according to Tom, Vern spent most of the time puking from motion sickness. Apparently that didn't stop the fun because they were out again the next day. After two days of surfing we took Tom to Benihana for his birthday on Thursday night, and spent Friday at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. On Saturday we were able to walk out on the Golden Gate Bridge and spend some time shopping at Fisherman's Wharf. Sorry we couldn't find the skull ring Jim wanted. Either way, it was a great weekend and we can't wait for them to return again.

It's time to come out from hiding.

I was browsing through a few blogs that belongs to friends, and realized what slackers Tom and I are when it comes to staying in touch. I am hoping a blog will help pull us out of our corner of the earth and allow you all a glimps into our lives (not that we are that exciting... but funny things do happen behind closed doors.)