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.