Porter 8 1/2 months!

OK, so it has taken me a while to post, so long in fact that I have to title my post Porter 8 1/2 months instead of a flat 8! Even though the post is late the photos above were taken at 8 mos! I guess we've been busy!

We went to Chicago at the beginning of the month to visit Jeff's family, and especially to say farewell to Jeff's sister Claudia and her family who moved to Dallas a few days after we left. We will greatly miss having them just a short 6 hours from us, and Connor will miss having his cousins so close. It will be nice to have a warm place to visit during our cold Minnesota winters though, and I'm sure we will see them as much as we can. We had a fun time seeing everyone, and even got in a visit to our family favorite pizza place Sanfratello's, or as Connor called it "Sanpotatoes"! We had some great southside deep dish pizza and got to go to DQ for dessert! We also had fun staying at Steve & Angie's house in Arlington Heights and had some great cannolis from Angie's mom Shirley who got them at a neighborhood place called Martini's I think. They are always amazing! There was a lot of bad weather during our trip, but luckily we were able to make it back through Wisconsin despite the fact that Lake Delton had disappeared. By the way, Jeff was able to race in the State Tournament the day we left for Chicago, and came in second in his category! Even got a medal!

Here are some pictures from our visit:

Nicholas & Porter:

All 5 boys: (Nicholas (7), Porter (8 1/2 mos), Connor (5), Tyler (2 1/2), Daniel (8 1/2)

Jeff & a snuggly Porter:

Porter & Aunt Angie getting snuggly:

Jonathan getting some air on his skateboard:

Connor on the scooter:

Upon our return home we had 4 members of a cycling team Team Kenda Tire staying with us for 5 days while they competed in the Great Rivers Cycling Festival which is a 5 day stage race around the Twin Cities area. It was fun and I think we would definitely do it again next year. It helps to have the basement finished so that everyone had some private space. They were very respectful and grateful, so it didn't feel like an intrusion at all. Of course I worked 2 of the days over the weekend, so I wasn't around. Luckily I got to be on call for 3pm-7pm both Saturday and Sunday so I could celebrate Father's Day with my Dad and Jeff at my brother Tom's house for a barbeque on Saturday, and just at home with Jeff and the kids on Sunday.

Here are some photos of my brother's backyard. They had a pond put in with 2 sets of waterfalls. It looks amazing. They are going to be on the tour of ponds coming up in July. It's hard to believe their house is just a few miles from downtown Minneapolis. It looks like it is up north! The kids & dog actually swim in the pond, and there are probably 30 large koi swimming around in there too!

Connor swimming in the pond:

Porter & Uncle Steve:

Porter & Aunt Peggy:

This week my Aunt Sara, and cousins Tim & Molly were in town from Atlanta and Nashville, and also my nephew Nick was up from Iowa with his girlfriend Megan. It was several days of lots of family, but was great to see everyone. We got to go to the zoo with Nick and Megan and my mom, so we got to spend several hours with them. We also got to go out to dinner the next night, and even though it was supposed to be adults only and I got a babysitter (Jeff was going out with some co-workers, so he wasn't with me), I ended up sitting at the end of the table with my cousin Bridget's kids helping them eat their pasta and drink their pop! I really missed out on most of the adult conversation and getting more of a chance to talk with Nick & Megan and my cousin Tim. Oh well, I did get a chance to talk with my cousins Katie & Bridget, so that was fun. The girl cousins and Aunt Sara also went out to lunch on Saturday and then over to Uncle Doc's house on Saturday night for pizza with kids & spouses. It was fun to get a chance to see Molly a little more. We spent many summers of our youth going to Hilton Head, SC together, and have a ton of fun when we see each other. Our next big project is to arrange another girls getaway and also maybe a big family reunion in a couple of years.

Connor at the zoo:

Nick, Tim D, Steve, Katie & Tim F:

Whew, that was a lot of catching up. Gotta go to bed and get up early to work tomorrow!