Busch Gardens

Spring break was sure fun last week.

Really.

The best part was our day trip to Busch Gardens amusement park. It was the only warmish day of the week. So everyone was there...

...I saw many of you!

I loved Busch Gardens!

Besides the masses of people (I am not crazy about crowds) we had a wonderful time. If you purchased a one day ticket, it gave you an automatic pass through September. Great investment for our huge family.

The greatest of greatest was the fact all seven of us could actually go on rides together! There have been many many years where Garth would wait on a bench with one or two smaller children while I took older kids. We would do the switch-r-roo never really able to all spend time together. There also used to be that huge stroller we had to maneuver around everyone. Ashton didn't mention it once. Ahhh! No more stinky diapers to change. Baby food. Finding a place to breast feed. Crying cranky nap deprived kids.

Awesome indeed.

We did have a bit of the following in our new stage:

1. Sommer texting the whole time in line rather than chat with her cool mom.

2. Calvin giving me one word answers...even with a totally cool mom to hang out with.

3. Lovely sibling squabbling.

4. More sibling teasing leading to escalated screeching.

5. Lots of BIG adult-like eaters costing us a small fortune.

Nothing a little tweakin' can't cure!

Our favorite family ride was the Big Bad Wolf roller coaster. Even little Ashton was tall enough (thank goodness he is so tall for his age) and absolutely loved this ride!

It was a super day!

Adventure Race

Our family participated in An Adventure Race last week!

We had two teams:

1. Team Garth: with members Ethan and Tate (not as fast but much better at map reading)

2. Team Heather: with members Calvin and Sommer (much quicker but horrible at map reading)

You know why we have to be quick but why map skills in this race?

This was a race where all teams were given a map with various check points hidden throughout the forest. Teams were required to run, bike, zipline while searching for the markers where a code was then recorded on a sheet of paper turned in at the end of the race.

...but you had to read the map in order to find them...

Team Heather was off in flash leading the pack. After a mile run, we headed to the bikes where all teams spread out quickly into the various trails throughout the park. All teams were required to stop at all three bike drops where we then had to hit the trails a running or even bushwack through the woods (ticks anyone?) trying to navigate to the various check points.

It was all good and well when we had others to follow. After finding 8 or our required 11 checkpoints, we found ourselves ahead of the pack and alone to find the final bike drop. Unfortunately, team Heather has a horrible map reader as a leader thus getting her team lost and going in circles for quick awhile.

But due to our quick speed (and willingness to "ask directions", we ended up coming in second place overall!

Team Garth included an expert map reader. His team also included two members with no gears on their bikes, one 6 year old, and a 45 year old who wore bike shoes (remember there was a lot of running). They ran an amazing race finding each check point without any mistakes! The little boys were troopers and had a ball getting muddied up and having their dad flawlessly lead the way.

Team Heather's leader was a bit bossy and made everyone run way too much. Notice the wicked smile on her face in all of the pictures...

But all in all the Porter's had a GREAT day!

~ TEAM PORTER~

Ashton arriving after the race with Grandma and Pop Pop Gair giving the zipline a try!

Start of the race. Calvin takes off like a flash. He ends up having to wait for the rest of his team at the bikes.

All of the kids received race medals. When medals are given, happiness follows...

Team Heather relishing in their 2nd place finish.

On the trails. Probably lost at this point but I won't officially say anything. Sommer rocked it on the biking portion.

One of my many wicked smiles. Calvin was a running champ and made his mother proud! I am still looking for one of my kids to be a running partner. So far, no takers.

More wicked smiling...

My future runner (shhh! don't tell him I said that!)

Due to our lack of map reading skills. We made the race much more difficult. We seemed to always find ourselves on the wrong side of the streams. I got pretty good at leaping...and then splashing...

It looks like we were being chased by a bear in this picture. But I think it was more to do with Team Heather's crazy competitive leader. Sorry Sommer.

Still smiling....tee, hee, hee!

Sommer muddied up! She is one strong biker leaving Calvin in her dust!

Lost here?! Maybe...I won't say.

Team Garth crossing the fallen tree to check point number 6. I let Sommer and Calvin get this one!

See! Here is Calvin passing up tons of slow kids! Way to push two of them in the water for the lead dear son...way to push!

We had a super time! Muddy, loud and allowed my competitive juices to flow. Next year we will go for the win though...

We have some great friends who head up NV Racing which is an adventure racing team that puts on this any many other events around Northern Virginia!

7th Grade Fieldtrip...Newseum!

I was a chaperon this week for Sommer's Middle School trip to Washington DC's Newseum.

I wasn't thrilled at first, especially since Garth was the one that had signed up for this adventure. He ended up having to work, so being the next in command, I became the chaperon.

And come to find out...I actually ended up having a super time!

This is an amazing museum!

We started with a 4-D film experience about three inspiring journalists. We all loved our glasses which made everything seem like it was floating right in front of you!

Very cool.

Here is the actual back end of the sniper's car. If you lived in Northern VA at the time, you will remember the horror these two idiots caused. Recess was cancelled for weeks, getting gas was nerve racking, walking to your car was frightening always wondering if a bullet was going to take you out. The snipers actually killed someone in Manassas about 10 miles from our town of Haymarket!

The 9/11 Gallery was touching. Here is part of the World Trade Center. They showed an amazing film about the reporters who covered that tragic day. The kids were definitely touched by the movie.

On the Terrace, we had a super view of our Nation's Capitol!

I love the fact that we live so close to so many amazing things!

Come visit would ya!?

The Berlin Wall exhibit housed eight sections of the wall and an East German guard tower.

All of the kids loved the interactive newsroom. They could try their hand at reading the news in front of a live camera. Here is Sommer and Lauren taking a shot at it!

Sommer claims, reporting isn't a profession she would like to pursue.

I think during spring break we need to hit some more of these places!

Shamrock Rocked Again

We just ran the Shamrock Half Marathon!

These are some of my buddies who ran it with me.

We make it a tradition to meet in Virginia Beach for a carb load dinner before the race.

We do a lot of laughing.

And I always start getting everyone worried about what we should wear (and other topics such as: why did I sign up for this? what was I thinking? etc)

Last year we had 25 mph winds and 40 degrees at the 7 am start...boo!

This year we had no wind and 30 degree temps...Hooray!
I always love the Expo where I pick up as many free pens, water bottles, etc as I can.

Ronald gave us each a coupon for a free salad...we didn't get a chance to use it.

(He was very scary looking)

By the way...we totally overdressed. But we looked really cute.

A totally flat course, no wind, and cool temps made for a perfect day of racing!

Everyone got a PR (personal records).

I even stuck my toe in the FREEZING ocean.

I prefer ocean/sand in the summer.

I should have asked about this earlier!

THANK YOU SO MUCH JEN AND KATIE!

THIS MADE MY BLOG DAY!

Question

So about a month ago, I came to post a new blog. Things had changed on my page. I no longer have the amount of options on the top of my page as I once did. Next to the bold, italics and spell check, things have gone missing. I no longer have the color option or script. I can't type in the middle of my post either. And the most irritating thing is when I download a picture, it comes up in code form and not picture form until I publish my post. Therefore I can't see the pics and can't edit.

Anyone know how to fix this problem!

Irritating!

A Beautiful Sight

I was headed upstairs and this is what I saw...Sommer playing soccer with Tate. Simple as it sounds, I thought it was a beautiful sight. I love when I see my children playing together.

And today they did.