Spring Break: The Epic Journey to the Motherland and Other Prudent Adventures

HELLO!!!


Welcome the world according to Karly! 

Sit back and get comfortable while I tell you of the latest escapades of the Porterfield fam. (I recommend some popcorn or some sort of ice cream with caramel in it. caramel is good.)

(that's me kneeling down second from the left :)

I'm sure by now you've guessed that, like every other good Mormon family, (not to say that families who don't go aren't good!) we used this spring break as another opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Utah!!! Gotta love the motherland!

We left late Friday evening and made it finally into the city of the Salty Lake just before the second session of conference started. Literally.  Our dreams of attending the first session and taking part in the solemn assembly being dashed, we could do little more than listen to this spectacular occurrence on the radio.  Regardless of the time or place it was still an amazing experience. Truly the spirit and the happiness that sustaining the new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, was limitless and is something I am sure to remember the rest of my days.We were able to attend the 2nd session of conference and watch the others on this wonderful little invention called television.

After the eventual winding down of the conference rush that occurs, maybe 15 minutes after the event actually ended, we spent the remainder of the week languishing on the hospitality of immediate family and other relatives in the area. We managed a day in the snow, a stroll round Temple Square, a visit to Great Grandma Dot, a visit to Grandma Judy, a visit to Aunt Jody and the Smith household, and the home and hearths of Kassey and Kerin. We ate good food and got a grand tour of nearly all the hotels in the city of the Salty Lake courtesy of Dad, who seems to be loosing his touch when it comes to hotels.

As I wrap up this herculean tale of adventure and humorous occurrences so slyly interwoven into the story (if I may say so myself) that they are nearly unnoticeable, I would like to acknowledge the shark attack and death of a 66 year old man that resulted in the closing of the beaches this weekend. This particular weekend in which the weather happens to be in the high 90's. In southern California. If you are heading out on a shark hunt, 1. take me with you. 2. take an oxygen tank with you. 3. don't waste your money by going to see The Forbidden Kingdom afterward.

Easter

I'm finally getting Easter Pictures posted. This year we had a very quiet Easter. Kerin and Cory came down for the weekend and that helped to put some noise in the house. Kim had to work most of the day. We tried to wait for him for dinner, but no luck. He didn't get home until 8pm. I had fun sewing Karly and Kloe's Easter dresses. 

Karly's dress was made from an old pattern of mine from the 70's. Sewing their dresses made me miss sewing. Most of the time, after I've finished a project I'm amazed it was made by my hands. I really enjoy the feeling of a sewing project well done. Now I just need to make time for me and my sewing machine. 

We had a fun egg hung on Easter, thanks to Kerin and her tricky hide talents. 

KERIN!!

Our sweet Kerin was feeling left out because I hadn't mentioned her in our Blog in a while. She hasn't just had a baby, and hadn't been to see us in a while, but she and Cory managed to get away to spend Easter weekend with us and we had a good visit, but more about that later. I thought I would just let her know we love and miss her, by posting a few of my favorite pictures of her. 

Kerin was very attached to her "binkies."

Note the white around Kerin's mouth, she wouldn't sit still and let me take the pictures without giving her marshmallows.

Kerin has always had a great sense of fashion as you can see in this picture of her

 showing off her dance skills to Kaira and Kyle.

 

What a happy fun person she is, to know her is to smile 

and quiet often have a good laugh with her.

To some she may be "the girl on the frig, 

but to us she is our "Rin".

(Do you like it Rin?)

I Shouldn't Be Doing This

There are so many things I should be doing tonight and blogging is really not one of them, but I am just not in the mood to be doing the other. With winter gone, (if you can call 60 degrees with light rains every few days winter) I am finally posting a recipe Kloe and I figured out for Carmel Apple Cider.

We had a cold day in the mid 50's and we were craving warm carmel cider, but I didn't want to go out to get it nor did I want to spend the money. We did some experimenting and we were very happy with the results.  We used our Cocoa maker, adding 4 cups of apple cider a couple teaspoons of cinnamon, and 4 unwrapped caramels for each cup of cider. 

Heat and froth it and add a dollop of whipped

 cream if you have some. Kloe liked it better than Starbucks. Other excitement that's been going on was the California Reads award ceremony at Kloe's school, Capri Elementary. This was Kloe's 6th year to receive an award.  

As a 5th grader Kloe had to read 2000 pages within a certain amount of time.  We're very proud of her accomplishment. As her dad always tells her "readers are leaders". I tried to get her to wear all of her medals to the ceremony and she wouldn't. 

The first picture is of her with her school principal and the second is after the ceremony with a sixth grade friend Rachel, from the ward.