A Visit from the Porter Family

This past week the Porter family came to visit for a couple of days. It was so much fun to see them. The Porters were some of our good friends back in Oklahoma. Shane and I served as clerks in our church together early on when we lived in Oklahoma. Then, once he and Mary Ellen got married, Mary Ellen and Rebecca became good friends. Their oldest son, Andrew, was born one day before our Ethan. They left Oklahoma one year after we did and have been in Colorado ever since.

They arrived late Tuesday night, so we got to do things with them on all of Wednesday and then Thursday morning. On Wednesday we woke up to a nerf gun war between their children and ours that started while we were still sleeping. It is funny how children are often happy to jump in and play with each other even if they have never really met before. Then, after breakfast we did a hike by our house. It was really hot that day which made the hike harder than usual! It was fun to see their boys playing with ours as they explored the hills. The big thing was playing with the walkie talkies.





The hike took longer than we thought, so as soon as we got home we rushed off to lunch at the park. The children played on the toys there some, then we went to another park to play in a newly installed splash pad. That started off fun - me mainly playing with Agnes or sitting and talking with Rebecca - but then somehow the older children decided to make it their mission to get me or Shane wet. At first I wrestled with them, making sure they were the ones in the water instead of me. But with a 10 year old, two 9 year olds, an 8 year old, and a 7 year old all trying to get me, and lots of littler ones running around my feet, it wasn't long before I decided to run rather than fight. The older children grabbed shirts or hats or other water absorbing clothing and chased after me and they were fast. It made for a exhausting visit to the park, but I was able to stay mostly dry.





When we came home all of the children played with the scooters and bikes on our street. There were a number of falls and scrapes, but those boys just kept going higher and faster down the hill.

We ended the day with some hot dogs around the fire. There was a missionary couple who served in the Porters' ward in Colorado that live here in Pocatello. They joined us for dinner and also brought some ice cream!

The next day we kept things more casual. Just some playing around and talking at our house before lunch at the park again. Then the Porters left for a family reunion down in Utah.

It was great to see them and to reminisce about the Oklahoma days again.