Relay For Life

The Bingham County Relay For Life was during the Porter reunion so we were not able to attend.  Brandon's Baseball game was also during this time. I know that we still could have been involved this year, but I just did not have the strength within me to be part of the relay this year.  I am sure that next year I will feel like being more involved.  Thanks to some wonderful neighbors and friends, Katie was remembered this year.

These are some luminaries that were made by Tami Hickman for Katie.  Tami also took these pictures for me that evening.

This is the Memorial Garden they had this year for those who had died from cancer since the last Relay for Life a year ago.

Katie's great friends, Joddi Murdock and Leslie Garrett made this display in remembrance of Katie. This was in the Memorial Garden.

This is last year's survivor picture with Alyssa Garrett to the right of Katie.  Alyssa is the daughter of Leslie amd Greg Garrett.  She is a 3 year survivor of lymphoma.

Thank you to Joddi, Leslie, and Tami and anyone else who was involved with helping remember Katie this year.  You are the best.

Porter Reunion

This past Friday and Saturday we had the Porter Reunion.  Due to circumstances with life, we only had Grandpa and Grandma Porter, Jonny, Darcee, Tom, Cache, Caleb, Chandler, Tessa, and Greta with our family on Friday and David, Julianna, Jazlyn, Liberty, Jonas, and Ruby on Saturday.  We missed the other part of the family.  Maybe next year we can have everyone together. 

On Friday we met at Lava Hot Springs to go swimming but decided it was a bit too chilly for the little ones.  I remember the first time Katie and I took Jeffrey and Brandon swimming there.  Brandon was only a year old and he had goose bumps all over him because he was in a float tube and not in the water.  It was decided to go to Soda Springs to get something to eat and then go to Hooper Springs (the springs with carbonated water) to eat.   We had a fun time on the teter toter and swings. 

We decided to go bowling in Blackfoot later in the afternoon because Brandon had his championship for baseball that evening.  We had a fun time but we are not quite ready for the bowling tour.  We went to Rupes to eat before the game.  Sorry I did not get any pictures of the bowling and eating.

Brandon has had a fun time playing baseball this year.  His coach has been very calm and supportive.  He has let the kids have fun and not worry about making mistakes.  They have enjoyed playing together and have been very successful.  They ended up getting 2nd place, not having the best of hitting nights.

After the game, everyone came to our house for the night.  The next morning we had a dutch oven breakfast.  The kids had a fun time just playing together.  It was not too bad of day so we could eat outside for breakfast and lunch. 

Part of the reason for having the reunion close to home, was so that we could go through Katie's clothes so that her sisters and sister-in-laws could put them to use.  Katie had been given a lot of clothes over the years in addition to clothes that she got on her own.  It was quite the task.  Thank you to Janice, Darcee, and Julianna for their help in deciding which clothes would go to D.I. and which might be of use to everyone else.  I have two big storage containers which will be taken to each person to look through.

Well, as I have written many times, we really missed Katie being with us.  Family get togethers will just not be the same.  We continue to pray for strength to make it through.  Thank you to all of you who continue to pray for us.  We can feel your love and support.