Are you Ready for some Football??!

It is once again that glorious time of year that Jess and I cannot wait for....NFL football season! Yeahhh!! I am not even going to get into the whole Michael Vick dilemma with my favorite team of the Eagles....that in itself could be quite a long post, but I am still and will always route for my Eagles despite everything!!!! Anywho, but Jess and I went to a preseason game in DC to see the Redskins play Jess' favorite team ever: the Steelers!
We did not think about traffic, and on top of it all Hurricane Bill was just pouring down rain the entire day,and night and people on the east coast cannot drive in rain, or snow, or in general..haha. So, we drove up to the stadium already 20 mins late, and they told us we couldn't park by the stadium without a pass. How dumb! So, being the absolutely amazing wife I am, I told Jess to get the heck outta the car and take Cal since we were so close to the stadium and I would figure out where to park and meet him later. I knew that this game meant so much to him seeing his most favorite team ever, so I made the sacrifice :)
So, I ended up parking about 20 mins later in a field that they were leading traffic to. I parked in the grass, grabbed my stuff, and then asked one of the flaggers if I needed to pay for parking or if I needed a pass, to which he said NO. So, off to the game I went!
I met Jess and we had an awesome time! It started to torrentially downpour in the last 5 mins, but we had our raingear and it made it so much fun! We were SOAKED! And Calvin was waving his little arms in the air and yelling along with his Daddy when there was a good play...I know he will love football as much as we do! Despite the sad loss, we still had fun! But it was just an exhibition game, so it doesn't count anyways.
Getting to our car afterwards was an adventure. We exited the stadium on the complete opposite side that we needed to, so we got hopelessly lost! And it was still pouring which didn't add to the fun. Luckily, we used Jess' phone to guide us back to our car! Gotta love those I Phones!!! But once we got to the field where I had parked, there were tow trucks EVERYWHERE! So we made a mad dash for the car, and luckily they were not anywhere near where we had parked yet, so we got in the car, and ended up getting stuck in the mud. Great. So, after I tried pushing the car, and Jess then tried pushing the car, we eventually got out and an hour later got home.
Here's to a great football season! Jess will be rooting for his Steelers, but I will still be cheering for my Eagles :)

Our seats were AWESOME!

the rain stopped long enough for us to get a decent pic!
I love that Calvin LOVED the game!
goooooo Steelers!
getting pumped!

Soaking wet! Calvin gives the rain and Hurricane Bill a thumbs down!!!

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9 Months

yessir, my little bubby is 9 months! I could have had another baby by now, that is WEIRD to think. Cal brings so much sunshine and joy into my life! He is constantly making me laugh, and I am amazed watching him grow and develop.
He can now stand on his own! And he wants to walk so terribly bad, and although has made one or two teenie tiny steps, he still falls- but I know that very very soon he'll be walking, no RUNNING!
He has also learned to kiss! They are open mouthed and quite wet kisses, but sooo sweet! Then he'll smack you in the face right after and laugh! Such a boy...

So here are his official stats from the Doc yesterday:

Weight: 22 lbs 14 oz 90%

Height: 29 1/2 " 90%

He's such a big boy! I love it :) I took this picture of Cal's feet when we were in Alaska. He happened to doze off while in his carseat, so I covered it and placed him up on a table, and there he slept quite peacefully and long while the house was soo noisy! Don't you just love baby feet?? Calvin inherited my toes, my second two toes are sort of joined together and Jess says I have webbed feet haha, and alas Cal has the exact same thing! Pretty soon those cute little piggies are gonna be walking!!

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Alaksa: Poisonous 'Shrooms and Pizza

We took a long car drive up to this city called Girdwood in the mountains and the older kids and several adults took a hike up to this awesome hand-tram that went across a gorge! The wee little children and grandma and the rest of the adults went to a wilderness preserve and saw lots of animals! Our hike was quite exciting! We were deep in bear country, so had to make sure we stuck together as a group and made as much noise as we could, so if we happened to run into a bear, that it would see the lot of us and figure we weren't worth messing with! I secretly hoped we would see a bear to see one, but am also very glad we didn't!
The hike to the hand-tram was only a few miles, and once across it you could keep hiking for a few hours, but we didn't have much time, so only went across the tram and then went back down. It was so fun! I was pretty scared going across the first time, we were so high! You can't tell in the pictures just how high it was, and the sound of the raging water below you made it even more scary, but the kind of scary that makes your adrenaline run and you toes tingle :)

Jess, Cal, and I going across the tram!

Cal was packed and ready for the hike! He was the youngest hiker!
the other side of the gorge at the hand-tram
looking down from one of the sides
On our hike we came across these gorgeous mushrooms! They look like the ones in Alice and Wonderland! So I started taking pics of them, and Aaron ran back and told me not to touch them. I asked him why and he said they are the most poisonous mushrooms in the world!!! Scary!! So, Jess of course wanted to take this daring picture! haha
They sure are pretty though!!
This is one of my favorite pics from this trip! The three of us enjoying our hike!
waitin' for the tram
the tram ride back, me trying to smile but so nervous!
Afterwards we wall met up as a group at this little pizza place! I love that Jess is wearing my hooter-hider in this pic! haha! This was also our last meal as the entire family, Jake Jacie Cooper Porter and little Olivia left that night :( Good times!!!

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Alaska: Butikofers Be Ridin' Dirty

On one of the last days we took an adventure to the Silt Flats that I talked about in the last post and got DIRTY!! It's this beautiful area about a mile from Aaron and Jill's home where a river meets with the ocean, and when the tide is out, what's left is all of this silt...which is like mud but more like quicksand and pudding. It's hard to describe unless you've been in it! So, Sam and Jill headed to Salvation Army and picked everyone out some fabulous clothes that we could just destroy! And destroy them we did, and had a grand old time doing it! Grandma and the wee babies looked on as everyone else sloshed, sank, fought, danced,threw around, and wallowed in the mud! Afterwards we had to hose off outside, because silt does some nasty things to pipes apparently, and Jess and I rushed home and grabbed the hose which had been sitting out in the sun and nabbed all the warm water..muahahahah!
It was such a fun day, one I will never forget! Maybe when we go back Cal will be able to experience it too instead of having to watch us have all the fun.


A very clean before shot. My aren't we all attractive??





Jess' shirt was by far my favorite! Shame he had to ruin it...
My sis-in-law Diane thought she was going home this clean....BUT Me, Mary, and Jill had other plans!
Me, Mary, and Jill doing an interpretive dance
Just lovin' life!

A chase began.....
...and a wresteling match..

....but Jess was persistent!!
.....and I ended up getting a silt facial :)
some of the ladies loungin'

A few but not all of us, an after shot!

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Alaska: What are men to rocks and mountains?

I thought I would dedicate one post to some of the gorgeous (believe me the pics don't even do this place justice!) landscape of this huggggee state! Enjoy :) I have tons more I could post but it would be forever long!

As Jess and I flew out the clouds lifted so that we could behold the breathtaking glacier fields!! they spanned for miles and miles! Even Cal was looking out the window at them!






This is a picture from our hike up to the handtram, which I will post about later! A view of the silt flats which was the spot where we came to go "mudding" which I will also post about later!

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Alaska: Water, water everywhere!

Although it rained almost every single day of our trip...we made the most of it and enjoyed every bit of this beautiful state! I felt like I was in another country from the moment we landed, (and you practically are where Alaska is located!) And the fact that it was light outside pretty much 24/7 was trippy and took me a few days to get used to! That's why it is so green and gorgeous up there! I am by no means a gardener, but long to be, and seeing how lush and wonderful Jill's garden was, makes me wish I could get into that sort of thing. Who knows maybe I will when we are back in Utah!
Anywho, so alot of our activities included water! Our most fun, and also most terrifying one was white water rafting down the Eagle River! So, we were under the impression that guides were going to take us down the class 4 and 5 rapids, but OH NO, only one guide showed up who took the older children who were with us in his boat, and the rest of us were left to fend for ourselves in the remaining two boats! It was safe to say that I wanted to pee myself, and I think I did a little bit while we were going down!
Thankfully, we all made it alive! Jacie and Nate were the only ones who fell out, but they were pulled back in right quick by Aaron! We all had either dry suits on or wetsuits, and the water was 35 degrees! The guide scared the poo out of all of us by telling is that once we fell in to get out ASAP, or else we could get hypothermia! And he went on and on about not getting caught under logs or getting your feet tangled in rocks or you would drown...and then to top if all off, as we took off he said " just do what I do!", and they floated off into the scary fog and WE COULD NOT SEE HIM! How were we to know what he was doing around rapids if we couldn't see him? Our raft went right into some huge rapids, but somehow we never flipped over, but I was cussin up a storm! haha...sorry Mom :)
Once we were done our 45 min ride of terror and into the warm cars on the Army base, I could finally stop shaking! I am not sure if it was from the adrenaline rush or from being so cold from the water! But, it was good experience none the less!
Spooooky fog! This was our drop in point!

me surveying the water and probably thinking "what the heck are we doing??"
the Butikofer women! Don't mess with us! :)

my father-in-law getting suited up!

Jess and his bro pumping up one of the rafts..look at that booty!

The gang finally suited up and ready to go! It was about 10 pm when we finally got started!!! we all look SO HAPPY

woo hoo! We're alive!!


Another fun watery thing we did was hike up to some waterfalls called Thunderbird Falls. The funny thing about this hike was that Aaron had told us that it was totally flat and we could absolutely bring strollers and their mom's wheelchair! Haha! It was an extremely uphill gravely pathway that went for over a mile! Whoops... so we had quite a work out getting all our strollers and Kathryn's wheelchair up there but it was worth it! The scenery was gorgeous and for once it didn't rain!

takin a break

Thunderbird Falls! Cal had HAD it with this hike!! Look at that face! I love it :)

The Monday we were all there we had a really fun FHE where everyone had to perform a talent either as a family or individually. Jess and I told jokes, because we determined that we had no talents! haha! But there was some excellent piano playing, guitar pickin, even a little nose-kazoo courtesy of Mary :) Then afterwards it started POURING outside and what better way to end an FHE then dancing in the rain!!! We had speakers and everything!


Sorry for the loooong post! More to come :)

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