Porter's Adventures.........okay so who wouldn't be a little jealous?

Yes, I admit it.....sometimes I am green with envy when it comes to Porter's "job". Sometimes - well okay a lot of the time - it just sounds so nice to stay in the nicest resorts, eat at the nicest restaurants (meaning no cooking and more importantly no cleaning up), doing whatever you want - when you want, maid service, seeing the world, and doing some pretty cool things. Okay, I must be really lonely. Porter texted me tonight from Scottsdale, AZ - AS HE WAS EATING AT FLEMMINGS no less - and it just made me feel a little sad. He's gone for another week and a half and I just miss him. :( I'm sure it's a real sacrifice (I just can't see it tonight as I look at all these pictures) that he has to be gone all the time and I'm sure if it was me that had to travel all the time - I wouldn't trade it for what I am doing. But.............. it's sure nice to dream and live vicariously through him. Seriously if you don't believe me - look where he has been - and these are only a few of the places.

This is the resort he stayed at last week in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico . See what I mean about spoiled!!!!

Beautiful sunset.

He took this picture out on a catamaran trip. Way cool rock, there were a bunch of seals on it

Here he is scuba diving while in Mexico. The sea lions would come right up to him.

Another trip to West Palm Beach, Florida. He went deep sea fishing.

He caught a barracuda.
YIKES!!!!! And I thought sharks were scary.

This is in Bellingham, Washington. It looks so beautiful.

Grand Cayman Island. He gets to hang out here a lot! He's going again next week.

One of his many trips to San Francisco.

This is on the private Island called St. Simmons off the coast of Georgia.


New York, New York. I've never been to NY city - someday :)

Washington, D.C.

Do you see what I mean? I know it's his job and all - but for the love!!! I think I'm just jealous because I want to travel the world so so so so bad. I guess my time will come someday. By then, he'll probably just want to stay home. Oh well - such is life. I will just be thankful for what I have.

Skittles

Jake and Tanner's conversation Sunday morning:

(Tanner had just opened a large package of Skittles from his Halloween candy and was sorting them into colors.)

Jake: " Hey Tanner, can I have some of your yellow ones?"

Tanner: "No you can't, I'm sick." (Tanner had strep last week)

Jake: "Oh come on, you haven't even touched all of them yet."

Tanner: "Touch, touch, touch, touch........" (As Tanner touched everyone of his skittles in front of Jake - so he couldn't have any. He was so proud of himself. In the end - Jake didn't get any.)

Halloween

Here are my SCARY Halloween creatures.

Courtney was a cute vampire - if vampires are cute.

Jake was a ninja. Very appropriate for him. :)

Tanner was Ironman. He's worn his costume everyday for a week since he got it. The little chest even lights up.

Ready for trick-or-treating with their friends the Antonelli's.

Last Sunday, we had a family Halloween party that Courtney planned. It was really cute - we played games, had some Halloween food, and even had a costume contest.

Here is my costume: "soccer mom".

My mom looks really good in goth or "emo" - I think that's what they call it.

Brent's a sexy pregnant woman - love the purple tights!

Brenda's costume was really fun - she won the contest.

Lila just laughed at her funny grandma! Witches brew

These were my kids favorite - mini carmel apples.

Courtney played this really fun game. She blindfolded you and had you feel all these different things and then guess what they were. It was harder than I thought it would be. These were toes made out of string cheese and almonds.

This is brains - she glued a bunch of gummy worms together.

Fingers - Courtney carved them out of carrots.

Eyeballs - they felt so gross when you didn't know what they were.
This one is thyroid made out of tomato. Nobody guessed this one right.

blood vessels out of sprouts

heart out of chicken breast

Last but not least - intestines out of noodles.

I know.....it's shocking!!!

Okay, yes I know it's very shocking - but I am actually blogging. I figured it was time to start up again. I just needed a break from blogging - I don't know if anyone else ever gets that way? Plus 3 kids keeps me super busy - as all of you moms know.

So, here's the update: we are still in Utah and trying to keep it that way - CA is super over priced plus the schools aren't very good.
Porter is still flying for his boss out of San Jose and commutes there when he needs to fly - although he is not near as busy as he was. Yah!
I am still working my 1 shift a week at the surgical center and doing what mom's do: shopping, cleaning, cooking, carpooling, homework, counseling, bed-tucker-inner and a million and one other things.
Courtney is in 4th grade and loving it - she has some really cute friends. She is also on a swim team and trains several hours a day 4-5 times a week - and she's doing great!
Jake is Jake! He is in 2nd grade, still playing soccer and he is my collector. He collects anything and everything. Rocks, cool little do-dad's, money, shoelaces, or whatever he can find. Every time I turn around Jake has a little pile somewhere.
Tanner is almost 4 - I can't believe it - and in pre-school. He loves to do everything Courtney and Jake do - but he is our entertainer. You never know what funny thing is going to come out of his mouth!

So that's the low down on us Isom's! I've decided there is so much to blog that I will go back and give the highlights of the past few months. But I wanted to start with our family trip to Yellowstone in September. This is the first time just Porter and I have taken our kids on a vacation. We usually go with my family or his, so it was really fun to go with just us. The kids loved Yellowstone! It was a really fun family trip. :)

Mammoth Hot Springs

Isn't that amazing? This picture does it no justice. This elk was huge!

This is one of my favorite pictures.

You can see where everything burned in the big fire 20 years ago.

Out to eat. YUM YUM

Swimming at the hotel.

This is at a bear preserve in West Yellowstone. Courtney and Jake got to go into the bears enclosure (when they weren't in there) and hide food for them. Then the bears would come out and find the food. It was so cool .

They had wolves there too, we even got to hear all of them howling.

We spent lots of time driving in the car.

You got to hit Old Faithful. She still is faithful.

Yellowstone Lake. It was pretty chilly - It even snowed for a few minutes.

Porter encouraging Jake to break the rules! (No....not Porter)

Yellowstone Lake - it was so pretty.

Tanner called them bufflers or mufflers.

This is what they call the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Hopefully very soon, I will give the highlights of the past few months.