Under the knife

Dad went in for knee surgery this morning. His knee has been bothering him for quite a while now and the doctor has tried multiple things to see if he could get it to feel better but nothing would work. The cortisone injection only lasted about a week and that didn't even take the pain completely away. So they finally opted for the knee surgery. They knew that his knee had bone spurs and figured he would have other things wrong once they got in there. As you can see from the picture above, dad didn't seem too nervous for the surgery. I think his kids did enough of that for him.

Here one of the many nurses was preparing his right leg for the surgery. With multiple back surgeries behind him, this seemed like cake.

This is the best part of the surgery . . .the nurse shaving dad's leg. She asked if he wanted the other leg shaved as well but he nicely declined. Just a heads up dad . . . it is going to itch like crazy once it starts growing back!!!

The surgery lasted a lot longer than anticipated due to the fact that they found many bone spurs along with a torn meniscus and arthritis. The doctor thinks that the problems started clear back when he was a catcher for his little league team as a kid. So all you ball players beware!

Besides it lasting longer than they thought it would everything went smoothly and dad got to go home this afternoon. Here his nurse is pushing him out to the car and as you can see he looks totally stoned!! AWESOME!!!

I just talked to mom and she said he is doing really well and is keeping his food down. He hasn't taken his first dose of medicine since the GOOD drugs haven't worn off yet. We all wish him a speedy and healthy recovery. Feel free to leave a comment for dad/Ed and I'm sure his slave/cook/chauffeur/girlfriend will make sure he reads them! We love you dad and are glad it went well. Take it easy and don't try to do too much, too fast. We know how those stubborn Porters are. Milk it for all it's worth!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday GG!! Has it only been 29 years? Today is your special birthday and we hope you had a fabulous day. Brooke especially hopes you got that stellar card she sent with those awesome penguins dancing to MC Hammer! Grandma, has anyone ever told you that you're pretty cool? Well YOU ARE!! On behalf of your 4 kids, 19 grandkids, and MANY great grandkids we'd like to wish you a very happy birthday with many more to come. Thanks for always being there for us, supporting us, and loving us. We all love you so much and can remember countless memories where you're involved. A few might include . . .
*Sleepovers and falling asleep on Friday night while you and grandpa watched 20/20
*Leaning over you in the car going through the eegee's drive thru. You couldn't say "pina colada" so we got to do the honors.
*Chick-fil-a
*Playing with your locket necklace during church
*Calamity Jane
*Your HUGE tupperware full of delicious cookies
*Going swimming at the club house and using those big, blue, striped beach towels
*When you fell off the ladder and got those really big and scary looking pins put in your arm
*All that tape on the boxes when wrapping a present
No matter what we think of we can't help but smiling. Thank you for all you do Grandma. We love you and hope you have a wonderful day!!!
Love,
Your Family

Painting at grandma's

What do you get when . . .

You strip the kiddos down to nothin' . . .

Splat a little tole paint on a plate . . .

And let the little ones have at it??????

FUN AT GRANDMA JAN'S!!!!

Thanks grandma for letting us do all those WAY cool things at your house that our mom would never let us do!
Love, T E & C

Welcome Home!

Welcome Home Soldier!!!
On Friday mom, dad, Katie, Chloe, and Maryn were able to go to the SLC airport and welcome home Jeff from Afghanistan. He had been gone for 14 months which was about 13 1/2 months too long for Tiffany! Because Jeff is apart of the Utah National Guard he had to fly home to Utah with the rest of the soliders before he could go on to Virginia and see Tiffany and the kids. Although that just made for an extra long trip, all of us Utah folk sure are glad that we were able to see him for the short 24 hours he was here.

The flight was scheduled to land at 5:45am which to anyone non-military is WAY too early. Actually I think that would be considered early to anyone! Everyone arrived on time, only to be surprised to find out that the plane had arrived 30 minutes early. Seriously? They really would do that to all those anxious families who had been anticipating this moment as long as the soliders? I guess so. By the time Jeff made it through all the people and all the camera men from the local news he was able to find the family.

It was great seeing him again. He looked tired, but that's to be expected from working 16-18 hours a day. Plus he spent the entire night in the Washington airport.

What a fine looking group! Not too shabby for getting up at the crack of dawn. After the airport scene Jeff went home with mom and dad to eat breakfast, sleep, and relax in the hot tub. Then the whole family came over for a big dinner including GG, Maryn, mom, dad, Katie, Adam, Tori, Ethan, and Chloe. By the sounds of things it was a fun but short lived party, as Jeff headed home with Maryn to catch some zzzz's before needing to be up at the base by 7am the next morning. After his "debriefing" he caught a flight to Virginia where is family was WAY MORE than ready for him to arrive.

Welcome Home Buddy!!! We're all so proud of you and the many other men and women who sacrifice for our freedom. Enjoy the down time and getting to know your kids again. We love you and hope to see you soon!

P.S. On the news the other night it said that this is the first time since 9/11 Utah has had all its soldiers home!