Christmas at Walker's Bluff

On Sunday afternoon we went to Walker's Bluff, a local 160-acre vineyard that is currently being developed. Their restaurant, Legend's is already open along with an event complex. Every Sunday is family day where they have free entertainment, crafts and jump on toys for the kids along with a playground. Most Friday nights they have a free movie showing and sometimes with themed food and beverages.

Hayes got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus, take a horse and carriage ride,

and make a Christmas ornament in the craft area.

This is Legend's restaurant. They are open Tuesday - Sunday

for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sheep with red ribbons. (Notice the one black sheep) Here is Hayes waiting on the carriage ride.
Hayes and Sheldon on the carriage ride.
We said this was the biggest ornament we had ever seen,

so here is Sheldon posing so you can get the full scale.

Tickets Please!

This morning we took a two-hour train ride on the Marion Polar Express. We arrived at the train depot at 9:45am for our 10am train ride. The passenger car was all full so we sat on the caboose. I was not really that thrilled that we had to sit on the caboose at first. Being almost 29 weeks pregnant you start to worry about access to the facilities. Once we started moving the Conductor said that the caboose was the oldest operating wooden caboose in the US, so that was a pretty cool fact!

Here is Hayes ready to go.

He randomly asked all week long to hold his ticket.

Waiting on the conductor to punch our tickets.

Hayes held his ticket from the time we got on the train

until the Conductor punched it. He said he had to "hold it so the ductor could see it." This may have been his favorite part of the trip!

The caboose had rattan looking covered seats and brown walls.

Doesn't this Conductor seriously look like the character in the movie?

Conductor switching the track. This meant we got to go on the

passenger train for a bathroom break and HOT CHOCOLATE!

Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate! Sheldon and Hayes on the engine after the ride.

All finished with the Polar Express. Here is the engine, caboose,

and passenger car (borrowed from St. Louis).

The little red caboose.

The Porter Elves

It's getting sooooo cold up here in Illinois we feel like elves in the North Pole.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/a9MW0seirOOG1vv5R5vr

Marion Christmas Parade

Last Saturday we headed to the local train depot to await Santa's arrival. Here he is getting off the train. This was a cool way to bring Santa in from the North Pole!

Season's Greetings from Santa.

Hayes watching Santa come in on the train.

The parade featured a great Grinch, which Hayes did NOT like. Thankfully the Grinch did not jump out of the car and run over to Hayes like he did to another child. Hayes was on a constant look out for the Grinch! The Grinch play will be held a couple days before Christmas for free at our local civic center.
Here comes Santa Claus. We all followed Santa up to the town square and attended a Christmas show in the Marion Cultural & Civic Center (our Peace Center). We sang Christmas carols and watched local dance teams, listened to the high school chorus and saw a performance by the Grinch.

We stopped at the town square after the Christmas show to see the nativity scene.

It's a BOY!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving I had a great baby shower at Gail's home in Easley. It was great to see family and friends celebrating the birth of a new baby boy. I'm due late February and am feeling more like I'm eight months along right about now.


Here I am at 26 weeks.

Very cute and very yummy cake from Sweet Creations in Easley. http://www.sweetcreations.org/ShowerCakes.html

Here is the Porter cradle that has been in the family since the late 1800s. Hayes slept in it in our bedroom for the first four months, and I only hope we get it up to Illinois to use it for this baby.

Here I am with the hostesses with the mostesses from left to right: Mary Ross, my mom, me and Gail. Thanks Ladies!

Here is Hayes eating a bumble bee off a piece of cake after he got up from his nap.

Hayes' First Plane Ride

On Sunday, November 15th Hayes and I flew out of the St. Louis airport to go back home for a long Thanksgiving break. Getting checked in was a little nerve-racking since the airport was a little busy and I was having to keep an eye on Hayes while checking in at the Delta kiosk. I was a little anxious going through security just because of the normal routine of taking shoes off and sending everything through. Here is Hayes, Sammy and Sharkie in the airport waiting to board our plane to Atlanta (behind Hayes in picture).
Hayes eating his peanuts, and we got apple juice in his cup. All he wanted to do was unbuckle and buckle his seatbelt. He wasn't really interested in the actual flight. The guy sitting by Hayes was a young man from southern Illinois, and he was headed to a military fort in Columbus, GA to prepare for deployment to Afganistan a couple of weeks before Christmas.
After we landed in Atlanta we had to quickly change concourses and board the final flight home to Greenville-Spartanburg. After I closed the window shade (since the sun was so bright) all Hayes wanted to do was open and close the shade. I don't think the man in front of us enjoyed it too much. Thankfully it is only a 30 minute flight.

All in all the trip was a breeze and taking the stroller was a necessity. Pap and cousins Haley and Ashlyn met us at GSP just outside the gate. Thanks to them and Uncle Alan for picking us up! Oh and Aunt T for the welcome home treat bags!

St Louis Zoo

We headed out early on the Saturday morning of November 14th to visit the St. Louis Zoo. The 77-acre zoo is located in the beautiful Forest Park area where the 1904 World's Fair was held. Forest Park includes the zoo, Art Museum, Science Center, Jewelry Box greenhouse, History Museum, The Muny Theatre, 7.5 mile biking, jogging and skating path, skating rink and lakes, golf course, tennis center and much, much more. Admission to the park and zoo are free. http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/parks/forestpark/

Huge Great White inside the zoo lobby.

Hayes loved riding this "horse" on the carousel.
The Penguin and Puffin indoor and outdoor exhibit was added in 2003 and was one of my favorites at the zoo. However, the inside exhibit was obviously very cold and not so fresh smelling. Humboldt, king, gentoo, and rockhopper penguins from the southern hemisphere, and horned and tufted puffins from the northern hemisphere are among the species on display.
The Chimpanzee exhibit was another one of my favorites, and I did not know that they are currently on the endangered species list. At one time more than 1 million thrived in Africa and as of 2008 only 190,000 are estimated to be in existence. Several factors have contributed to the loss of species from loss of habitat, meat trade, ebola virus, etc. I could have stayed and watched these amazing creatures all day.
We had to make a stop by the Big Cat exhibit for Hayes. For those of you that don't know Hayes has been acting like a kitty cat for the last 4 weeks constantly meowing. This is the Cheetah. The fastest land animal in the world sprinting up to 70 mph.

We spent about 4 1/2 hours at the zoo and still did not see everything. I can't wait to go back soon and see everything else. If you go I recommend riding the train in the zoo and getting off at each stop to see the different exhibits. Otherwise you'll be walking all day.

Happy Halloween

Hayes enjoyed Trick or Treating so much this year and was pumped about being a cowboy! He asked to wear his cowboy boots several times earlier in the week, and enjoyed gently lassoing Roscoe in the living room. Hayes quickly learned that if you go to a door then you get more candy. He did get a little scared of some creepy clowns and a ninja that was sitting on a porch. He also enjoyed holding the candy bowl and handing out candy to our trick-or-treaters. Later in the night Hayes walked into the kitchen with three unwrapped Dum-Dums in hand. Those are his favorite!

Here we are at Sheldon's work. This lonesome cowboy didn't want to have his picture made at the time.

More treats!

Ready to go!

Hayes at Sheldon's work.

We had a great Halloween and are going to finish it off by finally going to see Where the Wild Things Are this afternoon!

First Visitors to Illinois!

On Thursday, October 15th our first visitors to Illinois arrived around 10pm after about a 10 hour journey! Kirk, Gail and Matt (Sheldon's parents and brother for those of you who do not know) braved the traffic and practically day-long rain showers to get here even though we were coming home the next weekend for a wedding.

The rain did not really stop until Sunday morning, but we managed to get out there a little bit. We rode around the neighborhood and Marion a little, and had lunch at McAlister's Deli. Yes...the same as on Augusta back home with the big sweet tea! We ventured to the TIRED Marion mall where Matt was finally able to find some size 14 shoes. Sheldon did a drive by at The Reserve and showed off a little southern Illinois countryside.

Now Sheldon had been waiting on this visit for us to enjoy the 17th Street Bar & Grill http://www.17thstreetbarbecue.com/ restaurant. This nationally recognized BBQ brags on a four-time World Champion and three-time Grand World Champion at Memphis in May, otherwise known as the Super Bowl of Swine. Also the 1992 Grand Champion of the Jack Daniel’s World Invitational Barbecue Cooking Contest and it won the Jack Daniel’s Sauce Contest that year as well. Here is Gail and Kirk before digging in. I think we all agreed these are the best ribs any of us ever tasted!!

Sunday was the prettiest day so we headed out to Blue Sky Vineyards http://www.blueskyvineyard.com/. It was a beautiful fall day and everyone was getting out to enjoy it after several days of rain. Families can enjoy the free outdoor music and bring their own picnic or order from the Blue Sky menu. The most popular menu items seemed to be the cheese plate, bread and olive oil, and thin crust pizza.

Sunday night was spent watching a little brotherly rivalry between Atlanta and Chicago. Final score was Atlanta 21, Chicago 14.

On Monday morning The Porters headed out on another long journey home. It was so good to have family in our home for the weekend! Who's next people?

SI Hunting & Fishing Days

Last Saturday we went to the Southern Illinois Hunting & Fishing Days. After finally getting in and parking we walked around and looked at all the cool things the vendor had on display. Everything from ATVs, Archery Competition, Waterfowl and Goose Calling Competition, Catfishing Competition, Camo the Clown, Retriever Competition, Buckskinners Village and the Brody the Bear!

Hayes the big buck.

This is just one of the coolest "toys" they had on display.

They also had golf carts, boats and four-wheelers.

Retriever competition by Dock Dogs.

This was one of the most popular events!

Brody the 1600 pound Grizzly Bear from the movie Grizzly Park.

The Buckskinners Village displayed traditional living techniques and demonstrated mountain man skills. They also had teepees on display and activities like tomohawk throwing and outdoor cooking. Hayes was really pumped about walking over to this pirate and getting some treasures out of his animal skinned pouch.

As we were walking out the Crab Orchard Refuge had several birds on display, but they were all in cages so we couldn't get good pictures. It was really cool to see a turkey hawk (really looks like half turkey/half black hawk), screech owl (very tiny and cute!), barn owl and many other owls and hawks.

Great family outing that was very entertaining (and tiring) for Hayes!