Sevark Central

For several summers in a row now we've been talking about tubing the Salt River...on a weekday when nobody is there since the weekends are a crazy mess down there!  We finally did it late this afternoon, after work.  It turned out excellent, even though it was a little crazy finally doing it.  Lexine thought we were meeting there at 3pm while Garrett, Porter and I didn't even plan leaving from work until 3:30pm -- but even we were later than that since we were busy airing up tubes which took us longer than expected.  Finally, around 5pm, we were all together at the river.  Noah & Jonah rode in the back of my truck with the tubes as we drove to the starting point.  Then it was off on a tubing adventure!  It took us about 90 minutes with the boys favorite parts being the rapids -- although we had to be careful because the river was shallow and "behinds" hit the rock below a couple times.  All in all, it was fun enough that we can't wait to do it again -- maybe next week with Danny & Micah's and older kids!  :-)

June 28, 1991...just 3 months after I returned from my mission, Cindy and I were married in the Mesa AZ Temple for time and all eternity. That was 23 years ago today and yet it seems like yesterday.  I recall that day so vividly.  Dad sat the family down and said our family will be different from now on...I was among the first one getting married and leaving home, and someday it will be all the rest of the kids (Todd actually got married before me).  We then all drove to the temple where I met Cindy and mom & dad Porter in the reception area...Cindy had been waiting on me to get there and wondered why I hadn't been there earlier (I was on time, even a few minutes early, just not "Porter" early which is a trait I love about the Porter family and that we carry on in our family today).  Soon after we were sealed by Bro. Ernest Skinner one of the temple sealers who was thrilled to see another Webb & Porter line colliding again.  Then it was out the doors for family pictures and more wedding pictures...we couldn't have picked a hotter day!

After pictures we ran back into the temple, changed into regular church clothes (from our wedding clothes) and headed to the 25th ward building for the luncheon.  I recall meeting many of the extended Porter family that I hadn't met before and we had pulled pork or beef sandwiches.  I believe Mark & Terry Reed sang a song and tried to liven up the event a bit with some trivia about Cindy and me.   Later on, we went over to Porters for a short break while the church was decorated for the reception, then it came time to change back into our wedding clothes.  We were looking for separate rooms to change when Dad Porter said, "You're married now, you can change in the same room".  Needless to say, we still changed in separate rooms...  :-)

The reception was perfect and wonderful in every way...so many friends and family from both sides.  I remember my face hurting from smiling so much and greeting everyone.  Both of our legs hurt after standing for the two hours.  We had our close friends nearby standing in the line with us.  It was an amazing evening, I was so proud to have Cindy standing there by me side, and to be the man on her side.  We got out of the reception to find Cindy's little Plymouth Champ all decorated up with confetti everywhere.  We changed into casual clothes (separately again) and embarked on our new lives together -- except for stopping at a car wash to clean our car off.  :-)

I've often wondered why we both felt the need to get married so quickly after my mission...we had dated over a year before I left and we knew each other so well already.  We just both knew it was right.  Life together was an absolutely bliss, I have alway been so proud to have her as my wife, and will forever.  But little did either of us know that shortly before our 19th anniversary she would be taken and we would be separated for a time.  There couldn't have been a harder challenge for either of us, but not a greater blessing either as we both felt that trial sealed us together...we both made sealing covenant in the temple, but enduring together thru this hardest time of our lives made us one.  I always think of her and will forever live my life trying to make her proud of me and the kids she loved so dearly.

Now when Lexine and I are asked, "how long have you been married?", we reply today "46 years".  I enjoy seeing the puzzled looks on their faces until we explain...23 from Cindy & me, plus 20 from Rod & Lexine, plus 3 from Lexine and me.  It brings a little light to an awkward subject...but Lexine and I agree, we are both still married to eternal spouses as well.

Now lets see how well I recapped our wedding from memory compared to Cindy's journal entry I just stumbled found...not to shabby for a man!  :-)  Happy 23rd anniversary Cindy...someday we'll be together again for our anniversaries...until then, we continue to "march fourth/forth"!  ;-)

Today Lexine took some of the boys to Bigsurf while Porter and I were at work.  Garrett, Noah, Caleb and Jonah decided they wanted to go...so we split the cost with them. They also brought their good friend Colton along with them. There were supposed to go a couple weeks ago, but then Lexine ended up going to a doctor's appointment, so they were unable to...which almost happened again today!  Lexine had another doctors appointment today that she took all the boys to...instead of being an hour, it was 2 hour they had to wait, but that didn't stop them.  Finally they got to go and had a blast.  They said it was fun, but too crowded...  They came home happy though and sunburned!  I'm glad you guys had a great day!!

This afternoon and evening we had the honor of attending Nicholas Austill's mission farewell and open house.  Nicholas was one of Porter's great friends from our last ward and the very first of his old gang to go on a mission.  Several others are following close behind...  Porter is the oldest of them and could already be gone, but has to go one semester to ASU to keep his scholarship.  He doesn't seem to mind waiting a couple months, and its good for him to continue working to earn money, but it will be a nice benefit to him for years after he returns to have his schooling paid for.  This is a great group of kids...an incredible group.  They were right there for him during the time Cindy died and they've encouraged him to step out of his comfort zone and try new things:  Swim team, dances, proms, dating, etc.  A parent couldn't ask for better friends for his son...  You've got some great friends Porter!

This morning Garrett, Maizey and their good friend Jimmy all left to EFYin Flagstaff again!  Garrett and Maizey have gone the last 3 year now they love it so much.  Jimmy's mom drove and Lexine and I will drive up Friday to stay the night and pick them up early on Saturday morning.  We'll have to race home to make it in time to the funeral of Jette Davis in our ward -- who recently passed away of cancer at the age of 13 -- he was Caleb's age and one of my 11 year old scouts.  It will be a strange week not having Garrett & Maizey here around the house this week...but we know they'll be having a great time!

I'm a lucky dad in our home and was very well pampered today for Father's day!  I woke up to a nice breakfast in bed, then enjoyed one of my favorite lunches (Roast, Potatoes & Carrots), received an iPad mini that I've been wanting but probably would have never bought myself, then ended the evening visiting Grandpa Glasgow's, Cindy's & Rod's grave sites and heading over visit with Grandpa Severtson & Grandpa Porter.  Unfortunately we missed Grandpa Porter because I can't seem to keep up with my email and didn't get the message that they would be gone in the evening :-(.  But all-in-all It was a very nice day to honor the great father's in our lives and the wonderful example they are to us.

Now that Bentley has her mission call, she's starting to get calls from the High Council to speak with them once a month.  Today she spoke at the Cloud Creek ward with Bro. Delgado (who is also our home teacher).  It was the same time as our ward, so only Lexine was able to break away to watch her speak.  Lexine said she did great as we already knew she would.  I'm sure there'll be a few more of these opportunities before she departs to the MTC and then France!

What an awesome way to spend a Friday evening together with Friends!  Tonight we got together with Lexine's old gang of girl friends with spouses and kids for a night of swimming and BBQ.  Life is so busy that we don't get to get together too often, so its a nice reunion when we do.  We had a great time...good food, great discussions and fun hanging out & swimming for the kids!

Bentley has been gone all week at "Time to Blossom"-- a sort of EFY for 11-12 year old girls.  She applied and was accepted, which was the reason she was unable to go to Havasupai with us (or the cruise which took the place of Havasupai).  For the entire week, she stayed at the Hyatt new Bass Pro Shop then was up early and out late with her group of young girls who absolutely loved her! She even got to meet Sister Dalton the previous General YW President for the church! What a great experience to have before Bentley leaves on her mission and what a wonderful thing to do and experience.  Great job Bentley!

We try to have the missionaries over for dinner as often as we can...luckily we were able to have them in our home twice this week!  On Sunday evening not long after we returned from our cruise Elder McStraw & Tahuti came over to share a message with us, then again on Wednesday evening Elder Tahuti & Ficklin came over for dinner.  In between those couple days they had transfers, so we were blessed to have the new missionary over to meet our family.  They asked Porter and Garrett if they would like to go our on Team Teaches with them -- which they said yes -- so that will be a great experience for them!  It is such a blessing it is to have the missionaries in our home so often...

Maizey left to Girl's Camp today!  Since we had the Gilbert Temple Cultural Celebration earlier this year, Girl's camp was at the ward level (rather than Stake).  So the girls are going up by Snowflake for the week to have their fun!  At least they are getting away from this heat!  :-)  I'm sure they'll have a great time!

Lexine has not been feeling all that great lately...in fact, she's even been showing symptoms similar to whatever it was that she had shortly after we got married.  Along with those symptoms is back pain that has been driving her crazy and fevers/night-sweats.  In addition, I've not gotten all my strength back after my intestinal surgery at the latter part of 2013.  So last Sunday evening we told the kids there was a slight chance we would not be able to go to Havasupai this weekend.  They sounded slightly bummed, but we told them we were working on a potential plan B just in case -- which was a quick 3 days cruise like we had done before.  There was an awkward pause and I thought, "shoot, nobody likes that idea"...then Caleb said so innocently, "Dad, why does plan B have to be better than plan A?".  Then all the kids jumped in and said, "Yeah!".  So on Monday Lexine sat down to see if there was any way to snag up one of these last minute cruise deals -- and obviously she was successful at it and was able to get us a great deal for not too much more than it would have cost to go to Havasupai.

At work on Monday, I also mentioned this to Kirk -- who said they would like to do that with us as well.  So Lexine worked that into the deal as well!  On Thursday morning at 4:30am, we all loaded up and headed on our way!  We met Kirk & Keta (along with Jet, Vance and Rosy) in Blythe, then followed each other the rest of the way.  Some how we were able to get right on the boat for early boarding...so by about noon, we were already sitting on the boat eating in the buffet -- Yum!

It was a wonderful trip.  We had a great fancy dinner that night and every night all together of all kinds of dishes -- steaks, prime rib, pork chops, etc.  We also had some fancy appetizers for the kids to try...allegator, escargot, rabbit.  The kids had a lot of fun trying those out.

On Friday, we got up and spent the day in Ensenada Mexico.  Mostly we just walked the streets letting the kids barter for things they wanted.  Our kids mostly bought sun glasses and Mexican style woven sports backpacks.  They had fun with one vendor with a young 7 year old boy named Kevin (interesting name for a hispanic boy in Mexico), Porter started playing frisbee with him and before we knew it all the boys were having a great time with him, taking pictures, trying to talk spanish and teasing.  His Dad was sure happy when we bought 6 backpacks from him!  :-)

The rest of the time we spent on the ship by the swimming pool and water slides, miniature golf course and most of all sitting in the dinning area eating...Porter & Rosy had an ice cream cone eating contest, I think they both ate somewhere around 20 each!  :-)  Caleb, Jet and I played 4 games of miniature golf together -- each of us winning 1 of them (me two of them :-).  It was a great time...

This morning our ship docked back in Long Beach and our trip was about over.  We had one last great breakfast buffet onboard, then it was back to our cabins to get our belongings and stand in line to get off.  We actually got off without too much difficulty and were on the road by 10am.  It was a long drive home...especially since we know we're back to our usually busy routing again starting tomorrow!  But it was a great 3 days!