The Swarts and the Richins at "A Day Out With Thomas".
Meeting Sir Topham Hot in person!
Playing with trains
Story time with Jannene.
Ringing the bell
The kid hay maze
The bounce house.
Time to see the real trains.
Why you should never leave your tractor unattended.
Time to go home after a long day without naps!
Ernest and Norma Strong were my Great Grandparents on my father's side. Above is a photo of the last house Ernest built during the 1930's in Springville, Utah. Ernest grew up very poor on a farm on the outskirts of Springville, Utah. When the time came, he left his girlfriend Norma, went on a mission to Germany and Switzerland and then came home, married Norma and started a road construction company and became a millionaire. Over the years, he would update his houses according to his wealth. This is the last house he built and the detail is simply awesome. The above photo is a picture of the house within a year or two of it being built. A couple notes to mention, the brick chimney is made from the same rock that the Manti Temple was made from and, in my opinion, the house resembles a house you would find in Germany that he would have seen while there on his mission.
Ernest was both an Architect/Engineer as well as a General Contractor. I see a lot of genius in his design of this bathroom. For example the ceiling radius is perfect in dimension. The toilet is placed perfectly center. The tile is laid diagonally which is a more labor intensive format for laying tile. I also like that the tile border matches the tile trim.
I have seen laundry chutes in hallways and occasionally you will see one in a bathroom, but Ernest took it a step further and added a laundry chute inside the shower itself. In my opinion it is as efficient as you can get.
The rumor to the lights in this house is that they are the same lights that are/were used in the Salt Lake City temple. This certainly fits Ernest's style and this style of lights does reflect the style of lights used in the temple. However my guess, after some minor research, is that the lights are from the same manufacturer. The Byrd family, who currently own the house, went through a remodel a couple of years ago and had some left over original light fixtures and were kind enough to give us one of them. I am excited to have one of my Great Grandfather's light fixtures from his old house to rehang in my old house.
I don't know why but I have always had a fascination with door handles. It seems that as they become more and more mass produced the more the fascination diminishes. Here are a couple original door handles in Ernest and Norma's house.
The railing is custom and this is the pattern that Ernest chose to go with.
Here is a steel pass through that Ernest had installed so that deliveries or groceries could be made regardless if the Strong's were home or not. This one is located in his kitchen. There is another more defined one in his lobby/office.
Picture of the living room. It was hard to shoot good angles in this house and since it was a self invited tour, we were thankful for the pictures we could get.
Here is a picture of the fire place from the inside. I cant tell if this has been remodeled or not through the years. I suspect the bottom is original and the top (above the brick) has been modified.
I saved these photos for last. Ernest understood construction and framing was his strong suit. While I was on my mission in Virginia, I met an old man who knew my Great Grandfather and he bragged about his quality and his speed. He said while building roads, they would be forming up one side and pouring the other side at the same time. The form workers had to hurry because the concrete was coming their way. Looking inside the attic spaces in Ernest's house, his framing was immaculate. I also noticed some job site materials made their way into his house as well.
Rufus Porter House
For the last couple of months we as a family have been holding Family Home Evening every Monday. When it was just Sunny and I it was hard to see the value in FHE, but now that Porter is older and able to go out and play and have fun, just about anywhere we go can be an adventure.
Because we bought an old house, I have become more aware of old homes in the surrounding towns. People at work have been telling me about Fullerton. After a quick internet search, I found the Porter House and because we have a Porter, it was a definite must see.
The house is a wood framed grove house and is now the oldest home existing in Fullerton. Originally built by John Kerr in 1882, the home first stood in the midst of a vineyard. The growing of grapes subsequently changed to apricots, plums, walnuts, and during the first decade of the century switched to oranges.
Rufus Porter, son of pioneer rancher Benjamin Porter, bought the property in 1919, and the orange productions continued on the surrounding 40 acres of land until 1952, at which time tract housing replaced the grove. The Porter family continued ownership of the house until 1984, when it was renovated and enlarged for the use as a restaurant.
Lately Porter has been copying a lot of things that I do. This is one of my favorite moments. I went and sat down on the curb and immediately he came and sat down on the curb with me. It amazes me just how impressionable children are and that leads me to the next thought of how important we give the right impressions to our kids.
Learning to take a bath in the big bath since all we had was the sink at our old house.
Playing trains with cousins.
Watching and learning from cousin Liam. Porter already loves the computer.
Playing stickers and trains with his best friend, Porter.
Playing with Jeckel. Porter is good about being kind to other kids but he does bully Jeckel around. However, Jeckel sticks around to take it when he could leave the room like the other two cats. I think he's just glad to get the attention. Porter does love Jeckel and Jeckel loves Porter.
We have been having Family Home Evening almost every Monday night. Well, I guess it's not so much Family "Home" Evening as it is Family "Out" Evening. This was our Monday night at the Mexican Circus in town. We waited in line to ride the llama and then when it was Porter's turn the guy looked past us and asked if anyone else wanted to ride the ponies. When we said, "he does!" (pointing at Porter), the guy said jokingly, "he's too big." I think they were wondering what we were doing at the Mexican Circus when we obviously weren't Mexican.
Family "Out" Evening at the Angels baseball game. Porter's first baseball game.
Family "Out" Evening in Chino looking at the cows, goats, and chickens.
Oh, and rocks.
Discovering Thomas the Train apps on Da's phone. Porter loves playing with his Da.
Family "Out" Evening at the Chino Airport. Tom told Porter this helicopter was Harold, one of the Thomas the Train characters. Porter was in love with the helicopter after that but didn't want to leave until we took off the cover over the helicopter's nose so that he could see Harold's face. We had to convince Porter that Harold was sleeping and we couldn't wake him up.
Having fun at the airport hangers.
Running around at the airport.
Playing with Brooke. Sarah and I took our little munchkins out a couple days in a row. First, to Dos Lagos, then to the Irvine Park. Everyone we talked to asked us if Brooke and Porter were twins. Brooke is 5 months older than Porter but they are both about the same size and both cute little blondies. These two looked so cute running around together but they wouldn't slow down long enough for me to get a good picture of them together. A few crazy photos is all I could get.
Looking forward to Halloween.
Porter will be 21 months old on Monday 9/19. Time flies! This last month it seems like the flood gates of words and understanding have been opened. He is curious about everything and when I give him a word for something he remembers it and repeats it. One night I told him there was a dinosaur on his shirt. In the morning he got up and looked in the mirror and said "d-saur". I couldn't believe that he remembered me telling him there was a dinosaur on his shirt the night before. His favorite words are all of the names of the Thomas and the Train and Friends. For awhile I wondered if he knew any other words. His favorite train is Gordon. He says this name constantly and Gordon seems to come up in a lot of conversations and even when he talks in his sleep. The name is kind of starting to wear on me. I'm almost thinking Gordon is a good name for a boy if we have a boy. Which, by the way, my ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby is in less than 2 weeks, Thursday 9/29. I have been far enough along this month to go to a private ultrasound place and find out the sex of the baby but I have just decided to wait. My life is so busy, waiting actually makes me feel like something isn't rushing by. Although this pregnancy already seems to be going faster than when I was pregnant with Porter. The only thing I really want to buy this time it a double stroller. Well, and be into our new house (I guess that's a pretty big one).
But, back to Porter... He really has turned into a toddler. It's a whole new experience that makes me question if I'm a good mother or not. Especially when I am in public and Porter is running around while everyone elses kids are sitting quietly. He has high energy and a bright smile but when he doesn't get something he wants he arches his back and lays on the floor and cries. Porter and I started going to a class called "Musical Munchkins". Porter is so good at listening to the teacher and following her directions. He loves the music and dances and marches and plays along. However, when she handed out maracas and he wasn't first he threw a temper tantrum and when she let all the kids touch her tambourine and he couldn't hold the tambourine he threw a temper tantrum. Hopefully this class will teach him some patience. I'm excited for the next class.
Porter's 2 year molars have come in. He has been back to the teething phase of chewing on everything. His favorite thing to chew on is a tooth brush. He brushes his teeth morning, noon, and night. His teeth should be very clean!
He is still a bad eater. He won't try new things and only likes crunchy things like crackers, cookies, chips, and granola bars. His main supply of nutrition is PediaSure.
Porter hates wearing shoes. He hates sitting if we are not moving, unless we are watching a movie. He LOVES to play with trains, especially Thomas the Train. He loves to watch movies in my car and walks me out to my car some nights because he wants to watch a movie in my car. One night he brought me my purse and then started waving and blowing kisses to Sue and Tom like we were leaving together. So, Porter and I went out to the car and watched a movie. Porter loves his mom and dad. I think he is a mama's boy but he loves to play with his dad and says "da" more than "ma". Sometimes when he wants his dad to play with him he yells really loud, "DA!". Sometime he yells this when Tom's not even home. Tom makes up stories to play with the trains and makes everything fun. Porter's new word that he says really clearly is "water". He likes to take walks and ride in his little red car. He likes to swing and jump on the trampoline. He usually wants me to help him jump but just yesterday we went out to the trampoline and he bent his knees and jumped up really well. I was impressed. He had a big smile on his face and kept doing it. I think he is going to be a jumper!
I fall more in love with Porter every day. He keeps getting cuter and cuter. Every age I say, "this is my favorite age!" I wonder when I going to stop saying that. Friends say that is about 11 years old when they stop being cute and start being teenagers. I really hope Porter and I always stay close and that he is a good kid. I wish I knew what the secret was.
