Turkey Day Wrap Up

We survived the drive and had a great time (once we got there.) Yes, this is how I'd sum up our trip to my parents for our Turkey Day celebration. It was a day of driving, two days of visiting, and a day of driving home. An eight hour trip stretched into 10+ hours with potty breaks and stops for course correction- and I don't mean looking at a map. I lost count of how many times Dave slammed on the breaks and pulled over to the side of the road (unfortunately in that very order) to straighten out some sort of back seat squabble. It seemed as if the kids were determined to keep the noise level up for extended periods of time. So we are going to enjoy NOT traveling at Christmas, and Dave is already leery about our traditional 4th of July trip back "home."

A big highlight of our visit was getting to know 2 year old Jane (Matt and Ella's daughter.) Last time we saw her she was a baby. Now she's a big girl and loved playing with her cousins. Faith had been looking forward to this trip for so long and couldn't wait to see her cousin playmate Aubrey (Andy and Sara's daughter) who is also four and has a fun little bro and sis- Caleb and Aubrey. We wish Nate and Paris could have been there to make the gathering complete.

We enjoyed a delicious feast(thanks Mom!), the traditional "stuff the turkey" with blessings activity and played lots of games including Quiddler, Guess Who, and Cranium. (Got to find Cranium Jr. for Christmas!) The turkey race was a flop- I guess Mormons just really aren't meant to gamble.

I didn't take a lot of pictures. I think I was considering myself "on break." But here are a few...

Jane and Faith playing hide-and-seek


Ring-around-the-rosie with Aunt Judy


Reading the blessings from the stuffed turkey


Ella and Matt


Seth and Grandma G


And I want to share a little traditon we have been doing for a few years now. On a Family Night before Thanksgiving we each make a page of what we are thankful for and then combine the pages into a little book. As the children grow, it is going to be fun to look back to see what the children were thankful for.