Thanksgiving Week

My family always gets together for Thanksgiving each year. This year was a little different. Mike & Wendy's families came earlier than normal, so we had an entire week of visitors. It was so much fun to spend more time with them than the crazy day of Thanksgiving and then Black Friday. Here are some pictures.



SATURDAY, NOV. 22

We had a BBQ at the McCormick Railroad Park. We had good food,

and there was plenty of room for all the kids to run and play for a few hours.

Jack loves trains.

Riding on the train with Laura, Jack, Hayley & Audrey

Waiting for the carousel.

Hayley, Laura, Heidi & Matthew

Even though we were really tired after the RR Park, we decided to put up our Christmas lights out front. Thanks to a generous light donation from Paul's parents, we were able put a little more pizazz in our yard this year. Until about 2 days ago, we were THE ONLY people on our street with lights up!!

MONDAY, NOV. 24

Paul had to work during the week, so me and Mike and Laura and the kids got to hang out during the day. The girls are SO CUTE I can hardly stand it.

Hayley enjoying the swing...

Cami & Hayley giggling on the trampoline

Kaitlyn home from school and Audrey awake from her nap.

As much as I dislike the insanity of Peter Piper Pizza, and the cruddy pizza quality, it's the best place to get together when we've got a lot of Bowler to feed. The cousins all have a blast running around crazy, and it gives the adults a minute or two here and there to talk, joke, laugh and catch up on things.

Heidi, Steve, Charity & Emily -- thanks for sharing your extra pizza with us :)

Oh my gosh, these boys are 2 peas in a pod. Sam, Heidi's youngest and Jack are about 9 months apart in age, and they both love the same things.... especially motorcycles. I couldn't believe how perfectly in sync they were on these bikes. They crack me up.

Manly talk while Cami patiently waits for another token.

TUESDAY, NOV. 25

Kaitlyn's 1st grade class all had a "Thanksgiving Feast". They each brought in things that would make stew, pumpkin pudding etc. etc. It was very cute. I went in to help set up for it while Mike & Laura stayed home and babysat Jack for me (thanks again guys!)

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 26

Okay, could this girl get any cutere!?!?!? She has that sly little look on her face like she's planning something very, very sneaky. I absolutely loved spending more time with Audrey and Hayley. I haven't had much time with them over the years, but they are both so special. Audrey reminds me a lot of me when I was that age (she has a binky addiction like I did, and other similarities) and her personality is so much like Megan's was at that age, even her voice. It's like getting to see Megan 2 again. She's so clever and cute it's impossible not to fall in love with her.

Tuesday night we hung out at Heidi's (my older sister) house because the rest of my family from out of town had finally arrived. Kent & his family, and Scott and his family. Jennie and my mom had started a project for sewing hospital gowns that work for the kids in the PICU at St. Joe's where Jennie works. I'll blog more about that later - but Wendy's a magnificent seamstress, so Jennie enlisted her help while we were hanging out. They are so cute (my sisters I mean.... the gowns are cute too).

THURSDAY, NOV. 27

Okay, how cute. So, it's my birthday, and even I had forgotten several times that week, but not Megan. Emma, her cousin that we love tons and tons, who always gets a sleepover every Thanksgiving so the girls can "bond" and spend time together -- they didn't forget. The spent the night before cutting out and decorating a sign, a posterboard on my bedroom door, and hearts all around the house. They worked so hard on the decorations, and they even cleaned up every single scrap of paper they left behind! BEFORE I woke up! Then they made me breakfast! They made me a Mickey pancake, and a long and skinny one too. They cut up fruit, set the table, had juice and EVERYTHING, and the kitchen was clean too!!!! I love you Megan & Emma.... thanks for being so thoughtful and making my birthday special!

On to Thanksgiving Dinner..... which is always a big production!

I think we did a good job this year of getting a family picture. We did it pretty quickly, considering the number of people involved (52 to be exact). We did it BEFORE we ate this time (it had been raining on and off) so everyone was pretty motivated to get it done quickly.

Here's the food.... plenty of jell-o on the end - YUM, and tons of mashed potatoes, ham, super good turkey, the best stuffing I've ever had, hands down (good job Wes) and enough rolls to feed a lot of kids who won't eat anything else..

Here we are, all set up in the Relief Society room. This was the teenager table.... total rebels. :) J/K. They were SO good about helping set up tables, move dozens and dozens of chairs in and out of rooms, and setting up everything else. They are the best. I hope mine turn out so good!

One of the bummers about doing dinner at the church is there's usually nowhere comfy to relax and digest your food. This year we had the idea to set up all the foyer furniture in the game room (Primary room). We had puzzles, games and some naps.

and of course, Black Friday preview.... even though none of us (except Wendy & Todd I think) actually went out. We all pooped out this year... which is a first in many.

Mom & Mike lounging on the comfy couch. She was still in her down dip of feeling cruddy after her chemo treatment the Friday before so she chilled out like a good girl. :)

Human fooseball. Dangerous sport.... but it was fun. Just watch out for Kent's kicks.... he ain't six sigma black belt for nothin'.

The kids were off for a very long time working on a play, and they set up chairs and did lighting and everything and put on a play called "The First Thanksgiving". Ashton was a teacher who was helping his class understand where Thanksgiving came from, and Megan was a turkey that got eaten at the end. It was an awesome play. These kids are total thespians.

Brad (in the back) was working on a Science project -- which we all were very lucky to be able to participate in. It was an ice cream taste test, involving 4 different ice creams of varying quality, and then also adding in the prices of each to see how that affected your choice. The littler kids here totally were into this "sciency" stuff.

Hayley J saying goodbye to Grandma. They were leaving in the morning. :( It's so sweet how each of the grandkids loves their grandma SO much. It's cuz she's the best of course.

And Scott, hammin' it up with the little kids. He's the human jungle jim and adventure park. The kids love him to death. He's so cute. He likes to act like he's rough and tumble, but he's also all marshmallow on the inside. Sweet and gooey. :)

This was the cutest thing -- Jennie walked by the "little kids movie room" and found Jack, all by himself, just watching this movie. It's TOTALLY Forrest Gumpy isn't it??? He was very sleepy. No naps for MANY moons makes little boy heap big tired.

FRIDAY, NOV. 28

We ditched black Friday so that we could take a family picture at a little studio in the mall. We haven't had a family picture professionally done (or even UNprofessionally) in a lot of years. I was probably 10 last time it happened. I'll have to get a copy of the picture and post it, but I don't have one now. It was great. All 10 of us kids and mom & dad got to spend the morning together goofing around taking pictures and then grabbing some muffins for breakfast while we waited for them to process them. It was weird not having spouses, or our kids around.... just the 12 of us. It was a short, but cool little experience.

So, that was our week! Wendy & Todd stayed with us for a few days during and after Thanksgiving. It was so fun spending time with them again, especially so soon after our trip up to their house in CO. We had many many bouts of throwing up over the week, at lots of different houses, lots of different kids, but we all survived. I can't wait till Wendy comes back and the kids can play more, and we can BAKE. I never ever bake anymore since she moved. We have a lot of making up to do! Bring on the cookies! It's mooshy and gooshy, but as much as my family is crazy and loud and all of that, I love them more than anything, and I was so grateful to have had so much time with them this week!