Thanksgiving

California!  I have to admit I was more than ready to hop in the car again (this was our third trip to California in November…the people at the gas station where we always stop knew us by name..I swear) and get back on the road!  Seeing family so much this month made me really homesick for living close to them.  We really have a lot of fun when we are together…ok, back on topic.  THANKSGIVING!

We had planned to leave on Wednesday and drive home Saturday/Sunday.  Monday night Chris got home from work around 6 and said if we are going to go to Cali we needed to leave tonight since a huge Blizzard was slated to come in Tuesday around the same time we were planning to be on the road.  So we hurried through our FHE activity (decorating Sugar Cookies), Chris headed back to work to get things set up for the lab, and I got to work on finishing laundry, packing and getting the house ready to leave.  Of course our dishwasher decides it would be a great night to flood my whole kitchen so I have to call Chris home from work, clean that mess up and get it repaired.  I don’t care what he says it has nothing to do with how I carelessly (quickly) loaded the dishwasher that night!  So we hurry (well I hurried Chris slept so he could drive all night and the kids watched a video so I could work) and get out the door just after midnight.  The drive down was blissfully uneventful!

We spent our days down there playing with cousins.  Here is Andrew, Ethan and Josh riding the go-karts and scooters in front of my parents house.  Speed+danger=Andrew’s favorite toy!  He loved these go-karts!  Ethan and Ben were kind enough to take him on many, many rides.  I love Josh's Pink helmet :)

My sister Shelley and her two cute girls Anabelle and Ava. 

Ethan and Josh trying to get Andrew out of the road.  Andrew was dying to drive this thing all by himself.  Thankfully he never figured out where the on button was!  I had Ethan distract him every time we had to power them up.  If Andrew learned how to turn them on I know he would have been long gone!

I love this picture of Ben!  I love the storm rolling in behind him with the palm trees. 

 

Shel I love your face in this one!  Haha!

This is where my brother Chris became Andrew’s hero.  My grandparents have an avocado grove in their backyard.  It is amazing.  I love going back there and having all the leaves crunch under my toes.  My brother Chris decided to get the ATV out and take all the kids for rides.  Andrew was standing back there just watching Chris do donuts on the ATV.  His mouth was open and every once in a while Andrew would just start to clap.  Finally uncle Chris asked Andrew if he wanted a ride and he got up there so fast!  Andrew loved it!  He didn’t want to get off!  After his ride was over he wanted to just stay back there and watch Chris ride.  I told him we could go and wait in the front yard for Chris to ride up the street (to get the ATV from the backyard to the front yard he takes it around the whole property and out to the main road, then drives into the driveway..sorry that makes no sense, but I can’t describe it any better than that).

We sat on the front steps and Chris, never one to disappoint, passes the front of the house going FULL speed.  Andrew just starts clapping and clapping for him!  It was adorable!  After that, Chris was Andrew’s idol.

Bonding over a DS

My aunt Joy and Kallie playing a game.  Kallie loves Joy!

After ATVing Chris had to pull all the cars back into the driveway.  Andrew was there to assist him and Chris was kind enough to let him!  He let Andrew drive all the cars in with him  Andrew was so excited…so was Chris…can’t you tell!

After all that hard work we all went out to eat at In-N-Out.  Where else do you go when Chris and Ligaya are in town?  They eat, sleep, breath this stuff!

The happy couple at their “Happiest Place on Earth!”

Next we went to every kids DREAM.  GO-KART RACING!!!!  The boys in their garb!

Ben getting comfy in his racer

Matthew, Ben and Ethan.  These boys were so excited to get to drive their own cars!  They had their own huge race track and they went around and around.  These cars go up to 15 mph, which is really fast for kids who have never driven before.  They were so pumped after each race!  They would run down to the desk for their printout and see how their times were.  It was really cute to see them all pouring over their times!

Did you think I meant it was every LITTLE boys dream?  Oh no.  I meant it was every BIG boy’s dream!  Chris and Christopher couldn’t wait to get on these things!  These big race cars go so dang fast!  Here is Christopher as number 21…my lucky number :)

 

Andrew was very upset that they didn’t feel he was tall enough to drive.  He felt very left out.  Thankfully there was a really nice guy working there and he let us take Andrew into the track and let him sit in one of the cars.  He was in heaven.  Don’t you love that smile?!

My mom was feeling bad for all the girls who were not getting a turn…so so got each of us a race too!  Here’s a group shot, sans photographer Christopher. 

 

Fitting huh?

Now to the main event!  THANKSGIVING DAY!  We had thanksgiving lunch at my mom’s hotel.  The kids were in HEAVEN!  They have full range of the hotel and could run and be crazy.  She even got them a piñata filled with balls to play with!  Every kids dream!  This Thanksgiving was our first without Ahba, so my mom decided to mix things up a bit.  We made Thanksgiving more like a birthday party!  There were TONS of fun games, balloons, balls, candy the whole thing.  The kids had so much fun!  After games we ate an amazing thanksgiving lunch/dinner (well minus the bacon, cheddar cheese apple pie…umm, yuck!)  then my brilliant mom knew the kids would be supper tired so she had the new Santa Paws movie all set up and we threw blankets and pillows on the floor.  It was such a cute movie all the adults joined the kids!

When at my mom’s hotel even cleanup is fun!  They got the laundry carts out and Christopher gave all the kids a ride running around and doing turns and stuff.

After a few hours of playing at the hotel we went back to my parents house for another round of yummy food!  Christopher introduced my dad to people of walmart.com.  My dad and the boys laughed forever over this site!  Nothing like bonding over silly looking people!

Speaking of silly people…..  No wonder all the kids love him!

Even a little father-daughter bonding over lovely walmart shoppers :)

All in all Thanksgiving was wonderful and amazing.  The kids were out cold for the whole drive home…not even getting out of the car once to use the bathroom!  We all came home tired, a little heavier, and filled with love for amazing family and friends!

We pulled into the driveway around 5am.  We got the kids in bed and settled and of course I couldn’t sleep…so what to do on the Saturday morning after thanksgiving?  SHOP!  Yep, I found a list of open stores and shopped my little heart out till 9.  I thought the kids would be up by then….nope.  They didn’t wake up till we woke them up close to NOON!  Mom, you did amazing at tiring them out!  We got them up and dressed and headed up to the cabin to play with the “on” side.  We had another thanksgiving up there and a wonderful night of watching the BYU vs. UTAH game (sad, sad) and then getting up early and heading home to make it to church on time.  Sunday we spent the day decorating for Christmas, watching ELF and eating yummy treats.  I love the holidays!