Template 113
10 years ago
Thanksgiving was great! We had 17 people here for a whole week. Wow. It was loud. It was fun. There was nonstop chaos. 11 kids, 11 and under.
Enough said.
Jackson 11, Joshua 10, Maggie 10, Justice 8, Ty 7, Jayce 6, Claire 5, Jedidiah 4, Jillian 2, Lily 2, Jack 3 1/2 months. A big fat party of cousins.
Jack and Aunt Toni hit it right off. I could keep her and her baby charming ways around forever.
The kids asked to sleep on the trampoline forgetting it would be COLD. Someone said yes, banking on the fact that they wouldn't make it more than an hour. I think they made it about 2, during which time they were caught having a cousin scripture study session with flashlights. Cute or what.
All but one of our kids were sick at least one of the days everyone was here. This was the designated barf couch, which must have been enclosed by a magical barf bubble because fortunately all the germs stayed within our family. A Thanksgiving miracle.
I had all these ambitious ideas of creating beautiful Thanksgiving table settings and setting up cute activities and crafts to keep the kids busy. Then reality took over. I tossed crayons and construction paper in their general direction and we called it good.
And here's my personal favorite way to see the guys during food prep time. And I have to give them credit - there really wasn't all that much sit in front of the football game and stare time.
Justice, Jack, and Ty.
I decided to try out Our Best Bites instructions for brining and roasting the turkey. It definitely got a 2 thumbs up from me and I don't usually even like turkey all that much.
On Friday we packed up and headed an hour north to play at The Valley of Fire. Love that place!
Jayce with something stuffed in his mouth.
The kids ran ALL day.
On the drive there, Lily was a little nervous, wondering why she was the only sensible one thinking a valley of FIRE was a bad idea. It took her a while to make the whole red rock connection.
Giant rocks everywhere for them to climb.
The weather was perfect. Meaning it was cool enough to finally get Jack into his BYU beanie. If I didn't do it soon, there'd be no way. Anyway, he liked it. He was like, "This hat is so cool, Mom! Thanks for letting me wear it before it'd squeeze my brains any tighter." Your welcome, cute boy.
Meet Jillian. Those pigtails are to die for. They remind me of Red from "Fraggle Rock"...except they're blonde, not red. Any "Fraggle Rock" fans?
We ended our adventure with dirty, dusty kids who were actually tired enough to sit still for a family picture
and then we called it a day.
We were sad to have to say goodbye on Saturday. The kids were asking if friends could come over before their cousins were even out of the driveway. Ha! I said no. That was the beginning of the too much fun, not enough sleep family melt down. Then the doorbell rang and it was the neighbor kids wanting to play. I let them in. Guess a house is meant to be full, right?
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Thanks for sharing your holiday highlights! I love the picture of the kids all lined up - Lily has a look of "I'll protect you Jack," too cute. Next trip up, we want to go to Valley of Fire - how have we missed it?
Mom said...
November 30, 2011 at 7:30 AM
Wow, what cousin fun. It must have been great. I love the beautiful Valley of Fire pictures. The big blue sky and the red rocks make for some nice pictures.
Ingrid said...
December 1, 2011 at 12:02 PM
thanksgiving is the BEST holiday. this is why!
what a great post. and i love that first picture with lily and jack on the couch! it cracks me up!
cousin time is the best time.
robin said...
December 3, 2011 at 9:18 AM