Pre-Thanksgiving

I got very few pictures at our Pre-Thanksgiving with my side of the family last Saturday, but Brian has been complaining that I haven't posted anything new in too long.  Awww. He reads my blog.  Anyway!  We were lucky enough to be invited to my Aunt Julie and Uncle Mark's house for a Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday. Not only did we get to see and visit with aunts and uncles from my Mom's family, but they're close friends with my Dad's sister, Aunt Candace, and her husband, Uncle Don.  There have been three weddings between my Mom and Uncle Mark's families this year (!!), plus Grandpa Curtis's funeral and Uncle Mark and Aunt Julie getting home from Korea, and yet I don't feel like I've really seen my cousins for a while. Even though Aunt Julie's house is "fancy" (as Bridget called it), Brian and I let the kids roam free while we ate and talked the afternoon away.

After strapping the boys in their high chairs (we brought the high chairs at Grandma Peggy's request, also for our own sanity), we sat by Cole and Jess and Noah and Allison for dinner.  There are no pictures of this because I cannot take a good picture in that dining room.  It's a beautiful room, and yet every photo I have from there is not beautiful.  Oh well.  It was so much fun to listen and talk and laugh.  Ahhh.  Adult conversation!  Who knew.

Bridget was reluctant to play with the other two 2nd graders there - Emmett and Pierce.  Boys.  Luckily we were there longer than an hour, which gave her time to warm up.  Brian told me there was a game of Hide-n-Seek where Bridget hid under a big pillow by Brian on the couch.  Apparently she WON that game. :) Emmett is Cole and Jessica's son and Pierce is Gene and Mirne's.  They're both such nice boys!  (Are you looking at the state of this playroom?  As we were getting ready to leave, Brian headed down to clean it up, but Jessica had beat him to it.)

There is Lizzy in her school uniform on a Saturday :) and Emmett looking exactly like his Dad did at that age. And somehow he also looks like his Mom.  And my Dad.  I need to stop looking at this photo.

Emil and Colin were at large most of the afternoon.  Every once in a while they would come back and sit in their seats for a handful of grapes or a slice of watermelon.  Aunt Julie had plates of fruit on the table, which probably saved our lives since that is all the boys would eat.  I was stationed at the table talking Allison's and Megan's ears off while Brian was downstairs watching football.  

Here Aunt Julie is telling Aunt Candace and my Mom about the Thousand Miracles their missionaries gave them, each miracle written on a piece of paper and then folded into a crane.  You can tell what a great story this is.  (Also, there's Allison!  Somehow I didn't get any photos of her adorable little baby, Scout.  Looks like Emil is following her around, though.)

Now I'm thinking it was more than a thousand miracles.  They're in a vase near the front door. If this was an episode of a sitcom, my boys would have succeeded in breaking this vase and scattering all those cranes. 

I insisted on getting my Mom and her siblings (Uncle Mark on the far left and Uncle Steve on the right) in a photo on the porch.  (Nevermind my boys who think they need to be in every photo I take.)  It was so strange, but I thought my Grandma Carol would want to see this.  She's been gone for more than 14 years and yet I still had the thought that she'd want to have a picture of them together.  Grandpa Lloyd always took a photo on the porch.  (That's right, I chose the one with my shadow because I like it better.)

I feel refreshed after seeing my cousins and my aunts and uncles.  It really is invigorating to be around people who so obviously care about us.  We love them!  They are treasures. Keep up the good work, everyone. :)