Thanksgiving run-down

Ok, so Thanksgiving festivities…before I forget what we did:

My sister Saydi, her husband and two kids Hazel & Charlie came first. They stayed for a week and a half and we loved having them. I always get so inspired by those two. The kids had fun together…most of the time. Claire & Hazel have a love/hate relationship at this stage in their lives (you know, all that super important stuff about who’s going to be the pink or the blue princess, who gets to be the “mom” or the “kitty” in whatever imagine game they come up with, or what color of plate they get) but they did better than they did at Bear Lake last summer, don’t you think, Sayds? My brother Jonah and his fam were in the area visiting in-laws so we got to see them too. They came over off and on and slept over one night (after my parents and other siblings came) to help us fill up the last crannies of the house that weren’t being used.They also joined us along with my brother Josh for our second annual TURKEY TROT. Sayds and I planned on running the 10k but ended up hanging with everyone else for the 2 mile race. Below is Saydi trying to keep track of everyone as we took off from the chaos of the starting line.

I’ll tell you, that stroller loaded down with Lu & Claire and Josh’s camera bag didn’t make the two miles easy! Josh ran along taking pictures with his good camera so I’ll have to get more of those later.
Max took off and got third place in his division!Claire stole a big hug from the turkey…

So after our two miles Sayds and I still felt really good and decided to leave the kids with everyone else and go meet up with the 10k race at the second mile. We ended up running almost 10k with a good little kid break in there after the first two miles. I’m so not a runner but it was a fun challenge and it felt great. Dave passed us up pretty quick and did awesome. He ran it in 45 minutes! After the race we met up with a bunch of friends and family…Dave’s brother & sister’s families who live here and the Driggs visiting from Utah…so great to see them. Click on this picture to make it bigger.Dinner that day was probably the best food I’ve ever had on Thanksgiving (sorry mom). Jeff takes the cake for amazing succulent turkey and Saydi’s got the side-dishes down pat. If anyone ever wants to have a great Thanksgiving dinner invite these two on over to your house. Max got in on the turkey prep and loved helping Jeff with it. And wow, we found out Dave has a knack for carving those babies.And one of the highlights of the day for me was FINALLY getting to sit around our new dining table. We’ve lived in this house for six years and have had this room empty until last month. I love the new table…the kids are feeling a little displaced losing their dancing and acting “stage.”
The next day my parents, little sister and little brother and his girlfriend showed up. So six of the nine kids in my family were here. Among other things, we went to the train park, fixed lights, went to see the zoo lights, went out on an adult date-night, ate a lot, made a bunch of cookies, had a bbq at my sister-in-law’s sister’s gorgeous condo in downtown Phoenix, pulled out and put up our Christmas decorations (thanks so much for your help, guys), had a talent show put on by the grandkids (which you can tell from these pictures was absolutely thrilling),even neighbor kids performed…as usual, my dad entertained the grandkids in grand fashion,played a whole bunch of “Wii” (if you want to see a cool video of that action you have to go to my brother “Jo & Aja’s” blog on my sidebar and watch the “sneak peek at the Holiday Wii” video), and just talked and hung out. Man I love these guys.
Here’s our annual “Thankful Tree” before I tossed it to make room for Christmas.
So, goodbye to Thanksgiving. Can’t wait ’til next year!