Thanksgiving

I have officially graduated to being a grown up, as I hosted a meal for 20 this year for Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful time.  It was so nice to have family in our home to share the holiday with.  

My parents, my brother Scott and family, my brother Chris (missed you, Julie and boys), Ryan's parents, Ryan's brother Brandon and family (including 2.5 week old beautiful baby Samuel), and Ryan's brother Kalen were all here.  Some amazing friends lent their house to us for some extra sleeping room while they were out of town.  Thanks so much!

We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner with tri-tip, southwest turkey, rice, beans, chicken enchiladas, and a yummy salad.  We did break down and have delicious cherry, apple, and chocolate pie with a side of cream cheese pumpkin bars.  Delicious.

We ate great food, played at the park, and had a little basketball action in the gym in the evening.  And, yes, I can still kick some trash at Lightning.  Anyone local up for a challenge?

Friday we thought we'd get away from the big city and we headed for the great outdoors at Red Rock.  However, we quickly discovered that the remainder of the city had the same idea.  The park was filled to capacity and closed.  We drove on to an overlook and ate our picnic lunch and looked at what might have been.

Then we soothed our grief with a seriously fun-filled afternoon of mini-gran prix racing for Kalen's birthday.  Todd has begged to go repeatedly, but as mentioned before, I am a cheap mom.  But, we went anyway and it was super fun.  The little kids couldn't drive, but they could ride along on the raceway, so I took Ben in my car.  He spent the entire drive holding onto my arm saying, "Really not fun.  Too fast.  Really not fun. . .really not fun. . .really not fun."  I will admit that I did not slow down.  I was having a ton of fun.

We had pizza and birthday cake to round out the day.  

The Play Station was a big hit with all ages.  Todd is still suffering a bit of withdrawal as he adjusts back to normal non-vacation restrictions on screen time.

Saturday morning, Aubrey and I finally got together for a sewing lesson (we've been trying for over a year) and Aubrey made a stinkin cute little purse as her first project.  She was a great student!

Scott and family left Saturday  morning, much to Todd's dismay (he loves Kyle) and Ben's sadness (he loves Lizzie).  Ben said, "I don't want to miss Lizzie.  She's my best cousin."

Glenn and Kathy left as well with Kalen and ran into brutal traffic on their return to California.

Mom and I hit JoAnn's for the sale day but refused to wait from number 9 until our number 58 in the cutting line, so we settled for a good buy on some notions.

The boys (Ryan, Brandon, Chris, and Kalen) played RISK every night and we women got some good Christmas present sewing (we won't mention who for) under our belt.  

It was a great weekend.  Thanks all, for coming.  I'll send the whole batch of pictures out via Picasa.