My sister and her kids came out for the week of Thanksgiving. It was a full house to say the least, my brother also tagged along. We had a great week. The kids had so much fun and it was the first time I had ever hosted Thanksgiving. Luckily I had my sister to help, especially with the turkey. I have a little aversion to raw poultry, so you can imagine how I felt about digging inside of a big turkey for all of the stuff that wasn't supposed to be there.
We went down to the beach one of the days there were here. It wasn't an especially hot day, in the 60s, so I did not plan for the kids to hop right into the ocean.
They had so much fun. I swear, kids don't feel the cold. They were so carefree, up to their waist in I'm sure freezing water.
BFFs.
The clothes finally came off. They were only dragging them down.
Happy as a clam :)
Addi. My kids have crazy a crazy amount of hair. So when they get sand in it, it's there for weeks. We are still digging it out.
And then Von became completely white trash and joined all of the other fully clothed children on the playground. He's leaning out a little wouldn't you say?
The day after Halloween, the kids and I flew out to Utah to hang out with Katie, Brad and the cousins as well as to celebrate Ian's grandpa's 90th birthday. The first day we were there, we went to "Smash Bash," which was dedicated to destroying all of the left over pumpkins in anyway possible. The first thing we did was drop the pumpkin from this lift. We though it was pretty cool...until we saw the crane that raised people up 150 feet to throw pumpkins off of.
Surprisingly, with the exception of Beckham, the kids were not scared at all. It probably was not the safest thing we could have been doing with our children, but it was pretty fun.
Next, the kids got to shoot pumpkins with paintball guns.
They were pretty excited about it.
McKinley and Von. They are almost four years apart in age, but just about the same size. I think Von actually weighs more than her.
Addi and the poor kangaroo at the petting zoo they had there.
It snowed off and on when we were there. On Saturday, there was enough for the kids to play in. Katie's kids were at their dad's and so Addi and Von made fast friends with the neighborhood kids. We didn't see Addi for at least an hour. She had so much fun with the kids and the snow. Von, on the other hand, came in after about 10 minutes, saying, "I don't like it! I so cold." He is so cute, regardless.
Ian and the rest of his family flew in Friday night. The kids were so happy to see him.
Before our flight on Sunday, we were all killing time at the mall. Just as we were about to leave for the airport, we passed Claire's and Ian's sister Chelcie, asked Addi if she wanted to get her ears pierced. Addi, without hesitation said yes. So next thing I know Addi is in the chair, picking out her first pair of earrings and I am signing waivers. After a few minutes of waiting, the fear began to set in. She was pretty terrified before they even brought the guns out.
This video makes us look like abusive parents. It is so sad.
Aren't they pretty? She was really traumatized. Luckily, we have had no problems with them, and they haven't caused her any pain since. I am glad that milestone is over with. Little does she know, on Thursday of this week, she is having her first wart removed. Not looking forward to that. Can you imagine how she is going to be screaming then? The worst part about it is it is on her chin. Poor thing. I feel so bad for her :(
On Halloween, we joined Jaime and Dan in Del Mar to trick or treat. The neighborhood we went to was all decked out. It was great. This is Jaime's little Chewbacca, AKA Lainey.
Me in my predictable cheer outfit and Ian as Marty McFly.
Every house we went to, Von would get so scared. "Can we go home now?" was his most common comment of the night :)
Our little Mario.
Princess Leia meets Spartan Cheerleader. Crazy that it been 12 years since we first met!
Addi and Luke giving their best "Angry Birds" faces.
