Thanksgiving 2014

We were lucky enough to travel down to St. George this year to spend Thanksgiving with Zach's family. His parents moved into the house next door for more space just weeks before hosting the entire family for the week of Thanksgiving. We love the new house and it worked out great to have Pam's sister, Deb and both Zach's sister and brother and their families there. There is a big open family room area upstairs where the big boys all slept. They called it "Boys Camp" and had a blast. I was terrible at taking pictures as per usual... so I'll bullet some highlights and then share the few pictures I do have. 

- Pam's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving and we celebrated by eating awesome food all day long courtesy of Zach. We had eggs Benedict over waffles for breakfast and Surf n' Turf steak and shrimp for dinner. 

- My only wish for the trip was to go jogging everyday while we were there. As we were hurriedly packing the car I asked Zach to grab my running shoes. He checked one place where they usually are and they weren't there and then he forgot. So imagine my disappointment when I get the go-ahead from Zach's mom and aunt to go for a jog the first day we were there while Zach and his dad were golfing only to find out my shoes were still at home! Ah! In the end I ran over to TJ Maxx and got a sweet deal on some clearance running shoes and got a HUGE head start on Christmas shopping for the boys in the clearance Toy section. All's well that ends well. I even got to sneak in a run after I got home. 

- From that day on, I got to start everyday with a 5-mile jog. It was awesome. It made me so excited for Spring when it gets light early enough for me to go jogging every morning again. I really miss it.

- We went and saw the third Hunger Games movie with Ky and Geoff. It was just as good as the first time I saw it a week earlier... oops! Haha. 

- The kids got some serious quality time with the cousins. Ryan and Logan were practically attached at the hip the entire time. And they never once got in an argument or sick of each other. It was amazing. 

- Camden was super warm and friendly to everyone from the get-go. It's so neat to watch my kids little personalities come out and to see how different they all are. Camden is definitely a ham for attention and loved all the extra attention he could get from Zach's mom and Aunt Deb. 

- On Friday morning after Thanksgiving we got to meet up with some of our old friends, the Johnsons, who we knew in Las Vegas. It is always a treat to catch up with them. They had a new baby- a boy, making it three boys for them too!- in September that we hadn't yet met so that was really fun to get to hold him while I chatted with Cheri. The boys picked up right where they left off and had fun playing together. Ryan and Jake were 3 and 4 when we moved away, so I'm sure they don't have very many memories of their friendship, but they are both such friendly and outgoing boys that you'd think no time had passed at all. 

- We drove home on Saturday night after a week full of good food, family fun and lots of great memories!

Grammy Pam's iPad is always a highlight for my boys when we visit. It kept them busy while Pam was making the finishing touches on Thanksgiving dinner. For the most part they were pretty good at taking turns and I just loved seeing these little cousins cuddled up on the couch together.  

Here is a picture of the Johnson and Bellows' kids. Look at all those boys! Jake is about a year older than Ryan, Brady is just a few weeks older than Ryan Johnson and Camden and Max are almost exactly 18 months apart. It's so fun to have twin families!

I got the chance one afternoon to go on a bike ride with Ryan while Camden was napping. It was fun to do something just me and him and to step out of the busyness of family for a little bit. Ryan was dead set on fishing... only we didn't have a fishing pole. He didn't let that little fact dissuade him, however. He just made one on his own using a stick, some string and a paper clip.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day that I forget how little and adorable my little Ryan is. Doesn't he look so cute in this picture?! I just love him.

After a few casts and some patient waiting, we decided to go dig for worms. (Because clearly that is what was missing from this equation...)

I'll say it again... so cute!

Unfortunately, worms didn't seem to do the trick- besides the fact that we didn't actually find any- and he ended up getting skunked. He was pretty bummed at first and I tried to console him as we walked to our bikes by saying, "No one is catching anything. It's too late in the day" just as the two people we were passing reeled in two good sized trout. Doh!

Not to be one to stay down for too long, Ryan quickly transformed his fishing pole into a bow and all was right in the world again.

Camden loved Debbie. He would do anything to make her laugh and she was so nice to give him so much attention. She left to go home to Indiana early one morning so I wanted to get a picture of her and Camden together the night before. I think Camden was really ready for bed because he refused to give me a good smile. Little stinker!

Pam and Doug bought all the grandsons MSU jackets and a little MSU dress for Charlotte. They wanted a picture for their Christmas card. When you're working with 6 boys 6 and under that is no easy task.

Between myself, Zach and Kristen all clicking away non stop for about 90 seconds I think they were able to get a decent one. On a side note, my boys are obsessed with their new jackets!