Thanksgiving

Gabe made the classic Indian outfit in preschool.  My heart skipped a beat when he came out of school wearing this.   It is the classic little kid/Indian outfit that looks so cute in a collage when they grow up and get married.  His teacher even said he cut the frays on the bottom and was the only child to do that.  I don't know how he thought of it but it looked fabulous!

We had a fun visit with Richard and Salli who came out for the week of Thanksgiving.  This was the least blurry picture.  I don't know why the camera was struggling.

  Marcia found this 'Eat like a Pilgrim' dinner at Thanksgiving point which turned out to be so authentic and memorable.  The food was plopped onto your plate out of a metal bucket by pilgrims.  It was held in the big barn and hosted by some people that really get into dressing up and acting like pilgrims in their spare time.  They had everyone stand and hold hands to say grace before they started serving.

Sophie and Sadie.  They also had displays, games, live animals and gun demonstrations.

Here is Gabe totally getting into this with his pewter dishes and napkin wrapped like the pilgrim men instructed him.

 This guy explained to us that there is currently a dispute amongst the 'reinactors' as to how events are held and when to charge for admission etc.  Who knew there were so many people into this?

 Ethan loved locking himself or siblings into the gallows at least a dozen times.  Going to this dinner was a lot of fun but mostly it filled me with gratitude for those first pilgrims that sacrificed so much and worked so hard to settle this country.  They were God-fearing, faithful people.  I would love to learn more about our own ancestors that came to America in some of those first years!  My dad says we have one that came on the Mayflower, I need to research that more.

Then, a couple days later, we had the actual Thanksgiving feast up at Mark and Elizabeth's.  I originally had a goal to run in our city turkey trot 5k but didn't end up training in time and the weather was less than 20 degrees so I didn't feel too bad.  Here's one of the kids tables.

 Marcia's beautimous turkey.

Then the kids made a real rat maze so we all went to watch the rat find it's way through- pretty cool.

And here is the sweetest part of the day.... cousins.  Taylor must have snapped this in the basement before dinner.  Such cute little boys!

Jerusalem!

My parents recently returned from a tour of Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.  It has been their dream for a long time to go but I think I have wanted it even more.  Pictures or videos can't do it justice.  I was lucky enough to go on BYU's study abroad program back in 1994.  That seems like so long ago now but I know mom and dad made sacrifices for me to be able to do it and it was one of the best things I have ever done.  I grew so much personally there that was key for me in my early 20's.  There is such a special feeling in that land that I haven't felt anywhere else.  It is a sign of the times when I got texting on my phone so that I could hear about their trip and communicate back.  They couldn't call without ridiculous charges but they texted for free so we were kept up on all they were doing and seeing.  We all went to their house for an early thanksgiving since Jen and Cathy were able to come too.  I don't know why we didn't get a big group photo but here are some highlights with our fun souvenirs from mom and dad.

 The boys had us put these back on about 250 times but loved wearing them.

Lily was charming with Cathy and Jen.  The beaded hairpieces were supposed to be for the young girls but we had so much fun with them they didn't get handed out to them. 

Holly, Cathy, Shauna, Jen, Laura looking awesome in our beaded headress.

So glad you were able to go and made it home safely mom and dad!  What a great trip!