November: Thanksgiving Week Activities

Happy Thanksgiving! Will called dibs on labeling the Thanksgiving Tree this year; his astonishment when he realized he misplaced the possessive apostrophe in our last name was hilarious and made it all worth it:

This was the first year that Jack's gotten super into making his own leaves - with help he carefully contributed quite a few, like bed, legos, preschool, and (my favorite) hanitiser. Aka hand sanitizer, but much quicker to say! Brilliant, right? It's stuck pretty good around here, in public I have to remind myself to use the formal title ;). 

I love our random turkey/fall artwork that comes out every year!

The boys made this fort Sunday morning before church. Clyde's collection of heavy Harry Potter/Percy Jackson/Fablehaven books came in pretty handy!

Chuck's birthday was the Monday of Thanksgiving Week. He worked for twelve hours and then went to plasma because he's a rockstar. Chuck's not super into being the center of attention, but it delighted my heart when Craig posted a fb video of all their co-workers surprising Chuck at the end of the shift by singing to him :). Did I contribute to it happening? You can draw your own conclusions ;)...

Excellent teamwork Craig and Sweet Willie!

 Technically our Utah trip was how we celebrated, but Chuck also managed to get himself a pretty sweet present: bike racks for the garage:

These bad boys have saved our lives/sanity out there - soooo helpful to have the bikes always accessible and easily organized. Not that I'd ever admit the wisdom of the purchase to Chuck, of course ;). 

To celebrate Chuck's birthday, I also got a present: a new computer!!!! YAY! We saved up some blood (technically plasma) money and bought a used iMac and it's the most beautiful thing ever and I'm typing on it right now ;). Thanks to everyone who offered advice and help on our computer-buying journey. Brother Cook in particular was SO sweet to give me a mini-tutoring session. 

At Chuck's insistence we got a 27" which I was sure would feel gargantuan and way too big, but it's honestly perfect. I'm addicted to having two windows open at once - either the internet + pictures while I blog or two Internet windows while I do family history. So, again, happy birthday Chuck haha!

The kiddos had the whole week off school, so that Tuesday we met up with Grandpa for some adventurin', starting with lunch and a craft: making turkeys out of apples! My dad brought the idea and all the supplies and the boys (and girl!) loved it:

And then it was over to the aquarium! We've been before with Grandpa and it was fun to watch what parts the kids remembered and enjoyed. As always, I made it my goal not to get dirty or touch any fish :).

My kids' goals were the opposite; they had a blast feeding the... rays? and feeling them as they swam by:

They also loved watching various creatures in their tanks. The chameleon on the top left is because none of my kids could find him and were very impressed when I did. I have to celebrate my 'cool mom' moments when they come haha!

The kids posed with this shark display and we were delighted by a previously undiscovered flair for the dramatic in young Will.i.am - check out those acting chops! 

Jack and Carma found an open area so that Grandpa could swing both of them, which is basically their favorite. 

Clyde and Grandpa especially enjoyed exploring this aquarium; lots of little interesting critters to poke and observe:

Obviously a highlight was checking out the blue and orange fish!

One of the aquarium volunteers had this pretty creature pulled out and all four kids braved touching her; some more than others:

 Such a fun afternoon, thanks Daddy! 

 Clyde and I realized we'd both worn 'Fight the New Drug' t-shirts so we took advantage of the lucky coincidence:

(And because I believe in working smarter, not harder, I'll copy and paste my Instagram caption for this collage instead of coming up with a new one:)

Two things I strongly recommend doing while your kids are still young/impressionable/think you're somewhat cool: engage in spontaneous photo shoots and talk to them about pornography: both its dangerously addictive and destructive nature AND how a combination of resolve and resources can help anyone break free of porn. @fightthenewdrug is doing an awesome November campaign and if anyone wants a cool shirt like me and Clyde, their online shop is having a sweet Black Friday sale! #pornkillslove #NoPornovember#fightthenewdrug

The night before Thanksgiving we road tripped out past Emmett to meet the Swensons for some swimming at Roystone Hot Springs, which I'd never heard of (because I'm a homebody and unadventurous, so I'm always grateful for friends who plan cool stuff and invite us to tag along haha!). It was way neat; they rent it out for private groups so we had the place to ourselves and aside from Andrew's slight head injury, we all had a great time. Shelly had family up from Utah and we love them, and it's always fun to hang out with Swensons socially again so we can call Dan 'Dan' instead of 'Bishop' for a few hours ;). 

Jack was a slight pill and refused to trust his life jacket... until the end when he bobbed around and loved life in the water - and then it was time to go haha. The big boys loved jumping in and trying to slam dunk. Crazies!

Carma had a sleepover at Grandma Pam's because I'm mean and wanted to enjoy the pool without keeping a two-year-old happy/above water/not too hot, etc. They had a fantastic time and arrived at Thanksgiving dinner in the cutest, girlies, coordinating outfits:

Have I mentioned lately how cool my mama is? Basically the coolest!😍

Clyde got to participate in his first Turkey Bowl and had the best time ever! Other athletes were Brother Parra, all the Cunningham Men, Brother Westerberg, Jason and his brother Tyler, and (my personal favorite) Chuck. Photo credits: Brother Dille, who was persuaded to walk out his front door to the park :). 

Chuck and Jack embarked on the traditional bike ride to obtain a newspaper for our perusing pleasure. And between Chuck and my mama and myself we put together a prettttty delicious plate of food, yay! I'm not (spoiler alert) super into spending hours in the kitchen so I love the Thanksgiving that Chuck and I have chosen to create for our family - lots of time together and watching football and being so so grateful for what we have.

And right now I'm grateful this post is done and I can go to bed hahaha!