Thanksgiving 2011

We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday, minus the knee blow out that Sean got during his Turkey Bowl (football game) that morning. Poor guy can hardly move. We had our friends, the Bucks, over for dinner. Our feast included turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, peas, homemade rolls, raspberry jello salad, corn souffle, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, apple-ginger ale, and party punch. Later we went to some other friends' house for dessert (the table was packed with desserts: probably 15 options). It was a great day. Earlier this month we had a Family Home Evening on Gratitude. Throughout the rest of the month we wrote down things we were thankful for on popsicle sticks and put them in our "Thankful Jar." Here are some of the things on the sticks: Church Running vehicle with no payment Missionaries Veterans Jesus Priesthood (and that we can be healed through it) Food God Austin Holy Ghost Clothes Nature Daddy and Mommy "Best Wife and Mom ever" Holidays Family I also did a little photo session with the kids. I wanted to do family pictures for our holiday card, but then Sean broke himself and I didn't want to make him have to move around all over outside (we'll have to do the family one later).

Salmon Snagging

Sean really wanted to try for better luck at the salmon snagging excursion (he had gone a couple weeks earlier with the scouts and got stormed out) so we decided to take a little family trip up to the lake for the weekend. We headed up after the kids got out of school on Friday. We stopped and had Blake's burgers and fixes the tail light on the van (after getting pulled over and given a warning for it) and then made our way to El Vado Lake. We reserved a little cabin right there by the lake. It was a cute two bedroom wood cabin right along the river. We hung out that night. Sean took Caelan and Ben over to lake and through in their line a couple of times. The next morning we got up and made breakfast right there in the cabin: eggs, potatoes and sausage. We caught two deer fighting in front of the cabin, which was pretty entertaining to watch. The kids played with a few dogs that were wandering around in front of the cabin. Then we headed over to the Lake Heron and fished. Sean helped the kids with their rods. We stayed in one spot for a couple of hours with no luck (there were probably 20 other fishermen around us and no one was catching anything). We tried another spot and there was no luck there either. We drove by two other spots and asked around, but apparently the fish weren't out and about that day. We decided to head home. The kids had a blast playing along the water front and climbing the rocks. We stopped in Santa Fe at a Spanish foods store and picked up some spanish sausage and then got dinner in Albuquerque before we arrived home. We'll have to try it again next year. It was a fun family getaway, even if we came home empty handed.

Halloween 2011

We did all sorts of celebrating this year: Fri: Rt 66 School Parade and class parties. That night was the school Fall Festival Sat: Carved pumpkins, Sean made his chili and we went to our ward Trunk or Treat party (and came home with all sorts of extra candy) Sun: Just ate candy Mon: Megan's preschool Halloween performance and potluck. That night I took the kids trick-or-treating to Walmart and Beehive Home Assisted Living. That night we had Family Home Evening and talked about the Holy Ghost (appropriate, don't ya think?). And I think we went through about 15 costumes between all the events: Sean and I were Fred and Wilma Flinstone. Caelan: Taylor Swift, a Vampire (gone soft - she didn't want to wear the collar or teeth) and a witch Ben: Ninja and the Grim Reaper Megan: Clown, Princess and a donkey Nathan: Bob the Builder, Shrek and a pirate Austin: Bat, an alien and Tigger She looks so grown up in this picture. Yikes.