A Thanksgiving to Remember

For Thanksgiving this year we had a lot of guests. Grandpa Bob, Grandma Cinda, Gary's brother Paul, his wife Gloria, their daughter Lily (age 8) and Gloria's two cousins, David (age 14), Daniel (age 7) and of course, their dog. That made for a total of 12 people and 1 canine. It was crazy. It was chaotic. It was messy. And it was A LOT OF FUN. We played games, ate loads of food, went shopping, hiking, swimming, to the movies and then we ate some more food and played some more games and even threw in some movies. We felt deflated when everyone left. Here are some pictures of a holiday that ranks for sure in our top Thanksgiving memories.

Spencer, Lily, Leia and Nathan at the park in our neighborhood. At the very beginning of the visit we had some wonderful weather and were able to get out and enjoy it.

Grandma Cinda brought along some crafts to keep the kids entertained

Gary and Paul decided to cook the Thanksgiving dinner with no help from the women at all. It was quite the turn on to see them with tea towels slung over their shoulders.

Here are a couple of the bookmarks that Leia made.

Uh-oh. Spencer found Daniel's Nintendo DS. He was glued to it for about an hour a day.

Uno Attack is an excellent game to play while waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.

Just look at that Turkey. It was even more yummy than it looks.

The Wii was a big hit this holiday. And Nathan didn't even have to actually play. He held onto the VCR remote and copied his Grandpa. He was happy as could be.

Here we are hiking the day after Thanksgiving. Nathan was doing his thing since there was no restroom nearby.

Leia took a shine to David. She held his hand during an entire 2 mile hike in the mountains.

Nathan and Grandpa.

A snowstorm hit on Saturday/Sunday and caused much joy among the children but anxiety among the adults as travelling proved to be tricky. All in all we got about 11 inches.

Leia at the park with Sam. She loved him very much and needless to say she now wants a dog.

How cute is Sam? He is a Shih Zzu/Poodle mix and therefore he is super good and doesn't shed. Leia who has a friend in Ohio with a Shih Zzu kept calling him Maggie (her friend's dog's name) for the first few days.

Spencer and Nathan just loved having two other boys around for almost a week.

Enjoying the snow.

As usual, Spencer can't just play in the snow he has to bathe in it.

Hiking fun together.

Paul and his beautiful wife Gloria.

Lily and Leia, devoted cousins.

David and Daniel. Such good boys.

Some of the Asp boys.

Paul got stuck by a cactus. Can you see the spines?

David loved the fireplace and even went so far as to try and touch it which ended up in a sore finger. You can tell that he grew up in Florida.