Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind of fun for our family this year. We spent nearly five full days in Logan with Dan's family and had a wonderful time! I tried to catch different aspects of our week with pictures from my phone, and although I wish I had a much nicer camera to work with, I was glad to be able to catch some great memories. Man alive, we have so much to be grateful for! It was wonderful spending time with family and thinking about our blessings.

The fun all started with Regyn's 2nd Grade Thanksgiving Reader's Theater. She sure makes a cute little Pilgrim, don't you think?

 
Then we were off to Grandma's. Here are a few of the fun things we did while there.

Read. I love this picture of Dan's mother reading to some of her grandchildren. She's so good about making time to sit down with the grandkids. And oh, how I love books!

Here's another picture of some little readers. Isn't this adorable? These two girls are both in 2nd grade and had a blast together all week, as the following pictures show.

Singing karaoke on Grandma's stage in the theater room. Regyn was really getting into it (note the look on her face).

Fixing their cute little cousin's hair in Grandma's bathroom (Brooklyn, the cousin getting her hair fixed, doesn't look like she's having near as much fun as Brighton and Regyn).

And here's the end result: pigtails! Brooklyn just had to show us her missing tooth, too.

These cute cousins also found plenty to do:

Earning quarters for the gumball machine by cleaning up toys. . .

(Here is another cousin chomping on a gumball--I got a kick out this picture)

Playing on the bounce house . . .

And fishing in Grandma's fish pond (this woman thinks of everything, let me tell you.)

And then there were these fun things to do.

-Make crafts.

-Play "house" in the Play Room.

-Play "dress-up" in the Secret Room (they have a little play room behind their theater room that opens by pushing a section of the wall--it's pretty amazing). These rooms are usually spic and span, btw, but with lots of cousins staying for numerous days, this is what it looked like most days.

-Watching movies in the Theater Room.

-Playing board games.

Dan's mother thought of everything. She even organized a flag football game for Nate and invited neighborhood kids. I sure wish my picture was better, but I was taking it from the balcony and the trees were in the way. You get the idea. Lots of fun. Nate loved it!

It was fun spending time with my sisters-in-law. They are so darling. Here is a picture of some of them (I'm so sad I didn't take one when Karlene was there, but I didn't think of it until everyone was leaving and she was already home).

Here are a few activities the adults did all week.

Exercise (notice I am not in the picture--I took the week off, but I have to admit I felt a bit guilty as I ate chocolates and watched them work out).

Make chocolates. Man, are they ever delicious! I didn't even know what candy-making was until I joined the Conger family.

And of course we visited, shopped, went to the movies, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.

I loved this little sign my creative sister-in-law, Jen, made. It hung on the windows right above the kitchen table all week. So cute!

 My father-in-law had written a beautiful 2-page letter to his family about how much he loved his wife and asked me to read it before dinner. It was eloquent and sweet and amazing--a wonderful way to start off the occasion.

These were just the adults. We fed the children eight years old and younger  and then set up the big table for us and sent the kids downstairs to watch a movie while we enjoyed a peaceful dinner. It was great!

By the end of the week, we were all exhausted, but so happy we had been able to spend time with so many people we love. The house was pretty much trashed by this time, but we all pitched in to help clean up before we left for home.

Berkley especially loved this part.

I love this. It's hard to tell, but she's actually pretending to talk on the phone while she vacuums.  It's never too early to start multi-tasking! LOL!

It was a wonderful week! I'm truly so blessed to have the Congers in my life. They are all such wonderful people who I have learned gobs from. I love that the Holidays bring families together. It's my favorite part. Dan and I have felt so blessed that, as this year comes to a close, we decided we wanted to send our Christmas cards out a little bit early--for Thanksgiving.

I tell you, I wanted to send this to everyone I've ever known! I just kept thinking of all the fabulous people we've been blessed to know throughout our lives and it was hard to refrain from trying to reach out to all of them. So, to all of you who have ever crossed our path or blessed our lives with your friendship, we love you! Hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours!

Now to get ready for Christmas . . .