Thanksgiving 2013

For Thanksgiving this year we gathered at my parents' townhouse for the first time ever as an entire family (it's much smaller than the Compound in Freakin Eagle Mountain).

The kids were excited to see each other.

We need to take family pictures before dinner so we hopped into the cars and drove around the corner to try to find a place that wasn't too sunny. 

We found some shade nearby that was backed by piles of manure! It wreaked for sure, but served our purposes and was definitely memorable. We took four shots with the tripod and self-timer.

We had Amy take our family photos (no easy task) and she ended up having to stand in the doorway of our car so she could shoot us from above, it was pretty funny. She also had to work around the trash and manure in the background. Good times.

Back at the house the boys played video games, while the girls played one of Whitney's creative games.

Amy helped Robyn with a photography app for her phone, and Olivia and Megan laid on the floor (which was funny because we hadn't even eaten yet).

We all fit at the same table except for Ashley, Megan and Olivia who sat at a little table nearby.

Andrew made an appearance with his besties.

Tess was in charge of organizing names to be drawn for Christmas gift exchange.

We hung out all day.

Amy was oh so happy to get a little nap in.

And then the M&Ms and games came out.

We taught Randy and Landon how to play Wizard.

I brought Thanksgiving Bingo (which I got from Pinterest) and it went over huge.

I also brought Catch Phrase which meant the kids could all play too. It was pretty funny.

Teaser

Lori and I spent 5 glorious days in Laguna Beach, California and I took over 1200 photos! Here are 5 of them (chosen at random).

The beach at Sunset (or any time really) is good for the soul.

Our whale watching boat encountered a huge group (school?) of about 1000 dolphins, it was the coolest thing ever!!

We got up early one morning to check out the tide pools and saw about 5 star fish.

We walked around downtown Laguna to enjoy everything.

Taking pictures at an outdoor flower market was one of the highlights for me. I love flowers!

Rewind--Whitney's 13th Birthday

Whitney talks about her birthday all year long. She is always saying things like "You know what you could get me for my birthday...", or "I can't decide what I want to do for my birthday (she'll say this 5 months ahead of time)." It's pretty funny and not exhausting at all.

I'm not sure how or when we started doing "corner presents" but they have become a favorite part of the kids' birthdays.

Whitney was happy with this stash of gifts.

My mom checked Whitney out of school early so they could drive to Salt Lake to meet up with Bella for some shopping and then a movie.

Bella stayed over that night and the three of us watched "Thirteen Going on 30" together. It was their first Romantic Comedy/Chick Flick and it was hilarious to watch with them since they're both 13. They weren't old enough to swoon and didn't understand a lot of what was funny, but we had a good time.

We had a full day of fun planned for Saturday.

We picked up Lori and went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

Then we went to Slurp for the first time and had a hard time taking a self-portrait (of course I love dominating the photo...NOT!)

Oh Whitney.

Next stop was Color Me Mine for our misspelled table appointment of fun.

Lori got right down to it, but Bella and I were pretty stressed about messing our projects up. I was surprised at Whitney's hesitation too but her issue may have been because she had too many ideas.

It took her over an hour before she was ready to paint! She made a cool striped design using tape. We were there for 3 hours and had a really fun time. I think Bella and I would be less stressed the next go around.

We had a family party that evening for Randy and Whitney and I had arranged for a friend from church to make this amazingly beautiful apple pie for Randy.

Adam entertained us as usual!

Whitney blew out all 13 candles (I hope she didn't wish for a dog!).

The big crowd.

Everyone gave Whitney cash!

12 on the 12th--November Edition

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1. Randy drove home from California all night so I found him on the couch sacked out Monday morning.
2. The last of the leaves are barely hanging on the trees in our yard.
3. I love listening to past General Conferences while I'm getting ready in the morning, it's amazing how quickly I go through them.
4. I worked on some good mail and just had to have Peanut Butter M&Ms while I did so.
5. Lori is starting a new job soon so she's taking her remaining 2 weeks of vacation at her current job. She came over so we could plan a trip for next week.
6. Landon stood in the doorway and visited with us for awhile after school.
7. We couldn't get seats on the plane together so we are both in center seats, ugh. I'm sitting behind her so I can poke her through the cracks.
8. Whitney stayed after school to audition for the Musical Theater class so we had to go pick her up.
9. Randy grilled burgers for dinner, it's more a party when Lori is here.
10. Our new favorite Monday night show is Blacklist (which we usually watch on Tuesday).
11. We often gather in our bedroom to say family prayer at night and this usually involves much silliness on their parts (not mine because I just want to go to bed).
12. I'm really enjoying The Reef by Edith Wharton and my new pen holder cup that I painted at Color Me Mine a few weeks ago for Whitney's birthday outing.

Inspiration

These are some inspirational quotes from my Pinterest quote board. I was saving them to my desktop today so I could use them for my screensaver (along with many others) and thought they would be a nice addition to my blog which desperately needs a new post. Do you love these too?