Thanksgiving

We managed to pack a lot into our short trip to Florida for Thanksgiving--sick kids, shopping, mini-road trips, tons of food, even stitches. It was so fun but now I am still trying to get back in the swing of things here at home...

We arrived Tuesday night and  we shopped and cooked  all day on Wednesday (and Thursday of course) and had our feast Thursday afternoon. After cleaning up we had a talent show--if you can call it that ;). That evening we played games and watched a movie on TV.

Friday my sister and brother-in-law had a wedding to go to in Orlando so we all went along and went shopping at Downtown Disney for a couple of hours while they were at the temple. It was a lot of fun. The Lego store had to be my boys' favorite part although there were some other pretty fun things as well. That evening my nephew and neice had a football game (they are in the Pep Band) so I went with my sister to that and enjoyed listening to the band and reliving some memories from my days in band.

Nate in the Harley-Davidson store at Downtown Disney

Joel having fun with the Legos.     Seth hula-hooping at a kids' dance party.

Daniel hanging out in the stroller enjoying  one of the turkey sandwiches Uncle Patrick packed for our lunch.

Saturday was Seth's birthday. My AWESOME sister planned a pioneer-themed birthday party for him (his request) complete with fun pioneer games and decorations including a log cabin cake with a sod roof and a vegetable garden. Unfortunately as she was looking for the cake pan a vase got broken and she cut her finger bad enough that she had to go get a stitch. Yes, just one. She said that the doctor laughed at her, but I'm the one that insisted she go. I knew it was deep enough that she wouldn't want to just put a bandage on it. She came home with it splinted and all bandaged up. She was a good sport and how many kids can say that their aunt literally put blood, sweat and tears into making their birthday party fantastic, right?

Seth blowing out his candles--all 10 0f them!

We like to play "heavy-heavy-hang-over" at our birthday parties.

Another trauma of the trip was when Daniel climbed up on my sister's table then fell off and hit his head on the tile floor. It was scary! It really cracked loud and we were sure there would be blood but he  was okay. He did end up with a goose-egg and a black eye. The eye has gotten worse (at least in how it looks) over the last few days. I guess it has just taken this long for the bruising to really show up. We have taken to calling Danny our little black-eyed-D. He seems to feel fine though and the doctor didn't seem worried. I guess it's one of those cases of it looking worse than it is. With four boys it was inevitable that one of them would get a black eye sooner or later but it still makes me feel bad every time I look at it. Poor little bruiser.

I took these pictures after we got home--for posterity's sake. As you can see, he is still his usual pleasant self.

The last day we were there was Sunday so we left after Sacrament meeting for the long drive home.  I'm glad we live close enough to make the trip a couple of times a year. I love being with my sister, my brother-in-law, my cool nephew and my sweet nieces so much.  Despite the minor dramas, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving!