All Good Things Must Come to an End...

... But not without a fight! Thanks to this snow storm my WONDERFUL, AWESOME, GREAT family got to stay an extra day on their trip to visit us. My parents and sisters came and spent Thanksgiving with us. Our first Thanksgiving together in 4 years! The only thing that could have been better was if the rest of my family were here. We really missed "Jay-ed" (Austin's pronunciation of Jared). It was awesome and I'm glad we got a bonus day.

{not sure if you can tell but the snow flakes are HUGE} My family spent an hour driving two miles so they turned around and came back. Seeing them come back was almost as good as it was to see them the first night they got here.

While they were here we spent a lot of time doing this... Relaxation!! Thursday we spent the day - what else? Cooking and eating - Yum. Nothing makes me feel at home as much as my families "famous" (at least to us!) Carrot and Sage Stuffing. We spent the afternoon watching movies and playing games. Actually, every night my family was here we played games - Cranium, Would You Rather, Buzz Word and Rooke. Seriously, I forgot how fun it is to hang out and play games together.

Friday was another movie day: Disney's BOLT. The digital 3D is actually really cool. The kids loved it and spent the next few days playing "spy" with their 3D glasses.

Saturday we spent some time at Garden of the Gods. The rock formations there are just awesome and it's so fun for the kids to explore and climb and jump. It really wasn't even that cold once you got moving.

Landon and Alina are pretty inseprable when they're together. Alina is so good at making up games for them to play. I don't think they were bored once.

Sasha is a great helper! She is SO good at taking care of the kids. From feeding and entertaining Isaac to playing catch with Austin - this girl is awesome to have around!
"Kissing Camels" Rock is what's most famous at Garden of the Gods. When I was little and my family would go there I used to love looking at it. It's the one rock formation I remembered when I saw Garden of the Gods again. I'm glad my kids get to see it. It's so fun doing with them something I used to love to do when I was a kid.





Waking up to a huge snow storm is thrilling in itself. But then watching the snow come down ALL DAY is just neat, because you can cuddle in the warm house and put up the Christmas tree (which became my arch nemisis... another story)-which is what I did or you can bundle up and have a blast outside - which is what the kids and Cameron did.

These pictures make it look like the kids were out there at midnight. But really it was between 4:00 and 5:00 (I'm not sure why it got so dark so early). They had so fun building a snow fort and playing in the snow. Austin only lasted about a half hour and Isaac less time than that but Landon and Alina were out for two hours or more; cold or no cold they were determined to get that fort finished.

Cameron helped with the fort and then shoveled driveways. Isaac banged on the window begging to go out with the kids. It took me 15 minutes to get him all bundled up. He did seem happy to be outside but that white powdery stuff made him a little nervous. Once the sun went down he was ready to come in. This snow is so different than Iowa snow. You can actually play in it. We all loved it. And, like I said before, best of all it kept my family here an extra day.

Thank you for coming, my wonderful family. And thank you for spending Thanksgiving with us. I have missed you every year we were in Iowa but this "white" Thanksgiving made up for it!