A great Thanksgiving week ends with the FLU!

Oh what a week it has been.......it's been the kind of vacation that you are wishing would last a bit longer. We had Justin off and all to ourselves for over a week and nothing on the agenda except eating lots of yummy food and traveling. We were a little spoiled and today it was hard to think that reality had to come back. :( We made the trip over to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with Justin's family, we ended up leaving a few days before the holiday and got to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation with just our little family which we have never really done before at the lake so that was kind of nice. Justin's Grandma is in an assisted living facility and his Uncle John brings her out to the house every afternoon to be home so we got to spend some nice time just visiting and letting the girls have a little one on one time with her. It's hard because she has lost her sight and the girls have been very hesitant of that idea and it's been strange for them to see Granny in such a different state. :( By the time we had to say "goodbye" though they were giving her hugs and talking to her like no big deal so I was glad about that. She even held Gavin a few times and got to play with him a bit.

The first day we got there we had decided we were going to take the girls to this Triple Play place where they have bowling, go carts, a water park, golf, games, all sorts of fun things. The girls were THRILLED when we pulled up and they saw where we were, all they were saying is "oh thank you, thank you"......"oh my gosh thank you Daddy"........it was the response we were hoping for. ;) They had a ball and aside from the water being cold so Gavin wanted nothing to do with it, even Justin and I had fun.
This is the mini play area for the smaller kids, it was perfect for Haylee who is a bit hesitant when it's been a while in the water.

We had a fire one night and sat out and looked at the stars, the girls were having fun with their echos....the neighbors were loving that I'll bet. :)

Little man just sits and stares, he just loves being outside.

My sweet kiddos.

Grace had checked out a cook book at school and I figured what better time to sit and bake than on vacation??? They made dough and did shapes and faces with it, they did it all themselves and did quite well. Grace even served them at the kids table for Thanksgiving dinner......sorry to all those out there that actually had to eat one, that is sort of rule of thumb in this house......when the kids have created it, the adults stay far away from it. Do you see why????

So next was Thanksgiving, we had two this year and both turned out very nice. Justin's Aunt Vicki made most of the dinner on Thursday, she slaved all day for us so "thank you Vicki, it was wonderful". There were lots of yummy side dishes and desserts too and I think I probably managed to eat at least half of a cherry pie...thanks Kristen. ;)

Here is Justin's cousin Kristen and her "mini me" Ailey.This is Tyler (Kristen's husband) and he loves the babies.....they are expecting baby #4 in their house. :) Congratulations guys....bring on the cousins!!!!

This is Kristen's sister Stacey and her daughter River.

Here she is with her husband John.The cousins out throwing rocks. Grandma and Little man. Ellersick boys. Grace getting roughed up by Jackson.

The kids table.

Vicki as usual did an excellent job setting the adults table, it was so pretty and festive. Peyton and Gavin, it will be so fun to watch these two grow up together.......right now it looks like Gavin could eat her as a snack, he is such a tank compared to her.

So sweet.....

She sits up so well and is so quiet and sweet natured.

We got some snow the day after Thanksgiving, it was just enough to play in but not enough to stay around and cause problems with driving......the best kind. :)


They did it.......

But Jackson had to do his very own.....quite determined I might add too. ;)

Grandma managed to fit in some fun Christmas crafts......

Justin took these pictures and I think they turned out very neat, it's such a different place in the Fall than the summer, the fog was almost eery.....and it's very quiet.

This is the house from the beach.

So it was a very fun time, we managed to have clear, dry roads and a quick trip home........."goodbye till next time girls".......

The last day we woke up to the sound of Haylee throwing up, poor little thing was like this the whole way home. :(

It was not long before Justin was joining her on the couch.

And in all that excitement, Grace lost tooth #3.......she was a bit dramatic but managed to pull it out. It was double Mom duties that day.....flu AND tooth fairy. :)