This wonderful group of people was our Thanksgiving this year.  My brother and his amazing family got to come down and spend a week playing with us.


They arrived late Friday night the week before Thanksgiving.  I had made plans to spend the Saturday with my friend Brenda at SLC's Time out for Women.  That was one of the best and most selfish birthday present I have ever given someone.  I had a wonderful time with a shot in the arm of optimism and a wonderful reality check of what is truly important in my life.  While I was off wearing out a seat in the Maverick Center, everyone but Taylor and baby Matthew were off to a BYU football game.  They left in the rain and came back in the rain but had a great, cold but somewhat dry time during the game, fueled by caramel corn and sporting dollar store ponchos.


We just love having family with us so much that we we just spend every moment we can with them and the days fly by way too fast.  They checked my girls out of school Tuesday to take them to an outstanding children's museum and took them on a ropes course that was scarily high up in the rafters.  We went swimming, cooked and ate a ton, big kids all went to see Mockingjay, little kids watched way too many movies, ice skating, and shakes at JCW's.  Mimi introduced Allison to late night/early morning Black Friday shopping.  We all went up to Temple Square for the lights and to see Savior of the World.  And mostly we just were able to spend time visiting and being together.  If we could we would have just forced them all to stay another week at least.

Thanksgiving we had a few hiccups with three sick kiddos - Robyn, Sammy and Taylor all were down with sore throats and fevers.  So instead of going on our traditional hike to the waterfalls, they spent the afternoon napping.  Robyn even got to eat Thanksgiving dinner in her PJs.  And you know its a good Thanksgiving when after dinner this is what the living room looks like:


After dinner this year we had each kid perform for us.  I loved seeing everyone show off a song.  My favorite was Spencer on the guitar singing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."  And we won't talk about what Spencer has been eating this week, its a little sickening.  Yes, that is ALL pie.


The week before Daniel's family arrived was full of volleyball.  Spencer had his volleyball play-offs.  Amazingly they had a nail biting game that they won, beating a team that had previously trounced them.  It was awesome to watch Spencer and his team really step it up.  Allison and I had to miss the final game as we had mutual.  By the end of the week Robyn was a little done with cheering for volleyball.  And yes they lost the final game but it was a well fought loss so all walked away happy.