A Stuffed Thanksgiving

The kids were pretty excited to have their cousins show up from Arizona. Lakai was a little nervous about being the little guy, so he prepared himself for the mayhem. 

Now he's ready for the bigger cousins.

We took everybody (yeah, we like chaos) to La Brisa the night before Thanksgiving. It was 21ish adults, kids, and babies.

Luca tried to figure out how to blow bubbles in his chocolate milk like his cousins and brothers.

We kind of overwhelmed the poor La Brisa staff, but it was fun

The kids were getting antsy while the parents finished eating, so walked a bunch of them outside. DeA took them into the Mexican store next door and told them to pick out a treat. Guess who didn't come with the first group and saw all the treats when he finally left La Brisa.

Since it was Grandpa Leo's birthday, we had to make chocolate milkshakes for everyone.

Luca started out very careful with his cup.

Someone told him he couldn't climb on the organ with his cup, so he dumped it on the floor.

Whit is always willing to clean up the container.

She tried to make a turkey out of her sourdough, it tasted good even if it didn't look exactly like a turkey.

The kids loved the cats, but the cats didn't necessarily love them back. Horchata was the better sport of the two, and let the kids carry her around.

The most important part of any Thanksgiving is the Turkey Bowl. Jens was ready to ball out.

We had around 30, it was a good group and a fun game.

We forgot to take the before picture, but here is the after.

We had about 40-45 people for dinner and everything went pretty smooth. Rissa checked out before everyone left.

There were quite a few kids running around and Leo Dog did not understand why no one told them to stop yelling and making noises.

Ryker printed KC a little R2D2 to for Whit to take down. It was a very thoughtful idea, and I think it was the only way that Ryker knew to how to help.

There was a crew present to make sure Whit and Stewie left.

Right after Stewhit took off, we loaded up and headed into the mountains to find our Christmas tree.

DeA saw this tree from the road and thought it would be perfect. It was only 40 feet too tall.

We finally found a more size-appropriate tree.

I joked and told the kids that they had to chop it down with an axe. I was surprised that they absolutely loved it.

Even Schnoogies got into the action.

Leo tried to help, but he mostly got in the way.

DeA definitely got into the lumberjack spirit.

My tiny little lumberjacks.

It was a perfect day to hunt a tree.

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly trying to do nothing but watch football.

Luca was pretty mad that the helicopter would not take off for him.

We hung out, watched football and movies, and tried to make a dent in the leftovers.

DeA even let Jens decorate the tree without correcting the placement of her ornaments. It was a big step for her.

Christmas lights, a fire, and football. Not a bad way to end Thanksgiving weekend.

Nick and his girls left early Saturday. Harlow was glad to get away from us wackos.

Ryker printed them a St George Temple, where Emily and Nick were married.

 

We bought a fixer-upper from Sara from the office as Rock's first car. After the orchard mechanic worked it over, Rock finally got to drive it. His mom made sure to be there to chaperone.

The bullet antenna is his favorite part.

We all drove to Wenatchee to watch his double-header. DeA surprisingly was relaxed enough while Rock drove to sleep.

Rock played pretty well in his two games against up to 18-year-olds.

I helped with the clock and they came to provide emotional support.

The Lady Trojans are state champs, and today was the victory parade. It is a big deal.

Even Leo Puppy was excited.

DeA pretended to be excited, but she did ask multiple times if maybe a parade was too much.

Manson Leo got lots of attention and pets.

I was surprised at the turnout for the parade, it felt like half the town was in the parade.

We recruited some Truman girls to help increase the cuteness factor of our float.

They had a little party at the end of the parade with donuts, hot cocoa, and they introduced the team. By now DeA had stopped asking if the parade was too much, and decided that she loved it because it reminded her of something they would do in Virgin River or whatever Hallmark movie she last watched.

Leo Puppy enjoyed the morning, he seemed to like being a people.

It was cider making time shortly after the parade. It was outside this year, which cut down on the freeloaders. 

I couldn't find Jens, but eventually heard some thumping behind the bins. She was back there practicing her serves.

Saturday night and Sunday we had Stake Conference, you can tell it was an exciting meeting.

The Ryker.