Thanksgiving 2009

Ok, when it comes to Thanksgiving, I'm terrible at taking pictures. And when I'm at the Stangers I'm also horrible at taking pictures. Not because there's a lack of anything exciting happening. Mostly because I get so involved in other things that I forget that I have a camera on hand, and that I should take pictures of actual events. As a result, here's pictures of our Thanksgiving holiday with the Stangers in Victor, Idaho. There are only a few and of those, they're not very good. But for the sake of posterity, I figured I should post them anyway. First of all, let me say that Victor in the winter is cold. Take your breath away, freeze your boogers, lose a limb kinda cold. According to my sister, we brought warm weather with us from Utah. Some days it reached 40 degrees or so. Balmy, really balmy! I tried to be prepared, but I didn't have a winter coat for Jason, and I forgot Kaitlyn's boots. On our way up we stopped at Smith & Edwards, the country boy store (if you haven't been there, I highly recommend it), and got a coat and boots for Jason. I looked at boots for Kaitlyn but thought she probably wouldn't need boots since I didn't think the kids would be playing in the snow much. Plus, she had perfectly good boots at home. Bad choice on my part. Especially since we thought it would be fun to go geocaching with the Stangers. After hunting for a cache (that we couldn't find), Kaitlyn's feet were so wet and cold that when we took off her shoes and socks in the car, she cried and cried because it hurt so bad. Then when her feet started warming up, she cried again because the spikeys (her words) were hurting her. I tried to imagine what that would feel like and I associate it with when your feet or legs start getting circulation back into them after they fall asleep. You know, that prickly feeling, and when someone touches said limb, you either want to slap them silly or pee your pants. You pick. Needless to say, we headed home to get her warmed up, then I made a speedy trip to get my poor little girl some boots. I'm sooo grateful to the owner of the store that gave me the black Friday sale price on a Wednesday. Thanks store owner dude (who will never read this)! You're my hero!!! Anywhoooo, long story, well ... long now, here's some pictures of the kids playing in the snow.
Kaitlyn loves playing with all her cousins. But there's only one she calls her Buddy. That's my nephew Adam. He's 14, but she just loves playing with him. Here she is cuddling up with him while he plays the Wii.
Ok, so this is the only picture I have from Thanksgiving Day. It's Jason eating olives off his finger. Can I just say that my sister and her hubby are the best cooks ever!! We really appreciate all their cooking skills and great company. We stayed up late every night, just laughing and having a great time.
On Friday, we decided to drive into Idaho Falls for some shopping. We didn't wake up early, or camp out, and I think it really worked for us. We got into town about 2 p.m. and had no problems at all. We figured that it wasn't crowded because the people who did get up early had either gone home to take a nap, or were in the ICU or prison because of the stampedes or fist fights over the 197 and 1/2 in. LCD flat screen t.v. for just $2. Although we didn't get the t.v. (sigh!), we did find some great deals, without receiving any black eyes from agitated shoppers. Woohoo!!!
Our final day there we watched the Super Bowl, otherwise known as the Holy War, or in simpler terms, BYU vs. Utah football game. Thankfully, BYU won, thus preserving our great Thanksgiving weekend. This year we were grateful for overtimes, and DVRs, so that when the TE made the game winning touchdown while I was getting my kids ready for a bath, I was able to rewind the catch and pretend that I didn't know what was going to happen next. It wasn't quite the same, but oh well. Go Cougars!!
On Sunday we had to leave, but our departure was made a littler easier because we knew we were going to see our friends the Arderns on the way home. They live and Logan and have the cutest kids ever. We are so grateful for the delicious dinner they fixed for us, and for their great company. Thanks Arderns!! You guys are the best!

We finally made it home in one piece, got unpacked, turned up the heat in the house (Brrrrr), and went to bed. Having so much fun is exhausting. It took me about 2 days after we got home to finally recover from the late night, food coma, laughing so hard it gives you a headache, vacation. But it was well worth it. We're so grateful for such terrific family and friends that made our time away from home so wonderful!!!