Thanksgiving dinner and a waterpark

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, we gathered with my immediate family and celebrated the holiday early. Amid the familiar Thanksgiving entrees were new recipes my brother and I brought to share with the family, including, but not limited to, a caprese salad (uber-tasty and Italian), a ratatouille (roasted yumminess and French), a tzatziki dip (super fresh tasting and Greek), and a turtle cheesecake (turbo-rich, creamy and completely, 100% American). A true melting pot of dinners to go with the melting pot of which our country is made. It was a nice afternoon of good company, great food, and of course, napping.





Since we celebrated Thanksgiving early, the actual holiday day was free for us to do whatever we wanted. We decided to take advantage of the time off from school and work to escape with the kids to somewhere fun. We settled on spending a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. Wow! What a place for families! It's rare we go to a hotel and are surrounded by so many other children. The Lodge caters to kids and so there were plenty of activities to keep them busy, not the least being the giant indoor waterpark right inside the hotel! What is it about water that it will keep kids occupied for hours and hours? I'll admit, it was pretty fun--even for the adults! They had several different waterslides, a wave pool, a giant water fort that dumped, squirted, and poured water on everyone in and around it, and a kiddie pool area for the little ones.





Below is the giant water bucket that stood at the top of the water fort. Every five minutes or so, a clanging cow bell warned everyone nearby that 1,000 gallons of water were about to come-a-crashin'. It was quite the experience!



After spending the day at the waterpark, we were ravishingly hungry. We enjoyed the Thanksgiving buffet at the hotel, complete with prime rib, pasta, sushi, a chocolate fountain, and turkey ice sculptures! I tried the sushi--ummm, no thanks; and the kids tried the chocolate fountain--ummm, messy!



Later that evening was a storytime show for the kids with music and even snow! (And, yes, those are two of my children standing at the very front, blocking everyone's view!)


It was a fun-filled vacation and a memorable Thanksgiving. My mom came with us and we enjoyed spending time together as a family, creating memories, and laughing and playing. We were (and still are) very grateful to have spent this time together.

Mariah's first soccer season

Last Saturday, in the beautiful, cool, sunny fall weather, Mariah played her last game of her first soccer season. It was a fun season for her, despite the inability to play about half of the games because of her broken arm. She continued practicing with her team during that time and, after a few tries as a forward and realizing it involved A LOT of running, she found herself comfortable in the defender position. Her coaches even named her the "Dependable Defender." She was great! She made some friends, learned a new skill, and tried her best. It was fun to see her succeed in a new sport and enjoy it.

Now I know...

...why parents get so emotionally involved when their children play sports. There's something about watching your child, whom you know and understand so completely, take the talents they are given and apply them to their best ability, and be successful!

For me, I've always wanted my children to play sports with the end goal of building their self-esteem and having fun. I don't care about winning or losing or being the star player. I just want my kids to do their best and have fun.

Tonight, as I watched Dallin and Grant play their first basketball game of the season (and after only one practice!) I was so pleased with their effort. Their personalities were shining through with each move they made.

Dallin: thoughtful and methodical, focused on thing at a time, awkwardly dribbling the ball down the court with every fiber of his being involved in doing it correctly, obediently trying to pass the ball to his teammates, finally taking a shot and making it, then unable to shake the satisfaction of success from his body as he stands mid-court for several seconds and grins at his mom for approval, completely and utterly pleased with himself.

Grant: energetic, scrappy, coordinated, eager to handle the ball, grabbing it the moment it is loose, dribbling down the court quite well for his experience level, then shooting the ball with style and a little bit of flamboyance.

These are my boys. Completely opposite, completely wonderful.

And here I was, on the sidelines, amidst all manner of parents illustrating their emotions. Some shouting, some clapping, some bossing, some whooping, some quiet, and me getting teary-eyed of all things!

These are my boys. My babies. And I love that they are growing and having fun and that I get to watch them do it!

Kyle musings

Kyle always asks me interesting questions as we're driving in the car. He's four years old and his brain is hard at work internalizing the world around him. I think when he's stuck in his car seat with nowhere to wiggle, his thoughts finally have a chance to surface, and what thoughts they are!

Yesterday in the car he started a discussion about what to do during an encounter with a bear. After explaining to me in great detail that I need to make lots of noise because bears are scared of noisy stuff and assuring me they don't eat people all that often, he asked, "Mom, why did Heavenly Father make bears?"

Several responses flooded my mind, but none were easy to explain. So he could have something at the top of the food chain? So the rivers wouldn't clog up with salmon? I wasn't quite sure what the eternal purpose of a bear is here on the earth, so I finally settled on this highly intelligent, insightful answer: "Well, I suppose because He liked them."

Then, Kyle's highly intelligent, insightful reply followed. "Well, I guess He doesn't really care about people then."

Dallin's list

The other day I found this cute list Dallin made called, "Things I Want to Do." Here's the list (verbatim):

sking
Dinsnyland
Yosemety
Bend
Water works
acounts (referring to opening a bank account)
driveing licents
graduwate colige
baptisd
get a job
laser tag
jjj jump
chuky chees

I love that he has a mix of serious, adult-like goals and fun, kid stuff. It's a nice balance, which is very much like Dallin's personality. He's a kid who loves to have fun but also realizes there are serious parts of life too!

Ghouls & Goblins

Halloween was fun this year for me. I took it easy, didn't stress about decorating or costumes, and tried to go with the flow. It might have helped that I was sick during the week and I just knew not to expect to get much done. Or maybe I'm finally starting to mellow out.....maybe. We had plenty of leftover costumes from years past to recycle through the younger kids, which made the costuming super easy. I think Grant was the only one who wasn't completely satisfied with the recycling plan. He tried out three different costumes for each Halloween event he went to. Trunk or treat - Batman; school party - ghost; Halloween night - Chewbacca.


On Halloween afternoon we finally found time to carve jack-o-lanterns. I usually wait to have Jason home to help since he doesn't mind getting messy and he's more of an artist than I am with the faces. But he was working, so I braved the project by myself with the kids and actually enjoyed it! I didn't even freak out about the kids making a mess with the pumpkin guts, which I usually do. So, see? Maybe I really am mellowing out!



I took the kids to a friend's house (Tracy) who converts her garage into a haunted house every year. The first year we went the kids were petrified to go in and it took several go-arounds with them clinging to my legs and Tracy telling her husband not to scare the kids before they were finally comfortable. This year they were pretty brave and even Tracy's blood-curdling screams didn't phase them much. They love going in to see all the spooky decor and to try to find Tracy's husband, Rick, who wanders around in costume creeping everyone out!




We survived another Halloween--now let's see if we survive the weeks ahead with the candy monsters bugging me everyday for some of their Halloween loot. One of these days when they ask me how many pieces they can have I'm just going to say, "Eat it all!" and get it over with!