Saturday, December 6, 2014

Giving Thanks for Guests

My sister, Nicole, asked if she and her adorable family could come to our house for Thanksgiving weekend.  We have stayed at Nicole and Brian's house eleventyhundred times and I was thrilled to be able to host them, for a change.
My niece, Bridget, broke her foot a week before their visit.  She and Chloe spent most of their time in Chloe's room, dressing dolls and writing plays and telling secrets.  The twins, Emil and Colin, spent most of their time being my best friends.

Colin helped with the side dishes for our Thanksgiving feast.

Our scout troop has the most fantastic fundraiser, ever!  You give them your seasoned turkey in a roasting bag on Wednesday night, they cook it in a pit overnight, and then you pick it up Thursday morning and keep it in a cooler until you're ready to eat.  The turkey was delicious and the oven was free all day.  Winning!

It was a GORGEOUS day, so we ate outside in our short sleeves.  Some of us also wore fingerless gloves.

Nicole classed up the tables with some beautiful quilted table toppers.

Chloe and Bridget spent the evening getting glitter all over the porch and themselves.  They had fun shaking it off.

What fun it is for Chloe to have a dress up and glitter loving cousin!

The next day we went to the park and played hard.  Except Bridget, because she broke her foot.  So . . . not my best idea.

The zipline was a crowd favorite.

[Photo by Nicole.]

Brian lifted all the little boys up to help them make a shot.  None of them made it, but he got some exercise.

That evening we all went to see the lights at the Mesa Temple.  Not as classy as the lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, but we didn't freeze.  Sold!

Once again, I chose an activity where Bridget would have to do a lot of walking on crutches.  So rude.

I love this one.  Harrison thought Emil and Colin were the cutest kids, ever.

God bless us, everyone.

Afterwards we went to Bahama Bucks, where Emil chose the only gross flavor on the menu (Banana.).  Congratulations!  You did it!

Nicole and Brian celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary the next day.  Amazing!  After a day of shopping and football, we watched all the kids while the Kunzes went on a date.  Six kids is a lot, it turns out.  I totally forgot about two of them.  How did our parents do it?

We were really sad to see them go on Sunday morning.  Chloe's still crying about it.  Let's be honest: so am I.  Nicole says her boys keep asking when they're coming back to our house.  I hope they wear her down soon.

2 Wisecracks:

Jess said...

Temple lights without freezing to death?!? That is awesome!! That is so fun to have family come and visit you for Thanksgiving. And it must be especially fun to be best friends with such cute 3 (or 4?) year olds.

Nicole said...

First of all, those glitter photos of Chloe and Bridget are my new favorite thing. Please email them to me? Every night I talk to the boys about what they did during the day that was awesome. Since we got home from your house, they always mention "Melissa's house" (Emil does - Colin calls it my Mom's House) because that kind of awesomeness counts for many days. :) I also have a new favorite picture of Brian - look how happy he is! He loves me.