So Grateful- Thanksgiving 2010

A day late and a dollar short: my always-playing-catch-up-motto I can't seem to avoid! Well, this blog is our Thanksgiving blog.... a week before Christmas! Sigh! Life is busy, what can I say! What I do know is just how grateful we are this year. This Thanksgiving, Kaylen and I headed to Minnesota as Gregg worked over the Thanksgiving holiday. So, we made good use of my home-sickness and spent it with my family there. We definitely missed Gregg and called him every day, but we got lots of good fun and great memories out of our trip! The above picture reflects numerous rides in the laundry basket that Uncle Jeff took Kaylen on. She's using her sign language and asking for more and this was only Day 1!

Jeff is really great with Kaylen and he did all he could to entertain her every time they were around each other. It was a lot of fun to watch and Kaylen absolutely adored him!

Kaylen found Grandpa in the living room signing karaoke... so she thought she'd just sit down and listen! It was very cute. Grandpa was serenading her.

We spent Thanksgiving at my Godparents house with their kids who now have families of their own! And I always think they do it so well serving such a large number of people! And each year, it seems to grow! Unfortunately, as you can see... I wasn't good about taking pictures. I have a couple, but none very worthy of making on here. Lesson learned... it's better to bug people and take pictures than to not have any!

The day after Thanksgiving, my cousin, Ryan and his family came over for dinner. They have two great kids, but Emma, below, is just the right age for Kaylen to have a blast with! Kaylen loves kids a little bit older than her to run around and play with and Emma was so good to her.
They were dancing machines!!

Grandpa reading to Kaylen

Not sure who it was, either Jeff or Grandma that had the great idea to take Kaylen to Nickelodeon Universe (formally known as Camp Snoopy) at the Mall of America. They have lots of rides in the middle of the mall and had actually about 5 or 6 that Kaylen could ride. She'd been on a few rides before, but none quite as fast as these! She would get a little scared here and there, but was always a trooper and got on the next one!

Mommy and Kaylen about to get on her first ride of the day!

The roller coaster was pretty fast, but she made it!

She got to ride the carousel with Grandpa... again, one of the fastest ones she's been on and she had her death grip on Grandpa most of the ride!

Grandma and Kaylen rode Diego's bus! She gave us one great smile before this one started!

Kaylen with Grandpa and Grandma before her ride with them in the hot air balloons. She also got to ride this one with Mommy and Uncle Jeff

Getting to walk/ swing with Uncle Jeff and Grandpa

She had an ABSOLUTE blast outside sledding around my parents yard. Uncle Jeff went around the yard at least 20 times! It's so fun to see how much patience he has with her! She absolutely loved it! And the weather was pretty great while we were there, so it wasn't too cold.

Sledding with Uncle Jeff

Grandma had a feeling Kaylen would love the Holidazzle parade... a winter tradition of ours, and she was RIGHT! It was great weather for it, not too cold. We found a great spot right on the curb and could sit down with Kaylen so she didn't get too restless. She LOVED the lights and all the characters! What a great idea it was!

Uncle Jeff fed Kaylen lunch one day and she gave him one of her best smiles

Kaylen loved her time playing the piano!

But she rocked out the best with Grandma Ruby who managed to remember some of the fun songs we played when we were kids with her! Jeff and I both had to jump in after a while and get our turn, too! :-) Kaylen loved playing the piano with Grandma.

Grandpa tried to get snotty Kissa to be nice to Kaylen. Kaylen did get one pet in before the hiss came. I don't think our girl is going to be a cat person! But that's alright because she's a dog person and that's great by us!

Before Grandma could let us leave, she had to make Kaylen lots of chocolate chip cookies to take home to Utah! And they were very yummy!

We had such a good time in Minnesota with my family. They really did everything they could think of to give Kaylen a fun time there. We took advantage of the Minnesota snow and played outside, we got to see lots of friends and family, went shopping and was spoiled by Uncle Jeff and Grandma, went on rides, played the piano, did laundry basket rides, had a dance party at LEAST twice a day, sang and chatted up a storm... I think we fit it all in!

We did miss Gregg a lot and made sure we got to keep up on his days as well, but he managed to stay pretty busy! He did have to work a few of the days, but he got to hang out with a few friends, go to a concert, play AND watch football, so we're pretty sure he did alright filling up his time. We did bring home some of Grandma's cookies to him and Grandma Ruby bought him cheese popcorn from the best candy store in Minnesota.

We are so thankful for each other, our family and friends, and all that we've been blessed with. We're looking forward to yet another amazing year.