Thanksgiving!

"Pilgrims and Indians thanked God together....Pilgrims and Indians thanked God together....Pilgrims and Indians thanked God together...On Thanksgiving Day!"

Years ago, my girls started learning that song at preschool and this year, we traveled to Minnesota for Thanksgiving...armed with copies of the song. The kids sang it first and then everyone joined in together, followed by Ellie praying for our meal--it was beautiful and fun! Here is a short clip of the singing--as you can see, all the cousins got into it, and even Uncle Tucker excelled at the song...

We had a great trip home--it was filled with laughter, filled with fun cousin play and filled with many different activities into a 3 day window.

To start off the trip, we got an email from Tucker "Let Andy know I need his help on something..." This is quite the joke around our house. When we lived out in Utah, we came home for Christmas and Tucker picked the coldest, windiest day to have Andy help him change the oil in his jeep. This time, it was "supposed" to be better--just putting the hard top on the jeep. However, we entered Minnesota and YIKES! It was COLD, much colder than Wisconsin!

1st picture on the left is the crew in the topless jeep going to get the hard top out of storage. Jayna and Grace went along for the fun. When they returned, Jayna said "MOM. I am FREEZING!"

Grampy also set up the jumping toy in his building--the kids loved to burn off energy in that. (1st photo on right.)

I knew my parents house was torn up--they are remodeling and 1/2 the area is not usable right now. Knowing this, I brought along some paints and ornaments for the girls to paint on Friday afternoon--they loved it (bottom left photo).

There was also much Oscar time--so much that on Sunday, Colin had Oscar-withdrawal...and Oscar had "Kaadie" and Jayna withdrawal! Ellie loved snuggling tired Oscar (bottom right photo)--the 2 milk allergic cousins!

Because of the remodel, there wasn't "room in the inn" for our big family. We were all going to stay at a hotel, but Andy and I chickened out--we've experienced too many sleepless nights with Colin in hotels! Colin, Ava and I stayed at my parents and Andy and the big girls stayed at a hotel. It was a lot of fun for the girls to have that time with Andy. Here is a picture he snapped of them watching a video before bed one of the nights:

On Saturday, we all went in different directions. Andy, Tucker and my Dad went to a football game and the girls/boy babies went house hopping and to see Macy's 8th floor Christmas display.

We loved seeing where our cousins live...and we headed out for Downtown Minneapolis. We were quite the group, 4 adults, 2 strollers and 8 kiddos. The kids did amazing as we waited for elevators, waited in line, waited some more etc...and they really enjoyed the display.
This is the best photo I was able to capture quickly:

The happy girls, with cousins and Grammie:

And Colin...and his best bud Oscar:

While the girls were putzing around, the boys went to the Minnesota vs. Iowa football game....in the new stadium that is outdoors! Brrr. Dad "had" to wear his Minnesota garb, he said his ancient Iowa sweatshirt bit the dust and was thrown out! Scandalous! As you can see, Tucker and Andy went to great lengths to try to stay warm--even sitting in garbage bags. The game was fun (to see the Hawkeyes live) but oh, so frustrating for Andy's beloved team...

We had a few tired kiddos on the way home--we didn't even leave the Cities until 7pm! Colin fell asleep mid-song--he was slap happy and all of a sudden, he was silent! Ava, our sleeper, slept from the get go and didn't wake up, even when we carried her to her bed!

The big girls enjoyed their movie and then fell asleep...and Ellie (!)...we just laughed when we looked back and saw how she was sleeping!

Has anyone heard of our latest "game"? It's called the Craigslist Camera Fund. We need a new camera, but we're trying to earn the money to buy the exact model Andy has his eye on. We were talking about that on Thanksgiving....it has been a fun activity, we've gotten rid of some baby stuff...but we have (had) a long way to go...

On their way up to Minneapolis, my Dad took Andy to Costco. They just happened upon the camera that Andy wants and my Dad bought one for himself...

While we were eating dinner at Megan's house after the game, my Dad said "Hey. I have a proposal for you....How about I give you $X and you pay the rest out of your camera fund for your new camera?" The camera was for US!

Andy is having a blast learning how to use it and here is a sneak peak of what he has captured so far. We can't even believe the detail this camera picks up!

The little girls: Note the action shots with their hair flying in the background!

And the Christmas tree shots:

Stay tuned for more....Ellie has a swimming meet this Saturday. I'm taking her and Andy's doing swimming lesson/birthday party duty. I told Andy "Give me my lesson on the camera, I'm taking it to the meet on Saturday to test it out!" :)