San Antonio Thanksgiving

This year we got to spend Thanksgiving with Scott and Jess in San Antonio.

We got up at 3:30 AM. This is us backing out of the driveway at 5:05 AM.

I've finally gotten over avoiding early flights and returning home late. 

I don't sleep good anymore so I don't care if I don't get enough sleep.

Here we are in our seats on the plane.

Corinne sent a text asking if we were in Texas. 

This was my reply text.

Jess makes delicious food. Everything she makes is so good AND

she makes it beautiful too. All magazine worthy photo shoot.

 A little blurry, but you get the idea. 

We had six pies. Four Jess made and two from Kneaders. 

Kneaders disappointed because they really looked awful. Jess was not happy.

These are her pies. Pumpkin, Smores, Pecan Cheesecake and Peanut Butter Chocolate.

My favorite was the Peanut Butter Chocolate. 

I didn't think it would be, but I am recently becoming more and more in love with things Reese Peanut Butter related.  

Now it's time to eat. 

Scott and Jess warned us that Evan has kind of started the stranger danger phase.
Yes he wasn't a big fan having us in his bubble. That's okay. We did have some moments.

Jess and Fred are quite the team for working undercover. 

They did some shopping for Scott. 

I got to sit by Evan in the car and managed to entertain him. 

On the way back from the Tree Farm I even got to touch him without him waving me off.

He was pretty tired. 

The ground was really uneven so Evan took quite a few spills walking around out there.

It was hot - 80 degrees - not like our Christmas tree looking back in the day when our kids were growing up in Bremerton. 

I had Evan duty for a while. 

 See - I'm smiling - he is putting up with me. 

 

Here is the winner. A nice cedar.

 The fun begins for Scott and Fred. 

Step 1.

 Step 2.

 Step 3.

 Step 4. 

 Just messing around now. 

I had Jess give me some pointers on Instagram. 

I hope I can remember what she showed me and use it.

Like this feature.

 Here is the decorated tree. 

Friday night we met up with Larry and Cheryl Johnson and went out to dinner - all of us. 

They look good. It's always fun to reunite with old friends.

We did a little Christmas shopping. We lazed around the house reading, shopping on line, watched a movie, this and that. Low key and relaxing. Eating lots of leftover pie.

This little family is doing so good. Makes us super happy. 

Corinne's visit

Corinne's family traveled all the way from Caldwell Idaho to see us this weekend. They stopped over in Cedar City to attend the Temple Open House on Friday morning and then came on down in the afternoon. 

This isn't the picture from the Cedar City open house, but at work I can't download anything related to Facebook. Their picture from the Cedar City Temple is in my messenger account. So this picture will have to do. This is a great picture!

They all came and surprised me at work in the afternoon. That was really great. 

We ordered pizza for dinner (a regular meal when we have grandkids visiting, that's my way of cooking).

We took Ben and Corinne with us to a concert at Dixie University. It was called the DooWop Project. It was really very good. I'm glad that we could go together.

Here's a link if you want to check them out. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-h5FQl5pWQ

 In the morning there was a game of Ticket to Ride.

 I had to make an emergency trip to Costco. Last night I was quickly cleaning my glasses before we left to the concert and I broke off my nose pad on my glasses. I had to wear them with no nose piece. Nice - so I went to Costco first thing to get new ones put on. I also found a Christmas present for Corinne there. We sent them home with the rest of their Christmas gifts and Birthday presents for Richard and Spencer.

 Grandpa was able to give Henry his first wheelbarrow ride. He took it easy though. For some reason Henry woke up with a sick stomach and had a little barf episode. He was fine after that, but we still didn't want to rock the boat. 

 The usual lazing about the living room.

 We didn't really have a lot of time so we headed to the park to utilize Grandpa's outdoor toys. He brought out the HUGE styrofoam planes. They were AWESOME!!!

 New shooters. They popped out little balls. The rule was no aiming at people. 

I would say the parents of the four boys were the only guilty ones of disobeying that rule. 

  

We barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. Great Grandma & Grandpa Daly came down to join us. My Dad had other plans for the day. He had already visited with them in Idaho a couple of times when he was up there.

 The chef did a good job.

Henry & Garrett swinging.

 The last bit of lego time before they hit the road. 

It was a very short visit, but really one of the best ones we have had. 

Now they are further away than ever and no direct flights which means we have to drive. 

Not too excited about it because that means it won't be winter holidays. We do have plans for Park City this summer and Garrett will receive the Priesthood so we will make the trip then to see their new home in Caldwell. Until then!

Shannon's visit

Fall break for Blake's school was this last week so Shannon packed up the kids and drove on over.

Here are the activities that we did together.

Treasure Valley Park with Grandpa's wagon full of outdoor stuff.

Styrofoam planes and bubbles, but I guess I didn't get any pictures of that.

We also shared with another little boy that was there.

Then they played on the Big Toy.

I don't remember if there were naps that day, but then we went to the Children's Museum.

Dress up for M.

Engineering for the Men.

Dinosaurs.

Music.

Airport.

Pilot and Co-Pilot.

Grocery Store.

Wheel Barrow ride was one of the two specific requests made.

Then another park in town that Grandpa knows about.

This one I had not been to before. Grandpa has taken Corinne's family there.

At the nearby Farm there is a Fall/Halloween Event. We took these two there when they were about one and two years old. It was much more fun this time. 

 

We also took them swimming at the Community rec center. They've been there before so I didn't take more pictures of them actually in the pool, but there was also some kind of festival going on. It had something to do with the military. There were tanks and military vehicles there AND a helicopter. It took off while we were there. So the kids got to watch it take off. It sure did whip up the wind.

When Shannon heard the Cedar City Temple Open House was going on, she wanted to take her kids. We were able to go together. We got there at the perfect time. Got the shuttle bus before the line got long. Same thing for the line to start the tour and again on the shuttle to go back to the car. 

Shredding paper was the second request of activities to do while they were at our house.

We squeezed that in the last morning before they left to go home. 

Fred and I love that Shannon is willing to drive the 12 hours it takes to see us with her kids. It takes that long when you travel with little kids. It was a really good time. We probably won't see them again until Fall of 2018. It's going to be a Disney cruise then. Pretty Awesome!!