Trotting off the turkey, and other Thanksgiving activities

Quent and Bev and family came to Blanding the Sat. before Thanksgiving, so they had a longer and  pretty restful trip.  They stayed at Grandma Perkins' home.  On Wed. we did a Thanksgiving craft activity with all the kids and had  a potato bar and ham.  That was easy and filling.  I'll have to remember to do that again.

After breakfast Thanksgiving morning, (thanks to Nathan & Tammy), we went on a hike along the West Water trails.  It was a beautiful day.  We stopped here at the pavillion, and the kids immediately found frozen ice to break up, then climbed up to the flag pole.

Next we made our way to the towers.  The kids had a lot of fun, as did Leah.  Laurie wasn't able to go, as she is getting treatment for a wart on the bottom of her foot, and is a temporary invalid.  Brendan's friend Joshua also came with us.

Hunter, are you looking for dinosaur eggs?

Autumn made stuffed pasta shells for supper Thurs. Yummy!   We stayed up and played games most nights, which was fun for us.  Wed. night, Carl Whitehair came by and we fed him too.  He is one of our favorite YSA kids from the dorms and a friend of Corey's. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, with 19 of us there.  It was wonderful having so many of the family with us.  We took a few minutes and did a Thanksgiving alphabet appreciation activity.  The kids participated really well, and Sage kept us on track.  Nathan and Tammy left shortly after dinner.

Nathan helped us set up a wireless connection so we can share files, and access all printers.   (This was the last meal I used this set of  plates, which I've had for 20+ years.  I set them out on the corner, and some needful person has them now.  I had more china sets than I needed.)

The next day Chris and his family went to Tooele to help install a fan and water softener for Nathan and to cheer for BYU. We love it when our kids get together with each other, even if we aren't there--though we wish we were.

 I have to admit though that I tried to orchestrate a few too many things, but between Steve and I we did manage to get most of the Christmas presents wrapped, and a special "Pay it Forward" home evening activity put together for each of the families   We gave each family $50 and challenged them to use it in ways that would "Pay it Forward."  We hope to have a report from each family on what they did.
We also presented a book of our family's "Proclamation"  to each family after dinner.  It took several weeks to put it together, but it was a gift of love, and I hope each family will cherish those ideas, and use it to teach and keep their families strong. 

  Here are some of the pages I especially love.  All the time and tears and prayers we spent raising our family was worth it.  We are so thankful for each of our children and their spouses, and our wonderful grandchildren.