My Adventures: Thanksgiving Vacation 2017

This vacation was awesome. It started sooner than I originally thought it would because my friend Bethany Blaine decided that she needed to get out of Longmont and offered to take me to Idaho if I was still willing. I talked with Gaupo and about and decided to go for it. It was a little bit crazy because I wasn't as prepared as I usually am. My house was left a little dirty, and I had to pack dirty clothes, but luckily for me Grandma has a washer and Gaupo got the house cleaned for me, so I don't have to clean right away. However, Bethany and I took off for Swanlake about 7:15 on Monday morning. We were both ready to go and it was fun to road trip together. I enjoyed talking to her. We talked about our families, our past, how we want to raise our kids, how and what we should go about trying to teach them and how. We talked about forgiveness and changing. I don't know when you are stuck in a car with someone you like for 8.5 hours you talk about a lot of stuff and it was great. The kids actually did really well. Calvin (Bethany's youngest) had the roughest time, but even he did pretty good for being only nine months old. Anyway, by the time we got to Grandma's house it was getting and then got dark real quick. Grandma was so excited to see everyone. She scooped up every kid in a hug including Jensen, which he totally loved. Jensen and Kylee had a blast playing with toys and I took Tia out to the cows. Just in case you don't know, Tia loves cows especially when they are being milked. She can sit in a milk barn and watch the milker milk for at least thirty minutes. Bethany was feeding Calvin, but on her way out to the car came into the barn, which actually turned out to be a bad thing because there was a calf who was struggling shivering and probably not going to make it. So, I didn't exactly know that and then I didn't really realize how traumatizing that could be. I guess I am just desensitized or something, but Bethany is not and it really wigged her out. She was already kind of struggling, but it kind of put her over. Anyway, I talked her into staying the night at least. So, I helped her with her kids, and then got kids ready for bed and then I think went to bed. Well, I didn't go right to sleep, but when everyone else went to there rooms I went to mine and read my scriptures a bit and enjoyed the quiet stillness of the country.

Monday morning dawned early. The kids got up early and I helped take care of Calvin and Jensen for a little while. We had a great breakfast and then played outside. We took Jensen on four-wheeler ride and then to look at the combine. I have no idea why, but of all the equipment that Grandpa has they are fascinated by the combines. They love the only one on the side of the hill and down by the pond, and they love the new one it the shed. They want to see them all the time and ask all kind of questions about them. It is so funny to me, but I guess I may be kind of like that with swathers. I think they are really the coolest piece of equipment. After seeing the combines and other tractors, the kids played on a dirt hill creating a slide for themselves. They had a great time. Bethany felt kind of bad taking Jensen away from there, but they needed to head for their Grandma's house. The rest of Tuesday was filled with playing, eating, naps, talking, playing, and finished off with games. It was a marvelous day.

Much of our vacation was that playing, playing, eating, playing, napping, playing, eating, and sleeping. Gaupo joined us on Wednesday about 12:15. He left about four in the morning, so that he could spend as much time at home as he could. It was good to see him, and I think the girls take better naps because he is up there with them. Anyway, he came on Wednesday, and really it was just more of the same although we did prep for Thanksgiving by making pumpkin pie. Then we had a delicious soup for dinner. The kids spent the day playing and playing. Blaine, Kylee, Tia, and James just played and played with occasion four-wheeler rides and then at milking time at night I would take them outside for about an hour and we would watching milking and pet the calves, and swing on the swings. Also, on Wednesday I went down to Grandpa-Great's to visit him and Klaire. I never give myself enough time and then when my Uncle John showed up I definatly didn't have enough time. It was so good to be there and visit with them. I love visiting there. It is a lot like going home.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. To be honest it wasn't too different than like a big Sunday meal, but you know we were with family and enjoyed a meal and visited and played games after the meal. For me Thanksgiving is for being around family and taking the time to play together and realize your blessings. So, it was just that. It was great to play and enjoy being together.

**I am now finishing this a week later than when I started. I had every intention of finishing it, but I got sick and just slept during naptime and watched movies at night. I wasn't up to it, so bear with me getting this thing done.

Friday was a big day. It started off with the normal stuff, but around 11:30AM Jeff and Heidi and their 5 kids arrived down in Swanlake and it was a party. We had pizza for lunch and then us Mom's pulled out a game, and we played one round, but the kids saw us and wanted to play games, so we played a couple rounds more without Grandma. She took pitty on her grandkids and helped them with some kid games. However, after just a couple rounds we took pitty on her and we also kind of needed to keep track of the other kids who weren't playing games. So, game time was over, but it was fun to games with Heidi again. So, while some kids played games inside I helped other kids play outside. We did all kinds of stuff. We took some kids up to the shop and looked at all Grandpa's equipment, we watched cows, swung on the swings, jumped on the tramp, played inside a little, watch Uncle Aaron mix feed, got tractor rides, and one crammed four-wheeler ride from said Uncle. Then they played closer to the house in the sandbox and swings and this tractor trike thing. We also went to the barn and watched a milking and got to pet a big cow. We pet calves often, but not usually the big ones, so that was fun. We did lots of stuff, we were in and out and playing. The kids played hard. They played from right after lunch till 5:15 when the Anderson's left. Then after dinner they played some more and we put some really tired kids to bed around 7 and then played some more games.

Blaine, James, Katelyn, Aaron, Kylee, and Tia all on a four-wheeler.

The women and children on Friday.

Saturday was more of the same, except Gaupo, Kylee, Tia and I headed to up to Viriginia around to visit Grandpa-Great and Aunt Klaire. When we got there Klaire was making cookies--great timing right. Grandpa wasn't there, but it was nice to visit with just Klaire for a while. Then Grandpa came and we all visited for a bit, but my girls managed to convince Klaire to take them out to the old calf sheds to look for cats, then play hide-and-seek outside. She is such a great Aunt to humor these girls of mine on such a cold night. After visiting we had a small dinner and headed out. As always, the visit was much to short, but really good. When we got back, the girls and I got in the hot tub and then took showers and the girls went to bed. We of course played more games. In case you are wondering the main games played this trip were Castle Panic, Ticket to Ride, Wacky6, Rummekub, and Pandemic. Then before it got super, super, super late we went to bed.

Sunday was an early day. We got up, and got out. We were a little behind what we wanted to be, but we still made it to Heidi and Jeff's church by 9:00. It was nice to be there with everyone. Gaupo got to participate in the blessing Hyrum, Jeff and Heidi's new baby. It was cool to visit there ward and go to church with them. Kylee went to class with Arlen and Tia went to class with Naomi. They both thought that was great. After church we went to the Anderson home and had pictures and then lunch. Then the kiddo's played. Well, actually Kylee was not feeling well, so after doing her best to play she and Gaupo took a nap, and then came and played more. Tia played and played and played. I bet that is why she is having a harder time getting over this sickness thing. Anyway, after Kylee woke up we stayed around until about 4ish and then headed out. I always enjoy going to Heidi and Jeff's house because there kids are so much more at home, so there is so much playing and fun. We got home and had dinner. We let the kids stay up for a little bit, but then sent them to bed and had one final night of games.

Monday morning we took off. We were afraid we were going to get caught in a storm, but we couldn't seem to get going. I was hoping to stop at Grandpa-Great's to say good-bye, but we had to go back to Swanlake from Downey to get doll's, blankets, and pillows (we also found out we left our swimsuits). So, by the time we visited for a minute and picked-up our meat and John and Karen's we really needed to go because it looked ominous. However, turns out it wasn't that bad. Oh well, you never know that is the problem. We made it home in okay time and managed to get all our Christmas decorations up and then went to bed. It was a kind of long crazy day, but oh so fun.