Giving Thanks

What a Thanksgiving we had!  We drove to Colorado to spend the week at Grandpa and Grandma Larsen's house and we made sure to pack in a lot of fun!

The girls did pretty well on the drive out there, even Abigail - this was her first road trip!  We made lots of potty stops and at one of them, Eve met a new friend:

When we arrived in Broomfield late on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we stayed at a hotel because one of my cousins and her family were staying at my parents' house that night and we didn't want to over-crowd the place.  And it made getting ready for church in the morning a little easier :)  The girls liked sharing a big bed! 

We had a quiet day on Sunday (and apparently I took no pictures), then on Monday it was off to the races! 

First stop?  Jamie and I took the kids (minus Abigail) to the rec center to swim.  Halle was super water cautious so I had to hold her basically the entire time, but Eve was a bit more adventurous.  Still, neither of them would attempt the kiddie water slide.  On the way out, we passed the kids' playroom and the girls begged to go, so we stopped in there for about an hour and it was pretty cool!

Eve was off by herself in the tunnel/jungle gym area making new friends for most of the time, so a lot of my pictures were of Halle.   

Of course I kept an eye on Eve and I would, from time to time, overhear bits of her conversations with the other kids as she told them all about our family and her life.  So grown up!  At one point, she ran over to me and asked something along the lines of, "Why am I not allowed to paint my fingernails?"  :)  I explained that it wasn't that she's not allowed, we just never really do that.  She said, "Ok," and ran back to report to her new friends. 

Over the break, the four big cousins enjoyed watching movies together - I don't remember how many times they watched them, but I think the favorites were Frozen and Tangled.  Eve and Halle have been singing the songs from each ever since (we'd seen them both before, but it's been a while).  It's especially fun to hear Halle belt out, "And at last I see the light!".

There was also plenty of play time outside, cold or no cold!

On Tuesday, Candace came to visit with her three kids and she, Jamie, and I took ALL the kids (even Abigail!) to a place called Little Monkey Bizness and let them work out some energy - and boy, did they!

Eve was unsure of this slide at first, but once Nathan took the lead, she followed and they spent probably 70% of the afternoon here:

Halle was content to hang with me and Abigail and be a little monkey!

They even convinced me to go down the slide a couple of times!

Jarret, in particular, was a hoot.  He didn't want to go down this slide, but somehow Candace managed to convince him to go with her.  He was sold after one trip down, but didn't want anyone to take him except Candace (not even his mom!).  Well, Candace left to take a child to the bathroom and he looked around for a minute, saw me, and started begging to go down the slide.  I guess he confused me with her?  Or decided that I was good enough?  Haha, I don't know, but we went down several times together :)

And there was even time leftover after that fun outing for more playing outside!

On the day before Thanksgiving, Candace came up by herself and took some family pictures for us!  Yay! 

And finally it was time for the big day - and the weather was so beautiful!  It was no-coat weather!

Uncle Merrill took the kids on a wagon ride while we prepped for the meal.

Grandma made tons of yummy rolls!

Abigail played nicely on the floor :)

And Grandpa did the turkey!

Can't wait to eat all the food!

But don't forget all the pies!  Save room!

The kids enjoyed another movie (probably Frozen)....

And then we all went out to enjoy the spectacular sunset!  This picture does not do it justice; it was amazing!

On Friday, we got to go visit Natasha and Kohn!  Besides spoiling the girls with tons of fun presents, they also let them play with their pets.  Be soft, Halle!

On Saturday, it was time for us to head home - farewell, cousins!  Thanks for all the fun!

6 months old with Grandpa and Grandma!

On our drive home, we had a special experience.  As we were on our way home from Christmas in Colorado in early January of this year, we had our car accident that totaled our little Neon.  As we drove home this time, we found the exact spot of the accident and stopped for a bit.  Andrew was hoping to find the wedding ring he lost in the commotion of trying to get us towed out, so we spent some time searching the ground for that.  It was sobering to see the area without all the snow that covered the ground at the time of the accident.  This time, we could clearly see just how dangerous the situation had been - you can see the concrete on the left and the trees on the right - we came to a stop softly between the two, with inches to spare on either side.  It was such a soft impact for us that our air bags didn't even deploy.  I shudder to think what would have happened had we hit the concrete or the trees.  Anyway, as were we looking for Andrew's ring, I was thinking about all these things, but also wondering why we weren't having any luck with finding the ring.  I knew Heavenly Father knew where the ring was and was perfectly able to help us find it, so didn't understand why He didn't.  Only as we were leaving did the thought come to my mind that, yes, He could have helped us recover the ring, but if He had, that is the story we would tell and how we would remember the event - that Andrew had lost his ring and how we had miraculously been blessed to find it.  And as nice as that would have been, it would have distracted from the more important thing to remember - how we were divinely protected in that accident and just how fortunate we were to walk away when our lives could have easily ended that day. 

As I've pondered on that since our quick stop at this spot over Thanksgiving, I'm grateful that we did not find Andrew's ring and that instead we can focus on the real miracle of that story :) 

So much to be thankful for....