Thanksgiving!

Dad flew us out for another great Thanksgiving this year.  We've loved the tradition, but are really excited about trying it in the summer in the future instead!

We got up for an early flight, but the boys were so excited they jumped right out of bed.  You'll see in some of these pictures that Ethan has a Band-Aid on his nose.  The Sunday before Thanksgiving he walked upstairs with a raw spot on his nose.  I asked him what happened and he said, "I rubbed my face on the carpet."  "Why?"  "I didn't know that would happen."  He's never been able to give a motivation for rubbing his face on the carpet, but of course he did it a few days before family pictures.  I kept a Band-Aid and Neosporin on it and of course he got a lot of questions about it.  I prepped him for people to laugh, but no one did.  After school the next day he said, "Guess how many people left at my nose?"  "How many?"  "0, but guess how many asked what happened?"  "How Many?" "16!"  Yes, he counted!  But at piano he refused to tell his teacher what happened.  He said he was tired of telling people.

So, back to Thanksgiving, Asher stayed awake for the whole flight and finally gave up on the final descent.  Thank goodness he will watch Baby Signing Time.

Per tradition, we got up early on Thanksgiving morning and ran the Detroit Turkey Trot.

 Ethan, Benton, Joseph, Maddie, Ruth, and Claire ran 1 mile.  Lisa, myself, Lauren, Joe, and James ran the 5k.  Dan, yet again, was a good sport to drive up with us, do the 1 mile, then take 6 kids home.  Mike, as usual, stayed home with the babies.

The day after Thanksgiving we did family pictures and bowling!  Here are my favorite family pictures, but there will be more edited after the holidays.

Bowling!

Extended family pictures.

 Asher was totally into it, "OOOOHHHH!" everytime.

 Mormon Bridge + Black Friday shopping + Lauren working.  Joe has brought us into the 21st Century the last two years keeping score using an Excel spreadsheet programmed with formulas.

 Every meal is a production with this many kiddos!  The oldest 7 all slept in the basement together this year!  It took a few parents supervising while they fell asleep, but it is still a step in the right direction!

 On Saturday we went to Bounce U, our newer tradition.

 It was very entertaining watching them strategize and compete on this game.

That night we went on a walk through the nature center nearby.  It was in the 50-60s when we arrived and each day got a little colder, so by the time it got dark on the last night, we were getting pretty chilly.  Mike ended up taking Asher to the car, but the other kids loved getting out and running around.  The deer didn't enjoy the kids as much.

 Taking the Sky Train at the airport is always exciting.

 Our flight boarded a little late and then we sat at the gate waiting for them to fix a computer problem.  Asher fell asleep during this time, but they couldn't fix the problem, so we had to wake him up as we walked/took the train 70 gates down to the new plane.

 The boys LOVED the escalators, especially this really tall one at the train in Phoenix.

 The next day I finished the Christmas lights!  Not very impressive for the amount of effort they took!