Thanksgiving Break

For Thanksgiving Evan took a week off of work and we headed to southern California to spend at my Grandma's with my family.  The evening we were suppose to leave and stay in Utah the weather was pretty yucky so we turned back home.  The next morning however the roads were closed.  After several hours of waiting we decided to drive through New Mexico instead.  It was a painfully long day especially with such a late start to the day.  That evening I dropped Evan off at a ninja gym to work out and the kids and I went to Evan's sister's house to settle in for dinner and bed.  The next morning we had another long drive to San Diego to stay at my aunt's house. Evan fell asleep while trying to get the kids to bed.  Which proved challenging since I did not bring a crib with me because my grandma has one.  The weather was great in San Diego though.  My aunt had a million errands to run that day in preparations for all her kids coming home for the holiday.  So I spent most of the day outside with the kids in her hot tub and Evan spent most of the day inside order stuff off amazon for our basement remodel. We left later that evening after the traffic died down to head to my grandma's a couple hours away.  

Once we got to grandma's we played a lot in her yard and at the park.  Grandma and my mom did a great job of preparing all the food for Thanksgiving.  I did help with the veggie tray but that was about it.  On black Friday we went to a jump house/trampoline place.  We bought an all day pass so we played all morning.  We back for lunch and naps and then played again that afternoon.  We left early Saturday morning to head to Utah.  We had dinner at JDawgs with my high school buddies then crashed at my other grandparents' house. We left the next morning for Wyoming before my grandparents were even up for the day.

These pictures are not in order

Violet got a huge splinter in her hand.  (From the gate by the garage in case you were wondering Heather).  She of course did not want me to touch or look at it.  I had her soak her hand in a bowl or water and she wanted to hold grandpa Brian's hand.

Lark

Eating poolside in San Diego

Hot Tub swimming

They even took the slide down into the COLD swimming pool

Great-grandma Deon and Maverick

Grandpa likes to read the kids endless stories at bedtime and keep them way past their bedtimes.

The water fountain was broken and I refused to help the kids with it because I wanted to take pictures of them trying to get drinks instead (hehe)

Sharky with her shark shoes

Pals

Cousin Korey brought a make-up and nail polish set with her.  the girls spent hours on the back porch, I mean the beauty salon, giving any willing person a make-over

Sprinklers in the front yard

They insisted on the water wings

Meeting cousin JoJo for the first time

Violet helping with the Thanksgiving cookies

The cousins don't always get along.  This "pretty pretty princess" game ended up being the cause of many fights.  So Violet and I snuck off to the back room to play by ourselves.

Probably the highlight of the week was have Uncle Dustin teach Maverick how to skateboard.  Maverick was quite the natural.

Grandma Deon sewing per usual.  This time it was the insole to Autumn's roller blades.

jump house

After leaving my grandparents place in Utah Evan decided he wanted to drop in on his aging Grandpa.  Less than 24 hours later grandpa passed away.  This is Violet in his WWII hat.