Thanksgiving: Double the Family, Double the Fun

This past Thanksgiving (still playing catch-up here...) we flew out to Utah to visit both the Temus side and the Merrill side for Thanksgiving. It was an extra special Thanksgiving because shortly afterwards my folks would leave for their 18-month self-reliance mission for our church. They were going to Ghana. For that reason the whole Temus clan got together to celebrate Thanksgiving and give big farewell hugs to Papa and Ama. After my Dad retired in June (on my birthday :) ) my parent's rented the house and drove to Alaska for the summer with their 5th-wheel. After that they drove back down to finish the last section of the Continental Divide. (Congrats Dad!!!) They drove around a bit after that and ended up at Sarah's where we all gathered for Thanksgiving. We flew in late Saturday night and church was at 9am the next morning. Needless to say it was a bit crazy but we got there. I thought Charlie was going to talk Ama's ear off on the walk back to Sarah's place after church.

One of the days before Thanksgiving we went to the aquarium in Sandy. It is a really neat place and the kids all seemed to enjoy it. Charlie liked the divers talk as they were in the shark tank and he loved that he got to see his favorite animal; the Pacific Mimic Octopus. Jane and I both had fun watching the penguins shoot through the water and flop on the rocks, though Jane was ready to go see other things before I was.

 There was a two-story room with a variety of creatures from South America. There were a few frogs that the kids were having fun climbing on and I pulled out my camera to get a few pictures. Jane wasn't going to have it. Ben was willing to smile at least.

 Bedtime stories. Poor Grant was super sad when Liz's kids left and he had no cousins to sleep in his room with him.


We had planned on leaving Molly at home with our neighbors. The closer it got to our departure date the harder it got for me to think about leaving her behind. So we paid extra, bought a soft-sided pet carrier and brought her along.

She and Frankie bonded over their shared love of sun spots.

 Hannah is a fan of them as well. (Let's face it, who doesn't love a good sun spot especially on a chilly day?)


 It wouldn't be Thanksgiving in Utah without the Branch's annual gingerbread village! This year's theme was Wonders of the World.

Jane and Charlie stuck with the classics and decorated houses to add to the "village."

 Ben carefully decorated the Great Pyramid for Christmas.

 Keith and I took on the Grand Canyon. Keith had the idea to add the rock strata, I included a side stream, Sarah made rafts, kayaks, and a drunk intertuber, and Liz recreated Lava Falls in incredible detail. Complete with Devil's Anvil above it, Tequila Beach (complete with celebratory gummy bear) below it, and Sarah's drunk intertuber tipped over right in the middle (see the bottom of the life saver?).

 Paul made the Christ statue that stands over Rio, Brazil. Alex and Zach worked on the leaning tower of Piza, complete with gummy bears attempting it pull it back up straight. Joe and Jessica, with technical assistance from Dad, worked on Mt Everest. As always, it was a whole lot of fun.

Thanksgiving day was the one day that we knew that we would all be there so plans had been made to have Sarah's friend take a few pictures of the whole family.

 Next to where we parked in the canyon there were lots of fun boulders to climb.
 
Some of the pictures were taken in a dry river bed that had lots of fun rocks. Charlie was bummed when we told him we couldn't take them home for his rock collection.

Considering the size of Sarah's kitchen, and the size of the group, Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch (except for lighting the marshmallows on fire, again.).

Liz's super cute turkey veggie tray.

 After Thanksgiving dinner we played games, worked on puzzles, and watched movies. Good relaxing family time. The next morning everyone left to various places except for Mom and Dad. They took the kids on a bike ride around the neighborhood while Keith and I finished loading the car (we had borrowed Grandpa Joe's). When they came back we hugged, waved good-bye and wished them all the best on their next grand adventure.

After leaving Sarah's house we drove to Orem to spend a week with Granny B and Grandpa Joe and to have another Thanksgiving on Saturday! Granny B put Charlie and Jane to work making sure there were no bad cranberries. They took their job very seriously.

 Granny B surprised Charlie with a huge jar of green olives. He was so excited! We hardly made a dent in it though so I bet they still have that jar of olives.

 Grandma Lowe came over and had Thanksgiving dinner with us on Saturday. She played several rounds of canasta with her grand sons and seemed to really enjoy herself. It was really great to have her there. Also pictured here is Sandra. At the time she was Shawn's girlfriend but as of New Year's Eve she has become his fiancee! I really had a great time getting to know her for the short time we were there.

I'm so happy for them!

 Charlie and Jane always have fun rediscovering treasures in the Grandma's toy/book/game closet!

 The kids also opened their Christmas presents from Granny B and Grandpa Joe while we were there. One of them was play-doh food set. They kept everyone full with soups, pasta, salads, and more. It was like a play-doh version of Olive Garden!

I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Utah again without getting up to the mountains. All ideas and plans of hiking up in the canyons wouldn't work out for one reason or another so Monday morning we went up to the foothills just near the mouth of Provo Canyon.  

 Granny B took care of the kids so it was just Grandpa Joe, Keith and me. It felt great to be moving outside even if just for a little while and just above the city. Grandpa Joe looked for birds while Keith and I played around with the new camera we had just purchased on a Black Friday deal. It was rejuvenating.

Sadly all good things come to an end and so Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to the airport. But what a wonderful Thanksgiving trip we had and how great it is to have so much family to be thankful for!

A Merry Merrill Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving the entire Merrill clan got together. This was a pretty big deal since that hasn't happened for almost 5 years and it was the first time ever that Granny B and Grandpa Joe have been in the same room with all of their current grand kids. It was pretty great.

Granny B brought little paper turkey kits for the kids to make. They were pretty excited about it.

Katelyn helping her sister Brianna.

Things were going pretty smooth with Thanksgiving food prep, especially considering Granny B can't have gluten and Charlie's PKU. Then while the last minute preparations were happening, I broke down in tears as I was dishing up Charlie's plate. (It can be really hard to have a positive attitude about PKU, where it is not only a matter of what he can eat, but also how much, on food-centered holidays. I will just leave it at that.) So I am in tears at the counter while weighing out Charlie's food, which brought Jenae, Bonnie and Keith to my side offering emotional support and ideas for me. (One of which was from Jenae and it was genius. I weighed out the max he could have, put half of it on his plate, spread around so it looked like more, and saved the other half for when he asked for seconds. Pure inspiration. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it earlier.) Anyway, I am crying, Bonnie and the others get distracted from their tasks, and in the middle of it all the smoke alarm starts going off. Before my little breakdown Bonnie had been watching the candied yams in the oven which were supposed to in there just long enough to brown the marshmallows on top. Well when she saw me crying she forgot about those yams and the marshmallows caught on fire. You should have seen the flames. Strangely enough it became the comic relief we needed and after the flames were put out we all started laughing while trying to get the smoke alarm off.

We just scrapped the black marshmallows off, put new ones on and tried again. No flames this time.
Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful, it was really nice to be with family around the table, and Charlie loved that he got seconds like most others.

You can't get the entire family together and not have family pictures taken, so the day after Thanksgiving that is just what we did. We kept it low key and had them taken in Paul and Jenae's big backyard. It is surrounded by lovely evergreen trees and a cute wooden fence so it worked well. Paul had a broken back, Jenae had a badly sprained ankle that had only been taken out of a boot the week before, so we weren't really up to trekking off to some fancy location. As a bonus, since it was cold the kids could warm up in the house when they weren't needed. Which is what Charlie and Tanner are doing.

Jane found crazy eyes while watching a magic show preformed by the talented Merrill Magicians: Tanner and Trevor.

Keith and I got new bikes for Christmas but we couldn't wait until Christmas to play with them. Of course. So we took them to Dayton with us so we could take them for their first real ride minus kiddos. It made me happy. :) I haven't ridden a bike in quite awhile. One major reason being that having a seizure while riding a bike would most likely end badly. And in case you were wondering, Shawn and Keith bought each other the same cycling jacket two Christmas's ago. Twinners!

Saturday we went to this really fun park in the woods. I handed my phone to Shawn at one point and it ended up with Shawn selfies on it.

 

 He is single, ladies.

Oh yeah.

While at the park we thought we would take another K2 family picture. Ya know, just for kicks.

Charlie was squirmy and being silly.

Then he was making faces and Jane was slipping.

This is the best one. Not bad.


 The purpose wasn't to have a photo shoot anyway, it was to get outside and have some fun.
Jane still mentions how she didn't like it when Charlie was pretended to be a scary spider at the park.

This guy came with a pretty great family.

A Lovely Thanksgiving Holiday

We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It will be topped off with Jane's baby blessing tomorrow which will make it even better.

To be honest, there have been several times during the last few days when the knowledge that we are in the last week before the surgery has made it really hard to keep smiling. I keep finding myself thinking "When will the next time be that I can (crunch leaves, sing with Charlie, hold Jane, write a note, go for a walk, etc.)." There are times when the unknowns of my recovery scare me and make me want to just hide away while the anxiety sets in. When these moments hit I have come to find that the most effective way to pull out of it is to quickly pray for help and then repeat to myself "Now. Focus on now." I don't want to let fear rob me of the happy moments that are happening now. Several times each day as that lump grows in my throat and I want to sob and yell all at the same time (and sometimes I give in and just do), I force myself to breathe and focus on the good things that are happening right at that moment.

Why am I telling you this? For one, I don't want any one reading this, who is going through a tough time, comparing themselves to me based on what they read on this blog. I have learned (and am still learning) that it doesn't do any good to compare yourself to others, especially through a blog. Second, there are countless people out there praying and fasting for me, my family, and the doctors operating on me. I want you to know that your prayers and faith, along with the love of family and friends, is what keeps me from completely loosing it. Your prayers have not made my hard times go away, but they have made it so I can pull through them. Thank you.

Now on to the pictures!

Getting ready to chop onions... Keith means business...

Vegging out after the feast. We got together with several other young couples in our ward for Thanksgiving. There are four babies in this picture. Lovely Emily next to me (holding Jane) is expecting.

On both Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving we explored a couple of parks in our area.

Friday's walk around Lake Raleigh. When we put the mittens on Charlie, he insisted on having them clipped together. They made easy toddler handcuffs.

Charlie still can't resist a good set of stairs.

Crunching leaves!

Saturday's walk at Yate's Mill Pond with Granny B. It was beautiful!

Charlie watching the waterfall

a

Superdad carrying both kids

Play it again

Thanksgiving break was so peaceful and fun I keep on wishing we could just do it again. Four days with my dudes was the best!

Charlie helping me keep an eye on the candied yams which he enjoyed later (minus marshmallows).

Keith surprised me by digging out Grandma Temus' Currier and Ives dishes. I love these! The platter above left is one of my favorites with the scene of the pioneers in crossing the Rockies.

The dishes made the meal seem extra fancy. It was fun watching Charlie experience cranberry sauce for the first time. It might have just become his favorite food.

The day after Thanksgiving we made the easy decision to stay away from the crowded stores and go on a little hike in the nearby Umstead State Park.

It was just a stroll but it was fun and included an interesting four-trunk tree (it looked more interesting in real life, which is why I had to go check it out), and, of course...

playing in the leaves. (Double-click to enlarge. Bottom-right: Charlie's newest trick is giving "high-fives.")

We just can't deny Charlie his favorite outdoor pursuit.

Is it just me or is he looking less baby-ish and more little kid-ish all the time? Never mind. Don't answer that. I don't want to know.

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving too!