The candy canes are a huge hit with all four big kids. Apparently, Superman decorates with his boots on. The kids did an awesome job decorating...my first year not having to do much! It's so different having big kids that do so much on their own; a new season for Charlie and me!
This is how I found the boys when I went to investigate why it was so quiet.
The big kids told Tommy that he'd made Noah look like a pilgrim.
Oh yeah, when I caught him coming down on his own without any help, he was also carrying wooden drumsticks with him.
Here he paused long enough to bang on the stairs for a minute with his prized possession.
Here he seemed to reason that now he was close enough to the bottom to turn around front ways.
As an aside, I loved how Parie would drop what she was doing midstream to race up the stairs to carry Noah down when she heard his first little, "Ah. Ah," call from the loft.
Paris, almost seven, still has the demure chin tuck for pictures that she's done since she was a toddler!
Sarah was looking forward to the turkey dinner all day! She thought five o'clock would never come!
Champion turkey carver...
The boys squishing Bray during dessert.
The turkey needed a bit longer in the fryer...
The kids were good sports waiting even longer for the turkey to fully cook.
A "gang" (official word for a group of turkeys) of thanks...
The kids had fun a few days before Thanksgiving making a turkey for each person eating with us. Every person had their own color feather on which they wrote what they were thankful for about each person and one for Jesus, too. After completing all ten feathers about what they were thankful for, the person went to add one of their feathers to each person's turkey. That way, each turkey had a feather of thanks from each person in our family. Sarah's feathers were, of course, blue, Paris' naturally were pink, Fletch took orange, and Tommy's were his favorite color, green. I filled out red feathers and Charlie's were brownish. The kids were so tickled that everyone participated and had their own colors. It's the small things in life!
He'd most recently rollerbladed 6 miles, though he's done 8 or so in the past. Well, Sunday I think we'll be out for an hour or less, but he had other ideas! I agreed to try and beat the rollerblade record thinking I could probably run 9 miles or so. We headed toward our church and detoured at the Parker Rec Center to let him blade on the outdoor hockey rinks there. He informs me that he'd really like to beat his 14 mile record. I remind him that record was set while on a bike at Salem Lake with Popsy not while his mom is running with him on rollerblades. He is super excited about beating his 14 mile record regardless of whether or not it was set riding a bike. I say I'm game for trying, thinking worse case scenario we just call Charlie to come pick us up! At this point, I'm excited that I may just very well beat a personal record too, one I never dreamed I'd be attempting that day (or any day for that matter!)...my very first half marathon! That was definitely a shocker for me! Well, we both succeeded in meeting our newly formed goals. I ran a half marathon then walked a couple miles home, and Fletch rollerbladed all 15 miles. Pretty exciting day for both of us! We were gone from home for almost three hours on Sunday!
The day before Thanksgiving Fletch helped chop onions for the stuffing. He chopped Tio Payson style...with swim goggles on! He also happened to have his swimsuit on, too. We were going to our local indoor pool for a playdate with some friends later that morning.
Fletch was a huge help with the Thanksgiving meal preparations. He sure does love to cook!
Noah eyeing Parie's Haagen-Dazs and longingly puckering his lips hoping to get a taste!
Quick family shot in front of the same cathedral doors where we stood the year before for a picture on our way to the Grand Canyon.
Now Noah is actually big enough to be seen in the picture this year. At three months last year, he didn't really show up much in our family pictures!
The fountains, music and ambiance of the many courtyards are so special in Old Town.
Precious toy store in one of the courtyard niches tucked away in Old Town Albuquerque. Love these open courtyards with tiny specialty shops surrounding them!
Cowgirl Parie!
We had the same parking spot in the main courtyard park the year before when we drove through Albuquerque. This trip we got to explore the Old Town area much more than last year! It was Grand Canyon or bust the year before!
The locals were putting up their Christmas decorations to beautify Old Town, although it was still the weekend before Thanksgiving!
Tommy was brave to descend the steep ladder into the underground kiva.
Noah was a TROOPER with so much less sleep in the past 24 hours than normal. After an eight hour car drive to Durango, CO where we ate dinner and spent the night on Thursday and then a 40 mile drive to Mesa Verde for our tour of the cliff dwellings, Noah had gotten jipped out of plenty of naps by late afternoon on Friday!
Paris told me at breakfast on Friday that she still loves pink the best, "or Mom, I wouldn't have picked to wear these if I didn't still love pink!" (referring to her pink jeans)
At one point (while he was still two), Tommy's favorite color was "purp" (we all loved how he said purple as just 'purp') but for quite some time now, he has loved green the best. I'm pretty sure it had to do originally with the Hulk being green. Now, he just truly likes green and pointed out this week that Noah and I were both wearing his favorite color on the same day he was wearing green, too. This brought him much satisfaction when he discovered it.
Tommy loves the fighter pilot jacket that Fletcher and he both wore as two year olds. It still fits him fairly well and is just slightly too big for Noah, so he is getting to enjoy it again yet another year!
Tommy LOVED the cave houses.
The big kids thought the Anasazi cliff dwellings were super cool.
Sarah is enjoying learning to take pictures with the nice camera, while Fletcher has fun with "his" ipod touch (a.k.a. our old iphone that we discontinued phone service on years ago!)
The kids took an Orienteering class and learned to read topographical maps and use compasses to navigate around camp and find the targets they were given.
Sarah loved the archery class and did well with the left-handed bow.
Sarah breezed through the low ropes challenge course.
The kids enjoyed collecting kindling and making a fire for lunch on Thursday. They ate their burgers at Teepee Camp, sitting inside the teepees that campers in 4th-6th grades sleep in during Id-ra-ha-je's summer camps.
Sarah scaled "Chimney Cricket," a 5.5 level climb, and tapped the roof of the 45 foot climbing tower.
Sarah's climbing instructor remarked, "She's a natural!" as she quickly climbed the wall.
Sarah tried lots of new things in the Boulder House. Bouldering was super fun, even for the chaperones! The kids even liked their jobs of being spotters for their peers.
