thanksgiving break!

 Jude is so studious, he loves to color and write

sometimes it's not on paper so we're working on that

 family home evening ice cream sundaes

we talked about what we're grateful for

 i love how sweetly noah plays with jude

 tuesday night we decided to get the kids waffle luv because they were having a sale

turns out our family does not need 6 waffles, it was way too much

 but the kids were so happy to have it since it was our favorite in utah and now we have one here

 she and olive ate their whole waffles and loved it

 this kitten got car sick only an hour or so into our trip to washington

not fun

 by now we (michael mostly) are pros at cleaning car seats in parking lots :) 

 the kids are such troopers

we made it all the way to tacoma with only one stop in between for food and bathrooms

(other than the vomit but they all sat in the car while we cleaned up)

 we were so happy to see just a little dusting of snow on the sides of the passes

 we made it to tacoma! and 7-11!

we made it to my parents' house and the kids had fun watching bryce's hamster in his ball

 foggy thanksgiving morning

 so pretty

 we spent most of thanksgiving day at michael's parents house

noah had the time of his life playing magic cards with kyle

 michael posing with the cute fruit turkey anna and donna made

 i think nearly all of our kids have had wagon rides in this little wagon

 13 blocks high

 michael's parents were so sweet to invite my parents over for thanksgiving dinner

i loved having them there and being all together

 i love this picture of my mom and mother in law

 henry and uncle kyle

 kyle took our picture

hazel and katie have always loved playing together

 olive was so happy laying on grandpa olson's lap

 covered in granddaughters

 henry and jude were so wiped out after long days with no naps and staying up later than usual

they were very happy to watch some cartoons

 cuties

 friday morning cuddles

 a trip to the joyce store with grandpa kelly

 so happy to spend grandpa's money :)

 we stopped by salt creek on the way home so the kids could see the ocean

 

 it's so beautiful but it was chilly so we didn't last very long

 we stopped under an old military bridge

 after the joyce store i took a few of the kids up to see grandma at the barn

 we liked watching the horses run up

 grandma gave us a tractor ride up to see the horses

my dad built a fire and the kids roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and loved it

i think my dad likes the ping pong shirt we got him for Christmas

 we took a ferry boat over to seattle friday evening and spent the night at debbie's so i could hang out with my sisters the next morning

 jude is still talking about the ferry boat several days later

 we shared some hot chocolate because they wanted to see how the machine worked

 pretty seattle

saturday morning monica picked me up and we went and got andre`a

 we went to breakfast in maple valley

 and then to covington to get our nails done

 it was so much fun

we met our parents and families for lunch at azteca

 riding back to andre`a's in bryce's car

where we spent the rest of the day

 silly girls

 noah and spencer

these three took off and had fun playing Frisbee golf for a bit

 jude found a box to sit in

 he didn't nap the entire trip but he did a good job sleeping at night

we were nervous since he won't use the porta crib anymore but he was great

 sunday we drove home

we were nervous about the passes but they were pretty clear on the way home, too

yay!

 washington is so pretty

 we are all so happy to see this sign on the way home

because it means we're only 40 or so minutes from getting out of the car

 it was a great trip to see our families

we hope to not let so much time in between our future trips there

and it was a great thanksgiving