Thanksgiving week in Montana

This year for Thanksgiving it was our turn to spend it with my family in Montana. We decided to make it really worth the drive and go for an entire week. Tyler is able to take off more time in the winter so we have to do it when we can. Lauren had to miss two days of school, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Our kids really enjoy being at Grandmas and Grandpa's, especially when all their cousins are there. My older brother Brandon and his family were able to make it too, so we were all together. It made for a very crowded house since Collin and Aimee have moved in with my parents too. My parents ended up going and sleeping at a friends house every night so that each family had their own bedroom. Thanks mom and dad for always opening your house to us and making us comfortable. This year there wasn't any snow there, which made the trip so much nicer. Making that drive in snow is NOT fun.

The kids love exploring the rock piles at Grandma and Grandpa's

Lauren really wants to be a cowgirl in Montana when she grows up, so she gets in good practice while we visit. She made sure and brought her very own cowgirl hat this time just in case she got to ride the horses.

When my parents bought their house it came with a horse named Tia. My parents bred Tia a couple years ago and now have beautiful Gracie who will be 3 in the spring. My dad has been training her recently and this was the first time all the kids got to ride her. Lauren and Logan were SO excited to get to finally ride Gracie.

Logan had permagrin the whole time he was riding her. All of the kids loved it, but there was something more in Logan's smile, he was just SO happy.

Thanksgiving day began of course with lots of cooking. We had done a lot of prep work the day before, so it wasn't super crazy and we were actually able to just take it kind of slow and not be rushing all morning. Everything turned out wonderful. Here is part of our buffet line in the kitchen.

I forgot to get a picture of everyone eating but I did get some of a few of us finishing up the feast, as Lauren calls it.

Cute Kaiser, all smiles all the time, enjoying the feast!!

After dinner we even managed to get some of the men to help with the dishes. Tyler is always such a great help though and doesn't need to be asked. The other men in my family however...

After dinner you would think the kids would be a little tired and not so wired, but that was not the case. When you have nine little kids running around I don't think there is such a thing as down time. Here the kids are right after dinner still as active as can be.

I did manage to calm them down slightly to get a group picture of all of them together. This was not an easy task and after me yelling at this one or that one to look this way or that, this is the best that I could come up with.

Later on in the evening Nikki planned this cute thing for the kids where she taught them about the first Thanksgiving. They even got to make their very own indian head dresses or pilgrim hats, all thanks to Grandpa who cut up an old tire to use as the head bands. Thanks Nikki for the fun lesson.

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without Black Friday shopping.

Aimee, Nikki, and myself all got up at 3:30am and were in town by 4:30 ready to find the bargains. Seven hours later we made it home with a trunk FULL of great stuff. We had a great time but my legs were sure sore by the time we got home. I think we hit every store we could have, as well as breakfast at McDonalds. I am happy to say that I am pretty much done with my shopping.

Saturday morning the guys all got to go fishing. They couldn't get the boat started, darn it, so they just fished from the shoreline. I think they all had a pretty good time still. While the men were away we built ginger bread houses with all the kids. They had a great time, although I think more candy was eaten then was put on the houses. Making gingerbread houses is a tradition in our family. I remember making them each year and plan to keep doing them with my kids. It is a really fun activity to do with them and it is fun to see the creative things they come up with to make.

Each year when we get together, the ladies always plan a craft project to do. Usually it is some kind of wood craft, but this year I planned for us to make some jewelry. There are these necklaces I have been wanting to learn how to make recently so I decided this would be a good time to do it. They were a little tricky at first but once we really figured out what we were doing they got much easier to make. They all turned out really great and everyone really liked them.

There is usally always a puzzle out somewhere for everyone to work on as well. Another tradition during the holidays. Good thing our kids like puzzles because we have a box of ten new ones and about ten days over Christmas with nothing planned to do. I think we might get a couple of them done this year.

Lauren and Ella snuggling with Uncle Collin.

And of course what would a trip to Montana be with out a trip to the carousel. It is definately a must do activity with our kids. We have so many pictures from this place it is not even funny. They have this arm thing that hangs out with these rings coming out of it and as you pass it, you grab a ring to try and throw in this clown mouth when you go by it. They put a gold coin in it every once in awhile and if you get that one, you keep it and you get a free ride. Well Tyler got lucky and grabbed the gold ring on the kids first ride so of course we had to stay and take another ride. So they get back in line and take another ride and wouldn't ya know it, Tyler got the gold ring yet again. So the kids got super lucky this time and got to go on three rides.

Fish seat outside the carousel

The kids had such a fun week with all their cousins. They were super sad to leave. Logan said on the way home, "I want to go back to Grandpa's for all the days." We are so blessed to both have such great families. And grateful to have the gospel in our lives to know that we can be together forever.