Our Thankful Weekend

We spent our Thanksgiving break in Alton at "the cabin." As we piled into the car, Nolan looked at Ezra and said, "Oh Ezra, you're so sweet. You're so strong." What a good start to the trip! I must say the food was more delicious than ever (which I didn't think possible)! It was a group effort but well worth the fuss. I especially enjoyed that both of my children went down for a nap just before it was time to eat. Finally a peaceful meal for Justin and me. Nolan had had an especially rough day. Justin had been telling him not to touch the gas stove because it's so hot. Well, I came along and turned the fire off and within a few minutes Nolan took hold of it. I'm sure that he thought it was okay because there were no longer flames. It was a miserably painful burn (his first) and for a solid hour all he wanted was "Mommy blow on it!" I eventually got lightheaded so we found a fan that would do the job. It turns out he was also coming down with a cold so it wasn't Nolan's happiest holiday to date. Here are the pictures we took that day. Check out the pies... I made the apple one under the direction of my sister, Lacey. I was just a bit proud of myself!

That evening, the kids all begged for Lucky Charms. They were much happier with that than the huge feast!

The next day we went for some short hikes at Zions National Park. Before we left I told everyone I would not be taking Nolan on any hikes that have cliffs higher than 3 or 4 ft. Well, my Dad found the perfect place. It was a little canyon where Nolan couldn't run away or fall. We all had a good time and the weather was beautiful. I'm so thankful for gorgeous places to get away from it all. At one point, Nolan looked up at a huge rock formation and said, "Look! Daddy Nolan rocket!"

One night, we all filed outside to see the space shuttle and the space station pass overhead. It looks like we're looking at a huge full moon in this picture. But no folks... that's just lint on the camera. It really was fun to see, though!

Here we are playing noses. It's like spoons, but you touch your nose instead. It's sly, I tell you. We kept saying, "One, two, three, pass" over and over as we played and Nolan joined in by saying "One, two, three, ass" plain as day. He's so helpful!

This next picture is exciting (for us)... my Dad spent the weekend drawing up our plans so that we can begin work on our basement!