Priestley Family Circus: Thanksgiving Break!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Thanksgiving Break!

This fall our family took advantage of the opportunity to fly up to Idaho and Utah for Thanksgiving. The kids had not been on a airplane for a few years, and especially Ryan and Bryce thought it was a neat experience! Ryan had only been once as a baby and as for Bryce this was his first airplane trip ever. Despite all the hype about the new TWA security checks (hands mauling or "revealing" body screen) we never had to go through any of those so we had an easy going flights both ways--even the flight home, except for my terrible sinus infection causing me a little dizziness and congestion it went very well! So grateful for that! I am also very grateful for my brother-in-law Mark who gave me the meds I needed to finally recover from this infection! Too bad I felt better after the trip, but I can breathe clearly now and that is what matters! Yea! No more dizziness and sleepless nights!

We started our Thanksgiving 2 week trip in Idaho for the first week. (I wished I had taken more pictures of the fun we had, but the way I was feeling we were lucky to get these pictures!) We had Thanksgiving at the Franklin Church with 100 or so family and friends on the Drury side. There was family pictures, inflated bounce and slide, karioke, snowman craft, lots of visiting and more food than you can imagine! There was also more snow in November than we Texans could imagine! It satisfied our urge for snow for the season! Fortunately, we had Grandma Sue and Grandpa Franks newly remodeled beautiful home to stay in because we were pretty much snowed in the whole week! The kids had plenty of room to play and be wild with their cousins. There were cousin sleep-overs every night!

Too bad I had such a horrible sinus infection! It kind of made me a little bit tired because I wasn't able to breathe at nights!!!!

Bryce and Peyton sure enjoyed looking out Grandpa's window at the snow because that's all you could see at the time!

Elina was always right there to help Bryce eat his snacks and meals. She is such a good little caretaker--she'll be a good Mom! I loved how she always says "Bryceeee!"

The stairs were a big highlight for the cousins especially for Bryce and Peyton.

It look slike Elina has taught Bryce a lot about helping feed each other!

Elina and Ryan in their favorite part of the kitchen-Grandma's pantry!

Savannah and Samantha sure missed each other over the Fall-they always have a lot of giggles and animals to take care of on the farm. Along with Shaylee, the below zero temps and deep snow and harsh wind did not keep them from visiting the horses and cows and other animals out to the barn. They would stay outside for hours and go back for more.

The kids all loved to gather in "Ken's Cave" to watch movies, play video games, and get drawing lessons from him.

Luckily Grandma hadn't set up her library upstairs because that quickly became the "Nintendo DS corner".

On Sunday we traveled down to Orem to be at G & G Paces. It was snowing a great deal that day too! The Jorgensens drove down at that time and we just missed Jared's family, but it was worth the time out of school for it. The kids had a blast with their Jorgensen and Pace cousins for 5 solid days that first week of December. The highlights of this trip were Temple Square to see the lights and a day of sledding in all that snow!

(I am thankful that my sister Lisa took such fun pictures because I barely could think since we just arrived after a 3 hour trek from Idaho in the bad weather for the dinner. So I took some of these Thanksgiving Day pictures from her blog of our celebration.

Mom's Beautiful table set up!

Spencer, Me, Josh, and his girl Jenna

Kim and Paco

Zach and Chase-always a pair.

Isabelle, Ryan, and James--gotta love those three!

Little John did a good job teaching Bryce the ways of Grandma's Christmas decors!

Dad kept trying to keep up with the dishes!

Here is Mom cooking up a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for all of us! We especially loved her decors and her favors! She hasn't had such a crowd like this in awhile for this holiday. We were just missing Jared and Rayann's family who drove from Texas to visit the week before.

Emily and Samantha loved being outside in the snow and would go out for long periods of time each day.

The In laws: Kelly, Mark, and Kimberlee

--they add spice and a lot of fun to the Pace Crowd!

"Grandpa's Feather Bed"

Bryce frequently called Isabelle "BeBe" !! In this picture you can tell she isn't so thrilled about a "baby calling her a "baby". :D

Bryce had a huge cold the whole trip, but he sure found lots to do in the meantime. His favorite toy of Grandma's was the little red chair that use to be mine.