Walton Thanksgiving

We were lucky enough to host most of my family for Thanksgiving this year.

My sister Linda and her husband Jared were the first to arrive. They flew down from Canada the Thursday before Thanksgiving. 

McKell and I took them to the George Bush Presidential Library & Museum on Friday, then we visited our favorite frozen yogurt shop after the other girls finished school.

Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a men's basketball game at Texas A&M University, then got tacos for dinner (Jared LOVES tacos, and Linda promised him he would get to eat some here in Texas).

Sunday afternoon my brother Adam arrived with his children Lydia and Rafe. They drove down from Bloomington, Indiana.

Monday we played at the park and I watched kiddos while Linda helped Adam with his Christmas shopping. The weather was lovely for all of our visitors. I love Texas "winters". :)

My parents and grandma arrived late Monday night. We were all happy to see them! And really happy to see the treats they brought along from the BYU bookstore, too. 

Grandpa makes a great playmate. He took all 6 kids outside for a walk and some bike and scooter riding.

 Tuesday afternoon we sent the men off to pick up Russ from work and search out some good Barbecue for lunch, then Mom and Linda and I took the kids to explore a little Natural History Museum near my house.

Kaylee helped Adam cook up some tofu for the lettuce wraps he made for dinner that night. Did I mention my siblings are all more adventurous cooks than I am. First time trying tofu. Verdict: not too bad. 

McKell made herself Grandma Marshall's special friend during her visit.

Wednesday was pie making day. We split into 3 teams, planned out our pies, and shopped for ingredients. 

That night we got to try them all!

Team 1: Mom, Anne, Kaylee, McKell - Dutch Apple Pie (and Pumpkin Pie)

Team 2: Adam, Linda, Lydia, Brenna - Chocolate Cream Pie

Team 3: Grandpa, Jared, Ashlyn, Rafe - Sour Cream Pear Pie (and Lemon Pie)

Thursday I helped the kids make our traditional spice drop turkeys.

The rest of the day was spent cooking, eating, watching football, and feeling sorry for Linda, who came down with the flu and was quarantined in her room the entire day. :(

The next day everyone went home, which was sad. We were SO glad they were all able to come down though! You're all welcome any time. 

Kids Say (and Write) the Darndest Things

 Brenna #1

What are you thankful for
God
food
house
family
friends
toes (?)
objects
school
work
places
What we're thankful for because some people don't have what we have.
Gotta be glad.

Brenna #2

Dear Mrs. Cunningham

I'm glad that I'm in your class.

You're a great teacher.

I'm glad that I have a lot of friends in my grade.

I'm glad for all of the teachers that work at Bowen 

Elementary to help all of the kids that have school at Bowen

Elementary and what they teach you sometimes you

remember what they say sometimes you don't.

But that's OK.

Love Brenna Burnett

Brenna #3

In 2015 November 24

When Brenna's family was at her house

her grandpa said do you want to play out front

so we did and Ashlyn decided to have a parade

out side when Ashlyn said something

Brenna had to say it

Brenna's mom took a picture of them

when Brenna the video of them

and Brenna was talking fancy

Ashlyn #1

Dear Dad

I forgive you for all the mean things you did to me today, like yelling, making me have vegetables for dinner, and being mad that I didn't like the dinner Mom made. I still love you and I know the things you did to me today are your weaknesses. I hope those weaknesses grow into something you won't do a lot. Nobody's perfect but at least we do our best. I still love you a lot.

Love, Ashlyn B.

I love you and will always love you.

Six Flags

Russ and Kaylee and Ashlyn have season passes to Six Flags. Several times per year the park offers a "bring a friend free" day. So, the past two years we've picked one of these dates to make a family trip to the Six Flags park in San Antonio, so we can all go without paying extra for me and Brenna and McKell. 

This year we picked a Saturday in mid-November. We decided to drive down (it's about 3 hours from Bryan) Friday night and stay in a hotel, so we wouldn't have to drive there and back in one day. Plus, the girls think it's pretty great to stay in a hotel. 

We ran into some traffic on our way down, so we didn't arrive until after bedtime. The girls settled right in and went straight to sleep. Not. They're not used to sleeping in the same room or sharing beds. Who knows what time they finally fell asleep. 

Luckily, they all slept in the next morning. Yeah right. I don't think my children know how to do that.

So, they played around in the hotel room and watched cartoons for a few hours until it was time to go downstairs for breakfast. 

Made it to the park! Everyone was super excited.

We split up part of the day, with Russ taking Ashlyn (and sometimes Kaylee as well) on the bigger rides, and me hanging out with the younger girls. Because of that split, most of our pictures are of the younger girls.

The little Kiddie Coaster was McKell's favorite ride. When her first go-around was over she wanted to stay in the car so she could do it again!

Near the end of the day Russ and Ashlyn went off to some roller coaster (Kaylee isn't a big fan of coasters), and the rest of us decided to wait in line for a Scooby Doo ride. I had never been on it before . . . and I'm probably never going on it again.

The line was loooooong. And sloooooow. And when we were finally near the front, something on the ride broke. And it was shut down for like 20 or 30 minutes. The way the line is set up though, there's not really a way to get out of line once you're in it. So we just stayed and waited. For a pretty boring ride that lasted about 5 minutes when we finally got our turn. Lame - O.

I had promised the girls a treat for being such good sports while waiting in that line.

McKell slept through the treat consumption though. :)

We had a fun weekend, and were happy our trip didn't get rained out. Things like this are always worth it when you get home and your 3-year-old says, "That was a great idea going on vacation and sleeping in a hotel!"

October Happenings and Halloween

This happens to me every Fall. Once the holidays come along, I run out of time for this blog and I get way behind. So, as we near the end of November, here's what we did in October!

You can't live in Texas without attending a rodeo every once in a while, right? There was a little fair going on in our community the beginning of October, so we moseyed on over to see the rodeo.

McKell kept saying things like, "I like it when the cowboys fall off their horses." We had a great time and I most enjoyed the little kids in the mutton bustin' and the bucking Bronco and bull riding events.

One evening when Russ was out of town we visited the local pumpkin patch. It was pretty small, but it had lots of pumpkins, a few farm animals, a hay bale maze, and it was FREE.

This is probably my favorite picture from that night. She's such a ham!

Of course we had to spend a night carving our family pumpkin.

And here are the girls in their costumes!

McKell was a "scary" witch. Brenna a chef, Ashlyn a gypsy, and Kaylee a swimmer.

Russ is posing with our traditional Halloween dinner: pumpkin oranges, ghost bananas, and mummy dogs.