Indiana + Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a fun trip to Indiana the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Temple appointments are hard to get for baptisms with my kids but I snagged one at the Indianapolis temple!  Woo hoo!  We left Friday after Lee's work and drove through the night to get there.  We arrived very early, got hot chocolate at McDonald's then did baptisms.  I think we had an 8am session, so pretty early!

After that was fun at Steph's!  The kids had a blast playing in all the leaves out back. 

Haley really liked using the leaf blower.

Keyboard fun too!

That afternoon we headed to Carmel's Christkindlmarkt. We went ice staking and got some food.  Lee got this baguette sandwich where they used a flame to melt the cheese and then put it on the bread.  It smelled SOOO GROSS!  Like urine and wet dog.  Oh, it was horrid. 

This picture I snagged off of the internet. You put the half wheel of cheese under some type of heat lamp.  When it's heated and bubbling you scrape off the melted cheese onto the sandwich.  The sandwich was good...but the raclette cheese favor and smell is nasty. 

Off to ice skating!

We then hung out at Steph's house and had fun with the arrival of Darrell's family.  More leaf jumping too, and of course BYU game watching!

Late night shenanigans at Aunt Steph's. 

Earlier that evening we went to the mall, then the teenagers went with Steph to DeBrand Chocolates for hot chocolate.  I didn't realize that they had gone for a treat and Haley was with us.  So I ran Haley over.  She got a dipped cone and hung out for bit with the gang.  After DeBrand it was hanging out with Steph in the kitchen. 

Sunday was Maggie's birthday!  The reason for our trip out to Indiana was Maggie's baptism! 

Getting cookies ready to hand out after the baptism.  For my kids I never had any treats after their baptism.  Just the service, then home and lunch with family. Just an idea for people out there...you don't need to bring any food or have that stress associated with a baptism!

We drove home after the baptism and got home at some insane hour...probably 4am or something! Shanna made a pie for a class feast or something.  It turned out great!

On a Sunday in November Shanna and Haley received their Patriarchal blessings! 

Yep, lots of Christmas stuff...I need to make a plan for next Christmas to make things run more smoothly...

We decorated the house before Thanksgiving. I definitely love doing that! It takes awhile, but nice to have done and the decorations stay up till through the first part of January.

Jack modified with a goblet of Nesquik. Haha. 

Elder Robertson with his trainer Elder Beus!

Thanksgiving day came!  We headed up to Darrell's for Thanksgiving and Friday.  Elder Robertson went to three Thanksgivings I believe.  One of them they made snowflakes at a member's house to bring to a nursing home. 

The big spread! We brought pies, rolls and twice baked potatoes.

Pie time! We brought pumpkin, lemon sour cream...oh so good, cranberry, and banana!

I need my kids to dress up next year!  I love dressing up for special dinners. 

Treat run for some kids at Sheetz that night. We told our kids they had to pay for their own treat.  Who would want to buy anything with pie at the house?!

This book!  I thought it was "lost" but I found it when setting up Christmas decorations.  It was funny because I would say, "Where is the diary of Anne Frank?" Or, "We lost the Diary of Anne Frank!"  Lee would comment on how crazy it was we lost her actual diary.  That would be a very expensive mistake!  So it was funny when I FOUND Anne Frank's Diary.  We're going to be rich!

Love Elden's plaid vacuuming skills. 

Cal on the 100th day of school. Totally not around Thanksgiving, but a random photo. 2nd grade! Can you spy Cal?!

Friday we hung out and did a hike at Governor Dick's Observation Tower.

It's pretty cool...a tower you climb up in. The view up top is pretty great!

We also played at the church. The original plan was to go to the Manhattan temple on Saturday but we decided not too since we had gone to Carmel. It was sad not going with Darrell and kids, but good to get home and get ready for the upcoming week. What a great holiday!  I love Thanksgiving! I was sad we didn't go around and say three things we are thankful for at dinner, but it wasn't at my house.  We did that later with the kids.