Turkey Day

Our wonderful host and hostess with the 32 lb turkey!

The expert potato mashers!

My cousin, Andrea, the salad maker.

Grandma Enge

The feast! Only about 32 this year. All of the cousins were back in WI in September for Blake's wedding, so Garrett and us were the only out-of-state cousins to attend.

One of the highlights of the day is the annual Turkey Bowl. It is always exciting to get your first glimpse of the teams. I was once again on the injured list with a "bloated abdomen". Last time we were at T-Day in WI, I was 6 months pregnant with Wade! Jason made his first debut on the "Old Guys Team". Some of the stats are incorrect, but that makes it all the more fun. For example, Jason is only 25 for another month.

The Skinny

14 pies shown in the picture. 2 more that didn't even get served, plus an English trifle, fruit pizza, and a plate of cookies. Urp!

Annual shuffleboard tournament

Talent show and thankfuls. The Schmidts had a beautiful Thanksgiving song.

I did the bean trick, so Jason had to show us a little of his magic. Sarah and I also played a duet on the piano.

The Stein family joined us for the festivities and sang a couple of hymns for us.

Cuz I'm Leavin' On the Amtrak!

We left last Friday for our train trip to Wisconsin. We were very excited to go back. Wade had never even been there! We got on the train about 8:45 pm, so it was perfect timing to have the boys in their pajamas, so they could sleep right away. They did very well on the train. I had lots of books/puzzles, cars/trains, and snacks!

The most scenic part of the trip was when we were going through Glacier National Park. We got there just as we were waking up Saturday morning.

Relaxing and enjoying the ride. So much less stressful than flying with small children.

On the way out, we didn't have a lounge car, which was too bad, because we didn't have anywhere for the boys to be other than our seats. It would have been nice to have somewhere else to go. On the return trip we did have the lounge car, and it was great! Also, there was a small electrical fire in the car behind us, so we were a couple of hours delayed.

Because of the delay, we got in just in time for Dad to swing by and get us after gospel meeting. We went back to Mom and Dad's, because there were several other people coming for dinner. I got to meet Meika for the first time! She is my dear friends Dale and Karli's girl.

Also in attendance, Karli's mom and dad, Dale and Diane, Ananth and Amanda, Randy and Cathy, Jackie, and us.

Wade giving Meika a hug. Wade is only about 3 months older than her.

Horsey rides

Karli and I. We have often been mistaken for sisters. :)

Cute kiddos

On Monday we went downtown. We were planning on going to the children's museum, but they were only open to school groups that day. The boys saluting the flag.

We walked around on some of the pavilions down by the lakefront. We saw a big squirrel with half of a graham cracker in its mouth. Jason chased the squirrel up the tree. The squirrel leaped to another tree, but not before Jason stole the graham cracker. Jason did leave the cracker for the squirrel to reclaim.

They are sooo obedient! :)

The art museum.

The boys at the Operation Iraqi Freedom memorial.

Another one of Jason's stunts. Climbing the artwork downtown. We then went to see the Imax show about the coastal regions of South Africa where Kale and Jaspar are. Very interesting. We met up with my brother Garrett and his girlfriend Sarah, and went out for dinner with them and my Uncle Guy, Aunt Lori, and cousins Travis and Becky.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells. It was wonderful!!! My good friends Kevin and Jaime brought their 3 boys, and family, Kristi, Dave, and Tristan came too! We had sooo much fun riding on the water slides and watching the boys splash and play. We are definitely going back next time we come! Check out the 4 huge indoor waterparks on their website. www.wildernessresort.com I didn't get any pictures of the waterparks. I did take some on mom's camera, so I will have to steal those from her! :) Eating pizza in the hotel room.

Wade, Garrett, and Grandma

Sarah, Garrett, and Mom

Would You Like An Update...or 4?

Fall Leaves

Little Firefighter

Our picnic in the park was cancelled because of rain, so we had our picnic in the living room!

Jokes and Counting

The other night Tristan played his first practical joke on us! A couple of weeks ago we made caterpillars at the daycare I work at, because we were studying the letter C. We made them out of egg cartons and painted and decorated them. Tristan had painted his brown. He also ripped it in half shortly after it was finished. Anyway, the other night he called me into the bathroom to show me that Wade had gone poopoo in the potty chair. I ran in excitedly, and Tristan lifted up the lid to show me the "poopoo". He had put half of his caterpillar in the pot, and it really did look kind of like poopoo! He laughed about it, and later even Daddy was half-way fooled for a minute.
Jason rescued our volleyball out of the boat when he winterized it, and it has become Wade's new favorite ball. He uses it as a soccer ball and spends several hours a day kicking it around the house. The other night Tristan was putting together a number/counting puzzle and was counting the objects before he put them in the puzzle. Soon I heard Wade, all on his own count all the way up to 10, while kicking his ball through the house! He has counted to 10 with me before, repeating the numbers after I say them, but this was the first time he strung all 10 of them together on his own without any prompting!

Post-Halloween Fun

We love the Wal-Mart Halloween clearance sale. I managed to get each boy a dress-up costume and a set of 4 ninja swords for less than $10 total. Wade has a clown outfit. It came with a silly hat, but Wade decided to wear the mask from Tristan's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume instead. He liked the teeth and kept on pointing them out to us.

The highlight of Tristan's costume is the big padded muscles. He and daddy played swords endlessly!

Last night I put Wade into Tristan's double bed for the first time. I was worried they would pick and poke and keep each other awake, but that was not the case! Wade was very tired and fell asleep very quickly, and I peeked in on Tristan and saw him patting Wade and kissing his cheek. What a good big brother! (well, sometimes anyway)

Weekend in Sequim/Forks

A view of Mt. Rainier from the ferry.

We went over to Sequim this weekend to be with the family. Jason's two grandpas are not doing very well, and we wanted to see them too. Saturday we went out to Forks for a Cider Press/Potluck. I packed extra clothes for the boys because it was supposed to be rainy, and I wanted them to be able to play outside. Tristan found a mud puddle and had lots of fun splashing in it and getting totally muddy!!! Grandpa even joined him for a minute.

The boys eagerly awaiting their tractor-drawn wagon ride!

Teana and Wade riding in front.

Auntie Julie with nephews.

3 cousins watching the cider pressing process.

We went to Sequim this weekend and were together with the whole family. We stopped at Lake Crescent on our way out to Forks for a photo session.

We had special visitors this past week! We went out to the orchards one day to glean, and Heidi made a beautiful apple pie!! Patricia and Tristan just wanted to eat it!

Captain Underpants! Last week he enjoyed wearing a bib around, this week it's underwear. Several pairs at a time....over his pants, it doesn't matter. I figured if he is so interested he should just wear underwear! So, now I'm half-heartedly potty training in my spare time.