Thanksgiving

Once upon a time, we were going to meet Marc's brothers and their families in Nauvoo to visit Bob and Deb who were serving a mission there. They all backed out. Somehow, in conversations about Bob and Deb coming to see our new house during Thanksgiving, they invited all the rest of the brothers to come out to our house with them. Ummm, ok?

Family get together's have no been easy with the Glutz side of the family. There's always some type of drama with hurt feelings, immaturity, miscommunication, or something that ruffles feathers. I was so nervous and just wanted things to be peaceful and for people to enjoy themselves and getting the cousins together to play. We said 3 days maximum and they were here for 4, the 4th was definitely too long. But other than that, I feel like things went ok. These are the only pictures I have of our time, Bob took a lot more, but I never got those pictures. 

Wednesday was when everyone flew in from Cincinnati. They rented cars and the plan was originally for me to meet them for lunch, but they stopped right out of the airport for food without telling me. We got Chris checked into his hotel, he was the only one not staying with us, then everyone came up to our house for a little bit. 

I quickly made some chili to have cooking while we were gone, and then we spent the afternoon/early evening at "Classic Fun Center". Emma had recently broken her collar bone, so it was a little tricky to find something that could get energy out and still have her feel included because she couldn't do much activity wise. 

There was inflatable slides/jump areas:

 An arcade:

 Isabel was the master of the tickets at the arcade area

 We brought scooters for the kids to ride around the roller rink. Marc met us towards the end of our stay after he had gotten off work. 

There was an obstacle course that I made my way around in with Isabel. The bigger kids enjoyed laser tag. riding scooters, and a place where they could shoot each other with nerf stuff. 

Since Emma wasn't able to do most of the activities, she got to pick out prizes with all the tickets won in the arcade. 

We spent a lot of time playing games. We played Mexican Train, Rummi, and something else but I can't remember now. 

 The kids tried to play games but they never lasted long. Their cousins were a little more interested in their electronic gadgets and didn't want to spend time playing WITH Tyler and Bryce very much. They did their best to be happy, but it hurt their feelings and they were disappointed with the visit. I felt bad for them. 

 Grandma and Isabel helping to prepare Thanksgiving dinner with me. They were chopping nuts for our sweet potato casserole. 

 The "Kid's" Table:

 Marc went running on Thanksgiving morning. Can't say as though that would have been a decision I was 100% positive with, but he was back in time to help me trim the turkey.

 Here's the "grown-up" table and my attempt at making it look nice.

 Time to eat! Yum!
We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (made from scratch) rainbow layered jello, home made rolls, cherry, chocolate, and apple pie. It was quite the feast!

 We spent one morning at the aquarium. Good thing we had so many adults to keep track of all those kids!

 We all enjoyed watching the penguins. 

 We watched the "Gallapagos Island" movie in 4D which meant that it was in 3D and their was also water that sprayed at us and air for the wind. 

 The rain forest area was hot and humid and by that time we were all a little done. 

The girls spent the afternoon doing nail polish art. Everyone enjoyed it and we were able to get our crafty creativity going. 

While the girls were playing with nail polish, the boys got to race go karts around at K-9? I don't have pictures. Only the kids were able to race since the lines were so long, but they had a really fun time.

The last day together, we spent the morning playing in the snow, then rode "Trax" trains up to Salt Lake. The kids were so excited to be on a train. 

In Salt Lake, the kids got to shop for books before saying goodbye. The cousins left to go back to Cincinnati, and Grandma and Grandpa stayed for a couple days longer.