Our Thanksgiving Break!!

WE ARE THANKFUL!!!!

Well last Saturday we started of our Thanksgiving Holiday by making a trip to the Nashville Temple with our Ward for the first time. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get there, and seeing as how we left at 6:15am that put us in Nashville around 10:45 -11. Upon arriving we fed the kids lunch and got our oil changed so we were ready to hit the road as soon as we were done in the temple. We got the kids settled and took them into the Stake Center about 10 ft from the Temple (SOOOOOOOOOO convenient) where there were a few youth from our ward waiting to watch the kids.

What a beautiful Temple.... how blessed we are to be as close as we are to one. Austin and I enjoyed ourselves at the temple. And actually that is the first time that we have gone together in over 2 years. This is an extremely small temple, something very different than he and I have ever experienced, but we came away being so happy for the experience that we had. It made us look back and see how often we took for granted having so many temples with in an hour of us in Utah. Well, the enjoyment quickly ended when we returned to the Stake Center to pick up our kids... Payton ended up throwing up all over herself and in the nursery. She was so embarrassed that she stayed in the bathroom for 40 minutes waiting for me to come and get her. She was sitting in her shirt and underwear. Thank goodness for Sierra Turner who was watching out for her, the poor girl cleaned all of Payton clothes and wiped up her entire mess. I don't know if I would have done that for someones child. So a BIG THANK YOU to Sierra, for helping my little girl. We debated quite a bit about going home, or still sticking to our original plan and heading up to Cleveland. Well we headed up. And Payton was vomiting the entire way up which was 8 hours. We were tired!

We arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 1:00am Sunday morning.

This is my sister Amie's cute house in Cleveland. This is where all of the happenings were. Thank you to her and her husband Travis for letting us stay there. We always love going up there and spending time with them.

Monday of course... what was the first thing we did? We went shopping. Austin went to the city library to catch up on school, my dad stayed home with Cameron and Jaxon, Travis was on call the 30 hours previously so he was sleeping upstairs, Jenny and Camille were at school and so it was my Mom, Amie, Payton, Ashton and myself. Payton has hit a growth spurt. We were desperate for clothes for her. So the purpose in shopping was to shop for Payton. My sweet Mom and Dad bought Payton a whole bunch of new winter clothes and some boots and shoes. During the shopping trip my sister and I found these cute hats.... my Mom has always loved having us wear hats, so she insisted that we bought them. So a big, big THANK YOU to my mom and dad for helping us with Payton.

The profile pictures are supposed to be a measurement of whose nose is bigger.

So this is the fine work of my Father. All of these pictures are taken by my Dad.

Weather up in Cleveland was freezing, and we got quite a bit of snow. So the majority of the time we spent inside, but we tried to do activities for the kids so they didn't go stir crazy. Tuesday we headed off to a place called Playground World. Upon arriving we found that the schedule had changed that day and it wasn't open. So down the street we went to have lunch and let the kids play in BURGER KING.

While watching all the kids, Ashton sat back and enjoyed the show.

They had a blast running and play. (Cameron)

And of course..... Payton got hurt.

This poor little girl.... she gets hurt all the time.

She tended to get the brunt of many jokes this week, mocking how "unlucky" Austin and I say she is....but truly she is just a disaster for accidents. She is accident prone. It is always happening to her. So this incident was one of many she had this week.

She got better and continued playing.

Jaxon enjoyed lunch.

Payton taking a rest.

After walking outside.... this is what we found. Lots of snow!!! So Austin started throwing snow at my Mom, and Sister.

What an ordeal!

Wednesday we attempted Playground world again. This time was successful and the kid were let out into a huge warehouse where all of this playground equipment is. It is actually a store, but they open it to the public twice a week for one free hour of play time. We have gone there almost every time we have visited Cleveland, and my kids absolutely love it.

Jaxon was quite courageous sliding down the slide was the only conservative thing he did.

And I am a proud Mommy.... Payton has learned over this summer how to go across the monkey bars by herself. She was so proud of herself. It was fun to see confidence and excitement from the accomplishment of making it across successfully all by herself.

Poor little Ash, was a bystander. He watched the entire time, but stayed content.

My Dad got quite the kick out of this set of pictures!

Static!

They jumped on the trampoline,

played basketball on the trampoline,

while mom and grandma supervised.

We then made our way over to McDonalds to let the kids play again on the playground there and these were a few pictures taken during lunch time.

This is Toby, he is my sisters dog. He is still a little puppy... not quite potty trained.... has accidents.... if you are seeing where I am going.... well it happened while Amie and Travis were gone.... and guessed who cleaned one of the droppings up..... AUSTIN. Dry heaved so loud, and later explained to me that he has faked almost every dry heave he has done except that one. He was pretty grossed out. However my sister was quite pleased, she was trying to think of some form of retaliated against him for him throwing a snowball at her. It was perfect. She loved it.

This is Thanksgiving Day, it ended up being a beautiful day, but was still quite chili outside. So that morning everyone decided to go for a walk and enjoy the beauty. While most everyone went

four of us stayed behind. Jaxon was taking a nap, my mom broke her toe the night before she came to Cleveland, so she wouldn't be able to walk, and I stayed home with Ashton because I woke up Thanksgiving morning vomiting. So I wasn't feeling too hot.

So while they were all gone on this walk, my Mom and I watched a movie.

Take note of the fence behind Payton...

and the huge waterfall they are all looking at...

and the ice that is on the ground..Yes....Austin explained it to me when he got back "Payton almost died." Apparently Payton was walking or running down the path when she slipped an fell and slid right under the fence. Luckily she grabbed onto the poll and held on while screaming. As my sister screamed Austin looked over and started running after her, well in his mad dash to catch Payton from falling over the side, he slipped an fell on Payton. Bad things just happen to Payton.

We spent Thanksgiving Dinner at Travis's brothers home. Ryan and Heather Smith. I unfortunately was sick, and did not eat much. But I guess it saved me from over eating (which I do every year). But what I did eat was wonderful. We played a few games after dinner and then got home and put the kids to bed, and actually I ended up falling asleep with the kids at 8:30 pm. Earliest I have gone to bed in years. The following pictures are of our family at the Thanksgiving Dinner.

We had a fabulous week. Thanks again to my sister for letting us stay there and join them for the Holiday. It was great as always to see my Mom and Dad, and was even better for the kids to see their cousins. We are very thankful for all of our blessings, and that we had the opportunity to spend this time with family, Thank you MOM and DAD. I love you so much and appreciate everything that you do for me and my family.