Thanksgiving Weekend

Two days after going to Lewiston for Alex's farewell, we were packing up and getting ready to go to Nampa for Garrett's orthodontist appointment and Thanksgiving, BUT first I had to get the girls in for their first dental appointment since moving here. I waited because I wasn't sure whether to take them to a pediatric dentist or just take them to the one the boys and I are using. I was told by Michelle to be careful with going to a pediatric dentist because they might want you to come in more often and use up your dental benefits quicker. With that, I finally decided to take them to our dental office at Southridge Dental. Apparently, Alice has several cavities that need attention, and one is deep enough that they might either do a baby root canal or pull the tooth. Since it's a baby tooth and her molar has already started emerging then she wouldn't need a spacer if it was pulled. I think they should just pull it since it's a baby tooth anyway and it's cheaper. The funny thing is, this dental office needed to refer Alice to a pediatric dentist since it's more of what they deal with. I took her into one of the places they referred her to and she's now scheduled to get the first and worst tooth taken care of next Monday, the 18th. We're breaking it up into 2, possibly 3 visits. I have to say, my kids do awesome with going to the dentist. They are always so calm and wanting to do what the hygienist or dentist says while they're poking around in their mouths. They also love that they get to watch TV during their visit. They were watching Bluey.

Later that same day we were packed up and heading to Nampa! Again, Garrett said he wanted to drive and this time he drove the whole way there, 4 1/2 hours in the dark. He likes driving on the freeway and highways but still doesn't like driving around town. Anyway, this time we stayed with Curtis's sister Jeanie and her husband, Glen. We slept in their basement, and it was freezing the first night. They mostly heat their house with a fireplace but they also rarely go downstairs and so they hadn't turned on the thermostat yet. They did the next day! Curtis and I stayed in one room and the boys in another and then the girls slept in sleeping bags on the floor in the family room. I was lucky to have found a heater downstairs in that room and turned it on for them. Alice had started coughing on the trip and I think that heat made all the difference because she was coughing less the next day and just kept getting better each day there.

Since Garrett drove, I sat in the middle back with Jack. He had his XBOX all set up to play. I tried playing with him for a while, but it just wasn't my type of game. I did watch him play for a bit after that but then had to rest my eyes.

The girls loved having me closer to them.

We got into town around 10:30pm and went straight to bed. Curtis woke up early the next morning to go work in the office where Jeanie works so he would have a quiet space. Wednesday was a work and errands day. I took Garrett to his 8:30 appt with the orthodontist. I came home for a little bit before deciding to take my van over to the dealership in Boise to get the oil changed. I thought I had one more free oil change, but I guess you have to use them in a certain time frame, or it expires. Since it expired, the guy helping me was able to call someone to get a coupon code for a discount at least. They also ended up replacing a couple of filters for me and doing the alignment, which I knew needed to be done. 

One thing that impressed me was the guy helping me, Lanny, changed the battery for my key fob right then and there at no charge when I asked him if they could change out batteries. Mine had been acting up and just that morning my van told me the battery was low. So, I got a lot more done on the van than I anticipated but I'm glad they are done. Another thing about my van. The day after I picked up the van after they installed the new star connector, the check engine light came on again, but there weren't any other messages flashing. I just ignored it because last time it turned off on its own. Sure enough, while driving to Nampa, it just turned off. It was off for a couple of weeks and last week it decided to turn on again. What a pain! I'm ignoring it again for now and we'll see what happens. 

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving break. We decided to go visit Tamara and Chris Wednesday evening and had a good time. We ate pizza and salad and then played our Skyjo game that we brought with us. We were there for a couple of hours before coming back to Jeanie's to visit. Jeanie's daughter Sarah brought over her daughter, Remi, so she could play with my girls and have a sleep over. The girls loved it.

The next morning the girls colored some pictures while we were getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Most of Jeanie's kids came over at some point in the day. Two of them live far away though. They have 6 kids. My in-laws came over as well with Ricky. Ricky just got into town to start work at St. Luke's in Meridian. His family will be moving down from Alaska at the beginning of the year and have found a house in Meridian. They liked Alaska but it was time to come back to Idaho.

They also got to help feed the chickens.

Playing a game and munching on appetizers before Thanksgiving dinner.

Enjoying dinner!

Dishing up food.

They had a nice big room for eating in.

We did a lot of visiting that day and then at the end of the day, some of us watched Home Alone 2. 

Stillman knew we were in Nampa for Thanksgiving and so were they. He had two extra Boise State game tickets and asked if we would like to go because Alex couldn't go since he started home MTC and Jayden didn't want to go. Jeanie was good enough to watch our kids for us so that we could go. The game started at 2pm and so we met Stillman around 11:30. We had a lot of fun and it was a great game to attend. Jordan came also because he's a student and can get a discount. It's more fun when you're with a group.

The teams warming up prior to the game starting.

The band at halftime.

After the game.

We didn't get home until about 7pm and thankfully, Jeanie had made two different kinds of soup for us to eat for dinner. There was Zuppa Toscana and Tomato basil. They were good but apparently she likes to add mushrooms to the Zuppa Toscana and I wasn't a fan of that. I don't think Jack was either, and that's his favorite soup.

Saturday Jeanie invited her grandkids and my kids to decorate cookies. The boys also went to do some target shooting with Glen using his guns. Jack had Porter over all day on Friday and then his friend Rhett came over and went shooting with the guys on Saturday. I'm glad Jack got to see a couple of his friends. While the boys went shooting, I took the girls over to see Ashlie and Sydney. It was fun visiting with them again.

Sydney and Alice

I almost forgot that Saturday morning, Curtis and Jack helped clean up the leaves in Jeanie's yard. Garrett would have helped but he went over to hang out with Hailey Hansen and her brothers from the 30th ward. That was the same girl that went to the dinosaur place with us last year, which was technically his first date, I think.

Good thing Jack already had practice with one of these at home.

Jeanie also trimmed Charlotte's hair for me while we were there. She likes it short but afterwards she told me she wants to grow it long and style it. Funny girl. Jeanie and Glen were great hosts and it was nice to stay with them. We wanted to hit the road early Sunday morning so we would have time to relax before getting back to school and work the next day, so the only 9am church we knew of was our old 37th ward. It was fun going back to see old friends. I gave out lots of hugs and it just made me so happy. I saw Aunt Cori and Uncle Ken also. It was a great Thanksgiving weekend!