The Pre-Party

Thanksgiving this year was extra special because we had ALL of my family here at home for Thanksgiving.  I know it took sacrifice for everyone to get off work and to drive to Burley and I know it is hard for some of us to be in loud, noisy groups so that makes this a extraordinary weekend because of all the sacrifices that were made. I'm so thankful for my family and the loving relationships that we share.

Wednesday, I suppose you might call the Pre-Party.  We had Lisa and Shane and Josh drive up early in the day. They couldn't stay all weekend, so they made sure to come early.  I stopped by Mom's house during my lunch hour to pick up the dish I needed for my food assignment (Spinach Salad... Yum!).  When I asked them what they were doing for lunch, I got shrugs all around. I suggested that Dairy Queen has a special on a Double Cheeseburger meal and Shane jumped up and said, let's go get some.  Apparently, he is a fan of Dairy Queen.  Who knew?! :) Trevor's family joined us later that night and we brought the boys over to play on Chris's Wii.  Josh was kind enough to supply us with four more controllers and a half a dozen games. Thanks Josh!! I love this picture of everyone playing the racing game.  I can still hear Alex's laugh as he falls off a cliff and Chris tells him, "Looks like you're going for a swim!"

Later, we trekked back over to Mom and Dad's house for birthday cake. We have three November birthdays: Shane, Dad and Mom.  Happy birthday guys!

Brad and I both had to work a full day today, so he came in late and I had gone home to bed, but it is still nice knowing we're all together again!

Happy, happy birthday Daddy dear!

Saturday was Dad's birthday.  It just kind of worked out that Chris and I were both planning on going to the temple this weekend.  So, we invited Mom and Dad to come with us.  Then Tricia was home and wanted to come too.  We arrived early for the 7:30 am temple session.  Then later we went to IHOP for a breakfast brunch. What a fabulous way to celebrate my father's birthday!

World Famous Browns

Although Joshua is technically a Salmon, we still claim him as a Brown through and through :).  It's always fun when you're family makes the paper, and you can read about Josh's science field trip here.  Or, check out his general coolness below...

Thanksgiving is...

Last year, my friend Natalie wrote me an email and asked me what I was grateful for.  She was keeping a record of gratitude of her friends in a hand made, leatherbound book she was given, and she transcribed everyone's responses.  She keeps it on the coffee table for guests to add to because Gratitude is so uplifting and should be shared. I agree!  Please leave a comment or send me an email and tell me what YOU are grateful for...


Update:
Here are some posts from friends on facebook...

Sayda Chavez Call:
The new addition to our family! Yes, what a wonderful day!!!!

Bonnie James Green:
I am thankful we are able to adopt our boys, for my freedom, my faith, my family and my friends.

Katie Brown Haymore:
I'm also thankful for warm november days. It's 69 degrees in Spanish Fork. I'm also thankful for my entire family. Love ya Cindy!

Holly Buck George:
i'm thankful for really good parents.

Marcie Bowers Miller:
I am thankful for a husband that works hard to support us.

Linda Voelkel:
I'm thankful for a cousin who indulges my Austen addictions. ;-)

Linda Voelkel:
I'm also thankful today for my dad being healthy enough to stay over night for Stake Conference weekend. We are having dinner and ice cream and thinking of you!

Rexburg

I decided to go and visited Tricia in Rexburg this last weekend. She’s gone back to school to get a bachelor’s degree in Recreational Management. The classes are hard but interesting and I always thought that was a good sign that you are moving in the right direction. Speaking of moving, we sure got a lot done in the 24 hours I was there! Friday night we went to Guitars Unplugged. There is just something about live music that always makes you want to move. I thought it was fabulous and we had a great time clapping along the different bands and cheering for our favorites. There was this really weird duo where they were dressed in tie-dye shirts and head bands. One guy had bells on his ankle, but he had this really rough voice and they gave an AWE-SOME performance! Later we went out to dinner at Craigo’s. Neither of us had been there before and we had heard some great things about it. Mostly we were punch drunk, winky, and high on adrenaline, so the 50 self-portrait shots kind of gave us away, but were totally fun :). Saturday we went to the Rexburg temple for a session. It was really great to go with Tricia and she had a couple of really profound insights that we got to talk about afterwards. While the theme of the Twin Falls temple is the Syringa, the Idaho state flower, the theme of the temple in Rexburg is wheat and you can see it everywhere in the exterior of the temple, the windows, and in the art and gold leaf inside the temple. SUCH a pretty temple! Thanks for the great weekend, Tricia! You sure know how to show a girl a good time :).

(temple with wheat picture borrowed from newspaper)

It's autumn time

This last weekend we got to go to the temple with Tricia, so all the family came up. On Saturday we had a lazy morning followed by a trip to the pumpkin patch near Paul. I love visiting the pumpkin patch for the pumpkins of course, but there are also so many great photo ops! Afterward, we stopped for lunch at Stevo's. We were chatting and eating and laughing at the little boys and having a general good time that the afternoon just really sped by.

Chris and I had to really hustle to get home and get changed to be to the temple for the 3:30 session. We made good time though and I took a few minutes for some pictures of the Twin Falls temple. It really is a beautiful temple and it was wonderful to walk around the grounds and feel the specialness of the day. After the session, everyone else joined us for a few pictures and then for dinner at Maxi's. All in all, a marvelous day!

General Conference Weekend

You know how I was trying to think of great things about the fall? General Conference! Duh :). At my favorite website http://www.sugardoodle.net/ I found a great activity packet and I also went shopping for General Conference Fairy treats. I found a few things on sale that I think sound good: hot cider, peanuts, grapes, zingers, goldfish (this one kind of cracks me up because it reminds me of snacks for kids for sacrament meeting!), chips snack size, carrots, popcorn, and dried fruit. Sounds tasty!

Chris is typing up recipes and I'm working on some digital scrapbooking while watching conference with our treats from the General Conference Fairy. We've been going it awhile... please ignore the mess :).

Saturday night Lisa, Chris and I took Josh and some neighbor girls to visit the Haunted House at Albion Campus Grove and tour the buildings of the old Albion Normal College. The buildings have been in disrepair for over thirty years and when I was in high school that was the place to go on a dare or for some ghost hunting. It’s about time they made it into a haunted house.

They have two showings: the first is kid friendly for only $5 and then later the scarier version for $15. When we got there it must have been a slow night because they let us in for free because they hadn’t staffed any of the buildings. Maybe walking through old, musty, decrepit building in the dark isn’t that scary for some but I can hardly keep my balance on well-lit flat surfaces!

The best part was that they didn’t charge us because they had to give us the nickel tour, so we had money for the snack bar later. The neighbor girls got these GIGANTIC hot chocolates and a foot long hotdog and nachos and then Chris and I split a fresh scone with the most delicious honey butter!

They were getting ready for the scary late night version, so we got to see a bunch of the kids wandering around with their costumes: creepy makeup and freaky eye contacts and cool costumes. We met some hilarious boys dressed in straight jackets and Lisa joked about them being fraternal twins. So one turns to the other and tells him, Dude, that means you’re the girl… because apparently fraternal twins only come in boy/girl combinations :).

Sunday Morning. Wasn't it summer just last week?!