Thanksgiving.... remember that day?

I still remember Thanksgiving last year, so I thought I should still post about it. :)

Through the wonderful technology of facebook, my Aunt Sharleen (my dad's sister) and I have come in contact again.  It had been years since I'd seen her, but she invited my family over for Thanksgiving!  What a treat!  She lives north of us just over two hours away in Washington. 

What a fun couple days we had.... Parker's birthday party was literally the night before.  After the kids went to bed that Wednesday night, I stayed up way too late again and made pumpkin pies and rolls for our dinner.



***Josh had JUST put his pajamas on, right before I requested we take a picture....
he was wearing very fine clothes.... so were the boys.



We left our house in the morning, and arrived at hers before lunch.  We had a wonderful time.  It was like total relaxation time... all the time.  Sharleen is such a kind and giving and loving woman, and her husband, Allen is equally just a great man.  She didn't really let me help with dinner.  I asked a lot, but she just wanted to treat me to doing nothing.  HOW NICE!!! 

The boys played with some toys they had and ran in circles, and had such an interesting time with Gretchen.

Gretchen is the dog you see here!  She is a big dog!  Parker LOVED the dog so much, it was kind of an issue.  If we didn't stop him, he would have cuddled the girl to death, and she was a little nervous about a squeaking baby. 

Cohen on the other hand thinks he loves dogs, but in actuality is terrified of them.  By the end of our full 24 hour visit he had warmed up to Gretchen entirely, but at first he wouldn't even stand in the same room if the dog was loose.  In the dogs defence, she was a very well behaved and good natured Doberman pincer.

Sharleen and Allen have two sons, Levi and Nathan.  Nathan, who is about my same age, came down for Thanksgiving for the festivities.

Sharleen and Allen live in a beautiful house overlooking the Puget Sound.  The back of their house is almost entirely windows, and for good reason.  It's a glorious view.  I didn't know I was getting into a dream vacation when I accepted her invitation to dinner!

 Sweet Daddy and Parker enjoying the view.

Sharleen had an ipad with a couple kid things on it.  Cohen loved a little game that practices spelling and moving letter blocks.  Sharleen was so sweet to let Cohen play.

Thanks Aunt Sharleen!