Thanksgiving with Ashley and Will!

This Last week was a good one!  They always are when there is no school, a holiday, and we have visitors!  Monday was the first day off from school.  Alan and Jared went early in the morning (6:00) to help some people build a shed.  Alan had gone on Saturday, but they still needed more help.  Alan said the missionaries were there too and a couple of guys the guy they were helping found on the street.  They got the shed just about done, just some trim pieces were left when Alan had to leave to get to work.  Jared said he had fun there helping hold pieces in place and getting to screw some things in and then getting to play inside.  Here at home on Monday we mostly just played and tried to clean some things up.  I think Jared also had 2 baths and 2 showers.  It was a nice relaxing day.  We went and played at the park for a little while and then on the way home stopped at the store to get a second turkey from Albertsons.  If you spent 25 dollars there was a coupon to get a turkey for 49 cents a pound.

Tuesday I had to go to a doctors appointment around lunch time.  These guys packed a lunch and went and played at a friend's house.  The baby is still head down and everything looks good.  She asked me about when I might want to schedule an induction for and gave me some options.  They will let me go up to 10 days over before they say I have to be induced.  I'm still trying to decide...between Friday and Monday.  They both have some good things about them.  When we got home I ate a quick lunch and then we had to go to the store to do the rest of our Thanksgiving shopping at Food 4 Less.  After putting most of the food away we went and played at another park until it got dark.

Wednesday we went to the library in the morning.  They were doing a little workshop there about getting kids ready to read. (They had been doing them all month, but we always went to playgroup instead.  Playgroup was canceled last week)  The focus of the day was math and science.  They had tubs of water and a few things to put in to see if they sink or float.  These guys had a fun time with it.  At the end they all got to pick a free book...which they all loved.  We played outside for a while after lunch.  Then we had to come in and finish cleaning up and start making food for Thanksgiving!  I made apple, pear, walnut, pumpkin, and chocolate pie and stuffing and cranberry relish Wednesday night.  Ashley made a pumpkin and apple pies and brought them too.  Ashley and Will arrived just before I was going to go to bed.  We were glad they got here safely.

Thursday was Thanksgiving!  We got up and started watching a parade from last year online, but then decided to go to our ward's turkey bowl.  Everyone one wanted to go and I tagged along.  It was fun and a really nice morning.  There were lots of kids there to play together while their dads played flag football.  We were there for a couple of hours.  Then we hurried home to put the turkey in the oven.  While it was cooking I got everything else ready to go in the oven when it was done.  We had green bean casserole, broccoli and cauliflower bake, creamed corn, rolls, candied yams, mashed potatoes and a relish tray and punch.  Will and Jared were good potato peelers and Ashley and Lauren made a great relish tray.  While I was making food Ashley and Will entertained everyone else with making pie turkeys, sugar cone tee pees, and cookie turkeys.  Ashley had also brought some fun coloring pages for these guys to work on.  We also skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Schachterle, Brett, Scott, Bethany, Lily, Maggie, and Ester.  We were finally all ready to eat about 5:30.  It was a little late and we were all starving! (It would have been about the time I was planning on if I hadn't gone to the turkey bowl...oh well.)  We ate and ate and ate.  After dinner Ash brought a Thanksgiving madlib for us to fill in.  We did it several times and then had to print off some other ones.  Then we all tried to cram in some pie.  It was a really fun good day.  We all have so much to be thankful for!

I guess we forgot to take a picture of all of us stuffing ourselves...but we did.  To look at the food leftover you wouldn't be able to tell.

Friday we had to sleep off our turkey dinner and had a nice slow morning.  Will and Ashley tag teamed a game of Monopoly against Jared and there were several other games played and puzzles done.  It was a rainy morning too.  We decided we should go somewhere so we went and walked along the pier in Oceanside.  We hadn't been there yet.  It was fun to go see people surfing, the pelicans, and dolphins, and all the other fun things.  Ashley and Will left to go up to LA for the evening to see the Lion King and we just got more done around our house...or tried.  We were outside for just a few minutes with our front door open and when we came back in Jared spotted a humming bird inside our house.  He was flying up at the very top of the stairs.  Alan got a pole and the humming bird would land on it then Alan would walk slowly down the stairs.  Several times he got to within 5 feet or so of the door and the humming bird would fly off and back up to the top of the stairs.  He tried this several times...5 or 6.  Then Jared had the idea to use the wire hanger from his kite from Halloween.  Alan tried the hanger and he got the bird out on the first try.  It was an adventure that Connor slept through.  Friday night we watched Annie.  Ashley and Will came back and slept at our house after the show.  I remember waking up to our squeaky door opening when they got home, but I don't remember what time it was.

Rereading the madlibs from the night before and having relish tray leftovers for breakfast...peanut butter stuffed celery and carrots.

Saturday morning Jared played Monopoly again with Ash and Will.  Alan fixed a cabinet in the garage with Will's help.  It didn't take long, but he needed someone...besides me to help him just a bit.  In the afternoon we tried to go see surfin' Santa arrive, but we weren't really sure what to expect there.  He was coming by jet pack, but we got a little lost on the way and got there a little late and missed the big entry.  We still got to see Santa, but didn't want to wait in the line to get a close picture with him.  It was at a little group of shops in downtown called Seaport Village.  We walked through a few shops and they got to make a jelly fish Chirstmas Tree ornament and have a ride on a Carousel.  I don't know if any of them have ever gotten to ride a carousel.  The ones who rode had a great time!  Bradley really didn't want to ride, so we didn't make him.  Connor loved it, but he kind of death gripped the horse the whole time.  Then we went over to Balboa Park and walked around.   We saw some fun decorations and just kind of what there was to see around there.  We didn't see all of it, but it was fun to see what there was.  Then on the way home we stopped by the Temple.  The lights are on and there are a couple nativities around grounds.  This weekend and next weekend they are having some special choir presentations.  We timed it to get there to see one of the choirs sing.  Then we came home and had leftovers for the second time.

Today was a good day....a hot day!  I got to teach primary again.  We had a good lesson talking about faith and pioneers.  After church Ash and Will hurried home and packed up their car.  We pulled out the leftovers so they could have a good lunch before they left.  We were sad to have to say bye to Ashley and Will.  I am really glad they came to visit us for Thanksgiving.  We have always been blessed to have family to Celebrate Thanksgiving with.  Also like I told Alan it doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving (on Wednesday morning).  The weather just doesn't seem like it and we weren't with family.  Then after spending most of the evening in the kitchen and having Ashley and Will get there it seemed more like Thanksgiving.  We ate lunch after they left and now everyone is working on stations.  It was a good week!  We are looking forward to more exciting things this week...hopefully a baby! and more Celebrating for Christmas!