Bus-Day

Our ultimate bus pig-out day was today. It is one of my favorite family tradition. It is basically a progressive dinner that goes all day long with my mom's side of the family. Eating all day long is sure a great plan for my pregnant self! Alright, we do go a little overboard but everything is so delicious! My mom drives the bus and we go to a bunch of different family member's homes for a food and sometimes an activity. We had six stops on the agenda one of which was our house. We start in the morning by meeting at the bus yard and hopping on the bus. Charlie was pretty excited about the freedom of being unbuckled on the bus. His freedom quickly led him to believe he was entitled to walk around and climb on the bus seats. We didn't really let him but I thought that was interesting. Anyway, with everyone on the bus we left for our first stop at my Aunt Deanna and Uncle Bryan's house where we ate Cinnabons and hot cocoa...not exactly the breakfast of champions but oh so delicious! For the first couple of pictures, I forgot my camera was on a certain setting so they all look kind of blue...whoops 

Charlie was certain that his place was in the driver's seat. He couldn't walk by without trying to climb up and drive!

Kim and Chloe

 Gwenevere and Lexi were pretty cute together.

Dishing up our cinnabons!

Max and Everett gad some chillin' on the couch time. 

This little guy is just so cute!

Charlie was checking out Everett!

My handsome Russian (but actually German)  man! 

Charlie got another driving turn before we left for our next stop!

 We then went to My Aunt Cindy and Uncle Doug's house for a delicious breakfast casserole and to play Christmas songs with the bells.

But of course before getting out off the bus, Charlie had to drive it again, this time Grandma helped him!

One of Charlie's favorite parts of the day was all the new things he could explore. He loved seeing all the different toys at each of the houses. He got particularly excited when Aunt Cindy pulled out the bells for the Christmas music.

This boy is just so handsome that I couldn't stop taking pictures of him.

Then we tried out some Christmas Bells, this was our first year with the new bells so we had a little bit to learn. 

 The kids loved it. there was a whole lot of extra noise with all the little kids having their own bell but it was still fun.

Mr. Kaden just woke up and would only make this face. It was so funny!

 Then we found a whole bunch of the kids were sitting in the hall playing with toys and then I realized that the adults were all playing with the bells, enjoying the time without all the extra noise provided by the young children.

 Max and Charlie took a very brief trampoline break before loading back up on the bus

 On the road to the next house, Uncle Jay and Aunt Natalie's house, Charlie decided to he was tired enough to sleep.

He fell asleep biting his lip. 

So then I go to the back of the bus where my 16 (almost 17) year old brother is sitting. I figured he was a teenager up to no good or at least playing on his phone or something...but what do I realize.? He was knitting. It made me laugh so hard that my baby brother was sitting in the back of the bus knitting. He's just cool like that!

 Then Max fell asleep with his baby boy.

 When we got to the next stop we were able to assemble all 42 of us to get a picture in front of the bus. It was kind of an exciting moment. This was the biggest group yet!

We then ate pulled pork sandwiches at Jay and Natalie's house in Vancouver.

This handsome cousin, Aaron, was fascinated with this elf hat dancing on his head!

 Charlie seriously loved seeing all the new toys that he doesn't get to see very often. He wanted to explore everything!

We then ventured to our house and packed our little living room and kitchen while Aunt Val read a Christmas story to the kids.  

We snacked on fruits and veggies at our house.  

We then went to my mom's house for soup and I apparently stopped taking pictures. From here we actually had to leave so we had to do some fancy planning to get our car picked up so we could get to our church's  Christmas party. We would have probably just skipped our church party but we had really wanted to invite Max's river Grandma and the church party was a beautiful presentation of the nativity with a dinner. It is one of those times where it helps us to re-focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and we knew that grandma Annette would enjoy it. Because we left early, we missed the last stop at my Red Grandma's house where they did the pinata which was kind of a bummer but we are glad we were able to spend time with Annette too. 

Anyway, this is an absolute favorite tradition among our family members. We've been doing it on the bus for 15 years and before that we just took cars. It started so we would have a chance to see every ones Christmas decorations and it has become something we look forward to every year. I've only missed one year while on my mission. 

OMSI again

We went on another OMSI adventure and this time I put the battery in my camera so I was able to take pictures. First of all, this was a great outing because we went right when it opened and it was a ghost town, I wondered why we hadn't done this in the past then I remembered it was because Charlie and I like to sleep in. Lucky for me, I guess, that Charlie woke up early so we were able to get there early, before the field trips hit.

The Earth science room was empty. We were the only ones there so Charlie had a blast running from buttons to levers to games and back again. And here are some pictures of that....

One of his favorite things is to make wave energy!

And wind energy!

It was so empty...here Charlie is sorting the garbage and recycling, which is one of his favorite chores at home. (Okay, it's probably his only chore) 

Food pinball!

He was fascinated with the historical artifacts!

We made some towers and knocked them over. 

Ran (climbed) on the treadmill

Biking

Thanks to OMSI, Charlie will always know what this old contraption is.  

Peace on Earth!

We then went into the little kid's science playground which was a lot busier but Charlie still had fun running around between everything.

His favorite is the water exhibit and he never cares how wet he gets. 

Before leaving we took a bathroom break for a diaper change, we liked this enlightening quote on the wall!

 Charlie had fun at the little sink doing "Magic" to turn it on.

Anyway, it was a successful trip. I love when Charlie can run around freely and explore, I know it is good for him to learn to share and take turns with other kids but sometimes, when he is the only one playing, it is relaxing for me to take a break from being the sharing police!

And he was so worn out that he was asleep before we left the parking lot, and it was only noon, Success!

Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving celebrations were pretty spastic and I think the pictures that I ended up taking reflect that well.
The morning started nice and slow, Max was off of work and Charlie slept in so that meant we all got to sleep in, always a pleasure!
Then the busy day started...
We of course wanted to get together and at least say hi to all our family members in the area which is a lot. We planned to have dinner and pie at my Red Grandmas. Traditionally we have pie first, around 1 pm. That way, we definitely have room for it.  So we got to my Grandma's around 2 and ate some pie. It would still be a couple hours before dinner was ready so we jumped in the car to drop Justin off at Max's parent's house and wish them a happy Thanksgiving. We then scurried on over to my Green Grandma's house to say hi. I especially wanted to stop by here because some cousins were there that we don't get to see very often.

This is when I remembered I had a camera...
We woke Charlie up from his car seat nap and went inside to have a quick visit before they started their Turkey dinner there.

 My cousin Andrew has 5 sisters so he always gets super excited to play with Charlie

My youngest cousin, Catherine. I think she is about 18 months and she was still tiny last time I saw her!

When they were all sitting down to dinner we left to go back to my Red Grandma's for dinner. The tables were just being set and the food was ready. We kinda felt lame because we didn't prepare any food (there was already too much anyway) and he didn't help with any prep. We just showed up and ate. Some day I'll be a grown up and take more responsibility.

We were able to stay and play for awhile after dinner which was nice. Charlie had some fun times with his second cousins and all of Grandma's many fun toys.  

Charlie and Evan played Grandma's organ together 

After it got late we headed home, picking up Justin on our way.

The next day Max had to go to work for a little bit, he luckily got a decent raise at work so he has enjoyed spending more hours there. When he got home we made some plans to do some Black Friday shopping! We may have gone a little more overboard than usual, needless to say, I'm writing this blog on a new laptop. We also got a new vacuum because our old cheap one officially died. Anyway, new stuff is always exciting. This also means that we already got our Christmas presents. haha!

The next day (Saturday) we had a Thanksgiving celebration at Max's uncle Jay's house with that side of the family.

Thanks to some amazing organization (thank you Lisa) we had a very filling meal. Charlie had a blast with his cousins even though they are a bit older than him.

I think Auntie Lisa taught him this cheesy face because he kept doing it after she had taken a bunch of pictures of him!

Shadow. I think this weight bench was the favorite toy for all the kids. Oh the home of a bachelor. 

 And that is my baby belly at 22.5 weeks. Also, this is Charlie's old bedroom!

Jordan and Mitch

Mitch and Grandma...and Charlie falling down the stairs

I saved him!

Max and his mom. 

Alright, that was the extent of it, we got away with only two full meals when I'm sure we could have had more. We really do have so much to be Thankful for. Even though it is such a busy time of year, it is truly wonderful that we are able to see so many family members and that Charlie can really know his cousins and second cousins while growing up. We are blessed.