2017 Thanksgiving in Oregon was pretty epic. It started with a text feed and Jeremy's family joking about flying back for Thanksgiving. Within a few hours it wasn't a joke and their family had booked ticked homes. Not long after that Justin's family also emailed us their flight plans to come home too. Justin's family stayed with us, at their house, of course, and Jeremy's family stayed with Grandma and Grandpa just across the backyard. So the week was filled with a lot of family time! There was never a dull moment. The kids were in cousin heaven and all enjoyed having everyone back together! They did a great job of entertaining themselves going back and forth between houses. We were able to celebrate Max's birthday who, lucky for us, was ordained and set apart to the office of a deacon and received the priesthood while they were in town! And if that wasn't enough of a treat, Conrad was blessed the same day! It was family heaven for sure! So much love happening and feeling the spirit while watching the plan of salvation in action!
The weather didn't cooperate very well for us, it was the worst weather we had the entire time we were in Portland. It poured and poured and the wind blew. It forced us all inside which was okay for the most part, we played lot of games, spoons, 13 and tenzie, but a few times we ventured out for a change of scenery. One day nearly all of us went to a movie, taking up the entire two back rows. It was pretty awesome to do that together, but goes to show how large our family has gotten! I thought I would take Lola, which proved to be rather challenging. I'll wait a year or two before we try that again. Another excursion we went on was to a trampoline place. My kids had never done that before, but just like all kids, had a blast! I always love watching Brewer have a blast doing things that are physically demanding. It makes my heart happy! The kids ran around and jumped all their energy out (or that was our goal) and the adults sat around and chatted.
Catching up with my siblings (that means all the adults) was probably my favorite activity. Everyone has so much love for each other and supports one another that it's easy to have fun conversations as well as meaningful ones. It's all very natural and we feel very lucky to have such great bonds between one another. We loved hearing about how everyone was liking their new, but temporary homes in Arizona and Costa Rica and about the experiences they were having. We stayed up way too late every night trying to get all the time in that we could! Our chats were so great that even Justin would stay up until 1:30 AM, which if you know him, is unbelievable. In fact, if I hadn't been there myself, I wouldn't believe it. I't was a fun time joking, fantasizing about living on a compound with everyone and coming up with all sorts of crazy plans! Here's to the holidays and bringing family together, this time from all over the world!
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