Thanksgiving 2015

We spent a week in Fresno for Thanksgiving.  Almost all of our Freeman Family was there which made for a week long giant party.  We did a lot of fun things all together too.  We went to Grandma and Grandmpa's cabin where we cooked over the fire and went "California" Sledding.  We went to a trampoline park with all our cousins for Family Night, and we spent the day at the zoo face to face with all kinds of animals.
Trips are always really stressful for me.  Marianne was just recovering from Pnemonia when we went and I'm always so sure one of the kids are going to need medical attention and it will be difficult to obtain away from our home.  Partially because that has happened before, but mostly because our family rarely goes a week without needing medical attention.  The stars really aligned, and all four kids were completely healthy the entire time.  And did not come home with anything new.  That alone makes my trip a success.
We made the drive a bit easier because we stayed at my parents in St. George both there and on the way back.  Which meant we didn't have to drive through the night.
There we tons and tons and tons of kids everywhere running around.  Just the way I think kids want to be, running free with a million cousins.
Sam spent a heavty amount of time wrestling older cousins on the trampoline.  So much so that a few days in, I was helping him dress for bed and found large welts and bruises all over his body.  He didn't mind one bit.
Kate has it ideal when we are with cousins- the majority of the cousins are girls two years younger to two years older than she is.  She came home obsessed with iPhones because of some of these cousins :)
Marianne and Beth have fewer cousins to play with, but there are still some.  They loved the large gangs of children roaming freely especially when they got to play too.
Often we don't do much when we go to fresno because we just drove to get there, but with a week we were able to go and do lots of fun things that I mentioned before.
The kids always have a wonderful time with all their cousins, but they are not the only ones who enjoy good company.  Lucky for me, and Jake, his siblings and their spouses comprise many of our favorite people.  We played games and talked all day.
The Thanksgiving meal was lovingly prepared by Doris, other contributed pieces and it was all delicious.  We played some games with the kids to do with Thanksgiving.  Marianne stated she was grateful for her blankie and me and pickles :)
I even snuck out late that night with my sister in law to do some Black Friday Shopping- which was my first and very successful Black Friday Shopping.  I hid most of Christmas in the car on the way home.