Thanksgiving in St. Louis

We were crazy enough to make the 14 hour drive from Raleigh to St. Louis to visit my older brother and his family who just moved there from Oklahoma.  My parents, sister, and grandma met us there. To break of the drive we stayed at a hotel and had a swimming party- a little bribery goes a long way... 

Carrie was the life of the party in the eyes of the kids.  She taught them how to play her ukulele (of course after an AMAZING performance herself- TALENT!!!)

Carrie's moto...

She even took naps with my kids...

As you can see Ashlyn idolizes her aunt, thus the matching clothes.

And is the baby whisperer...

Ashlyn never complained when Carrie did her hair- you can see why...

The kids loved playing together, Mr. Mouth was a big hit with the little ones...

 And phase 10 got played endlessly, especially by Morgan and Dylan...

And 5 month old baby Meg was a MAJOR hit with my kids.  They argued over who got to hold her.  Corbin would have taken her home if he could have...

 Then we went down town to go to the Gateway Arch...

We enjoyed the museum and learned a lot...

Waiting to go up in the arch...

In our pods...

All of us at the top...

 Looking at the city below on one side and the river and barges on the other...

And of course our 14 hour drive home we had to spice it up with some treats...

 Wishing you had a wonderful and meaningful Thanksgiving!  We are so grateful we had the chance to see family!  (and much, much more of course)

Dylan's Baptism

Dylan Connor Thompson, my first born child, was baptized Saturday, March 3rd. I was proud yet so humbled by this wonderful experience. I am amazed that the outstanding young man Dylan has become.

Dylan was baptized by his Dad, and both his Grandfathers were there to be whiteness and to stand in the circle when he received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We really are proud parents, can't you tell?Even Cami, Connor's sister came down from Cleveland to attend the baptism. All these wonderful people made this day even more special...

We of course had to enjoy the time we had with family in town. We ditched school and wen to the children's museum to make pizza...
And be pirates...
We went to Pullen Park to climb like monkeys...
And pretend to be part of the Swiss family Robinsons. Okay so we really road the carousel till we got sick (well, just Connor)...
And we sailed like captains...
And road like... well, just passengers...
My parents brought with them a lamp my grandfather brought home from Japan, I'm in love...
Of course we had to take advantage of Papa Steve's handy-man skills. Since Corbin is attached to Papa Steve's hip he became quite a good little helper. He put in two new electrical outlets, fixed our stair railing (once and for all), fixed a few drafty windows, re-caulked a shower... And Hung a swing from the deck...
And of course we played hard...
We love and miss you all already! Come back soon!

Visitors

Almost a month ago we were lucky enough to get not just one visitor but many. Connor's parents came to see us after they saw Connor's sister in Ohio. My brother, Nate, and his family of 6 also came. We had so much fun throwing our regular routine out the window and playing!

We really enjoyed have Nini and Poger all to ourselves (instead of sharing them with 45 other people.) Poger read to all the kids (Ashlyn didn't make it out awake)...Nini and Kamryn played dolls...
Corbin enjoyed sitting and listening to Nini play the piano (for a really long time!)...
We played a round of miniature golf. We had the course to ourselves. Corbin thought it was a race track...We took both of our guests on our new trail. On this particular day we caught all sorts of bugs ( I don't know if any of them made it out alive)...
We went to the Science museum in Durham (one of our favorite places)...
We saw all the bugs, all the dinosaurs, steered the remote control sailboats...
Dug for any sort of treasure at all (which I found later in my dryer)...
We watched all the snakes get fed mice (or gold fish- not the cracker kind!) We then pet a baby alligator...
We had to take them to experience "the farm." They especially loved the corn pit...

And the slide...The hayride wasfun too...

Thanks to Nate's engineering we no longer have any balls in our entry way chandelier (it was quite the exciting moment)! Hurray! I thought they were going to melt there before they would be rescued.

Thank you for taking the time to come see us!

Blast from the past

Another great picture from the past, Me and my two brothers...Corbin and Kamryn reliving the hawaiian blue matching outfits...I have a picture with Dylan and Ashlyn in them too. Can't find it of course. If you missed the last matching outfit post click here

What WE do in Colorado

While most of the travelers at the airport were checking skis, we were checking bags full marshmallow guns and diapers. While all of those travelers were on the slopes we were...

Bowling...

Off roading...

Eating...

(LOTS of yummy eating. And yes, this was a common scene- the kids were stuck to Jameson like glue.)

Horse riding...

(If Ashlyn had her way she would be on them twice a day.)

"Adventuring" with the famous tracker, Uncle Nathan...

Sleeping like deer...

Finding a buck in the backyard...

Listening to Tutu read stories...

Visiting the frog exhibit at the Wildlife Experience Museum...

Swinging like a monkey for hours...

Rock climbing in the basement...

Learning belaying rules from Papa Steve...

Watching 9 great-grandchildren fall in love with their Gigi...

Confining our children to jail when the were ornery...

Okay, so it was really for joy and entertainment in a swing...

Building human towers...

By gender...

Finding lots of these two cuddling...

Let's not forget...

• Christmas morning (Since it is Carianne's favorite Holiday)

• And the photo shoot with 18 people (9 of those 7 and under)
• Running
• Late night adult game time

• And a night at the temple while two teenage babysitters watching all 9 kids (whom they had never met.) We felt very guilty upon hearing that all three babies cried the entire time we were gone. However, being in the temple all together was worth it.

And this is how we felt after doing all of these things in one short week...

(Ashlyn fell asleep while waiting for me to come out of the bathroom.)