A Southern Thanksgiving

In early November the whole family made a trip to see my brother and his family in Georgia to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. We had such a good visit, complete with a feast and family pictures and plenty of play time for the kids. The pictures are slightly out of order and I am having technical difficulties and running short on time :(
 
Ima and Pops, that looks like a lot of space over there at the Waffle House counter!



I think Grant is actually the only one asleep in this picture. This was before dinner! We were slightly delayed due to family pictures but the in-laws (Sara and Brandon) have come to expect late dinners with the Hellers!
This is the guys playing "do you know how to do this with your phone?" and the girls in their matching tea cup pj's!

Elizabeth and Grant absolutely dote on Megan!

Because David likes to give us cultural experiences we all went to the Waffle House for breakfast. 

The look on the lady's face when we said "there are 9 of us" was priceless.  I think she said something like "We don't have tables that big" and walked away! Ima and Pops sat at the counter and the rest piled into what would normally be a 2 person booth, but because we all really like each other it was not a problem at all!

Apparently you don't cook Thanksgiving dinner with a shirt on in Georgia - oh wait that's just David being David. And I have a son who doesn't really like to wear pants - perhaps this runs in the family. I promise the rest of the girls kept their tops on!

Doesn't everyone eat Thanksgiving dinner at 9:00 pm? Poor Megan missed the turkey!

The feast is finally ready!

A Few Home Improvements

Occasionally I get the itch to change a few things in the house. My latest ideas included stenciling a wall in the foyer and refreshing the powder room. The stencils that we used in EB's room were expensive and it was quite the project - cost someone a broken rib! I really wanted to see if I could do this on my own, but my mom offered to help which saved a lot of trips up and down a ladder! I used a $10 stencil and was really pleased with how it turned out and although it took some time it wasn't hard.

Onto the powder room. I picked a new paint color, Lincoln's Cottage, which is basically black. I don't know how but somehow the room actually looks bigger! Brandon and my dad installed a new vanity and and my parent's surprised us and hung crown molding while we were gone! And I have my new favorite piece of artwork, the cow. She doesn't have a name, I just affectionally call her, my cow. As I described to my sister-in-law, if the house was on fire and the people were all safe and I had time - I'm grabbing my cow!

You have to see it in person to truly appreciate it!

Fall Fun

After commenting on the kids schoolwork I have now been corrected several times that we call them Native Americans and not Indians. In the spirit in embracing this political correctness, we are having quite the Native American Summer!! This has been such a warm fall. One day the kids actually went to school mad because they I wouldn't let them wear jeans and their new boots - the forecast was a high of 80! But all of this warm weather has afforded us extra outdoor time and fresh air is good for all of us!

First, the Campbell's were home for their fall visit. As we were driving in the country and discussing the fields and the crops (making sure the kids know where and how stuff grows!) my sister in law said it best "you just can't do fall like this in Arizona!" We were both a little misty eyed soaking in everything midwest, while we were all singing along to the new Train song (Play That Song - I dare you not to get it stuck in your head!) and if you haven't heard all 6 of sing you should just ask Brandon what an enjoyable experience that is. I am guessing he would put it right up there with the kids playing baby or dog! Stella and Elizabeth were excited because they got to do art class together. The boys got a special surprise while the girls were at art - we stumbled upon the Weiner Mobile!

Yes the girls painted that by themselves! 

We tried a new farm this year and even completed the corn maze. To be perfectly honest, I am not sure we hit all of the check points, but we made it out with all 4 kids still smiling and no blood or tears so we count that as a success! As if this fall activity wasn't enough we then headed to the farm to harvest with Pops.

Corn angels - he had corn everywhere!

And as an added bonus for me Uncle David was there!!

The pictures don't do it justice. A full moon followed a perfect sunset with all of the corn dust in the air! Everyone got to ride with Pops and we took home 4 very tired kiddos.

Not exactly xmas card material here - thanks for smiling Grant!

The next day was soccer and Aunt Becky and Uncle Darrell's fall bonfire.  The kid's favorite part of the fall bonfire at Uncle Darrell's is the the spooky walk that Jake and Darrell take them on in the woods. However, Uncle Darrell wasn't there this year so Amber and I went to help supervise. And of course it is always fun when the moms scream louder than the kids - which we did!

Every weekend I think this will be the last warm one and then we get another one! Since we are going to be out of town the next two weekends and I know this heat wave surely can't last forever, I convinced Clark to hang xmas lights outside! I know the neighbors thought we were crazy but to hang lights without coats and gloves was awesome. I promised the mayor we wouldn't turn them on until after Thanksgiving!

Halloween

I think I have set a new record for taking the fewest amount of Halloween pictures! Ima gets all costume credit again this year. (Thank you Mom!) Elizabeth wanted to be a witch, but a good witch. She picked the fabric and Ima sewed up a storm to make her a pink/purple good witch! Grant had a very difficult time deciding what to be. We finally narrowed it to two and since they were both pretty simple we agreed that he could have two costumes this year! Grant was a fisherman or a scuba diver. I can take credit for spray painting his air tanks but getting them in backpack form was all Ima! We did the indoor trick or treating at the high school (he choose to be a fisherman) and then they had their costume parade at school (again the fisherman) and then Halloween night Scuba Grant made his debut. His costume got a lot of compliments, while Elizabeth was commonly mistook for a princess, a fairy godmother or something else! At one point I whispered to Brandon "no one knows what she is" to which he replied "hell I didn't even know what she was!" She was a beautiful good witch and she was proud and that is all that mattered. We were able to trick or treat for an hour and a half with no coats, no gloves, no umbrellas - just very heavy candy bags! I stopped on the sidewalk about an hour in and asked everyone to take a moment to reflect on the best Halloween night we have ever had! No one really stopped, it was really more just me talking aloud hoping they were listening! I mean c'mon there were doorbells to ring!

We sorted candy into lots of different piles!

First stop on Halloween was giving out full size candy bars! 

It was a little breezy at the school parade!

Pumpkins carved after an Illinois game

Fisherman Grant at the school parade

Boo Bash

She got her full size candy bar too!

With the master seamstress!

Australia

I recently had the opportunity to visit the family who moved to Australia in the spring. This trip was made possible by Brandon and my Mom stepping in help out with the little chiefs in my absence! I was gone from a Tuesday to a Tuesday which was a full week for my family, but for me it was more like 5 days with all of the time traveling!

I was a little apprehensive about the flight and doing it by myself, but I really miss my friend and I knew I had the ability I just needed to put my girl panties on! My itinerary had me flying out of Chicago to LA, then LA to Sydney, Sydney to Brisbane. In the time leading up to my trip some nights I would lay awake and be nervous that no one would talk to me and then other times I would worry that someone wouldn't stop talking to me on the plane. As luck would have it I had a good mix of all! The flight from LA to Sydney is the long one...14-15 hours...go ahead and make it 16 because we sat on the plane for an hour before we took off, but who is counting?! For a brief moment I thought I lucked out and was going to have an open seat next to me, but he came back and I failed to get the armrest back down - rookie mistake. I know it sounds ridiculous to say that 15 hour flight went fast, but really it was fine. I watched a lot of movies, ate two meals and a snack, slept and only got up twice. I did wake up once and saw the flight map and it was only blue water and had a brief moment of panic, but what was I going to do...so I went back to sleep! I got through customs in Sydney and transferred over to the domestic terminal for my last flight and all was good - I even felt pretty good. And then I was reunited with my friend and I knew it was all worth it just for that moment.


I had told her I was fine sitting on the couch all day just chatting but she was determined to give me the full Brisbane experience and we still had all the time we needed to chat! We had lunch on Oxford street at a perfect little cafe. I got to pick the boys up from school and see where they spend their days. They took me to their favorite restaurant that night for dinner and by 8pm I was ready for bed!

The next day we took the City Cat (boat) into the city. We started with a walk in the Botanical Gardens. We stopped at a cafe to grab a drink and then we noticed comfy chairs calling our name and when we walked up to them and sat down we had an awesome view of the city. We sat there for a long time trying to solve a few of the world's problems! It was perfect and perfectly surreal...I was in Australia...with Jessica...it was a pinch me moment. We toured more of the city, shopped (Queen Street), had lunch (lemon lime bitters), went to South Bank, had a coffee and decided we probably had to go home to the boys! That evening we went to Eat Street which is like a food carnival but they use old shipping cartons/boxes as the food stand. It was a really fun experience. In case you are wondering what Sweden named their candy of the year, it was a raspberry salted licorice and none of us liked it!

Eat Street

Saturday morning we went to one of the boy's baseball games and then headed to the beach, Mooloolaba to be exact - try saying that 5 times fast! It wasn't the greatest beach day but it was still a lot of fun and great people watching. We finished the drive home with a trip to Costco (yep, even in Australia!) and a quiet dinner at home. I did manage to stay awake past 8pm that night.

Sunday was golf lessons for the boys and koala and kangaroo day. We think a lot of tour buses had been thought that morning because the kangaroos were not hungry! In fact they just seemed lazy! We had to work hard to get a picture of one standing up! I did manage to feed a few, but mainly just petted them because they were in relaxation mode! I did get a video of one hopping across so I can prove that they did move! I could have watched the koalas all day. Yes they do sleep the majority of the time (on average 22 hours a day) but they are so cute! We even saw some baby koalas! When it was my turn to hold one they gave me a little one but she wouldn't turn it's head for the camera and they only allow them so much time in the "koala experience" area before they swap them out so they took the little one away from me and brought in a big daddy! This guy was big compared to the previous little one! His face was so close to mine, I was a little intimidated, but he just sat there on my hands! That night was adult night out and we went to steakhouse that featured cows that have been fed lollies (or Mars bars, yes like the candy)!

The big daddy!

The little one!

On my last day we went to Ikea (yes even in Australia Ikea is still my happy place!) and found a few treasures that I just had to bring back! We then met Matt and a co-worker for lunch so I could experience a famous Yatala pie. She took me to the shopping center near their house and although Australia may have Targets, I can vouch that they are not the same! The boys had swim lessons that night and we had dinner at home and just like that my time down under was coming to a close. For someone who was content to sit on the couch, we did anything but that! They showed me an amazing time and made my trip very special. I can't thank them enough for all of their hospitality!
 
My travels home were not as easy as I had hoped. I missed my connection in Sydney and ended up flying into San Fransisco instead of LA. There were weather delays and pilots and crews that didn't come to work and I was exhausted. I finally made it to Chicago and called home to say I was getting ready to board when the flight home got delayed. I kind of wanted to cry. I was so close and I was so tired and I was ready to see my family. Given all of the travel mishaps of the day I was extremely lucky to actually only get home 5 hours later than scheduled and my luggage made it. As an added bonus the man sitting next to me on the San Fran, Chicago flight was really interesting. He was a pediatrician who had been in San Francisco for a conference. He was from Northern Maine. His family has a few islands of sheep (one just for the rams) and he is a lobster fisherman. He had a lot of good stories to share and after traveling alone for over 20 hours it was nice to have a stranger get you a ginger ale and pretzels and provide some entertainment!

Good bye Sydney - your airport was a nightmare!