Thanksgiving Day

  

We spent Thanksgiving this year at our home in Denver. I'm the covering clinical supervisor at work so I had to work the day after Thanksgiving and be in town just in case there were any crisis needs with any of the clients at work.  At first, I was really bummed about having to work the day after Thanksgiving but now I'm "thankful" that we had the opportunity to relax at home and host Thanksgiving at our home for some friends.  

We started off the day with a run around Wash Park.  The picture above is of one of my favorite places in the park.  Wash Park was SO busy on Thanksgiving morning.  There was a United Way Turkey Trot and I think they had a turn out of over 10,000 people.  It was both fun and weirdly relaxing to be in the bustling park.  There was something fun about the energy of everyone getting some miles in before the feast. 

Apparently the excitement was too much for Chance.  I swear this kid loves to nap while I am running with him in the stroller. 

I absolutely love running/walking on the trail around the park.  If these trails could talk....

This was my favorite part of my little run.  Because there was a turkey trot this house across the street from the park was out playing "train" cover songs.  I ran within ear shot of them the entire time they sang "Meet Virginia"....(that's Lindsey Springer's and my song from college).  I think I could be friends with these people.  I got a kick out of their more cowbell sign!

The finish line for the Turkey Trot! Can you believe how crowded it was? 

This guy stopped and talked to me while he admired Chance and Marti.  He reminded me of my Grandpa Drake.  Just a guy out for a walk, never met a stranger, complimenting everyone he passes, and all while wearing a turkey as a hat.  You've got to love people like that!

While Chance, Marti, and I trotted...Max, Nick, and Cook ran the park in the opposite direction.  We met up at one of the corners so that we could walk and talk through the park together on our way home. 

When we arrived home we were greeted by the Eakin's dog Henry Bob.  The Eakin's were also in the park running the Turkey Trot but they beat us back to our house to put their son Miles down for a nap.  I absolutely love having friends that feel comfortable enough to make themselves at home in our home.

Especially when said friends start to whip up some food in the kitchen while I finish showering and caring for Chance! The guys did a ton of work in the kitchen this year.  Max, Danny, Nick, and AC all made at least one dish for the table.  It was so nice and fun to be able to cook all together. 



Laura and I had a blast sitting in the living room and talking while Chance and Miles played together.  Poor Miles still does not know what to think of busy body Chance.  

Danny, Max, and Nick getting ready to fry the turkey....wait....didn't we just do this last weekend? 

Practice must make perfect.  Max and the boys did a great job on the turkey.  It was perfectly seasoned and very juicy.

The kitchen was crowded with chefs.  Everyone contributed to a delicious meal!

This was Nick's masterpiece.  I'm not sure what happened but I asked him to help me finish up the mashed potatoes while I went upstairs to take care of Chance.  When I came back downstairs he had added food coloring and they looked like this.  Luckily, they still tasted amazing.  I don't think I've ever had "fruity pebble colored" mashed potatoes before. 

We also lost a batch of crescent rolls to the boys because they wanted to see if they would taste like funnel cakes or donuts if they fried them in the turkey fryer. 

Miles was all smiles at meal time.  He's getting so big so fast. 

Max, Nick, Danny, Miles, Laura, Aaron, and Kim all settled in for our dinner.  We all had a great time laughing and talking over our meal. It was great to be surrounded by friends and laughter on Thanksgiving. 

The boys even pitched in to do the dishes.  Although, Cook is totally posing here.  He saw me grab the camera and asked me to wait.  He then went over and pretended to be loading the dishwasher.  This angered Danny....I guess :)

After dishes it was time for everyone's favorite...dessert! We ended up having more than we could handle.  I think we counted one entire pie per person at the table.  Needless to say we had a lot of leftovers! I love this photo of Kim reacting to how much ice cream Danny put on her plate. 

 We were so lucky to be able to have such a fun and relaxing day at our home.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

Friends Thanksgiving

Yesterday we celebrated our third annual "Friends Thanksgiving" at Drew and Tina's house.  Friends Thanksgiving was a little event that Max and I started when we moved to Denver.  No one is ever in town for Thanksgiving so we started celebrating Thanksgiving with our Denver friends/family on the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Every year the event seems to get bigger, more delicious, and more fun.  Friends Thanksgiving is quickly becoming one of my favorite weekends and holidays of the year!

We all gathered at Drew and Tina's around 2pm yesterday afternoon.  We spent the afternoon playing games in the backyard and snacking on all of the awesome appetizers that were brought.  Chance got plenty of attention. 

Kevin York made these amazing back yard games. This is my new favorite,  a giant connect four,  in K-State colors of course. 

Katie and I are still the reigning cornhole champs! Cornhole is always a backyard favorite. 

Tina and Callie trying to stay warm!

Nick entertained Chance while Max and I played cornhole.  Nick is the Chance whisperer.  It's amazing. 

Bret, Lauren, Megan, and Chance enjoying the outdoor fire.

Now, enought talk about games.  Let's talk food...Max and Nick began the turkey frying preparations. 

In order to make the perfect Thanksgiving turkey, you must first take your time and marinade it appropriately.  All of the flavor is in the cajun butter marinade.  So delicious! Max has perfected the art of turkey frying. 

Tina is queen of the kitchen.  She is an amazing cook.  I always take cooking notes whenever Tina is around. 

Megan and Katie chatting over what is left of our appetizer bar.  We had shrimp cocktail, a cheese tray, a vergetable tray, cookies, and so long rasberry dip.  All of it was so good.  I wasn't even hungry when it was time for dinner. 

Which is really a shame when the main course is as delicious as this. 

Max about to carve the turkey. 

Megan putting the finishing touches on the garlic mashed potatoes.

Drew feeding Callie.

Tina testing out the ham.

And now we're ready for the main course.  I think our mom's would be proud of us all.  We somehow managed to pull off a real Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, a few veggie casseroles, stuffing, and rolls. 

The table is set, dinner is ready to be served.

Our friends gather in to give thanks!

Tebow style :)

After dinner we all sat around talking and watching Chance and Callie play together in their pajamas.  They are so good together.  I can't get over how cute they are in their little striped pj's.

I wish I could have recorded them babbling to each other.  It's like they have their own little language.

A toast to two beautiful babies and unshakeable friendships.  We have much to be thankful for.

A weekend at home

This past weekend was random and spent catching up on all of the things that we did and didn't want to do.  It was so random, I kind of don't even know where to start. So, I guess I'll just start with Friday night. 

Many of you may or may not know that for the past several months I have kind of been fighting an internal battle about what to do about my career.  Do I stay with the non-profit, Family Tree, that I know and love?  Do I go to a hospital and make LOTS more money, but have a busier schedule and not as much flex time?  Do I stay home with Chance because that is the motherly thing to do?  So many questions...

On my personal quest for answers, I did what all rational people do.  I rented a documentary from Netflix about eating disorders to try and get a feel for what working in a hospital with these type of mental health patients might be like. 

I'm happy to report that I have made a decision and laid my internal battle to rest! Maybe it was the particular documentary that I watched or maybe it was my head telling me what my heart knew all along. All it took was one silly documentary and now I am 100% convinced that I am not cut out to be a therapist for in-patient hospital treatment.

Thanks HBO for making this documentary THIN in 180 mintutes you were able to put my dilemma to rest. 

Now that I've made my decision, my confusion seems a little silly to me.  Can you believe that I actually contemplated working at an eating disorder hosptial?  I mean...I like to feed people.  A lot!

Max found this movie disturbing, boring,  and depressing.  He was honestly a little pissed that I made him spend a night on the couch figuring this all out.  All that matters now...is that it is all figured out and I feel better :)

Saturday was crazy! We spent the morning with Chance running our respective errands.  We're so traditional sometimes it kills me.  Chance and I went to the grocery store to buy all of our groceries for the week and Max set out to change all of the oil in our cars. Boring, I know, but these things must be done so that you can enjoy the finer things in life....like K-STATE FOOTBALL!

We headed to Bret and Lauren's place downtown to watch the game on TV.  The game started at 130pm and I thought we would only be a few hours.  Max and I even made tentative plans to go for a bike ride or a run with Chance after the game.  Little did we know that the CATS were going to get into an epic battle with Texas A&M lasting 4 over times and five  hours! What a game!

Good victory State!

Sunday was a family day and we spent time together laying around and doing things around the house.  We started off the day at 430am if you are wondering (daylight savings time has Chance all messed up :(

I guess that is okay though because it gave me time to watch cartoons in bed with Max and Chance and make my men a proper french toast breakfast.  Who doesn't love cooking for the men they love? 

After breakfast it was time to catch up on all of our laundry. Thank goodness I have an amazing little helper. Plain old laundry is boring.

Then it was time for Max and I to take on raking the leaves out of the back yard.  Just in case you didn't know... Max and I hate yard work at this house.  It seems like all we do is clean crap out of the back yard and it never gets better! Raking, was something we were both not looking forward to, but we got it done!

Before: 

After:

The reward came after our little man woke up from his nap time and he was able to play with us in his newly cleaned yard. 

Sometimes the weekends with nothing on the calendear, turn out to be just the weekend you needed.