Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving this year we had a very pleasant surprise! We originally were planning on going to a friends house to share the great feast with them but a few days before we found out that Steve's dad Mike and 3 of the kids were going to be coming to stay with us for the weekend! This was exciting news because that meant that we wouldn't be spending the holiday alone and I had an excuse to make thanksgiving dinner (which I actually really enjoy making). Dinner was delicious and we got to play lots of board games over the long weekend. The kids enjoyed just dance on the wii and I think they played it every spare second they had! Steve and Mike got to enjoy golfing a couple times while I hung out with the kids and enjoyed some fun activities.

I think one of the highlights for the kids and myself was taking Weston to the dog park. Now that it's nice weather I really try to take him once or twice a month to interact with his other furry friends. He really enjoys it and it always wears him out. We have a bunch of dog park options here and I usually just take him to the closest one but this time since I had the kids with me I decided to take him to the fancy one a little further away. I wish I took pictures because it is truly an amazing park. It has a man made lake for the dogs to swim in and an area with an obstacle coarse for training. The kids had a total blast playing with all the dogs there and seeing the many different breeds and personalities. 

After we got home from the dog park Tanner and TayLynn kept BEGGING me to let them go swimming in the pool. They had actually been begging me for the last 3 days and I kept trying to tell them that the water was too cold but they didn't believe me. I finally gave in and let them find out for themselves. They didn't last too long:)

This is where they stood for about 20-30 minutes daring each other to be the first one to jump in... 

This is TayLynn realizing that I wasn't lying about how cold the water was. 

That is as far as anyone made it but it didn't stop them from trying again later that same day! The kids did have a grand time trying to conquer the cold water and I was happy they had fun.

The night before they all left we decided to go and see the Mesa temple Christmas lights. They looked amazing and it was so fun to get into the Christmas spirit and remember why we celebrate it each year. I LOVE Christmas time, I love everything about it and I am so excited to travel back to Utah and spend it with family again this year.

After the smaller part of the Murray clan left we attempted to do family Christmas pictures at home. They did NOT turn out good at all I am sad to say but I posted a few of them anyway because I really put a lot of time and thought into them and I didn't want them to be a complete waste.

I had this brilliant idea to take pictures of us in ugly Christmas sweaters, I even got the dog one but after showing them to Steve he informed me that they were not ugly enough. I disagree, I think they are hideous but Steve was worried people would think we were serious. Just for fun here are our reject Christmas pictures even though we ended up using one for our Christmas card:)

Ugly sweaters # 1

Giant over sized Christmas tree sweater.

Negative: Really bad lighting. We had serious camera issues.

Positive: At least Weston was looking at the camera in this one:)

Ugly sweaters # 2

Come on. How is what I am wearing not the ugliest thing on this planet???

Negative: Bad lighting again, dog interested in ANYTHING other that getting his photo taken. 

Positive: Nothing. Just nothing. 

Normal clothes # 1

This one will be part of our holiday card but due to the bad lighting I had to improvise a little bit. It was still the best option out of all of them so WINNER...

Normal clothes # 2

What does Weston keep looking at??? You would think a bright flashing light, a stuffed toy and mounds of treats stacked by the camera would attract his interest. I guess not:)

Happy December from the Murray's!