Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends. We hope that you had a relaxing day and time to reflect on the blessings in your life. We spent a great day with family starting with Run to Feed the Hungry, followed by rest at home and dinner at Grandpa & Grandma's house. We missed our family who were elsewhere this year! We are so thankful for the love in our family and the opportunity to continually see God working in our lives. We had a crazy, busy year, but it is hard to complain when I reflect on how truly blessed we are. We have healthy, beautiful children, loving family on both sides who adore our children, great friends, a neat group of people who we have grown close to at church, a wonderful new home in a great neighborhood, jobs that we enjoy, the list goes on and on.... Our lives are full and I am thankful for that!

Grandpa & Grandma's beautiful table

Uncle Mario and the girls playing the piano

Heidi-pop

Kate eating her Thanksgiving sweet potatoes

I didn't get a picture of Ben, but he spent most of the evening outside with Uncle Paul looking at fishing stuff and learning how to cast Uncle Paul's pole. We all had to go out to watch his new skill. Heidi was excited for him and after a good cast, said, "No way Ben!" She's started saying some funny things!

Thanksgiving Run to Feed the Hungry

Aunt Jamey was the organizer and got us all signed up to participate in Run to Feed the
Hungry this year. There were over 26,000 people in the "race" !!! All of us walked with the strollers except Aunt Vanessa- she ran the 10K! Way to go! It took the strollers 1hour50minutes to finish. We had a good time together and the kids did great considering we woke them all up early . Thanks for getting us all signed up Aunt Jamey! It was a fun way to start our Thanksgiving day!

Our whole group

Ben in his shirt ready for the race. He decided that Uncle Paul would win because he's so fast :) He changed his mind during the race and declared that Aunt Vanessa was the winner!

Jack, Frank & Vanessa

Our family getting ready at the starting line. Thanks for letting us borrow your fancy stroller VandenAkkers- it was great! Heidi was very excited to sit in Lukey's seat and eat snacks.

Baby Kate all bundled up

It was a little early for Heidi

Paul & Kelsey

Ben & Dad

Grandma & Grandpa

If you look really closely you can see Grandpa sprinting up to find the owners of a lost stuffed dog- he found them and saved the day!

Ben with his hero Uncle Paul & Kelsey

Check out all those people!

Heidi got a little antsy in the stroller


And then Baby Kate wanted out too

Ben rode part of the time when his legs got tired

Children's Discovery Museum Day Trip

On Tuesday we took a family day trip to San Jose to visit the Children's Discovery Museum. The museum was awesome! The kids had so much fun; there are so many things for them to play with and explore. We were there for about 3 hours and we covered a lot, but could easily spend some more time there. The water area was by far the favorite! Afterwards we ate a yummy Mexican dinner, and it was a nice surprise when we got to the restaurant because Tuesday was kids eat free night! We decided that next time we'll make an overnight trip out of it so we don't have to do so much driving in one day with kids who don't like to sleep in the car:)
Dad and the kiddos outside of the museum

Heidi loved this display where the balls floated above the air

There was this really cool wall that was covered in little pegs about the size of light brite pieces. Kids can stand on both sides of it and push on the pieces to make handprints. Ben kept going back to it and playing some more.

Heidi playing with a jumbo sized puzzle

This display had a video playing on how columns are designed and made and two posts with a bunch of pieces to try building your own. Heidi worked on it for a long time.

Dad and Ben working on something with circles

Baby Kate was a good sport riding around in her stroller

This was in the circle display also. There was two carts- one with wheels and one with a sled bottom. The kids could pull on the ropes to move them to see which one was easier.

Dad and the kids are sitting in a dome with a clear top that showed different kinds of rain

Heidi liked the art area

Ben & Heidi in the grocery truck


The bubble area had different tools for making bubbles. They especially liked this one with hoses that blew out air to make bubbles.

All of these pictures are in the water area which was by far the favorite. There was an area for bigger kids and another for toddlers. Ben and Heidi both LOVED it. It was the last area we visited and it was hard to get them to leave.

Thanksgiving with the Shermans

On Sunday before Thanksgiving we went over to Grandpa & Grandma Sherman's house to have a pre-Thanksgiving celebration since we were all going to be apart on the real day. It was such a nice, relaxing day with good food and family we love. The boys always have a lot of fun together. Here they are watching a movie on Grandpa & Grandma's big bed! Thanks Grandpa & Grandma for a fun day and a yummy meal:)
Enzo, Ben & Lucca

More Pictures of Kate (in Allie's Cowgirl Accessories)