We're Back!

Happy December everyone! We just got back last night. Oh my goodness is it good to be home. We missed the pups and Stoli so much. They were so excited to see us! We were so tired from the long drive yesterday. We left at 3:30 a.m. Colorado time and walked in the door at about 5:00 p.m. Sigh. We did stop at Derek's friend Clint's parents house for a late lunch and visited for a while....so that is why it took us as long as it did. The drive was clear just windy as heck! It was so not fun waking up this morning for work. We both hate to come back from a trip and go right to work the next day. Oh well....that is how it worked out. Iowa was so much fun. We really had a good time. The trip was too short as always. It was so nice to spend time with the family. It always makes me miss my side as well. My thoughts were with them though and a few phone calls helped. : ) We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving. There was about 25 or so of us over at Grandma and Grandpa Graham's house on Thursday. (that is Derek's mom's side) What a household! The kids got to decorate grandma's tree. I think only a few ornaments got broken. The little ones really enjoyed wrestling with uncle Derek. Poor Derek. He really took a beating! They wore him out pretty good. At the end of the day there was a bunch of us piled on the bed looking at all the ads for Black Friday. I contemplated going, but luckily aunt Sandy goes every year and was happy to pick up the one thing I crazily was going to go out at 3'o clock in the morning for....which was a Dirt Devil Broom Vac. It was such a good deal and I am anxious to try it. I hope it works good. : ) Nick made sure to let us know he almost had to go to blows over this thing and that we were indebted to him by naming our first child after him. LOL Thank you Nick for being so brave. Maybe a middle name. Maybe. Heehee On Friday we had 12 of us over at Grandma Norton's house for Thanksgiving. I don't think there is anyone who can resist that lady's home cooking. : ) We played the game Catch Phrase. It is so much fun!! It was hilarious! It took us a bit to figure out just what we were doing and we finally got the hang of it. The boys won over the girls. Dang it! They just got lucky. It's so funny to watch each other figure out the word or phrase and see how everyone tries to get their team to guess it as well. We will for sure be busting this game out more often at gatherings. : ) Saturday was a busy day for me baking cookies with Derek's mom, grandma Graham, his sisters, Ben (yes even Ben was there having a good time) and aunt Sandy. We baked so many different kinds. My job was manning the oven. Although I did burn a batch or two (including my finger). I wanted to fire my self...but grandma wouldn't let me. : ) It was a messy day for sure. We were there for 4 hours baking. We all got to take home some of each along with some chex mix Kathy made earlier in the morning. We were definitely loaded up with plenty to snack on for the car trip home. I will try and post some pictures that I took. I just haven't made time to get them off my camera. : )