Thanksgiving week

T took the week of Thanksgiving off and we had ourselves a little Fall vacay!  It was an insanely BUSY week but we made some good memories.
We started the week off by hosting and preparing Thanksgiving dinner for T's family on Sunday.  For the last few years since my wonderful SIL moved out of town I have ended up making the entire meal (although I do cheat and buy the pies to take a bit of the load off).  It is getting a little less daunting each holiday.
The kids were excited to have their own little kids table!

 I am the worst at taking pics when T's family is over (too hard to remember when you are busy busy busycooking and cleaning up).  AL grabbed the camera and started directing everyone so she could take pics........this is a "boys only" pic.

 A group shot courtesy of AL after dinner.

 We were spoiled with a second turkey dinner the following night at my parents house.  Delish!  On Wednesday we packed up the van and headed out to the "Dinosaur Museum".  I will admit that it is a bit insane how much we ended up bringing for a two day trip..........babies require a lot of stuff.
The weather took a huge wintery turn and we drove the entire way there with snow flying.  The wind was so COLD.  The kids were amazing travellers though.  We spent a couple hours exploring the museum and checking out all the bones.  It was so neat watching them work on uncovering actual bones and fossils.
AL is giving her "scared" face in this pic.

 Pic courtesy of our resident photographer AL.

 I think the highlight for the kids of the whole museum was watching this turtle being fed his lunch.

 After a pretty quick trip through the museum we headed to Calgary.  We had booked a hotel with a pool and waterslide just to make the trip extra fun.  When we pulled up to the hotel and noticed the shape of the hotel and then noticed the enormous rec centre across the street I had a hunch that things weren't what they had seemed.  The hotel did not have a pool just passes for the rec centre.  Talk about FALSE ADVERTISING Super 8 Hotel!  Needless to say we were a bit annoyed.  On such a cold, windy and snowy day the last thing we wanted to do was pack up to go swim but we did.  Our amazing friends that moved away last December came and joined us at the pool for a couple hours which was so fun.  Baby W was amazing which was my main concern with not having the pool connected to the hotel.  I wish I had gotten pics but my hands were more then full.
The next day was the whole reason for our trip.  We toured the newly constructed Calgary temple!  It was absolutely beautiful. Walking through with my children and husband was one of those wonderful moments in life.  While sitting in the celestial room I looked around at my little family and knew that this was possibly a once in a lifetime moment to be there with all of them.  Loved it.
We had wanted to get some pics outside the temple but it was so incredibly cold and windy.  The kids barely made it to this point to take a pic (with some serious complaints.....lol)

 Notice someone is missing?!?!

I think we will just have to go back on a warmer day and get a real family pic.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at our friends home visiting, playing and eating dinner.  I enjoyed every moment.  Friends like that are hard to come by and my heart was heavy when we left.  I just plain old miss them.
The rest of the week was spent in a whirlwind of birthday excitment.  I got to spend the afternoon on Friday with AL volunteering in her classroom.  It brought back so many great teaching memories.  I loved the time with her and hope to get to do it a few more times this year.
It was one super busy week but full of lasting memories.  I love time with my family!