Thanksgiving and the Nutcracker

(Brief intermission from our vacation posts.  Tom's in charge of those and I'm filling in a few other things before we forget.  Returning to October vacation recap soon...)

Thanksgiving is always an exciting holiday for us.  Though there were but few of us, we managed to eat as much as ever of the catered meal served by the Gilmours.  (We counted ourselves as eight people though one is 10 months old and one is yet unborn.)  The Gilmours added some king crab leg appetizers which were enjoyed by all (pictured).  Tom added to the catered pumpkin cheesecake a bread pudding with custard and an apple caramel sauce and a rhubarb custard pie.  He began the evening cutting the bird and eating king crab legs and ended the evening blow drying a pair of panties (Hazel threw them in the bathtub during bathtime.  She's quick.)  Sabrina also made Travis and Taylor (who took turns) talk on an old corded phone while she ran around super fast making them chase her.  All in all, it was a fun, eventful day.

After singing the Nutcracker music for a few weeks, dancing lots to it, and reading the story of the Nutcracker, the girls put on their fancy Christmas dresses the day after Thanksgiving and headed out with Taylor for a matinee of the Nutcracker downtown.  Sabrina was so excited to be a big girl and go to the Nutcracker.  It was so exciting, they apparently got knocked out in the car ride home.  Celia said she wants to be a pink Sugarplum Fairy when she grows up and Sabrina said her favorite parts were the Sugarplum Fairies and Mother Hen and her chicks (instead of Mother Ginger, there was a big hen with chicks that came out).  

National Aboretum

On a Sunday afternoon we to a little trip to the National Arboretum to take some pictures of the kids while they were still in their church clothes. Nothing says fancy like a vest, tennis shoes, and Corinthian columns! Of course we don't really go for fancy at this age. Spontaneous cuteness is all we really hope for, and I think we got plenty of that.

We also took a few pictures with adults in them, to prove we were there too. Here's Marel in classic maternity pose.

And a picture of Marel and I, since we have so few of us as a couple since we had kids.

We also took a whole bunch of family pictures for Hilary and Chris. Not great in the classic sense, but nonetheless happy and fun.

At this point, I think they decided they were on a photoshoot for a 70's album cover. All in all a successful trip.

Cousins Cruisin' on the Potomac

After our trip to Minneapolis we popped over to Maryland to visit Hilary and Chris. On one of our first days there we took the metro to downtown Washington to take a little boat ride on the Potomac river. From the river we had adequate views of the sites you can see from the river.

The Kennedy Center

Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial

Watergate Hotel

But it was really more important as time for the cousins to spend together.

We then walked from the river to the White House. It was the main thing Celia wanted to see in Washington, D.C. so we went to see it the first day. (No tours since the sequester.)  We find the kids take better pictures if we give them something to do, like throwing leaves. Kids these days aren't as much enticed by the thought of cheese as we were....

We also saw the capitol building off in the distance as we walked back to the metro station. And for some reason there were balloons over the road. (Marel says there was a race happening that night.)

The kids really enjoyed riding the metro.

And this one is from a different day but this probably happened that day too.

Other days on our trip we did other things, which you can read about soon.

Our Annual Trip to Minnesota

In October we took a trip. We started with a stopover in Seattle and spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was then they gave Sabrina her birthday presents, including a Hello Kitty airplane. We couldn't fit it in our checked baggage, but luckily it had a handle so it was one of Sabrina's carry-ons.

We then went to Minneapolis so Marel could work in the office for a few days. The cousins came up from Omaha to spend the weekend with us before Marel had to work, and we all had a good time. Balo and Celia enjoyed walking around Ikea together. Balo even let Celia hold his hand.

Sabrina and Clara also had fun sitting in the back seat together.

Sabrina also took a liking to Balo. She was always up for whatever he wanted to do. Balo: "Sabrina, let's fight!" Sabrina: "Ok!" Here they are eating breakfast at the hotel, which all the kids say is one of their favorite parts of our Minneapolis trips.

We went to the sculpture garden to take some cousin pictures. We also attempted a few portraits. Elena was adorable and ever-stoic. This was about the biggest smile we ever saw from her.

The rest of the kids were feeling a little too silly to take good pictures.

New this year was the blue snowman, which was enjoyed by all.

We also took the perennial jumping rabbit picture.

We ended up that night with what has become another one of our annual traditions: dinner at the Dancing Ganesha restaurant, where the food is excellent and they don't mind the kids taking over the place just a little bit.

The cousins had to go back home to Nebraska after church on Sunday morning, but not before taking one last picture together.

After Marel spent a few days in the office, we left Minnesota. Of course we had to stop when we saw these in the airport.

We figured as long as we were halfway across the country, we should just go all the way and visit the other cousins in Maryland. More on that later...