Post-Thanksgiving Festivities

Black Friday.  I think it's called Black Friday, because every one is standing out in the pitch-black waiting for stores to open!  Last year I pulled the "pregnancy" card and bailed on Leslie (who was even more pregnant than I was) when she asked me to go with her, so this year I felt I should probably suck it up and go.  My cousin was still at our house, and crazy her, she wanted to come too!  We were up at 2:45 and on our way to Target.  Honestly I had nothing I wanted to buy, but was all about the "experience".  And phew!  Craziness all around.  Target opened at 5, and that was just the first stop.  T and I hit six stores before we returned home by 8 am.  No, I did not get all of my shopping done, in fact I think I only bought one thing for Christmas!  Oh well...it was an adventure!

The next adventure was the UTAH-BYU game.  Our friends invited us over to watch it, I guess they needed the token Utah fans, because we were definitely the only ones cheering for the Utes.  Hazel was doing her best to support the Utes, she even slept in her Utah jammies.  Hopefully she's still too young to remember this hard loss :)  She'll know "Utah Man" by next year.

To finish off our long weekend, we headed down to DC after church on Sunday to see an exhibit at the National Art Gallery.  Seth wanted to see a photography exhibit, and it was pretty neat...but what was really neat was the Spanish Horse Armor exhibit (I'm sure it had a more eloquent name than that).  It was amazing, the armor was so intricate and detailed, they had both horse and rider armor.  We were pretty fascinated, we really wanted to get Hazel's picture taken with her 'knight in shining armor' but they were not allowing pictures.  So we settled for a few like this:

Hazel with a shining monument! The day was gorgeous, warm weather (for November) and The Mall was empty...we parked right in front of the museum!

(PS- I am really ready to have my camera back!)

Turkey Turkey

Clearly, a Turkey Trot is the only way to start the Thanksgiving Festivities.  My kind, running cousin agreed to run yet another race with me.  I might have failed to mention to her that although this was only a 5K (we did a half-marathon last time), it was uphill the entire last half.  Whoopsie.  It was a lot of fun.  

The youngest runner this year was 4, yes FOUR.  Peach Pit's in training for next year.

THIS guy bailed on the whole running idea.  Says he'll stick to swimming.

Now THIS turkey would make one awesome Thanksgiving feast!

She's currently thinking, "seriously Mom...another race?"

There was more food coming out...not much, but a little more.  We enjoyed our little feast, the feast for three.  We were grateful to have T with us, it is so nice for me to have family from my side out here.  Peach Pit was supposed to join us for dinner, but I guess the thought of turkey made her drowsy and she missed the entire meal.  Oh well, maybe next year!

Holiday Heritage Boutique

For my Utah buddies...

My random sewing projects have not gone unnoticed. My sister was invited to participate in the Holiday Heritage Boutique and invited (begged) me to do it with her. (Okay, my ego would like to think begging was involved). My sister and I will be selling baby blankets, burp cloths, onesies, kids shirts, etc. The organizers have tried to have one vendor in each "category," so more than likely, if you go you will see something you "must have." It should be a lot of fun and it is a great opportunity to take care of some of your Christmas shopping with unique gifts. As soon as I get a list of vendors I will post it. As well as some of the items we will be selling.

Holiday Heritage Boutique

- December 5th -

9am-2pm

Trust me, you should go, I would definitely be there, if I didn't live 2000 miles away. Now, off to my sewing machine...I've got work to do!

Hazel Highlights - Month 8

• Sometimes I find the silliest things funny. Things no one can see but me! So I just laugh and laugh.
• I have now been on 6 plane-rides. I was glad the planes weren't full so I could have a seat all to myself. (I need the leg room!)
• Mom said that when I'm older we'll go trick-or-treating, this year Mom and Dad decided it was time we met our neighbors, so we went trick-or-meeting.
• Unca Doug is a w e s o m e. I hope he comes to visit me soon! I tried to play with him the whole time I was in Utah.
• Mom said Aunt Kel is going to have a baby, so she and Aunt Karen worked really hard on a quilt for my new cousin. I think he'll like it. It made me drool!
• Pumpkins + knives = lots of fun!
• I like my friend Kate, she has a really nice mom...and the same haircut as me! I sure wish she lived closer.

• Mom and Dad took me to Philadelphia to play with my cousins, they were a lot of fun, Nano told me all about this crawling-thing.
• Aunt Kellie says this is my "Single Ladies" outfit. Um, who's Beyonce?
• I love my cousins, I really love that M lets me wear all of her hand-me-downs.
• Dad came home the other day and caught me and Mom watching football. I love those Utes!
• I tried out that crawling thing, and I like it!
• Mom keeps saying she loves staying home with me, can you blame her? I'm awesome!
• I had lots of fun playing with Cat at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was really funny when she'd Meow reallly loud after I grabbed her fur.
• Grandpa G forgot to adjust the temperature for me, I thought I could see my breath in the house so Mom put a few more layers on me.
• Mom and Dad are the greatest, I'm the luckiest girl in the world. Hey! Mom wrote that. I mean, I totally agree!

U t a h.

Why would we possibly want to go to Utah in November? It's too early to ski, and it's too late to waterski...what could it be??

Little Dougie is home from his LDS mission!!! Two years in Hungary and he's back! Praise be!

I had a hard time with this post. I didn't take very many pictures, and I'm not feeling creative. This is part-journal for me, so I'm afraid you're stuck with me being boring and just writing what happened.

Hazel was a rock-star on the flight, she really seems to like it! We were "upgraded" to a Grand Cherokee when it came time to rent. It is so small inside! Once the carseat was in, my knees were literally at the dashboard! Oh dear...I'm already digressing.

We were so excited to see my baby brother. When he opened the door I didn't even recognize him! Okay, that's an exaggeration, obviously I knew it was my brother, but he's grown up so much and just looked mature! Weird.

Since Seth wasn't going to be in Utah as long as me, we made sure to catch up with his siblings at BYU and some of our really good friends before he left. (By "really good," I mean the kind of friends you wish you could sneak into your carry-on baggage, because, really...you just want to be able to pull them out and laugh with them from time to time!). As always, Hazel was excited to see her uncle Eric, (of course, Seth was too) and I was glad to see his grizzly beard was gone.

I took one look at my sisters and realized why they had asked me to bring my hair stuff with me. Time for some Momma Ger magic. I miss doing their hair! They just have "good hair!" Thankfully we were able to get them looking H O T because we had tickets to SYTYCD! So much fun. Seth escorted us and we all had a blast! Somewhere in thereSeth had time to go golfing.

I guess whips are big in Hungary and Doug brought back whips for the boys...yes, loud, cracking, dangerous, give you a welt whips. I think he had a great time teaching Seth how to crack the whip, it is a lot harder than it looks. I haven't tried yet. I was usually too busy laughing at the spectacle! Doug's really good at it and it sounds like a gun-shot when it cracks. I told him I could make him a sweet costume and we could take this show on the road! He said no.

My sister took our family pictures and then later that day we had round 2 of family pictures with the whole famdamily. The pictures look great and we will have a much better Christmas card than last year! (That's what we get for printing at Walmart last year!)

It wasn't long before Seth had to fly back to Maryland (I guess someone needs to work!) and Hazel and I were on our own. We pretty much camped out at Karen's house and sewed up a storm. We are making quilts for Kellie's new baby and D. It was a lot of fun, Hazel loves hanging out with M & M. Hazel also was able to play with her little buddy, Kate. I was all for that, I needed a visit with Wein!

Doug was our special guest at our Sister Saturday, he shared pictures of Hungary and some tasty Hungarian food. He and I were able to hang out a fair amount, we went running in the mornings (he kicked my trash) and we went shopping (I kicked his trash)...Two years and several sizes smaller now...his wardrobe needed some help!

I was also able to hit up several of my favorite "Utah" stores and restaurants. Mmmm...Cafe Rio. I heart you.

I think that about wraps it up. I guess all I needed to write was:

Doug. Friends. Family dinners. Pictures. SYTYCD. Sister Saturday. Cafe Rio. Running. Golfing. Hair help. Whipping.

Something like that. It was so much fun!!

I had a great time, but it was sure nice to see Seth at the airport, we all know I love when he picks me up...showered, clean clothes and roses. Yes. I love him.