thanksgiving 2016

This year for Thanksgiving, we decided to go to Boise and spend it with the Maynards.  Ben's brother Sam and his family were going to be there, and we don't see them much, so we thought it could be a great opportunity to see the whole Maynard clan.

It has been a really long time since all of the Maynards have been together, and we did a lot and had a great time.  It was so fun for the kids to be with all of their cousins too.

We crammed a lot in a little amount of time.

We arrived Wednesday night, and drove straight to a trampoline place.  A lot of the cousins were there, and the kids had a blast jumping all of their energy out and playing with everyone.

From there we went back to Lonnie and JoJo's house and crashed.  Thursday morning we went to a park and joined up with more of the family to play games.  It was FREEZING cold, so me and the two little ones didn't last very long. 

We spent the rest of the day getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was so cool to have every single Maynard minus Sierra there for dinner.  We got a family picture that turned out so well!!

I feel horrible that I hardly got any pictures for the trip.  We were so busy doing things, visiting and playing that I just didn't think to get my phone out.  Sometimes though, even though it stinks not to have pictures, it is just better to live in the moment.

Thursday evening Ben and I and our  kids, and a ton of cousins and Sam and Sherean and JoJo went to see Mohana.  It is an awesome movie!!!  I can't wait for it to come out so we can buy it.  We all loved it.

We came back and found some pies that had not been eaten...and pretty much took care of that. :)

Mary and Alina finishing off the Cool Whip

Friday morning we headed over to the YMCA where I did my killer interval workout and the kids and Ben and more of the family swam and played racquetball a rock climbed. 

From there, we crashed for a while, and then headed over to Dan and Kristen's house for dessert and to meet up with the Robertson's.  Ben's best friend Doug Robertson was there.

I ended up leaving early with some of our kids, who by this point were crashing hard.  We just hung out and watched shows the rest of the night.

Saturday morning I went back to the gym, and Ben went shooting with his dad and brothers and Doug and some other guys.

After we all got back, we packed up and headed out.

It was a really good trip, and I loved that our kids got to have so much fun with the Maynard cousins.  They don't get to see all of them very often, and I think it is so important for my children to know both mine and Ben's parents, siblings, and their families.  I was very close to my extended family on both sides growing up, and it had a huge impact on who I am today....for the better.

On the way home we stopped and grabbed our new phones.  We just switched from Verizion to Sprint, and there was a Sprint store on the way home.

Mary got her very first phone at that time...just a few weeks shy of her 12th Birthday.   We all got iphone 6s's.  I am pretty sure Mary didn't stop smiling the entire way home.  Love that girl.

I think we pulled of a pretty great Thanksgiving....Maynard style.