Thanksgiving in CO Springs
Rusty here:
Thanksgiving morning we woke up for the Turkey trot. Everyone did great, the goal was to not walk until 2.25 miles and to try and finish under 35 minutes. Each goal got you $10. Blake made it shuffle running with me to 2.25 miles. So did Josh. Halle finished the fastest at 37 minutes, so close! Blake and I were good, we distracted each other talking about board games that he wanted for Christmas, lots of fun. We finished and ate the pumpkin pie with our fingers because there are never any forks. We checked the raffle, 3 people won something! How crazy is that? mostly entries to races and some advocare gift certificate. And the weather was AMAZING. 67 degrees!
Quick showers and then in the car for thanksgiving dinner down to CO springs. We were worried we were going to be late. Traffic was the usual. We ended up taking the back roads through Larkspur which was nice and saw a HUGE buck with big antlers. I thought he was fake! We thought we would cut it close to dinner but it was still an hour away. Kami’s family was there. Braden was sick. The boys discovered Battlefield 2 and ping pong (with a ball machine!) in the basement. Sharon and Alan flew in about 11 and then waited 2 and a half hours in the rental car line. They made it just after 3 when we were just sitting down for Dinner. Dinner was great – standard Thanksgiving fare, but Tara’s pies stole the show. She had banana creme, triple berry, chocolate, and apple pies. And bought a pumpkin pie at Costco. We forgot the vegan pumpkin “Cheesecake”! Kelsi made an avocado key lime pie. The seed bars were my favorite. It was good to sit with Brett and my parents and chat about life and everything. The kids had fun. Halle didn’t last long at the other table and came to join us. Kami made her traditional fruit turkey and then went around the room and said what we were thankful for. We then replaced the fruit feathers with our Thankful feathers.
Everybody else went to Wonder, and we cleaned up and then went to check in at Cheyenne Mountain Resort. We got a room by my parents. Then we went and Swam. The water was beautiful the night was beautiful. It was me and the boys and they were busy playing a star wars game together (I love when they play together) so it was mostly me just swimming. Tara came with us and did some Thanksgiving/Black Friday shopping from a lunge chair. Halle was tired from running so she stayed back at the hotel room. . Tara was ordering an iPad for josh but it was out of stock online so she got Halle and went to Target to get Josh’s ipad. I think that was the first time we’ve actually gone shopping on Thanksgiving! But probably worth the $80!
Friday I woke up about 7 and worked on SoaringSafe until 8, when Tara and I went to hot yoga in downtown CO springs. It was really nice, I don’t really remember going to hot yoga before and it was kind of perfect, so stretchy. We came home and walked down with the boys to play tennis, and grandpa and Tara met us there and we played a lot of tennis, it was really fun. Halle went shopping with like 8 girls and the Johnson parents. All day! to Castle Rock! They got cute matching hoodies and had fun doing face masks when they got home.
We ate lunch with Alan and Sharon up at the lodge, and then the boys went swimming with everyone else who came up to the resort and swam and played in the pool. How cool is it to be swimming outside at the end of November?
But I went and hung out with Mom on her bed in the hotel room. We just laid on the bed and talked about life and things. Then we met at Kami’s for dinner. We got Little Ceasars for the kids and some adults got Thai food. Kami’s mom let us also munch on some of her raw food. I love Kami’s moms raw treats. Then it was just back to the hotel for the next day.
Saturday morning Tara and I went for a walk. So nice. We saw deer. Talked about things about life. I’m glad we got to go on the walk versus yoga which was the original plan. Then we met Alan and Sharon for a buffet breakfast. Pretty good. Then the kids swam while Alan and I played tennis and even a little pickleball. Lots of fun. Then it was time to check out and do something in the afternoon. Halle really wanted to go to the zoo. So did Tara and I. They boys have decided they are morally and ethically against zoos. So we dropped them off at Kami’s, luckily Braden was feeling better and we went to the zoo. It was really cool, Halle was in heaven, I’m really glad we went. The giraffes are definitely the best part. So fun!
We picked up the boys and changed our clothes and went to the baptism. It was a good baptism. Funny: tara forgot she was the choristor and just rode out the first song. kali had to be baptised twice. And Sharon gave what maybe was her last Holy ghost talk. Kalie got baptized with her cousin from Utah, Luke. Jamison did the baptisms. That was really sweet to see him baptize those two kids right before he is going on his mission to Peru. Kami hosted a yummy dinner after. Then, it was time for us to head home. We are so grateful to Kami and all the hard work she put in to hosting us this weekend. We love our family!
One more funny thing. When we got home we went to unload the cooler where we had kept all the pies. Well….it dropped and all the pie dishes shattered.
