Thanksgiving Round Up

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving visit from Jared's family.  We invited everyone in Jared's family to come out to visit us and see our new baby and our new house.  We successfully convinced one of his sisters, one of his brothers and his parents to make the trek across the Nevada desert to see us!  They went to Point Lobos on Thanksgiving day to enjoy the beach and trails while Emma and I had some rest & relaxation for the day and then we all split the cooking of thanksgiving dinner which was fabulous and that I failed to take pictures of :)

 They completely spoiled me and would hardly let me lift a finger the entire time.  I'm not sure who took this picture or when, but it pretty much sums up what I did the whole time :)  I was still recovering from having Emma and also ended up with a stomach bug that week so it was much appreciated.  They cooked us gourmet meals complete with grill bread, homemade noodles, mint lemonade (with mint we found growing in our backyard once we cleared some weeds), homemade apple pies, etc. etc.  I could go on and on about how fabulous it all was, but we'll focus on something besides food for once in my life :) 

Jared's mom and sister slaving away in the kitchen

Jonas working with Jared's brother

 Jared's brother initiated some house projects so they tore down the wallpaper that was halfway throughout the house, switched out a faulty toilet and gave our front yard a much-needed manicure.  Jonas loved working on the house project with Uncle Greg and playing with his cousin Luca (he usually doesn't have other boys around to get his rough and tumble energy out with).  And, we had no shortage of people to snuggle sweet little Emma.

  Emma with Grandpa Gary

Emma getting a bath from aunt Maren

Our three older kids had a blast playing with their cousins and Jocelyn even learned how to ride a bike without training wheels!!

 Greg came out to interview with a company for an internship for next summer before he finishes his undergrad in Engineering. We found out that he got the internship so he and his wife Maren will be coming out to live with us next summer while he works that internship. You can see from the above pictures why we are soooo excited to have them come.  I promised them that we won't make them take care of our kids or work on our house projects the whole summer like they did during this whole week they were visiting, but we hope they are looking forward to it as much as we are!