GG, Park, Squirrel

On Saturday we visited GG. Missy (Guy's cousin) was there helping GG pack because she is moving soon, in with her sister Pat. The next time we go visit GG we will be seeing her at her new place! GG gave Nico the cars that he plays with whenever he comes over, the one that Grandpa Russell made and I think one that Guy's Uncle Larry made, plus some tiny cars that you pull back first and then they go. I also found out that Uncle Larry is an ornithologist! If I already knew this then I must have forgotten! Guy knew, of course. It was great to see GG and to see her house one last time before the move.

Nico has been taking pictures of animals that he finds, here's his latest.

And some flowers.

The weather has been so nice that he has had lots of time to play outside with his friends. We even went to Quarry View park for the first time this year! We had to go to setup my henna canopy to install a wire onto it, and while we set up the canopy Nico played on the playground. It felt like the whole neighborhood was there!

We went another time but with Nico's friends.

They also had a "Spring picnic" out front last Friday, because it was so sunny and warm!

We bought bird seed and squirrel food for our feeders, we hope to hang them on Saturday. They are sitting outside now and while we haven't had any birds interested in the feeder while it's on the ground, we DID get a curious squirrel that came over and went to town on the sunflower seeds.

This squirrel is one that lives in Tiffanie's yard. We are very excited to be moving the feeder into her yard so they will have much easier access to it.

That's it for this week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I left my camera at the cabin today so we'll be going without most pictures today. Whoops! You'll get to see them all next week :)

On Saturday I headed over to G.G.'s house for a fun time of baking. Missy (Guy's cousin) was the one who organized the whole thing and it was so much fun. We watched White Christmas and made rice krispie treats, pumpkin bread, and then I brought stuff to make a gluten free cranberry orange shortbread bar. It was very good! And Guy attests that the rice krispie treats were good. We also had baked potatoes with a bunch of toppings for dinner. What a fun time!

On Sunday we had our last Bible Study meeting for the year. It was a potluck. We brought a holiday salad and some candied walnuts and clementines. It was a lot of fun and we tried Choffy for the very first time. Choffy is ground cocoa beans brewed just like coffee. It was very tasty. Guy still prefers coffee :) To me it tasted like hot chocolate! No flavors or sweeteners added but it was still very good.

Nico played games with his friends and our friends let us take home one of their board games because Nico loved it and wanted to borrow it. And speaking of board games.. we are playing them like crazy over here. Nico even beat me at a game of Settlers of Catan the other day. He doesn't understand yet a lot of the strategy behind games, but he understands the rules and the processes and he is very very good even without strategy yet.

Nico has had this whole week off because of Thanksgiving. We've done a lot of relaxing and hanging out. On Wednesday we heard that there was snow accumulating at the cabin, so Guy asked that we sit down and pray that we would still be able to go to Thanksgiving. He had been looking forward to going and I'll tell you what.. when he asks to pray about something, it's SERIOUS business! 

And good news, we made it up there today! Chains required. And Guy was overjoyed. He enjoyed himself so much he almost burst at the seems several times during the day. He was giddy. There were several reasons why... being at the cabin, him not being tired, getting to spend time with just us (me, Guy and Nico) with just Ma and Pa (we went up early), and last but not least.. the MST3K Turkey Day marathon. We got up there early so we could make stuffing. That was fun. Guy helped chop onions and wore a cheetah print apron. Nico and Papa played board games. I took some pictures (to come next week) and then Jonny and Alanna, Alanna's mom Wanda, and Lexie came. Thanksgiving dinner was so yummy, there were lots of good food and everyone loved the stuffing. I gave the recipe to Wanda.

We celebrated Christmas, sang songs, had the lego challenge, won prizes, the kids (Lexie and Nico) had a treasure hunt and it was generally just a great relaxed time. Guy being able to spend that much awake time with family was very nice for him and for us. I look forward to being able to do more of these kinds of family things with an awake Guy in the future. Looking forward to the Grandparents Russell visit in December!

Thanks to Grandparents Salisbury for the wonderful Thanksgiving and all the yummy leftovers!!

Guy has tomorrow off and it will be a wonderful weekend. Be prepared for picture overload next week, plus our yearly Winter Garden Aglow picture (which we will get done this Saturday)

Happy Thanksgiving!