Picture Round Up (Thanksgiving and beyond)

We spent Thanksgiving with my Mister's brothers in Oregon again this year.  We went to the Portland Japanese gardens.  The gardens were beautiful, and made me wish we could have a yard like them.

 J wanted to have a picture of just him in front of this zen garden, but cousins kept popping into the picture.  When he finally got some space, he posed triumphantly.  

We also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  Here are how my boys measure up to seabirds.

We were able to watch some of the animals being fed, and doing tricks.  The trainers said that learning tricks keeps the animals from getting bored.  The tricks sure kept us entertained!

Me, my boys (baby E is in the bottom of the double stroller), and A's new best friend, cousin C.

We're in the shark tunnel.  Sharks above, and the sides, and underneath.  The underneath sharks were hard to see unless you got down for a close-up.

Shark above.

Some boys got eaten.

Baby E, and his cousin Baby C who were born 11 hours apart on the same day.

We had quite an adventure coming home from oregon.  There was a big storm, and the road we needed was closed, so we spent the night at the Best Western in Jerome Idaho.  It was really nice, if you ever need a place to stay in Jerome, I highly recommend it.  The kids had a blast.  There's nothing like staying up late, eating microwave popcorn in bed and watching TV in a hotel.

Once we were home and had a week or so to settle down, we got out the Christmas decorations.  We bought the tree (in oregon) 9 years ago, for $10.  Every year I think it looks pretty bad, and think about replacing it with something a little nicer, and something pre-lit.  But, every year we get it decorated with all the things the kids have made over the years, and it doesn't look too bad.  So I decide to save my money.  My Mister and I wrapped the presents.  CP's present is as big as he is, and when he saw it, he pumped his arms up and down in the air.  His comment after the decorations were all up was, "Is Santa here YET?!"  He's also very concerned about the snow melting, for some reason he thinks that it can only be Christmas time if there is snow on the ground. 

We set up my nativity, and pinecone garland on the bookshelf in front of the greenhouse.  

 It's been a few years since the outside of this house had any decorations.  When I was a kid, I remember my dad climbing the huge pine trees in the yard and putting lights everywhere.  My Mister declined to do such a thing.  (I don't know why, as if he has anything else to do...)

We took down the Peruvian hat that the buffalo was wearing in honor of my parents, and put the santa hat.  Hopefully it doesn't scare off the reindeer.