A Non-Traditional Thanksgiving

For the past few Thanksgivings, we have spent our days happily crammed together in one of my brother's homes, cooking food, eating, watching football, getting up at 3am to shop, chasing kids around the house, and generally having a crazy time. My youngest brother Jeff got home from his mission in August though so my mom post-poned our normal summertime family reunion until Thanksgiving this year. So everyone flew in from Utah and Texas and drove in from New York state, Ohio, Chicago, and DC. Because there was no home big enough to accomodate 13 adults and 9 grandkids, my mom decided we'd all stay in hotels attached to an indoor water park in Sandusky, Ohio. So while we drove through snow to get there, it was a balmy 85 degrees for our weekend. Heavenly! We did eat turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc. albeit cooked and prepared by Meyers grocery store. Most of the weekend was spent riding water slides, catching waves in the wave pool, surfing, and riding the lazy river.

Isaac was not impressed and spent most of the time with a dazed look on his face (in fairness he was cold- poor, skinny child). Ethan was in heaven playing with his cousins and going down slides over and over again. Sadly, I was not very good at taking pictures. Above is Ethan warming up in a towel and Taylor and Isaac at one of the kid play areas.

Some of the other cousins- Ian, Madeline, Claire, Ammon with his back turned and my older brother Dave.

The older grandkids loved that there was a bar area big enough for all 6 of them to fit. L to R- Ammon, Nathan, Ian, Ethan, Madeline, Noah.

One of the best parts of the whole trip was the Monopoly game. For the past 2 months, all of my brothers and sisters have been secretly emailing back and forth plans for creating a "Kitchenopoly" game (Kitchen is my maiden name). We changed all the properties on the board to places we've lived (not too hard since we've actually moved to 8 different cities/states) and locations with memories. All the cards turned into funny stories from growing up. I think my parents truly were touched to receive it. As we played it together, we tape recorded the stories so we have them to compile into a book. Family history in a game- can you get better than that? It was also a neat way for all of our spouses to learn some things about us growing up. I especially love the picture above because it's of Taylor, Fred (my sister Kristina's husband) and Dana (my sister Kelli's husband- she's sitting with him) and my oldest nephew Noah (he thinks the uncles are cool). It's great to see that all our husbands like each other and enjoy hanging out together.

The last day of the trip we drove to my brother's house in Cleveland and spent our time taking naps, playing Mario Cart, and eating fondue (a Kitchen family tradition we usually do every Christmas Eve). It was a great Thanksgiving and a great reunion all rolled into one and we only wish we all lived in the same state so we could do this more often. We're voting Utah! Anyone want to join us???