Happy Thanksgivin!

It’s a little late, but oh well. We had a very good Thanksgiving this year. Ryan told me way in advance that we weren’t going to be able to go home for Thanksgiving. As it got closer and closer I got more and more bummed. I’m just not ready to do the holidays on our own yet. Well Ryan’s dad was flying in from the Philipines (he’s been gone for 6 months) the day before Thanksgiving, so I thought it would be great to go and surprise him! Well Ryan couldn’t argue with that, and every thing worked out at work so we were able to go to Texas!! Yea! Why hadn’t you heard about this before? I usually post if I’m going to Texas. Well we decided to surprise EVERYONE for Thanksgiving. The only 2 who knew were my mom and Ryan’s sister Katrina (because she was coming from out of town). We left Tuesday evening and drove all night to get to Texas in the morning. We drove through Des Monies and stopped at COURTNEY’S to take a short rest and visit. (Sorry all you Des Moinians, we would have loved to have stopped at every ones houses! But we couldn’t) We went to my mom’s first. It was about 7 or 8 in the morning and we just walked up and rang the doorbell. My Dad answered and he just stood there shocked for a minute then said, give me my grandbabies with a huge grin. Then Jace came out to met us and Jessica came racing down the stairs. It was so cute. We got to go up and wake up Kurtis and Tiara who were both excited to see us. I can’t believe mom was able to keep it a secret from everyone, but she did. Good job Mom! Ryan and I went to bed while the girls stayed up and played with Grandma and their aunts and uncles. Later I heard quite a few Kaitlyn stories from while we were sleeping. She was making up for all those hours in the car by…lets call it exploring. She was into EVERYTHING. Good thing mom and dad were sleeping. :) Mom D (Ryan’s mom) left to go pick up Ryan’s dad around 3 and we went to the house soon after she left. Ryan’s brother Shawn was home and saw us before we could even get out of the car. He came running out of the house and practically tackled Ryan. Then Ryan went and hid the car while we waited for Mom D to get back. While we were waiting Shawn called Mindy (Ryan’s sister) and came up with a reason for them to come over. We waited in the door way until they came in. Mindy was very surprised too. Collin and Cameron (Mindy’s boys) were very excited to see their cousins., Austin too- he’s the baby. They had fun playing until Grandma and Grandpa got home. Grandma’s reaction was THE BEST!!! I got all the family members reactions on video tape, but hers was definitely the best. She Screamed, she was so excited, and then Emily started to cry. It was hilarious! I might send it into Americas Funniest Home Videos. I’m gonna have Ryan put it up on our blog. After that we went out to eat and meet Katrina and her husband there. And finally after dinner we went back to my parents to surprise Julia (my sister) who had arrived while we were gone. Unfortunetly she had already found out. It’s so hard for young girls to keep such a big secret, they did try though. Julia tells about it HERE. The rest of the weekend was filled with yummy food, family, black Friday shopping (wahoo!) and great fun. It went by WAY to fast. I wasn’t ready to leave when it was time to go, at least I knew we’d be going back for Christmas. I didn’t get very many pictures, but I did get these. This is Emily and Kaitlyn with their Aunts (my sisters) Tiara and Jessica.




I want to apologize to all my friends in Texas, we would have loved to visit everyone, maybe set up a party or something, but we didn’t want to spoil the surprise. I will get something together for Christmas. I want to see everyone’s babies and bellies!
On the way home we were very blessed. We stopped in Des Moines again to stretch our legs and visit Sarah and her family, so we just missed a HUGE accident outside of Debuke. We saw it on the news the next day and there was a mother of 3 who didn’t make it. So thanks to the Hastings (and everyone else, who I know would have loved to have us stop in!) for letting us relax for a few minutes and helping Heavenly Father keep our family safe. We did however have to sit in the traffic and after 45 min of not moving we turned around and found another way home. We didn’t get in until 1 am, I felt so bad for Ryan who had to go to work the next day.
That was our Thanksgiving, how was yours?