Thanksgiving 2008

We flew to Salt Lake to spend Thanksgiving with the Thompsons. It is always an adventure getting all of the cousins together, and this trip certainly had its share. It was so nice to see our kids getting along so well with their cousins, and they would disappear for hours at a time. Luke with Nathan, Hank and Will to play DS or shoot air-soft guns. Isabella with Emme, Caitlin, and Thomas to create plays and color. Simeon with Andrew and Carter to ride on the bikes or play cars. Sophie would just follow around whatever group of kids she could keep up with.

We had amazing weather and had a huge soccer game Thanksgiving afternoon which ended up postponing dinner. When we finally went inside there were 45 people in all for dinner. Turkeys beware.

After dinner there was the customary football and crashing. Simeon is picking up on this tradition quite well.

We had a great time seeing all of our family in Salt Lake.

watch where you walk

During our Thanksgiving trip in Salt Lake, Nate unfortunately injured his foot. We've all heard stories of kids leaving toys out and them getting stepped on by unsuspecting adults. This is one of those.

One night shortly after our arrival, Izzy (as she often does) fell asleep somewhere other than her bed and needed to be transferred. Everyone else was asleep as Nate carefully and quietly carried Izzy to her bed. On the way he stepped on a toy. Now, having grown up with five younger siblings and now with four kids, this was not a new experience. In all experiences stepping on toys in the dark, it is generally acknowledged that Legos are the worst. Nate now begs to differ.

Instead of meeting up with a stray Lego, Nate stepped on a die-cast metal bulldozer, complete with pointy smokestacks, that proceeded to rip through his foot leaving a big cut. Somehow Izzy was successfully transferred without stirring and none of the other kids was woken up.

Seriously, toy companies need to recognize that every toy will be stepped on in the dark at some point and should do some testing and have a warning label or a rating scale for what kind of damage they can do.