Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving down here in Arizona this year, and it was really the first time that we have ever had a big family gathering at our house (not just in AZ, but anywhere). Most everyone got there late Wednesday night. Katie and Gordon couldn't come until Friday because they were in Tucson with Gordon's sister, so we decided to have Thanksgiving on Friday. I really loved having a friday thanksgiving. On Thursday we all just chilled out and Amber made homemade pizza and breadsticks for dinner, plus we pre-made a lot of food for the next day. It was nice to have a lot of help with the preparation, especially with the pie-making. Then Thursday we went to the park to play while waiting for food to cook and ate and played games. Saturday we sortof chilled out again and we played rubber-band war. That is a game we used to play with my dad as kids where we'd set up army men in forts of styrofoam and after we're all set up we shoot rubber bands and catapult dog food (we used cocoa puffs though), and at the end whoever has the most army guys still standing is the winner. At night we had a birthday party for Abigail and Annika, and everyone left on Sunday.
It was so much fun to have everyone there. We had 14 kids (all 9 and under) and 13 adults over for thanksgiving dinner, and we were able to all eat in the house. Gordon's cousin Lisa, who lives here in Sierra Vista, and her 4 kids had joined us for all of Friday's activities. The girls really enjoyed having all of their cousins over. They all ended up having a big slumber party in Lyla and Mckayla's room. 8 little girls together in a room and they did all go to sleep each night (eventually). Also, Hannah joined us on Saturday. She had been in Mexico and Amber went to get her in Tucson where the bus had dropped her off. 7 of the 9 siblings were here and we all fit okay!
Here are some pictures of the kids making styrofoam forts for the rubber band war.

The guys decided to be manly and take a dip or two in the pool. Becca and Angela got in too. The water was cold!!!! Though our days are still pretty warm, it gets really cold at night and it isn't warm enough to heat the pool to a comfortable swimming temperature.

Several people also enjoyed the Turkey bowl on Friday at the park as well. That was the part Jake had really been looking forward to. They played pretty hard, so that most of them were complaining about being sore on Saturday.

I couldn't find my camera for much of the weekend, and have been begging for pictures from my sisters and mom who were constantly taking pictures. When I do get those pics I'll post 'em, but this is it for Thanksgiving pictures for now.