thanksgiving week, unkie brandon's visit, my minneapolis trip

 my brother came into town last monday. the kids were off school for the week, so we picked him up at the airport and then stopped to get lunch at 'blue star pub' in wallingford on the way home. 

 

 

we relaxed at home the rest of the day. we watched some of the world cup and made spaghetti for dinner. 

 

tuesday morning thatcher and i had a school conference for azalea. she joined us because it was a 'student led conference.' she was tasked by her homeroom teacher with making a power point presentation about her classes for us. fancy! after lunch we had ashford's conference with his teacher (he did not attend). both kids got good reports and we are really proud of how hard they are working at school. there was more world cup watching in there too. my brother is a big soccer fan. later in the afternoon the kids, brandon, and i drove to kenmore to go bowling. we were only able to play 1 game since they had leagues starting in an hour, but it was fun. then we ordered a bunch of fried food from the snack bar and had a little feast :)

we hung out at home the rest of the night and made tacos for dinner. 

wednesday morning was more world cup watching :) i had bookkeeping work to do every morning, so it worked well. after lunch we headed to northgate to go skating at the kraken practice rink. azalea and i had been there before, but not ashford or brandon. ashford hasn't skated since he was really little. we all had fun, and the kids did great on their skates. 

 we relaxed at home after, sisi and thelonious came over for a little while. then we made pizza for dinner and watched a movie.

thursday was thanksgiving! we kicked off the day with the macy's parade (my favorite). we also did a little coloring while we watched. 

we started prepping our meal in the morning. we were supposed to have one of thatcher's co-workers join us for dinner, but she was sick and couldn't come, so it was just the 5 of us. 

 

our feast was ready in the mid afternoon. we had a 3 lb turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls/blueberry muffins, and a pumpkin pie and a chocolate pie for dessert. everything was so good! i love going all out on thanksgiving.

 

since we ate early in the day and i was leaving town the next morning, we busted out all of the christmas decor and got the tree decorated. but i'll save the final picures for next week's post. 

friday morning thatcher and the kids drove brandon and me to the airport. i was making a trip home for 3 nights for my 20 year high school reunion. we booked our flights at different times, but i was able to get on the same plane, and even the seat next to him. we got into minnepolis in the late afternoon and actually ran into our cousin austin and his fiancee abby who were flying out of the same terminal. so that was fun! and my aunt picked us up, saving us an uber ride as well. brandon and i went to thatcher's parents' for dinner, which was really nice. i'm glad i got to see them. i slept at brandon's that night, on his couch :) 

saturday morning, brandon and i watched soccer and then went to culver's for lunch - yum! he dropped me off at my friend em's apartment. she and i go all the way back to 7th grade and i asked her if i could stay with her the night of the reunion. we got ready and listened to some late 90's jams and then it was time to head to southwest high school for a tour. the school underwent a huge renovation about 6 years ago, so it was mostly to see that. about 20 people from our class signed up for the tour, which was given by our friend dave. it was fun to see the changes and also reunite with some people i hadn't seen in nearly 20 years. 

 

then we were off to the venue to help with setup. the planning committee rented a private room at utepils brewing. we had a memorabilia table and a photo booth. 

 

the event was from 6-9pm and we had close to 100 people show up (including +1's). we had a graduating class of about 350, so a great turnout, especially considering they planned it just 6 weeks ago. the evening flew by! every one seemed genuinely so happy to see each other, regardless of what group of friends they were in. some people looked exactly the same, some looked verrry different. i didn't want it to end. we ended up moving into the main taproom for the rest of the night. 

after we left, em ordered us pizza luce and we went back to her house to eat and "debrief." haha.

sunday morning em and i met our friend rachel for brunch at a restaurant called 'book club' near my old house. it was delish and nice to have a little more time to catch up. later emily took me out to my aunt cindy & uncle corey's house for the rest of my weekend. cindy and i went to see my cousin jenna's new townhouse she bought last summer. then cindy made dinner for all us back at their house and my brother came over too. i had lots of snuggle time with oakley :) 

 

 

monday cindy and i spent a few hours at mall of america before it was time to take me to the airport. i wasn't ready for my getaway to end, but i was ready to see thatcher and the kids (the kids told me repeatedly through out the weekend how much they missed me, which was so sweet). all went well with my flight back. both minneapolis and seattle were expecting snow the next day, so i get back just in time. 

whew, this was a long post! i'm so excited for the rest of the holiday season and hope it doesn't fly by too quickly.