thanksgiving weekend

it's a shame that it takes me a couple of days and many hours to upload pictures to this blog. and while i wait for the pics to upload i play majong. then i end up not even feeling like writing anything. a real shame.

sarah, kyle and adriel stayed at my house during thanksgiving weekend. picked sarah and her man child up at the ferry in tswassen. traffic was turrible. we stopped so sarah could get a donair to chomp on. we went down town to meet kyle who took the other route. we arrived at almost precisely the same time. we made a big mistake in first thinking there was an old navy down town and secondly paying ten dollars for parking and then leaving almost right away.

we went to casa gelato. "i wonder if 'where have you been all my life' will be there" mused sarah as we parked and headed in. but he wasn't. mr. gelato seemed a little grumpy. what's new?, you'll say, but sometimes he looks grumpy on the outside but you can see that he really isn't. this time he looked for reals uncheerful. everyone has their days. even gelato misters.

(by the way today i got a tin foil cut on the palm side of my left ring finger. didn't notice it at first but when i saw a smear of blood i went, naturally to swipe it with my thumb. only this thumb was doused in lemon juice. how dumb was that? as i squealed in pain i was heard to exclaim "that was the dummest thing i've ever done!")

i got a scoop of black sesame gelato (gelato mister gave me black sesame to try even though i asked for red bean, but i ended up liking it so, coolio.) and a scoop of raspberry truffle. two scoops are now a scandelous price of SIX DOLLARS. sheesh. this is obviously because of fuel prices. it HAS to be. sarah got chocolate cheesecake and her traditional raspberry lemon. kyle got a puke scoop. no he didn't but i can't recall right now what he got so it may as well have been a poop scoop. besides poop scoop has a nice rhyming ring to it. donit?

in the parkade and on the street and in the car we brainstormed, at kyle's suggestion, a word like thirsty or hungry that described a want of gelato. they almost all sounded like gluttony which sarah was ripe and ready to point out. i pointed out that gluttony is a related word. ya know?

next day i wanted my hair straightened. i don't know why. i haven't like straight hair on myself the last umpteen times i've had it done. i just keep hoping that i will. i mean, i used to like it. but these days i feel it makes me look like a fat head, literally. plus it's just not me. anyways first we took our before pics.































i blow dried my hair upside down to full dryness (ok i missed a spot that sizzled underneath, but everywhere else was dry!) this created mountainous volume.
















a side shot with a creepy eye was needed.



after sarah was done i was unhappy as soon as i saw my pumpkin head with straw on it. i don't like being unhappy after someone does my hair because they've worked hard on it. but i couldn't help it. there i was with perfectly straight hair on my pumpkin head and my features were harsh and un-pretty and there was no hiding them at all.

sarah said she was potato face with slick hair. but she wasn't. she was pretty as ALWAYS. we went and had dim sum. i couldn't remember the exact place i go with selina so i took them to the place on victoria where i used to go with mia. it was full of chinese people eating, which we took as a good sign. i don't think it was as good as the other place though. still there were some yummy things eaten. and adriel mangled some mango pudding and insisted on using chopsticks even though he couldn't use them.

afterwards we went to the park across the street.







a pretty non-tuber faced sarah.


















a perfect cone tree against a blue sky.













bottom halves deserve recognition too.


















we were both wearing our rocket dawgs from billy's wading pool.














man child





















sarah and her man child a la swings.
















kyle planted himself on his bum in the gravel.
















a quarter of a disgruntled pumpkin














babytummy.


























































then we went to ma and pops' house. mom couldn't get past that it was my hair that was the cause of my lack of sparkle. it took a while for me to forget about it. we sat around with the wheemin folk and talked. after a while katie and sarah and i decided to go to old navy. sarah wanted to look for more maternity clothes.

just as we were on our way to the change room with armfuls of clothes to try on, brent called to say that elizabeth was awake. i've never tried on clothes so fast. whipped them on, whipped them off. i bought to clearance t-shirts and a hot pink velourish hoodie with a gather in the back along the shoulder. i'm quite pleased with it. sarah got some pantaloons.

mom had styew and chili for people to eat. i was getting super hot so mom suggested a walk and i agreed and so me and katie and sarah and mom and andrea and del and tracy and copious amounts of children all went for a lovely cool walk around the neighbourhood. all the kids had a fun time taking turns walking jody. we almost got lost because no one was paying attention to where we were going but it ended up that we just went in a biggish sort of circle. i walked a lot with madelaine and michealah and had fun talking with them. when i asked michealah what her favourite thing to have for breakfast was she gave me a quick look and said "you're interviewing me!" haha.

we had ice cream. i put peanut butter on mine.

sunday we barely made it to church on time. we sat down during the song. mercedes gave her homecoming talk. it was really good. she's got the missionary way of talking. does anyone know what i mean? it's not the words but they way you talk. the way you pause and the inflections. hard to explain, but i notice it in almost every missionary and return missionary. i think i was that way myself.

primary was wonderfully stress free as we practiced for the primary presentation. lots of my kids were missing too, and the ones that i had were nervous and excited. especially catie. she was giving a talk.

we had grill cheeses at home and sarah, adriel and kyle napped while i listened to conference talks and played the incessant clicking game.

then we went to ma and pop's for thanksgiving!


i went about documenting. i like this candid of dad and his sis, dishing up the turkey. i like aunt elaine's face. josh looks on.

that reminds me that the day before josh was seen to be reading all day through all the chaos. so at one point i asked him what he was reading and he actually looked up rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. hahaha! is that teenagery or what? delanie and i laughed. she said "josh that is soooo rude!" he said he doesn't like people asking him annoying questions. of course this alerted me to my role of asking josh lots of questions about his book and reading all throughout the weekend which he took better than my first innocent question.











turkey.













mom and tracy adding marshmellows to the sweet potatoes. yum!
























darling kaetlyn.















i liked esther's lips.















elizabeth was there and raring to go.





































good ol' jawrd.




















just as the parents were filling up their kid's plates sarah and i went outside to take shots of her tum. it was hard though because it wasn't too light out and her eyes were dark shadows. she's so cute isn't she?

she did her hair a really cute way that day too. and this is my favourite shirt of hers at the moment.
















this has got to be the best seat in the house. we were looking at this picture later and sarah said "is that..." "i don't know," i answered "let's zoom in and see." "yep it is." we both said as we were faced with kaetlyn's plumberness. behind us andrea saw the same thing and laughed. kaetlyn said we sucked and told us to delete it. but i made it g rated instead. look how fluffy headed andrew was.

kid's table chaos.











mina, wilma (who jordan calls 'mamma') and elaine backed by the general turkey grabbing melee.





















kylie smilie's thanksgivng portrait.

hubub.


















sarah poses with her plate. i was stationed on a chair in the door way to catch people as they went by.

dad's a two bun man as i am a two bun girl.

















i forced layne to make this face. i mean if it was john, i'd tell him to stick his finger in his nose. some things just need to be done.

douglas likes corn.

















this is delanie's 'i'm thankful, plus my mouth is full' look.

katie and tracy were thankful also.












cutie cutester.

smug.

yikes. brent gave me this face and i said "that's a man's thanksgiving picture." "that's right." he said as he walked towards the table.

andrea obliged me with this shot and evan added his gross talents.

josh had the nerve to grab a huge turkey drumstick. then place it, picked clean, back on the deserted platter next to the neck.

i call these next ones "carnage aftermath"

madelaine in the hood.

aww..












..www!

andrea made the yummiest pies. i only had eyes for the pumpkin pies because i love homemade pumpkin pie. but this is one of the apple pie remnants. there was also plum.

jane expressing how we all felt after all that tryptophan.

the rest of the night was a jumble of different groups of people talking and playing games and you know. it was a nice thanksgiving full of one of the biggest things to be thankful for--family and family times.

oh and of course i did the christmas draw. i got layne.


monday morning sarah and i amused ourselves by doing copious amounts of cabin fever messages on bethany's phone. at one point sarah sent me into hysterics by her portrayal of ben and the phrase "rubbie-roughy", and i let bethany have the full five minutes of hysterical laughter. it was great.

we went to daiso.

we went to krispy kreme.

we went to dough and del's and had spaghetti and delicious garlic bread. dad and evan got everyone embroiled in a long lasting debate regarding the use of the theta in spain and not in the americas. katie and i planned on ways to change the subject like me annoucning i was pregnant (well i was going to say adopting but katie wanted more scandal than that).

we all drove to the ferry in the rain said good bye to our island peeps and i drove home. that's the end palsies. and now it's one am. what is wrong with me???