I really ought to tie a camera to my belt loop...

Thanks to Kristin and Bill for taking most of these pictures I'm posting. I was about to pilfer these gems from their own blog, but Kristin was kind enough to send me the originals. Yay!

What a weekend! A flurry of activity, but not too busy. Heaps of delicious food, but not too rich. Lots of time with friends and family, but not too much. Bobby got Thursday morning to himself while Alice and I had fun at the Family History Center doing some administrative stuff...and a little of my own research, too...this kid has the patience of a saint sometimes. Then we ran laps in the church gym and I actually enjoyed it. With the cold, wet weather I haven't been very active lately. It felt good to get my heart going again and play with Alice at the same time. We played dominoes with the Hatch family as they prepared for the Thanksgiving party at the church, then went home again to start cooking the turkey.

Alice had a long and pleasant quiet time. We've started giving her books and her "baby" to take to her crib with her. She plays for half an hour, sleeps for an hour, then plays for another half hour. It gave Bobby and me plenty of time to work on our own projects. He was writing a software program to get the scriptures on the new Google smart phone and I was going through the "Last Will and Testament" records of some of my 1850's family from the Carolinas. Fascinating read! And to think they were just sitting around in the UIUC library this whole time!

Thursday afternoon, Bill and Kristin and Will came over for Thanksgiving dinner. Alice adores that sweet, bouncy, enthusiastic kid. They giggled and made faces at each other all throughout dinner, copying sounds and facial expressions, chomping on bites of food like dinosaurs. I had a great time just hearing them laugh. My pickled okra was WAY too spicy. My pickled beets were just right.

After dinner, I raked the backyard to make a pile of leaves. I wasn't sure if the kids would like it, but they did! Will took running leaps. Alice trailed behind, copying his every move and sound. Then we threw leaves into the air and all over the place. It was the most fun I've ever had with a pile of leaves. You can't see it in the video, but Will and Alice were all smiles when the leaves and dead grass would rain down on them. They dumped it on their own heads and threw it at other people.

Alice collected handfuls at a time and ran it over to a secret place by the garden. She made a little mound of leaves right where she used to pick tomatoes. I smiled a sad little smile remembering that spot just a couple months ago...wondering what Alice was remembering about it.

We came back inside for dessert and then the kids watched a movie while the adults played Phase 10. Bobby called his parents but they weren't home. We hypothesized regarding their whereabouts...snowmobiling, visiting the sick and afflicted, screening their phone calls and hiding from their kids. I suggested they ran off to see the guys with the white tigers. Bill thought I was referring to some new neighbor of his parents who somehow began to raise white tigers in Idaho Falls. I tried to give more details:

"What are their names?! They've got white tigers and a big show in Vegas and one of them almost died when the tiger attacked him..."

Kristin, a psychology major as an undergrad, pipes up, "Oh, is it Sigmund and Freud?"

"Yeah! That's them! Your parents went to see THEM!"

Bobby says, "You mean Sigfried and Roy?"

I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants. I'm still laughing out loud just writing about it! Maybe we were drunk on turkey, but we laughed SO hard and SO loud that Alice and Will shut the door to the TV room so they could watch their movie in peace.

Friday was more quiet time for the whole family. I got to spend a couple hours at the Family History Center with those "Last Will and Testament" abstracts. We played games, napped, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Friday evening, we decided (a bit last-minute) to head down to my friend's house in Effingham for the night. She and her family were out of town, but they said we could sleep at their place so we wouldn't have to drive as far to the temple on Saturday morning. We ate dinner at Niemerg's Restaurant, which was exactly what I was in the mood for that night. Lots and lots of gray-haired folk had gathered there and Alice pointed and announced loudly at each one, "Ma-mah!" or "Bah-pa!" depending on the gender of the accused.

Saturday morning, I realize I did not pack a coat for Alice. Sheesh. I need a professional person to pack for me. We got a late start on Saturday and managed to leave my friend with a messy bed, dishes in her sink and our lunch in her fridge (that'll teach her to think twice about inviting us over again). We met Bill, Kristin, and Will there. As Bobby mentioned earlier, Kristin sacrificed her coat so Alice could go on a walk with Will.

Later, while I was watching Alice and Will, we went to the grocery store to pick up things for lunch. I like having more than one kid to wrangle for small doses of time. It's kind of like training for a larger family in the future. I get to test my parenting skills on two different ages while gaining MORE appreciation for all those parents out there who do it 24-7. We used the grocery cart with the car on front (and 2 functioning seat belts!). Except for a hunger-induced meltdown at the register, we did pretty well.

Sunday was like most Sundays except we had the first real snow of the year. Bobby invited Alice to join him outside and she agreed. We bundled her up in her snow suit, gloves, and hat and she just stood there watching. I think it's the hypnosuit affect again.

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2008/AliceSnowBobbyShovel.flv[/flv]

And so ends this epic blog entry! Thanks to those of you who saw it through to the end :)