Highlights from our Thanksgiving Break

*FYI: This is a REALLY LONG post. Please don't feel obligated to read it all. The detail is mostly for my benefit because these are memories I want to remember forever! On we go...*

My uncle Jason is in an INCREDIBLE 80s cover band called The 6 Million Dollar Band. My first night home, I, along with my mom, Kurt, grandma Jeanie, and aunt Nicole, was lucky enough to go see them play. It was a lot of fun and they sounded awesome, as usual!

I decided to post the picture above so that you can see everyone in the band, but the picture below is from the show we actually saw. That's my uncle Jason, my mom's brother, rockin' out at the Baker Street Pub in Denver. You can kinda see Ryan, the drummer, on the far right.

Here is my sister Kira after a basketball game that I got to watch her play in. For such a pretty thing, she's a tough player!

After Kira's game, the fam decided to go bowling!

Isn't my mom a babe?

One evening, my Grandpa Joe (my mom's dad), his wife Maria, and their 10-year-old triplets (yes, you read that right...my grandpa has 10-year-old triplets), Sara, Joe, and Amanda came up to have dinner with us at PF Chang's. Yum, yum!

We spent a couple of days at Mama and Papa Benson's house too. It is always so relaxing there. I love that we can just hang around the house together and have fun chatting, cooking, and playing games. Here's a picture of Erin giving Misha some lovin' (you can see Mama Laura and Tara in the background).

Misha made a new best friend while we were home. She followed Mariah around everywhere and sneaked kisses whenever she got the chance! Mariah wasn't too fond of the full-on licks to the face, but she put up with it without too much fuss. I thought it was so cute how good Misha was with Mariah. She was so gentle and sweet. It was fun to watch them interact.

Mariah is such a doll! It's amazing how quickly she is growing up.

Here is a good example of the game playing I was referring to.

Our trip home would have been perfect had it not been for one unfortunate incident...On the day before Thanksgiving while Misha was playing in the backyard at Ryan's parents' house, she somehow managed to almost completely sever one of the pads of her front right paw. It was horrible! We rushed her to a vet in Ft. Collins where they got her all cleaned up. They told us that the wound was pretty deep and only time would tell if the cut tissue would heal or if it would have to be amputated. Poor Misha!! For the rest of the trip we went back to the vet every other day to get her bandages changed and check her progress. Needless to say, Misha was a pretty sad pup for the remainder of our vacation. She did get pretty good at hobbling around on 3 legs after a while, though! My poor baby! Luckily, Misha's paw is healing up fine and thank goodness, no amputation was necessary. I'll be sure to keep you updated on how she's doing. This is pretty much all Misha did after she got hurt:

Our little tripod.

I love this picture of Tara and Ryan. One of Ryan's favorite pastimes is reading. Looks like it's one of Tara's too!

This year, Ryan and I spent Thanksgiving day with his family. Dinner was SO delicious, but my favorite part had to be the dessert. It is a Benson family tradition to make every one's favorite pie for Thanksgiving and that makes for A LOT of pies! I can't remember the exact number, but I think we had somewhere around 10 pies after all was said and done. To Quinn's dismay, Laura invited my family over to help eat all those pies and afterwards we all played Apples to Apples. Sorry, Quinn! I hope you got your fill of pie anyway! :)

Here is the whole crew enjoying Thanksgiving dinner! I couldn't manage to fit everyone into 1 picture so I had to take 2.

Good lookin' family I married into! LOVE them!

We were lucky enough to have 2 Thanksgivings this year. My mom moved our family's Thanksgiving to Saturday so that Ryan and I could be there. Once again, the food was fantastic! Mom and Grandam are some of the best cooks I know! While waiting for our Turkey-day smorgasbord, one of the things we did was play Rock Band. Mom and Jason knew quite a few of the songs so they were excited to play too!

Here are some other random pics from the day:

Presley (most adorable 4-year-old on the face of the planet!!), Kira, and Hayden. Hayden amazed me with his musical talent- he needs to go on American Idol.

Nerds...

Rylan is the newest addition to my uncle Jason's family. He has the prettiest blue eyes wih eyelashes any woman would envy.

Okay, so I had to post this last series of pictures because it was so funny! My silly brothers spent an entire evening entertaining the fam with a bunch of riddles (I guess that's what you'd call them) that they learned from who knows where. One of the riddles was called the Broom Dance. So, first, a person who knows the broom dance gets up and does the dance and then gives the broom to someone else so that they can try and get it right. It's so funny to watch people who don't know what they're doing and it feels so awkward when you're that person up in front of everyone! Ha ha! Anyway, the key is to watch the successful broom dancer closely and figure out what they do each time that makes their broom dance successful. Gradually, people catch on and then they can get up and broom dance for the ones who still haven't figured out the secret. I was horrible at this game. I never figured it out on my own. Ryan had to tell me and then I felt so dumb afterwards! Here are some pics of my ridiculous broom-dancing family...

I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance...

I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance...

I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance...Can you?

When we got to Ryan's family's house, Ryan decided to have his family join in the fun. My favorite broom dance of all had to be Mama Laura's. Definitely the sexiest broom dance I've ever seen! :) I wish I had gotten a picture of her! She had us all laughing so hard. We love you, Laura!

I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance...

I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance...

I can do the broom dance, broom dance, broom dance...Can you?

Whew, almost done... Some final highlights of our trip that I did not manage to get pictures of, but are worth mentioning, include:

• Eating TONS of delicious food: homemade Mexican food (compliments of Grandma Jeanie), homemade Chinese food (compliments of Jim and Mario), lots of out-to-eat food (my favorite thing), my favorite home-cooked meals that my mom picked special for my visit home
• Ryan getting lots of video game time with Quinn, Mario, and my brothers
• Black Friday shopping with Kurt, Grandma Jeanie, and my mamasita
• A Starbucks date with my best friend Christie and her adorable little boy, Mason
• Getting to see Cody, Ryan's best friend who we hadn't seen in ages
• Ryan getting to see Steph, who, again, he hadn't seen in ages
• Stealing my brothers and sister away from school to have lunch with me and my mom
• Misha getting spoiled rotten, especially by all the little kids who'd share their food
• Christmas shopping with my mom...SO EXCITING!!!!
• Spending some quality time with Grandma Jeanie - Holidays just aren't the same when she's not around and it's been so nice to have her back :)
• Playing lots of games with both of our wonderful families

Well, I hope I didn't leave anything out! That's a lot of stuff to remember! Before I go, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for the many blessings in my life. After all, that's what this holiday is all about! I am so thankful to have, not only 1, but 3 families who love me and my little family so much. I know that, no matter what, they will always be there for us. The love of a family truly is one of life's greatest blessings! I am also thankful for our friends, especially the ones in Omaha who have become our family away from home. I really don't know what I would do without you! I'm so grateful for my wonderful husband and for my puppy Misha. I'm thankful for my job, Ryan's success in med school, the roof over our heads, the food in our tummies, and all those other little things we seem to take for granted everyday. And most of all I am thankful for the gospel. I wouldn't know the joy that I do without it!