Thanksgiving

The Garcia side of the family lives in AZ. They started out here, and one by one moved away. For it being only 6 hours away, we just don't see them often enough. I refuse to go out there in the heat of the summer, and well, in AZ, that is 80% of the year!

This year we went out for Thanksgiving and had a great time. The boys are at the age, and have just recently gotten there, where they remember their cousins, even when they only see them twice a year. They picked up where they left off and were wild animals together for 4 days
straight.

Adriana is the only girl on the Garcia side, and is an absolute doll! She has so much personality and is just so different from the boys, although she does make sure that she is not forgotten in their games.

The first night that we were there (we were fortunate enough to stay with Adrian and Nichole, thanks again!!!) we put all 4 kids in the same room. Sighris, Adriana, Roman and Isaac. We had tried putting all the boys together when they
were last at our house, and it had worked well. They had gone right to sleep. Either we had done a better job wearing them out last time, or Adriana was the little wild card that kept them all up until after TEN!!! (We all tend to lean more to the later) Adrianna finally passed out in the hall way sometime before eleven!

Thanksgiving was delicious!! Julie and Clarissa must have spent the whole week cooking. We had the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole... PLUS we had Puerto Rican pasteles. Yum. I was so
stuffed but wanted to keep eating!!!

After dinner it was of course time to visit... AKA dog pile. Who am I kidding?? This happened the whole night :) The AZ Garcias are a little wilder than our boys... but they had a blast cheering for their cousins. Isaac tried to jump in a few times, we saved him before he took a kick to the head or got rolled on. A few more years, and he'll be able to get in the mix better.

It was a really great visit, and I enjoyed watching the boys with their cousins. The only problem
was keeping the baby out of their way. Hopefully next year he'll be able to join in a little more.

Oh, we also went to one of the least exciting parades ever in Tempe. There just wasn't a lot of noise and excitement. And we got there as it was starting so there was no where to sit. We had to hold all the kids, and the baby was a fuss ball (he had been MISERABLE the whole day). That was were we took that quick group pic.