The Swin Life: Four Days of Family Fun

We spent four days with our family for Thanksgiving. We packed so many activities into our four days that when we finally got back home none of us wanted to do anything but sit around. Worth it though, completely!

Our fun started Wednesday as we drove down to OKC. I got to kick off my holiday weekend with a haircut. My friend Kacia cut my hair and I love it! I think I might get my hair cut 3 times a year so I was in serious need. She gave it shape without chopping it off! Perfect! And she curled it for me so it looked awesome for our ice skating adventure!

As soon as I was finished we headed to meet family at the outdoor ice rink Downtown. Blake and Claire (the youngest cousins minus Chloe) skated with everyones help. I skated with my cousins Whitney and Alyssa. I must admit that I was a little mad that we had to pay $12 for Blake to skate but when he loved it so much it didn't matter anymore. It was so fun to watch him try to balance on the skates. He kept holding his arms out to his sides as Andrew pushed him along. The smile on his face never faded, even when he fell. I think he may have gone around more times than I did! Three is a fun age to try a lot of new things! I can't wait to take him again here. The day started out beautiful but when we were skating it felt so cold. Actually perfect for ice skating. I wanted to go shop the little shops that were close by but they closed before we were finished skating.

See my hair looked good for skating!

After skating we went to Aunt Lane and Uncle Randy's house for pizza.

A selfie at Kohl's while shopping with mom to show off my outfit. Andrew asked me if I got a new wardrobe before we left.

Thanksgiving Day! I woke up at 6:00am to go run the OKC Turkey Trot at Hefner Lake. I really would like to start doing that every year. It was COLD but I survived. I ran a 5K in 32 minutes in 29* weather not my fastest but not my slowest either. I'm not disappointed in that time at all. I am so glad this nice lady ran up beside me at about mile 1 though because we paced each other throughout the entire race!

Martha and I after the run!

After the run I went back showered and got ready to head to Thanksgiving number 1 of the day at my Nana's house. I am a little sad that I didn't even take one picture during that time. I mean we took some on our good camera for some family pictures but not like the normal ones of my cousins and I that I would get. Ugh. I did get to see my cousin who just joined the Navy. I was so fun to hear him talk about bootcamp and A-school. I am excited for him and his journey. (He is headed to his ship next week and will be out in the Persian Gulf for about 6 months.) We had a delicious meal of fried turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, ham, rolls, chicken and dumplings, jalapeno poppers, mac-n-cheese, broccoli cheese casserole, dressing, and mashed potatoes. I'm sure something else too but I can't remember. For dessert I only ate chocolate delight that they were calling chocolate lasagna. It was SO good. We also had pumpkin pie, apple pie, and pecan pie. The "big" boys took a nap and Blake gave them all a ticket and tried very hard to wake them up before giving up and turning out the lights and shutting the door on them. It was pretty funny to watch. Once we had everything all cleaned up it was time to head to Thanksgiving number 2 of the day. This time we went to The Ross' house. (my aunt and uncle) This is the first time we have ever had Thanksgiving at their house and not at my Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was nice having the space with all of us there. I really didn't eat much this time because I ate like a pig at my first meal since I was having a post run hunger! There was turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, and lots of snacks. For dessert we had pumpkin pie, pecan pie and apple pie. I can't believe I never ate a slice of pumpkin pie all week. I don't love it but I normally eat just a small slice. It was so great to visit with everyone and really get a chance to talk about life things with my cousins that I don't chat with often enough. I also got to know my cousins fiancee a little better which was great too!

Our Thanksgiving family photo.
I curled my own hair I'll get the hang of it.

Black Friday. Well it was really just Friday for us. We did get up and go to the liquor store and stood outside for 10 or so minutes before it opened to get a beer. It is only released on Black Friday every year. Want to know which beer it was? So do I! I can't remember what it was called and I still haven't gotten to drink it. Good thing the liquor store opened at 10 and I didn't have to get up super early to get it. After the beer adventure we went to have Thanksgiving with Andrew's family. We had all the same yummy food we had twice the day before, turkey, dressing, broccoli and cheese, spinach dip (seriously delicious), hummus, veggies, brussel sprouts, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes and rolls. It was great sitting around talking to everyone and seeing how big the kids have gotten. I even got to take a little nap after we ate. That is until I woke up coughing my head off. Ugh it ruined my awesome nap! Andrew's cousins schooled me on the process of a ct-scan because I am having one done Wednesday. They warned me of how strange the meds are going to make me feel. (I'll let everyone know how it goes.) When we left Andrew's aunts house we went to his moms house and hung out there for the rest of the night. Blake had so much fun playing with his Grandma I'm pretty sure he forgot Andrew and I were there. We did do some online shopping at Gap for Blake. Everything was 50% off which is an even better deal than their cyber Monday sale they had today.

Saturday morning we got up and met the Texas group (my aunt, uncle and cousins) at their hotel and ate donuts. We made them late for their original departure time but I'm sure they didn't mind. Blake was busy entertaining them with his stories about Rescue Bots Transformers. (I'm serious that is all the kid talked about ALL week and ALL the time!) When we left them we went to Bass Pro to visit Santa. Blake was so excited to tell Santa that he wanted an Optimus Prime with a trailer. He told him he wanted that plus Bumblebee and he was almost in tears when he realized that he forgot to tell Santa he wanted a bike too. (Good thing momma and daddy know Santa so well!) I promised him we could write a letter to Santa to make sure that he knew everything Blake wanted. Crisis diverted. We had lunch with a group from my family before we headed to take our family (just the 3 of us) pictures. I'm pretty sure they turned out good because Blake was mostly cooperative and the wind didn't blow my hair in my face for every picture. Not to mention that our photographer is pretty awesome! He sent me this sneak peek today! I love it!