Day 6 of the Klingenmaier CA vacation we had originally thought we'd head out to Joshua Tree and do a little light hiking. However, after walking throughout the zoo the day before we still a bit worn out by Wednesday morning. Both Micah and Luke were fighting runny, gunky noses and hadn't been sleeping/napping the greatest. We weren't so sure that hiking around Joshua Tree in the cold wind without adequate warm clothing, especially for the boys, was a good idea. So we decided to post pone the Joshua Tree excursion and opted for something indoors and a little closer to home. Aaron found a children's museum in Palm Springs that looked good so we loaded up the boys and headed east. The weather in Beaumont was not so pretty but Palm Springs was beautiful...real CA weather. :) It was a smaller museum but had plenty to offer a 19 month old and almost 11 month old. We all had a great time watching the boys play, enjoying the warm weather and just hanging out. I took as many pictures as I could before my camera battery died. Here are a few, in no particular order...
The Micah Man learning about magnets
Coloring Pictures
Coloring a turkey in honor of Thanksgiving
Playing in the sandbox outside - adults trying our best to keep the sand IN the box.
Micah chasing a ball around the grassy area. Poor kid was a little small to keep up with all the older kids running around and had to seriously fight for his toys!
Back to the sand
Taking a joyride
Testing out the police motorcycle
More fun toys
Digging in the archeological exhibit, complete with the costume
Aaron and Micah's turn on the motorcycle
Making a ramp/maze for the ball to roll down
When we got back home Erika and I got busy prepping for our Thanksgiving meal. We definitely felt very 'grown up', planning and prepping everything for the meal ourselves. It was so fun to be able to chop and chat. I rather prefer cooking that way!We found a recipe for the turkey on allrecipes.com that sounded good so we decided to give it a try. We had to brine the turkey for 24 hours in a salt water mixture. I thought my stock pot would be big enough but I was way off. Aaron found a large bucket in our garage and put it to good use holding the turkey. So we are a little bit on the redneck side! It turned out fabulous regardless of the slightly unconventional way it was prepared.
View of our fridge the night before Thanksgiving. Not much room. We had to get creative with the small amount of space but it worked out.
Luke 'helping' Erika make a mint chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert
Some final preparations of the turkey before popping it in the oven on Thanksgiving morning
Luke was just a little anxious for the bird to be done! It smelled SO good!
Sister Cooks - our first Thanksgiving together as the adults. No more kiddie table for us!
The finished meal! It's making me hungry all over again.
Matt and Jung digging in
Mmmmm. Good.
The boys even did the dishes afterward!
... Sort of.
After completely stuffing ourselves and getting the meal mostly cleaned up, we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of watching football, naps, playing with Luke and Micah, and chatting. The DeJong's joined us for dessert later on in the evening adding two more little boys to the mix. It was so much fun watching them all play and interact together. Needless to say there were toys everywhere! Which is really how it should be. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are so very thankful for all of God's blessings and hope to live out our gratitude on a daily basis.
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