The week that was so busy it's sort of a fog . . .

Where to begin? Let's start at the beginning (a very good place to start). (And yes, we're big fans of the Sound of Music). Last Monday we headed out to my mom and dad's and packed 91 - YES NINETY ONE - shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. That was just our family - not a church effort. My mom and dad collected items all year to put in these boxes, and when it was said and done we had far surpassed our goal. It was AWESOME - what an amazing thing to see and be a part of. I actually have pictures to post, but they are in the wrong format, so I'll get them fixed and post them later.

Then I spent Tues. and Wed. taking care of my BSF responsibilities and getting laundry done, house cleaned, and getting packed for our trip to MN. We hit the road Thursday and had a FUN couple of days in Willmar visiting Mark's family. The boys got spend a lot of time with their cousins - Mark's brother's kids - and I got to RELAX, which I needed soooo badly. Mark's parents got a trampoline last summer and it was put to good use this weekend - so much, in fact, Jack hurt his back. :( I think he's fine now.
We attempted to get a good picture of the 5 cousins - ummm, yeah. Basically impossible. This was as close as we got.

I have the absolute cutest nieces on the planet. They are ADORABLE and it takes a huge amount of restraint on my part not to just pack them up and bring them home with me.

I also happen to love buying clothes for them since I have no girls in my house (or on my side of the family for that matter!), so we brought them early Christmas presents. I bought them totally fabulous hot pink fur vests.

We also took in a holiday lights parade. Bundled the kids up and they had a blast.

We departed Willmar early on Sunday morning and moved on to Minneapolis for the Vikings game. We thought this would perhaps be a joyous occasion for our Vikings-obsessed children. Not so much. Upon leaving Willmar we had very long faces and eyes brimmed with tears because they had SO MUCH FUN and WHY is it we have to leave and WHY can't we just LIVE HERE?!? This mood persisted until we were in our seats and the game started at which point the fog started to clear a little and they managed to produce a little excitement. :)

Had to get a couple pics of Adrian Peterson - the boys' absolute FAVORITE - that's him standing in front of the bench.

And OF COURSE had to get some pics of Brett wearing purple (#4). Still looks funny to me, even in person.

Anyway, the Vikes won - by a lot - but it was still a great time. We were all bummed that it was over so fast.

We then proceeded to my Grandpa's place in Worthington for the night and had a really nice visit with him. The kids were asking him what he did in the war (he's a WWII vet) and on the car ride home today I realized how little I know about the war and for the first time ever, it really bothered me. So I read about WWII on Mark's blackberry for a good chunk of the drive across SD and now I'm feeling I'm "history starved" - I was riveted and can't wait to learn more. Who knew? Go figure.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!