November- Smith's Visit Part 1

(My sister has already posted about this, sorry for those of you who already read about it. :))

The last half of November was a wonderful time for our family!  My sister, Emily, and her family came all the way from Alabama to visit!  This was the first time my whole family had been together in almost 3 years.  They had at least one significant hiccup on there flight here.  My sister left her super $nice$ camera on the plane!  The story thankfully had a happy ending and the camera was found and mailed to my house!  

Sunday, the 17th, was my last Sunday "acting" as Primary President and was also our Sacrament Meeting Presentation.  My sisters kids got to enjoy watching a primary program instead of being in it.  Later that evening, we visited my mom's parents and celebrated my brother's birthday.  

My niece, Kelsey, was already a little jealous of her mommy holding another baby.  So we let Kelsey have a turn too.  :) Anna looks confident she's safe, right?  :)

That night we headed up to Dan's parents' place in Mantua so all of us Thompsons could be under one roof and spread out a little.  We were there Sunday night-Wednesday evening.  

The kids enjoyed some ranger rides! 

We also had some time to be tourists and drove out to Promontory Point where the Golden Spike was driven to connect the Union and Central Pacific Railroads and created the first Transcontinental railroad.   

A cute moment with Dylan and Ben

We toured the engine house where the steam engines are housed for the Winter.  McKenna got to be a helper for the Ranger as a size comparison to the wheels of the two engines.  

The original golden spike is now housed in Stanford, but there is a commemorative rail and plaque where the original spike was placed.

Ben was being super cooperative for a picture. :) 

It was fun to sit around at family dinner that night and talk about how much we learned about the engines and the monument.  

My brother brought up his XBox Kinect and the kids loved playing this funny ninja game.  

There was also lots of baby snuggling!

We even had a paper airplane "contest." 

And the kids preferred these seats while they watched a movie.  

There was girl bonding as Aunt Pickle painted fingernails.  

And of course we had to partake of some delicious cuisine from Maddox!  

I was such a glorious time to be all together in the same house!  We also stayed up late and watched a few movies, kids played a little in the snow, and as my sister would say, we just enjoyed breathing the same air! :)