The Jenkins Family: Thanksgiving Week at Gram and Papa's

For Thanksgiving break this year, my parents graciously volunteered to watch our kids so that Spencer and I could get away on a much needed vacation (one that he promised me on our 10 year anniversary back in June)! What a treat it was to escape and spend a glorious week on the beaches in Hawaii - relaxing, reconnecting, and rejuvenating our minds and bodies (more coming on our fabulous vacation later)! We will forever be grateful to my parents for taking our kids for the week- for loving them, spoiling them, adoring them, teaching them, and creating memories that our children will always cherish!

They truly had a week to remember! I loved the daily updates and picture texts my parents would send that has helped me to document their week while we were away.

I gave the girls journals to write the highlights of everyday we were gone. It's been fun reading about their favorite things from each day. Friday the 21st was their first day without us. Madi wrote about getting to go to school with Gram "the whole time Gram goes - 3 hours!" She met lots of new friends, was there for math, reading, lunch, recess, and some fun Thanksgiving activities! Elle stayed home with Papa and "played with Maisy and gave her a big hug".

In the afternoon Gram and Papa took the kids to see "Big Hero 6". Everyone loved it!

On Saturday they went to the "train museum". This field trip was planned mostly in Cal's honor and I guess he wasn't the happiest rider. He was fine when the train was moving but then would cry when the train stopped. ??

Sounded like Cal was a pill for a lot of things on Saturday - totally flipped out when Gram tried to put him in the bath (he loves the bath at home), screamed bloody murder when Gram washed his hair, and so Gram went ahead and just gave him a hair cut since he was doing so much crying already!

Other highlights on Saturday- in Madi's words: "We went to the store and got yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy cof (cough) drops, mmmmmmmmmm. Elle got a water bottle. Cal got new pj's. It was so fun!"

Sunday morning I text mom and requested she take a picture before leaving for church! Melted my heart to start my day with this picture:

Elle wrote in her journal about the new friend she made at church. Madi wrote about the family that got spotlighted and how the youngest said "our parents are hobos"! Madi thought that was hilarious. Then she wrote about what she learned in class and going to choir practice with Gram. Mom told me later how she and dad took the kids home teaching and how they sang for all their home teaching families.

Monday was baking day! The girls worked on a gingerbread house while Gram made muffins and cookies to take to her visiting teacher.

The finished product (taken after we got home):

Other highlights from Monday.... in Elle's words: "Today I helped Gram planted a new Bird of Pardife and I helped and I jumped in the leaves with Zackie and Madilyn, and Cal. We got ice cream."

Monday's highlights according to Madi: "Today we made a gingerbread house! It was so fun! I can't wate to tell you this! So I raked the leaves in Mr. Roy's (Gram and Papa's neighbor) front land (lawn). I felt so good! He never told me to do it I just did it! i also got a new water bottle. I raked the leaves with Elle and Cal and Zacky at the church. I got ice cream too! Elle got coclite (chocolate), Gram got coclite, Cal got coclite too. I got caramel. It was a fun day!"

Tuesday was the "finally" day! It was so cute to talk to Madi Tuesday evening and hear about all the things they finally got to do! They finally got to go in the hot tub (I guess Madi had a cough the first couple days and Gram wanted to play it safe), they finally went to the park - "Dinosaur" and Creekside Parks (they'd just been too busy the other days). They also finally finish watching "Annie" (they'd been watching a little of each day).

Tuesday was also craft day! The girls made stained glass pictures and turkeys with real leaves! Faith came over to join the girls for their afternoon of craft fun, Uno playing, and hot tubbing! They also went and got doughnuts with Papa!

Wednesday was yard work day! I was happy to see that Madi recorded yard work as one of her top 3 favorite things of the week!

They also had the neighbor boys come over in the afternoon to play UNO. Funny story Madi recorded in her journal: "Elle had to apologize to one of the boys because she said "he cheated! Not fair, come on, I don't want to play with you anymore!" I guess Elle had a little trouble loosing this particular afternoon.

Other pictures that fit into their week of fun - fort building:

Nightly scripture reading (Calvin had fun shining "the light of the Gospel" on everyone!):

I made charts for the girls to make sure they completed their "jobs" everyday. It probably ended up being more work for my mom, but I know she likes the structure and organization of each day like I do. What diligent girls Madi and Elle were! I loved hearing about the "service" that they did each day - raking leaves, planting flowers, cleaning up toys without being asked, etc. And big thanks to Gram Rox for coming over to help Madi with her piano everyday!

Spencer and I flew into San Fransisco Thanksgiving afternoon. Our plane got in early so we were excited to be able to catch an earlier train back when we saw a text from dad saying he was coming to pick us up. Great! However dad hadn't planned on us getting in early. While we didn't mind waiting for a bit, I know it killed my dad to have us wait. So while my dad was busy navigating his way in and out of Bay area traffic, his sweet little travel companion (Elle) got a little car sick and threw up in the back seat! Funny how quickly we jumped back into read life! I rushed Elle off to the airport bathroom where I stripped off her pants and booster seat cover and scrubbed them off in the sink while dad and Spencer got the car loaded and back seat cleaned up. All in all it wasn't too bad and we actually got home a good 30-40 minutes faster than if we would have hoped on that earlier Bart. And what great company we got to enjoy the whole drive home!

My mom is incredible and had Thanksgiving dinner all set and on the table right when we walked in the door! Talk about an amazing welcome home! Everything was perfect!

The evening wishbone breaking:

Thankfully Spencer and I got to enjoy two full days with my parents in Brentwood before heading home. It was a nice vacation after the vacation! My parents insisted that we not bring them home any type of thank you for keeping the kids, but rather mom just requested Spencer's help in re-landscaping the backyard rock wall. So that's what kept these three busy for most of the day on Friday:

I happily obliged to keep the kids entertained! A few days away does wonders on a mom - I felt more patient, more loving, more understanding, and just plain excited to be with my kids - boy did I miss them! I suggested we take a morning stroll to look at all the beautiful fall colors. The girls insisted they wear their new Hawaii dresses on our walk. They gathered leaves, sticks, acorns, and hats for their acorn people.

November is my favorite month of the year to come to Brentwood. The weather is cool and crisp and the colors are beautiful. I insisted everyone join me on a walk late Saturday afternoon.