Thanksgiving in Boise: Days 3 & 4

Our second full day in Boise was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We had planned to go to the new Village in Meridian and take the girls ice skating on Tuesday, but when we went it was really crowded, and getting late in the day and colder, so we decided to get there first thing on Wednesday morning before it got too crazy again.

Aside from skating on a plastic hockey rink in Big Bear, the girls hadn't really ice skated before.  Mr. H and I wound up doing it too, along with Aunt Tania while Uncle Nick watched and took pictures.

Both girls loved it!  And Hannah got the hang of it pretty quick and had a blast.

I really enjoyed it too! Once I got the hang of the ice I wanted to skim all around that rink busting out spins in the air and yelling out "TOE PICK!" just like Kate Moseley did when she was taunting Doug Dorsey in the movie The Cutting Edge when he was learning to be a figure skater. But alas, that did not happen.  Maybe next time! ;)

As I was skating along with Claire I saw one of my mom's lifelong friends Anita walk up to say hello.
Anita and her family live in Meridian now after having spend most of their lives in California.  
She knew we would be in town for the week and I was so glad our schedules allowed us to meet up for a quick visit!

The Village is a brand new center that is still a work in progress.  The ice rink and fountain (above) is in the center of The Village, along with some popular restaurants and a new Edwards Cinemas. The fountain has a water/lights show that is choreographed to music with shows every hour.  The girls thought that was pretty neat.  And of course a play area for the kids.

There were a few shopping stores around that had already opened up, but I guess over the next two years there will be a ton more.

Anita is a talented photographer and she took engagement photos for Mr. Hass and I on a golf course in Temecula way way way back a long time ago.  So I thought it was kinda fun to hand her my camera and have her take a picture of the four of us now.  Of course the girls were over it.  

After visiting a bit more with Anita, she had to leave to run errands and Diane and Jack and Aunt Tania and Uncle Nick all came with us to have lunch at Chipotle in The Village center.  Then it was time to head home and relax and attempt to get the girls to rest a bit before Aunt Karen and Uncle Dusty arrived with their baby cousin Isla!

The last time we saw Isla was in Portland at the end of July and she was just a teeny tiny babe still.  Now she is 7 months old already and just so so so cute!

The girls both made Thanksgiving drawings for Isla and they were so excited to give them to her.  ;)

They also couldn't wait to give her this cell phone and set of keys that they thought she just couldn't live without.  :)  They were right, she seemed to like them! 

And the girls loved dog piling on their Uncle Dusty too!

While Isla got to do some visiting and catching up with her Uncle Jake.  

Thumb wars in the kitchen...

and teaching Isla how the game of UNO is played. 

Grandma Hass and her grand girls.

We had a great night just visiting with the other Hass fam and loving on baby Isla.  The next day was Thanksgiving and we were looking forward to another day of visiting and Isla lovin' and eating.

At 10am Thanksgiving morning friends of Dusty & Karen's and ours, Jason & Lindsie, were coming over with their kids to squeeze in a visit.  

Right when they got there an exciting game of UNO had commenced.  With who else but Hannah in charge.  That girl can be so bossy.  ;)

Claire and Taylor.  I think it is just a one year age difference between these two, but Claire is tall for her age, and I'm guessing Taylor might be small for hers because her mama is so petite too.  
Jason and Lindsie are also another couple of Mr. H's friends that I met one of the very first times I came to Boise way way back in the day.  It's been fun getting to know them, and now seeing their cute kids and how much all of our families have grown.  We had a good visit and before they had to go we wanted to take a few pics of everybody.

First pic was of the two Hass boys and their families.

I crack up at this because Karen and I are trying to fix our hair and the kids are actually ready and smiling.  So funny.

Ok, now we're ready to smile at the camera.  :)
Lots of sun flare in these photos, but that's ok, it was awfully sunny out.  

And everybody in this one, all the Hass' and the Sandy's.

I was SO sad that this picture is not in focus.  It would have been so cute.  I still like it, but bummer about the focus.

Later on after the Sandy's left, the girls wanted to play on the playground behind Grandma's house.  Aunt Tania and Uncle Nick came along too.

And later back inside, we decided to seee just how close to passing up her Aunt Karen in height Hannah is.  Pretty darn close Karen! ;)  They could almost share clothes.  

We all sat down to a nice Thanksgiving feast together in the kitchen.
And after all that food, everybody wanted to go for a little turkey trot outside.

Even little Isla joined in with her cute pink denim jacket on.  

And later after the girls were almost ready for bed, we lounged around some more and watched Charlie Brown's Thaksgiving episode on tv.

And Great Grandma Preston slaved away in that chair all day making sure she made hats for all of us to take home the next day with us!  

We had a great trip.  Thanks so much for having us all Diane!

We left the next morning bright and early.
We flew over San Francisco on our way in to Oakland airport and Claire wanted to know if she could just be dropped off in the city.

Our return flight went very smooth, and there was no risk of missing flights.  

A little bit of turbulence during our descent into Ontario airport, and I didn't realize I was holding my breath and saying a silent prayer.  

I used to love flying.  I'd settle in with my book and my comfy pants, and I was good to go.

Now, with kids... it's a whole other story!

And I get so nervous that we land safely too.

But we did.

So hooray for that.

Thanksgiving Week in Boise: Day 1 & 2

Well,
the big day is just one day away now.
So I figure I better blog about Thanksgiving before Christmas happens.
So here goes...

We had a flight to Boise that left the Monday before Thanksgiving.
We left Ontario at 3pm, and flew to Phoenix.

All went pretty well.
It was funny that seated right behind us on the plane was a mom that I recognized from seeing at the girls school.  Her son is older than Hannah so she didn't know him, but they were very nice and I am always surprised when things like that happen and at how small this world seems sometimes.
Only glitch was that our first flight ran late.  We landed in Phoenix at 5:58pm, and our connecting flight left Phoenix for Boise at 6:02pm.  Everyone on the flight was worried about missing their connections, but we were told that the next flights knew we were late, and just to get there as quickly as we could.  So just imagine this if you will, Mr. H and I trying to tell our girls, "Ok, as soon as we get off we have to RUN!!  Carry your own backpacks, and RUN!!!"  And of course our next flight was so far away from where this one came in.  Mr. H had Hannah by the hand and I had Claire, and we were running through terminals, pulling the girls behind us, running past people on the moving walkway, trying to say excuse me as we passed, and as we were running , we heard the announcement "Last call for Hass party of 4 to Boise, last call for HASS... party of 4..."

Gulp.  For a quick second I panicked and thought about what a nightmare it would be if we really did miss our flight and had to find somewhere to stay the night in Phoenix.
But Mr. Hass left the girls with me and sprinted ahead of us to get them to hold our plane.
And as he ran away, us girls were kept running behind him (with carry ons and backpacks flapping in our wake), Claire starts to cry and scream "DADDY!!" "Daddy, WAIT!!! Daddy don't LEAVE us!!!"

The poor girl.  Maybe she really thought that he might hop on that plane without us.

In the end, it all worked out.  
Mr. H arrived at the gate just as they were closing the doors!
And Hannah slid in right behind him on her knees (Home Alone style) shouting "We're HERE! Don't leave! DID WE MAKE IT???!!!"
Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
After boarding the plane, we sat on the ground for a half hour before the pilot announced his apologies for the delay, and that we were still just waiting for the last 4 bags to make it to the plane before we can take off.
That's when Mr. H and I slouched down lower in our seats, hoping to avoid the stink eye from the rest of the people on our flight.  
So I guess it wound up being a lucky night for the Hass family.
Lucky that we made the connecting flight, and also lucky that our luggage made it safely to Boise as well.
Phew.

We arrived close to 9pm and my mother in law Diane was ready and waiting for us right outside the airport.
Once we were in the car on the way to her house, the heater was running full blast because it was 20 something degrees out, and Hannah sniffs around and asks "What's that weird burning smell?"
We were laughing as we explained that was the heater in the car.  I guess she's not really used to that where we're from.  ;)

The girls didn't quite sleep in like we had hoped the next morning.
But that's ok.
They ran right outside into the backyard to check out the frost on the grass and to giggle about being able to see their breath.
After breakfast we got dressed and headed out for some adventuring with Diane.

First we stopped in at the Audiology Center where Diane works to check it out and say hello.  She showed me the really neat sound proof room inside and I said I sure wished houses came with one of those.  I'd love a sound proof room somewhere in my house to just go hide in those moments of craziness with the crazies!  Maybe have a glass of wine, and then come out when I'm good and ready.  Hahaha.  

Right around the corner from her work is the first house that Mr. H and I ever had together.  So of course we had to go stop by and see it.  It's been 10 years since that was our home.  It was such a cute little place and it was fun to go see it again.

Next stop was the Boise Town Square Mall.  Diane had been wanting to re pierce her ears a little higher, and we thought that would be a good time for the girls to watch her and see that it's no big deal, and for them to get theirs done too.  They've both had them pierced before but they've let them close up.

Hannah was very brave and couldn't wait to get it done.

She got a little nervous, but Dad held onto her hand and she did great.

She was so happy.  Grandma even bought her another pair to wear after she can change them out.  

Claire Bear decided she'd pass on the piercing.  So she picked out a bear and a Sophia doll.  So very Claire.  :)

After leaving the mall we headed into downtown to roam.  First stop was lunch at a little brewery called Bittercreek Ale House.

It was a neat place.  Fun atmosphere.  Food was just so so.  Maybe a better place to go for beer.  ;)

We popped into The Chocolat Bar and that sure was fun.  We each got a truffle to enjoy.

Then Diane took us to BSU so we could check out the stadium and show the girls the broncos blue turf.

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know that Mr. H is the biggest BSU fan.  I think it was almost painful for him to be that close to the field and not get to see a game.  They were playing that Saturday too but we had to fly out on Friday.  Sorry Mr. H!

 After checking out the blue turf, we walked around inside and got to take an up close look at the Fiesta Bowl trophy from 2007.

 Such a big game for Boise State against Oklahoma, and so exciting that we were there!!! Mr. H often says things to me like, "You know that game will go down in history as the best college football game EVER.  You know that right?"  
Yes honey, I know that.  :)

After that we left BSU and headed back to Diane's.  It was getting cooler and darker, and we had to stop at the store and pick up a few things for dessert because we were having some old friends stop by for a visit after dinner and we couldn't wait to see them.
Mr. H's friend Dale from pharmacy school and his wife Molly live in Boise and we have kept in touch with them over the years.  We've even had a couple of fun trips where we met up with them different places, but it had been a while this time.  Their beautiful girls are both just months apart from our own girls ages too so it was really fun.

After Mr. H and I started dating and I began to meet some of his friends, Molly was one of the first girls that I got to know and I have always really liked her.  I remember sitting next to Molly at Mr. H's pharmacy promotion/dinner just days before his graduation. We watched Jake and Dale accept their copies of the parmacist's oath that night.  It's crazy to think of how much we've all grown and changed since then.  We had such a fun time catching up with them, and our girls played so incredibly well while we visited.

Claire and Noel became fast friends.
Such fun on our first day.
I'll be back with the rest of our trip soon.
For now I'll leave ya with this little bit of Thanksgiving humor...

Is that not hilarious???
I am still laughing.