A week full of Thanks....

-God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today,

have you used one to say "thank you"?

- William Ward

We've had a lot to be thankful for this past week.

First off, it was Dan's Birthday! We are definitely thankful for him! We took him to Buca di Beppo, his favorite restaurant for a delicious dinner. And he chose Peanut Butter Cookies instead of a birthday cake. (Don't you love his plaid pj's?!) Happy Birthday Danny Boy, we LOVE you!

For Dan's Birthday gift he got a ticket to go to the Oregon/Cal game with my dad, pops Smidt, Jess, Jason and Shawn. It was definitely a 'guys' weekend and they all had a great time. Everyone knows what a BIG fan Dan is of Duck Football so it was a good thing they were victorious! (still undefeated) He kept saying it was the best week of his life having the Duck's ranked at #1 in the BCS polls and also that the McRib was back at McDonalds. (yuck) What a nut! The game was special for Pops Smidt too because he actually used to play for Cal Bears back in the day! So they were able to walk thru campus with pops and learn some history about his college days.

We made the long drive to Illinois for Turkey Day. We were so lucky to have dry roads the whole week, which made the trip nice and easy. The kids were fabulous and we found a couple of good hotels (one with an indoor water park), so they were in heaven. I'm just so thankful that we have a DVD player in the car, I think that makes all the difference! We had such a nice time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was so much fun to have everyone all together, it's been a long time since that has happened. Dan's brother and his family are back living in Illinois after living in Japan and France for the past 7 or so years. So it was really nice having all the cousins around to play and get to know each other better. They are all best buds now! I also had a great time hanging out with my cute nieces and nephew! Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful week! And all the DELICIOUS food! By the end of the week we were back to wearing our elastic sweats!

I know we all try to be thankful all year round, but I really love that this time of year we all take the time to reflect on what we have all been blessed with in life. It's great to just pause and have a whole day of Thanks. I am so thankful that we had such a great Thanksgiving week.

(click on collages to enlarge)