It’s so hard to believe this was the ninth year we’d made the trip! Time goes by way too fast! To reminisce the last two years, go here for our 2008 Tree Hunt and here for 2009.
Saturday morning we awoke to all of the goodies St. Nick left in our shoes. It seems as the row of shoes gets longer, the size of the treats all get bigger. I guess there’s only so much candy we want these crazy kids to eat!!
Of course Jackson was most excited about all the candy!
Once the kids found this rocking horse in the house, (left by the owners, not St. Nick) they had the best time
By mid-morning the cabin fever was already rising and the temperature outside was not. So the boys decided to bundle the kids up and take them to a nearby park. What better way to burn off energy!!
There was climbing…
And fire truck pretending…
And… Wait, Papa!? That’s for kids, not you!!
{While they were out, they also went to a local gem mine. Each of the kids came back with a sack full of jewels. Jackson had a really nice emerald and ruby. Well, I didn’t know this then, but he also found a sapphire, which is Kate’s birthstone. Sean had them cut, polish and mount the sapphire onto a beautiful pendent, and it was my Christmas gift from Jackson and Kate. It is so pretty and the fact that it has a story behind it makes it so much more special.}
After an attempt at afternoon naps, it was time – GAME TIME!! First up, a sugary game of ‘find all the hidden candy’! Ryley and Jackson are both so serious as they waited to hear GO!
Kate wasn’t nearly as fast as the other kids, but she still found a few treats of her own!
Jackson and Ryley didn’t have any trouble filling their cups!
This picture of Kate has no real caption, other than SHE’S GETTING SO BIG SO FAST!
When I realized Mamma had reeled all the kids in with goldfish, I tried to get a good picture of them all together. Yeah, not so much a pro shot, but hey, this is very realistic of these kids in action, especially Kate trying to get to some food! 
It was quite the busy Saturday b/c after a couple of games it was craft time! While the big boys watched football, the rest of us made pinecone bird feeders. Everyone seemed to have fun smearing the peanut butter and rolling on the bird seed. We hung the feeder up once we got home and the birds have really seemed to enjoy our craft, too! 
After we all sat down to enjoy a yummy Thanksgiving dinner, we went back down to the basement for more games. Each of the adults brought a ‘Minute to Win It’ game or something similar. Since my game was pretty simple, Ryley and Jackson joined in the fun, too! The object of this game: Put Vaseline on your nose then using only your nose, try to move cotton balls from one bowl to another. 
No doubt Amy was the champion of this game! 
Sunday morning we got all packed up and made our way to the tree farm before heading home. The tree farm we visited this year was by far my favorite of all those in year’s past. The terrain was beautiful, yet relatively flat which was great for the little ones and the selection of trees was excellent! I think we found our tree in less than 5 minutes! 
Once the tree selection was complete and we’d gotten a good family picture, we attempted to get a picture of Mamma and Papa with the grandkids. Amy did manage to get a good one, but as you can see, my takes were more like out-takes. 
