happy thanksgiving!

we enjoyed our last thanksgiving as a family of four, and are thankful for the two healthy, happy and, at times, challenging kids that we have!  we were lucky to spend time with family over the long weekend and are grateful for the many people in our lives that love liv and jacks. i just hope our family has the capacity to let another little baby into their hearts and the willingness to help us manage an expanded litter of rug rats!

we enjoyed a quiet T-day morning with chocolate croissants at our favorite bakery

some warm milk to wash everything down

milk mustache for 'movember'

i think they now expect me to start frothing their milk in the morning

we headed to the park to burn off some energy

they were very thankful for the endless supply of crackers at uncle mike's and auntie keet's house

they didn't know what to do with a TV at their level

getting silly with auntie keet

best buddies

enjoying our first thanksgiving book
(i bought it without reading it first, not a good idea)

we headed to sacramento to visit abuelo and abuela
(jacks nearly died when he walked in to see this train)

we headed to the sacramento zoo for the morning

livi had no desire to ride the zoo train, so she headed straight for the carousel

jacks and i met up with the train conductor
(aka abuelo)

jacks is thankfully excellent at waiting in line

all aboard!

while we were on the train, livi held our place in line for the giraffe feeding

jacks stepped right up to feed his buddy

livi originally had no interest, but surprised us when she came over mid-feed wanting to join

we were pretty proud of her for overcoming her fear!

on a safari

they had a pretty fun time checking out the pictures of themselves

of course, we had to end the visit with one more trip to the carousel

what handsome pellegrini boys

the family took a nice sunset stroll

liv and jacks showed off their skills

zooming by!

as usual they got tired of scooting, so the walk home took twice as long

thankfully, we had uncle mike to help haul everything home!

jacks was shooting pool with abuela's family

abuela kept the kids entertained with some books as the evening wound down

before we left the next day, the kids dictated letters to abuelo
(they literally list out letters for him to write)

abuela led a fun activity that included paper towel rolls, tape and pieces of paper
(i personally think she should trade in retirement to become a preschool teacher!)