Thanksgiving and Fun with Papa in Lodi

Today is Papa's Birthday.  I really thought that we would call him when everyone was home AFTER my RS Christmas Party....however, since I am such a wild party girl, by the time I got home it was too late.  Sad times.  

So since Papa is my most loyal reader of the blog...I thought I would dedicate my recap of my next part of our trip to him.  :)

My two handsome guys slicing up the turkey...

Papa just had knee surgery on his second knee.  He is improving day by day, but isn't quite back to his normal break-dancing self.  (Hopefully he will be better than his normal self...with new knees!) 

One thing about that Papa is that he has something against sitting at the table.  This seems to be his favorite spot.  

James, Nana, Ryan, and my tasty loaded Thanksgiving Plate.  

"The Kid Table"

I had Sophie all dressed up in her Thanksgiving best, but when the sun went down she thought it was PJ time. 

PJ's and Thanksgiving dinner are actually a really good idea. 

On Thanksgiving I was really wishing I had my camera...but iPhones are pretty handy so I am grateful for a back up. Our good friend Debbie and her twin sons joined us for the Feast.  She offered to take a picture  Thanks, Debbie! 

Yum. 

James had a meeting with the cranberry sauce.  I think the cranberry sauce won the tasty award this year.  So good. 

I always have a meeting-of-sorts with some part of my meal.  

I am just going through my iPhone pics and these next few are screen shots I took of articles I must have been researching to back up my distain for children and technology.  

Let's just say the kids consumed A LOT of media on Thanksgiving...and no me gusta.  We were on vacation...so I have to give them a pass sometimes.  However, I find it makes them fight more and get GROUCHY. 

Steve and I were pretty much BFF's when it comes to parenting techniques.  

I think that most of America has bought into the idea that more technology in the classroom is a good thing.  If I had it my way there would be black boards, chalk, and LOTS of books.  

Apparently many Silicon Valley Execs agree and pay upwards of $30,000 a year to send their kids to such schools. 

What do these screen shots have to do with Thanksgiving?  LOTS.  For starters, I am so thankful for Google and the ability this technology (that I am sometimes so against) gives me to look up any facts to support any opinion I may take.  Thank you, Google.  You are pretty fantastic. 

Back to the good stuff-these girls love spending time in Papa's office. 

Papa is pretty fun to cuddle on the couch with and watch a movie. 

Papa is the best and cutest photo bomber. 

And apparently he is more photogenic that Katie and I were.  (I told him it was my wonderful photography skills, but we all know it is because he is such a stud.)

 PS Papa is also the King of Bear Hugs and always is willing to give a weary traveler some love. 

I wish tonight for his Birthday we could all be together to have a feast like this one we had at King Tsin.  

King Tsin has been our favorite Chinese Food in Lodi (for some of us, in the world) for years. 

Had to get Nana in there too because she is pretty cute too. 

Annie was a little solemn since it was her last night in Disneyland, I meant Nana and Papa's house.  Pretty much the same thing, right?!

We sure love you, Papa!!!!!  Hope you had a wonderful day and got to have a few special moments to know how much you are loved. We are glad you are on the planet with us.  

xoxoxo

First 24 hours of our Trip

December is here, and it is going to be a busy month.  However, compared to the last couple months of crazy...I've got this!  I have started putting up a few decorations.  Just a little at a time. I don't know how much I will do this year.  However, no matter how much a try to keep it simple, I usually can't help myself and I end up decorating to the hilt.   While in CA, my Mother-in-law gave me full permission to play around and decorate some of her house.  I just love to do it! If anyone else wants to cook for, feed, and entertain my children to the max I will be happy to come decorate for you too! 

Now...on to our Thanksgiving week.  I brought my good camera to CA, but forgot my memory card.  So, it was all iPhone photos for me. 

Getting out of town is always the craziest part of the whole trip for me.  This time was especially nuts because I didn't want to leave the house in such a crazy state of unpacking/moving-in-madness.  I ended up pulling a couple practically all nighters to get out of here.  The actual day we left I told the kids I needed lots of help if they wanted to get off to see Nana.  It was the first time I have seen Sophie so motivated to work.  She spent about an hour meticulously folding her pile of laundry.  It was so cute I had to document it. 

EVERYONE, especially my older boys, were pining away for a van after this trip.  We are all officially over the suburban for long trips.  Santa, could you please bring us an extended van?  Thanks, that would be great. 

We arrived in Lodi at 4am.  After sleeping in that morning (at least some of us did) we all headed out to the park.  Lodi was just beautiful all week. We could not have asked for better weather.  

Check out that Nana...

I wish I could figure out how to upload the tricks Joshua was doing on the swings.  We got some crazy slow-mo footage of some stunts and crashes. 

Getting the kids to pose for a family picture was no easy task.  It reminds me why I still don't have a picture for our Christmas Card yet. 

Lunch was at In-n-Out.  When you are Nana, you get to park however you want. 

We have so many pictures of the boys in this tree.  This trip when they saw it they could not get over how "small" it seemed now.  

Our first item of business while in California was some desperately needed haircuts from our favorite barber ever.  

After all the boys and Ryan had been cleaned up the Barber and his family headed out to get pizza with us.  Every time we see these guys it makes me miss them and we pick up right where we left off. 

The little boys...

The big boys...

 I posted that one on instagram.  "When did this happen?"  #growingup

These guys are all crack ups.  That's Ryan and Rion in the back. 

 Just looking at these pictures makes me smile. 

 I sure hope that Katelyn comes to BYU up in Rexburg next year.  

After we pretty much got booted out of the Pizza place because they were closing, we headed back to Lodi.  In 24 hours we had driven from Idaho and had a full day of fun in Cali.  

It was a great start to our week. 

Bogren's Play Baseball at Bear Lake

I wanted to do a recap of our Thanksgiving trip to California while it is fresh in my mind!  The kids had the whole week off of school and so we decided to take advantage and take a trip our to visit Nana and Papa for the Holiday.  It was a great break away from the business of regular life. I will have to show more from the trip another day though.  My pictures are not uploading!  In the meantime,  I have not caught up with so many fun things we have done since summer...I figured why not do a little recap of our other Bogren trip we had not too long ago.

We had a mini-Bogren reunion at Bear Lake in September.  The weather was beautiful!  It was so fun to be able to go back and sneak one last trip in at the lake.  One thing the crew did a lot of was baseball games in the back yard.  I caught a lot of the action on camera.

September is a beautiful time to be at Bear Lake!  It feels like a different place than it does in July though...very quiet! 

Aunt Melanie has some baseball skills...me, not so much.  I just stayed behind the camera. 

Check out little Amelia's hair...she is a mermaid I tell ya.  It is so white and so beautiful. 

Luke

James

The evenings were just perfect. 

I think someone might be smack-talking the other team here...

Ezra playing his own little game while Daddy looks on. 

(Looks on laughing...)

Sophie is more a "sit and watch" type of girl.  She was happy to play with her new pink pony. 

 Go,  Melanie! 

Uncle Dane finding a ball in the weeds...

Joshua is always full of excitement. 

James

Dad is pitcher. 

Swing!

Uncle Dane helping Annie out. 

Run, Annie, Run! 

Look at her tongue up above and here, she is not the only Bogren that does this. 

Go, James!  Dad's gonna get you! 

Safe?

 She has it down! 

Ballerina-Baseball Player

Joshua getting into the game...

Michael bares his tongue too...

This picture is out of focus, but I love how Luke is keeping his eye on the prize. 

Also out of focus, but the only one with me! 

The sky was always changing, and it was so beautiful! 

So much beauty in every direction. 

During one of the games I took Amelia on a little walk and look what I found!  A mother Moose and her baby, RIGHT IN FRONT OF US.  

More pictures from the reunion to come!  Such fun memories.  I guess this is a Thanksgiving Post after all.  Looking back at these pictures makes me feel so thankful!  

I am thankful for wonderful Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. 

I am thankful for a husband that is also a great father. 

I am thankful for my children that are healthy, growing and developing into great people even though they can sometimes give me some serious stress and cause me to freak out occasionally.

I am thankful for the beautiful world that we live in.  

I am thankful for the sun and sunsets each morning and evening.  The sky is an amazing portrait that changes hourly and it is just amazing. 

I am thankful for animals and wildlife. 

I am thankful for seasons and the change that comes with each one. 

I am thankful for cameras and technology that make it so much easier to capture memories and share them.