Our BIG Thanksgiving trip...make sure to read the ending!

Usually we stay home for the holidays. But this year the kids had the day before Thanksgiving off and Nathan only worked a half day so we decided to "go home for the holidays", Nathan's childhood home that is. They always have such a huge get-together and we missed both reunions this summer so we wanted to go and see everyone. It was a WONDERFUL and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I am so glad we went!

This is just the Tolman side, meaning Nathan's dad's family. They hold it at the church because about 120 people came! It is crazy to think we had Thanksgiving dinner with that many people, all the turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing to feed them all! The food was great and we had everything! Nick and I were hoping they would have deviled eggs, since that is one of our favorites. Guess what? They did! I helped in the kitchen when I could so I felt like I was doing something. I brought a few pans of pumpkin bars and the cranberry sauce.

Ben got his "finger olives", a happy boy!

Andrew helped with clean-up! Everyone pitched in so wonderfully!

After dinner the kids played basketball, several board games were set up, and we did a lot of talking and visiting.

Tatiana and Nick with one of their favorite cousins, Tracy. We love her!

After dinner, the kids and I stayed at the church with most of the relatives while Nathan went Chucker hunting with his cousin, Randy. They had a really good time and I am so happy that Nathan and Randy were able to spend that time together.

The next day we went to Nathan's mom's sister, Cindy's, home. We went to eat leftovers and watch the Boise State game. It was a lot of fun and good to see a few of that side of the family. They also have a new home which was a lot of fun to tour. Tons of ideas for our next home rolling around in my head now! Here is Nathan's mom, Connie, Aunt Cindy, Nathan, and uncle Steve.

Tatiana enjoyed playing pool upstairs.

Nick and Ben got into the team spirit with some of Cindy's props. Go Broncos!

I had to include this picture. No one taught Andrew how to do this. He just saw Ben doing it and copied. He is such a little copy cat!

On Saturday, the kids helped Grandma put together and decorate her Christmas tree. This was a real treat for everyone involved!

Later that afternoon we all went to the movies. We saw Planet 51. It is very funny! The kids really enjoyed it. We brought their cousin, Aubree, along. She is such a cutie!

On the way home we stopped in the pass to go sledding. We drove the truck and packed all our snow gear and sleds with. There was not any snow at Grandma and Grandpa's so we stopped on the way home. We spent several hours there and had a really great time!

I love this picture of Andrew with his daddy! It shows how big our baby is getting and is a great candid shot.

After several runs down the hills on sleds, the kids decided they wanted to dig out snow caves. Nick got a pretty good one dug! He takes after his daddy!

You can tell how late it is because you see the sunset in the background of this one. We got there at around 3:00PM and stayed until the sun went down.

We actually were not going to stay that late but the kids were having a great time and everyone was being good that we thought, "why not?!" Nathan took Andrew back to the truck once the sun started to go down because the temperature was dropping.

Then just after giving the other kids a 10 minute warning a woman came running up telling us about someone who had been seriously hurt. She said her husband was over there on 911 with his phone. I asked her if anyone helping was medically trained. She said she didn't think so and offered to watch my kids. I had been talking to her a little before and she was there with her 5 year old son, so instinctively I felt that was okay. I ran around the hill to find a man having a seizure. I have never seen a full scale, foaming at the mouth seizure in real life. But I had been trained so I jumped in. I started to give orders and relay important information to the man with 911 on the phone. We stabilized him and treated for a head injury and shock. He is a 24 year old man about 220 pounds and he decided to go off of a jump (keep in mind it hadn't snowed up there for days and the "snow" was packed ice). He flipped up and landed on his head. He suffered from shock (beaded perspiration), brain injury (several seizures, non-responsive pupils, unable to speak and only made grunting and moaning noises, wouldn't respond to anyone by squeezing our hands in response to questions, etc.) obvious concussion, and possible neck injury. I am hopeful his spinal cord was uninjured because he could move all his extremities. It was very intense and scary. I handled things really well during the incident. Then afterwards felt a little shaky and sick, the adrenaline coming down and possible a little shock myself from seeing someone like that. I am not use to it. The next day I was shaking for most of the day. It was weird, I couldn't even poor Andrew a bottle without spilling some. But eventually I calmed down. I am so glad we were there. I am so glad that we didn't leave earlier like we had planned. Because no one else there had any medical training at all! Nathan was in the truck with Andrew and I was properly trained to give the aid needed. If he needed stitches or something more that only Nathan could do, then I would have taken the time to have someone run for him and then fill him in. But he was where I needed him, taking care of Andrew and I was where I was needed at the moment. It worked out. The most amazing part of this tragic situation is how so many strangers came together and selflessly helped without any second thought or worry for themselves. It was a terrible start to the holidays for this man and his family, but I hope they also felt the love of strangers and realize the Lord's hand in helping him. We really were planning on leaving about an hour earlier! The Lord is mindful, this I do testify!