happy post-thanksgiving, everone. hope you all had your fill of turkey (or tofurkey), potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc. last night we returned home after four nights in duluth. it was the longest trip we’ve had up there in quite a while. ella enjoyed playing dress up with all the cool costumes her grandma kathy has collected. fiona enjoyed playing the piano and fzxxcvbnm,,mjnh (oh, thanks ella)…giving everyone hugs.
we had thanksgiving dinner at the holts in the clark tradition of having thanksgiving with friends. growing up, we didn’t have any family up in duluth, so we created a tradition of getting together with family friends who were in the same situation. it took a great deal of energy to keep the girls out of things they shouldn’t be into (the fireplace, outlets, the pies, etc.), which brought up discussion of how all the parents used to do it with over a dozen children. it was great to see familiar faces, and bitter sweet too since most of these families now have daughters and sons in law, and many now have grandchildren, so the tradition is slowly fading. next year, andrew and tessa may be back living in minnesota, which means we will be able to have our first full clark family thanksgiving - ever!
both of the girls had fun playing outside. ella made her first snowman with her grandpa terry, and had snowball fights with her dad. we went for a hike on friday evening and both of the girls hiked on their own. ella had a wonderful time, and fi had a good time as long as she was hiking unassisted. she walked over tree roots, rocks, bridges. for someone who wasn’t even walking a few months ago, it was an amazing site to see our one year old tromping through the woods. my mom and i got out for several hikes with the dogs and saw a young buck and a great horned owl back in the woods (and on the drive back to st. paul, we saw three bald eagles!). i also did my first snowy trail run sunday morning.
as i said earlier, the girls loved the piano. fi surprised us with her precision, pressing down one key at a time, and even making chords. ella amazed us with a long made up song. we were lucky enough to get over half of it on video (click above).
the other memorable moment was when the clarks had some friends over for a brunch sunday morning. the grandsons of some family friends came along, and ella and one of the boys spent a lot of time dancing together. again, we were lucky enough to get some of the dancing on video. (click above)
now we are home, and this morning we were thankful to wake up in our own bed. today we will have a quiet day at home.
. We got the house cleaned up for winter over the past week, the bulbs in the ground and the leaves mostly raked. Ready for winter (sorta)!
