My Favorite Holiday

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite Holiday.  I have lots of great memories as a kid getting together with my cousins for the entire weekend and just having lots of fun together.  Now that I am older I still love it.  I love having a holiday that is all about being thankful. The celebration of it means getting together as a family and spending time together, and just being grateful for each other and all that we have.  

 

 

This year our family has been very blessed and I am very grateful for all that we have.   

 

This Thanksgiving we were blessed to be able to spend it with most of our Bolander family  at the Grand America Hotel.    

 

This is my favorite Thanksgiving Feast.  No cooking or clean up, and lots of tasty food to enjoy until you can't eat anymore.  Everyone gets to relax, and enjoy each other. 

 

 

After the meal we stopped by the toy shop where the two youngest Bolander's had fun playing on the candy organ.

 

For an even bigger treat this year, Grandma Bolander got everyone rooms at the Little America for a couple of nights so we could spend the weekend together. 

 

 

For Black Friday Grandma planned an activity for us at City Creek mall.  We were each given a person to shop for and $10 dollars to find them a gift.  Then we divided into teams and went shopping. 

 

 

After our group made a purchase, my little shopper Valerie insisted on carrying the bag.  she didn't get very far with it.  It was almost as big as she was.

 

 

At the unveiling of the gifts it was fun to see what everyone was able to find. (Some of the groups may have crossed paths with each other)   

 

 

After shopping it was time to swim.  After all you can't stay at a hotel and not swim. 

 

 

At least not when you are under 12

(Emily stayed in the room and took a nap)

 

 

 

We finished off the weekend with a visit to Temple Square. 

 

 

It was a fun Thanksgiving Holiday!

 

 

  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Bolander for making it such a memorable weekend for our family. 

Monster Bash- Garden After Dark

Garden after dark is a Halloween activity we always look forward to.  We get to go with Grandma and Grandpa Bolander.  It is when we do the dry run of our costumes, and we always love the fun garden activities. 

 

 

This years theme was Monster Bash.

 

 

We started out by painting our pumpkins so that they would be dry by the time we went home. Emily and Valerie painted a nice dragon pumpkin, and the boys painted a pirate pumpkin.

 

 

the next stop was in the children's garden where the kids colored werewolf masks. As a finishing touch they glued wolfs bane (moss) on them to keep the werewolf's in the garden away from them.

 

 

After the children's garden we headed down into the garden where we made a special potion to keep vampires away.  Then we headed over to the pond where we made floating lanterns to scare away the ghosts.   

 

 

 

 In the rose garden there was a mad scientist helping to make torches for the angry mob to go after the monsters in the haunted forest. 

 

 

The haunted forest is always the kids favorite part of the night when we get to go through the black lights and watch their creations and costumes glow.  

 

Once again the garden did not disappoint and we had a lot of fun kicking off Halloween there.