Thanksgiving in Orem, UT

This year we made the trek down to Orem for Thanksgiving. We have decided to trade off holidays as much as work will allow. Luckily for me my work weeks for the last several years have given me both Thanksgiving and Christmas off. We received an invitation in the mail for the holiday feast and were instructed to arrive early for a special project. Michelle's brother Cameron, his wife, and little girl were in town for the holiday so we had everyone there except for Chelsea who was in Indiana with her Darren's family and Jill and Brian's family who stayed in Oregon. Grandma and Grandpa Woolley along with the twins also joined us for the occasion.








Once everyone had gathered at the house it was revealed that we would be doing a service project. We collected some rakes, brooms, gloves, and garbage bags and headed to two older couples houses to rake the leaves and clean up their yards. It was fun to perform service together and help someone else out. After we finished the two homes it was decided that Glenn and Carol, Michelle's parents, needed some work done at their house. We made the most of the opportunity and let Candice play in the leaves and Dy and Brett with their new addition Bracken, took some family pictures



Once the service activity was over we enjoyed a wonderful meal. It is always fun to get together, but it is even more fun when you are eating. I don't think anyone left the table hungry, but if they did it was their own fault.

The Martins never have a Thanksgiving without playing some games. We usually get a good game of Thanksgiving BINGO going, but this year we changed it up and played two very funny games. The first was finding the turkey turds/shoot the turkey game. The game was set up like an Easter egg hunt, Carol hid bags of sugar babies (turkey turds) all around the backyard. We were all put in pairs with one of us being a hunter and the other being a turkey. The turkeys would have to search and find the turds and when they found them they would have to make a gobble sound to alert their hunter to pick up the turds. If another hunter was alerted before the original hunter could pick the turds up, they could shoot the turkey (with a mini rubber bow and arrow) and claim the turds for themselves. The goal was to pick up as many turds as possible. You had to be there to fully understand how much fun it was. It was more fun just to watch as Michelle flapped her arms and made weird sounds.

The second game was pinning the gobbler on the turkey. This is a variation on the pin the tail on the donkey game. We were each given a piece of bubble gum and asked to chew it. We then took out our gum and made it in the shape of a gobbler. Then one at a time we were blind folded, spun around several times, and then asked to pin the gobbler/gum on the turkey. This was even more fun to watch and perhaps just slightly more disgusting if you thought about the possibility of putting your hand in someone else's chewed gum. I must say this Thanksgiving was another success. We look forward to it in another two years.

Andrew's (Our) New Car

As many of you know, Andrew got his first car in 2004. It was a 1996 Kia Sophia that he bought from one of his friends in Arizona. It has been an amazing car but decided that we should probably get a new dependable car before the baby was born. Andrew has been so good to drive his old car without any complaints. I have only driven it a few times and every time I am praying to make it to my destination safely.

Well, on a cold, snowy November day, Andrew’s dream came true and he got a brand new Honda CRV. We had decided that we wanted a cross-over car and so Andrew had been doing a ton of research on all of the different cars. This information was placed in an excel sheet so we could compare each of the cars. After evaluating all of our options we narrowed our pick to 6 cars and decided to go and test drive each of them. My family is suckers for Hondas and so I am sure that is part of the reason why we got the CRV.


Well, this Honda CRV is not the usual basic car-it came with a lot of whistles and bells because it was the show room model. Andrew and I knew that we wanted a black car and finding a black CRV was almost impossible. Several times throughout the day, Andrew recommended that we just buy one online and wait the 2 months for it to be made. I had not been feeling well and after 2 hours of negotiating with the dealership they did what I wanted and I signed the dotted line. Andrew reminds me all of the time that I was the one that signed the dotted line. So, in the end, Andrew and I were both happy. He got the built in DVD player, navigation system, and sun roof, and I got the tinted windows and 20 inch rims. After not sleeping for 2 weeks after the purchase, I am now happy.