While we normally go to Texas for Thanksgiving, this year we decided to switch things up and go to Bloomington, Indiana. My sister and her family moved to Bloomington over a year ago. I got to go visit in March, but the rest of my family hadn't seen their new house and property. My kids were also looking forward to seeing their sweet little cousins. After my sister's family moved to Bloomington, my parents bought a little house close by so they were with us for Thanksgiving as well. Then my brother Benjamin and his family came down to join us from Michigan. Just Timmy and Jill couldn't make the trip out. 

The weather got colder and colder as the week went on, so we made sure to take walks around their 11+ acre property the first day.

We also got to see the Gallo's huge puppies. Both are under a year old, but you wouldn't know that to look at them!

Buckle up, there's a lot of pictures of these two together. If I'm around, Nathan is my best friend and constant companion...unless Hannah is there.

James is pretty happy with anyone giving him attention. Before we got there Rachel said something about Uncle Andy and he said, "Who is Uncle Andy!?" Turns out James was a fan.

Could we count the number of card games played that week? Nope! 

See, James loves everyone...

Sisters! Don't tell Nathan, but she's my real BFF!

We walked this cool cave loop hike adjacent to the Gallo's property. There's a huge system of underground caves, some of which is under their land. This is a big sink hole.

Once again, somehow Andy is a cat magnet. 

One morning we went to downtown Bloomington to go to a fancy donut shop. When we walked in, they were completely out of donuts but were going to make more, so we killed some time walking around on the campus of Indiana University.

Then we went back for the donuts, and they were WORTH THE WAIT!

Ellie is our dog person.

James found another pair of shoulders to hang out on.

I have so many pictures of the two of them cuddled up together on a couch over the years.

We spent Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house. Their house is small, but has a ton of open space and different little sitting areas. There was the puzzle area, 

the card area, 

and the Lego area.

My parents wanted each family to take a picture with them photo bombing in the background for their Christmas card this year.

For now, all of the Krause grandkids.

Sister photo.

Apparently we can't take pictures without being goofy before...and during!

Pretty inseparable.

Thanksgiving was delicious as usual. Always one of my favorite meals of the year.

And then the pies! YUM!

Friday was our last day in Bloomington. The Krauses all came over to the Gallos house in the morning. Ben played some Christmas carols for us on his keyboard, so we had a little Christmas sing-along. 

The grandkids in age order are still in order of height. 

For our last night in Bloomington, we went back to my parent's house. The kids played Charades.

More card games.

Whatever this is.

Ending with kisses.

Ring Around the Rosie...not sure how that started.

More of these two.

Ending with kisses.

Then we played a couple of rounds of Mafia, which was very fun even before James randomly, out of nowhere decided to pull down his pants in the middle of the circle. Rachel told him that wasn't funny and he said, "Yes it is. Everyone is laughing." He was right. It was really funny.

The kids' last night together.

We had a super early flight the next morning (sorry, Dad!), but that meant we got back home before noon which was pretty nice. It was a short, but sweet trip! 

 

On Saturday, Hannah and I did our first ever Mud Run. I hate the idea of running, so races have never appealed to me, but the idea of a Mud Run always sounded like it would be fun. 

Then Hannah's friend's mom texted me a few months ago about Hannah and I signing for a Mud Run. This Mud Run was just for girls, and it was three miles with sixteen muddy obstacles. It sounded perfect for us.

I asked a friend, who had done a race like this before, what was the best way to train. She said walking or hiking up and down hills, so Hannah and I started hiking up a nearby mountain a couple of times a week for a few weeks leading up to our run. We weren't convinced that our training was going to be super helpful, or that we would notice any benefit, but we decided it was better to be safe than sorry. 

Saturday came and we drove out to Bates Nut Farm, which is about thirty minutes away. In the car on the way there, Hannah and I were making predictions about if we would love it or hate it, or if we would ever want to do it again. We really had no idea.

Hannah and I met up with our group of moms and high school daughters. We all wore matching pink shirts. Before we knew it, our heat was starting. And we were off...

The first obstacle was going through mud under these low ropes. Everyone was just bending over, but I decided to embrace the muddiness of the Mud Run, and just crawled through. It's funny that a photographer captured it.

It was not long into the race before Hannah and I realized two things...

Our training really did help us because the race track was so hilly, and we were having a BLAST. 

We loved it and want to do it every year! 

It made it extra fun doing with it a bunch of friends.

Next year, Ellie is definitely doing it with us.

The photographers had us hold hands as we ran across the finish line.

Our whole group was huge, but this was the group we mostly ran with.

Such fun memories!

At the end of the race, one of the moms said, "That was so great. Our next goal is a half marathon!" I said, "Nope! I'm sticking with the 5K Mud Runs!"

It is a year of a lot of "lasts" for us. This is our last year with Joey home with us for Halloween

Hannah had basketball practice the night before Halloween, so it was just these two carving their pumpkins.

Milo was very curious about the whole thing.

This is Hannah's pumpkin that she made earlier that day.

Ellie and her friend, Taylor, dressed up as Care Bears for school on Halloween.

For their costumes this year, Hannah and Ellie decided to be princesses. Hannah had the idea of using her Homecoming dress from last year to be Cinderella, and Ellie got a cheap dress from Shein to be Belle.

Hannah's friend London came with us to go trick-or-treating so she used her Homecoming dress from this year to be Jasmine. 

I thought it would be fun to get in on the action. Hannah's Homecoming dress this year was green, so I dressed up as Merida from Brave. I loved that we got to repurpose so many Homecoming dresses!

Since this was Joey's last year with us for Halloween, I begged him to dress up as Prince Charming to complete our theme. I was so happy he agreed even if he said a red sash was a hard no.

It was kind of sad to think about this being our last Halloween all together,

but at least we ended strong!

We loved having London with us on Halloween. At one point she told my girls that it was her first time trick-or-treating! Her family doesn't live in a good neighborhood to trick-or-treat, so they always just go to a Halloween carnival at a nearby church. We were thrilled to be her first trick-or-treating experience!

Cameron trick-or-treated with some other friends, but we had to get a picture of these two who have been trick-or-treating together almost their whole lives.

And here's our OG group. We have trick-or-treated with the Levitons every year since they moved in when Chloe was five.

One of the girls' favorite parts of Halloween night is going through all of their candy to check out their haul. Joey walked around the block with us but didn't actually get candy, so now Andy and I only have two candy bags to steal from, but we'll endure!