Thanksgiving 2010 in Iowa!

For Thanksgiving weekend, the Lau/Matsunaga family loaded up in Anthony's Sequoia "bus" and made the 14-hr road trip to visit us in Iowa. It was a very quick 3-4 days, but between all of our cameras, we managed to snap over 1,100 pictures.

After long deliberation, I narrowed down to 14 pictures to help summarize a fun holiday weekend with my family.

This time, the turkey was all on me! How nerve-racking, but my mom was right there to give me advice. Luckily, it turned out brown, juicy, and yummy. Thanks, Mommy!

Our Thanksgiving table

Skype is so nice, especially when you can talk and see family all the way in Vietnam on Thanksgiving day!

Fun times were a plenty, such as passing down the knowledge of how to make chocolate milk in a sippie cup. Elaine appreciated Ai-Yi for this lesson and took it to heart!

Our sibling self shot, in birth order...of course.

I guess Alex will have his wishbone wish come true. Sorry, Alysa! Better luck next year!

Let the Christmas crafting...BEGIN!

This is our Thanksgiving table after dinner. Yes, snacking on chips and looking at Black Friday ads. It's a serious addiction, but we can't seem to pass up the good deals!

Being one of the first 100 in line at Old Navy after midnight paid off...free Xbox game!

...which Peter and Cau Cau loved playing!

Yes, we even braved the crowds at Target for the few treasures we wanted. Funny how sleep deprivation will make you still feel successful after waiting in line for over an hour to check out. The chicken biscuit helped too!

Some glamour times with Pau-Pau, long lashes and lots of lip gloss!

Lots of bear hugs from Cau-Cau!

Through the turkey, Christmas prep, midnight sales, Thanksgiving was all about being thankful.

I was VERY thankful for being with my family!
It's all about FAMILY!

What are they teaching in preschool?

This is something Natalie learned yesterday at preschool:


"Thumbs up, knees apart, knees together, bottom up, tongue out, eyes shut and turn around" and the rest is way beyond me!

Sleepover party

The kids had their first friend sleepover! We had almost-2 yr old William, 2 yr old Elaine, 4 yr olds Natalie and Thomas, 5 yr old Peter, and 6 yr old Patrick. It was hardly any work on us two adults since the kids all play VERY well together.

Three peas in a pod

Our snuggle pit:

Our first Geocaching adventure

Can't believe I forgot to share this experience...
our 1st Geochaching adventure!

On the Saturday before Halloween, we found out there was a "hidden treasure" in the nearby Hickory Hill Park. It was called "Don't Fence Me In" and caught our family's attention and interest. So we set off on an adventure to go find it! The enthusiasm level was pretty high as we walked down our street.

It was a different level less than 1/4 mile later.

We made it to the park and we stopped to check our coordinates with Daddy's handy dandy iPhone. The kids were happy to have a shaded spot to rest.

The trail to the "X" spot took us through beautiful fall scenery and this old walking bridge.

Elaine was so proud (as was Mommy) that she walked across the planks on the bridge. If I hadn't mentioned before, walking on bridges through which she can see the bottom scares Elaine stiff. She took it slow and held onto the side and made it all on her own.
(Funny that she was willing to hang her body over the edge just 5 minutes earlier, but we all have our specific fears!)

"Wait for me guys!"

While Daddy and Peter double check our trail, Natalie finds her own "geocache" - a giant pea pod from a tree.

We're getting closer!

The name of the Geocache was spot on and gave Peter enough to know to look around this old fencing. Bingo, Peter found it!

Unfortunately, it was log and we didn't bring (Mommy forgot) a pen.
(When cousin Albert came, the kids took him back to this very same geocache. Luckily, Albert - as always - had pen in his pocket that day and Peter and Natalie got to sign their names)

Peter took great care in putting it back exactly where he found it. I think he really got the concept of the whole geocaching.

The kids were excited that we could see Regina from the spot.

Then it was time for the "long" trek back home. On the way, nature called for Natalie. If you're a female reading this, you know how difficult this is in the woods. This being Natalie's first time, I didn't want to make a big deal; however, at the same time, I wanted her to have dry pants for the rest of the hike. While the rest of the gang went ahead (for privacy and lookouts), we found a little bridge and...well, Natalie found it funny to add to nature.

Her victory run...so Natalie! :)

No telling who Natalie's calling on her giant i"pod" phone...maybe her friend Thomas or a taxi cab service!

Back to Elaine's proud bridge spot (different from Natalie's bridge).

Elaine ended up on Sam's shoulders. By the time we made it back to our street, she wanted to get down and walk, but it was late and we needed to get home.
She was not happy to stay up high...she's obviously not one to hide her feelings.

Until our next geocaching, that's our adventure!

The Regina Game

Students at Regina were excused from classes to attend the semi-final state championship football game to cheer on the Regina Regals high school football team. Those pep rallies did their job on him, because Peter showed great interest in going. So, Sam took Peter to the game that was at the UNI Dome.

They first stopped at the concession stand. Someone was excited about that.

Enjoying the game and a pretzel.
(looks like a bad play happened right at the moment)

Peter even found a couple of his kindergarten classmates.

Fun times for all!

Sister Crazies

This is what sisters do during their morning play:

1) Wear a crown her own way,

2) try to see who can scream the loudest through the vacuum hose,

3) wear a crown the other way,

and
4) strike a pose!

Albert's Iowa visit

My cousin Albert told me that he would have a week long break from Princeton and planned to visit us the first week of November. YAY! What exciting news! We love having family visit us! It proved to be a fun week for all.

While Peter was off to school, the girls and Albert got some two-on-one time. As Albert tossed leaves up in the air, Elaine found the concept of gravity hilarious.

Natalie had a nice picnic lunch with Albert, talking about who knows what!

A little bit of chase was good fun. Elaine showed her "fierce side".

Who wouldn't run from this little monster!

The ever-popular duck-duck-goose...at least our kids' version of it!

Albert was impressed with Natalie's gymnastics class stunts and tried some himself.

It was fun to see Natalie show her stuff, and a quick way for me to realize how old my body is and what it's not capable of anymore!

One day, we ventured to Pheasant Hill Park in search of the "Mighty Sword" geocache. With so many clues and exact coordinates, we could not find the geocache. We searched high...

and low...

with no luck but some good times in a park on a nice evening.

Despite the chilly air, we headed toward a park one day for some playground and (finally) soccer action. Since Albert had played soccer for ten years, we thought it would be good for Peter to learn a few things from him!

Natalie showing us a treasure she found in the sand.
(if by chance you are reading this, and see that this is your lost bouncy ball, please let me know and I'll return it to you!)

A nice afternoon topped off with a good tire swing.

Another fun and most popular fun the kids had with Albert...hide-and-seek. This by far was the best time had by all. (I got some free time to actually clean up the kitchen every night while they played). Elaine had some crazy counting skills (2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14...).

No trip to Iowa and the Burer house would be complete without the John Deere tractor drive. This may not be a big deal to most Iowans, but to us, it's cool to have a John Deere. It completes the "Iowa" in us and is something we like to share with visitors.

Sam gives the lesson to Albert on how to operate the mower.

Albert took a couple laps around the property and loved it.
I think his words were "This is awesome!"

Thank you cousin Albert for visiting us in Iowa! We hope you had a great time! The kids loved having you here and surely do miss you, "Abert"!