Thanksgivingness

Hello blog-fans!

It has been months since Katherine's lazy super-busy husband actually wrote a blog post, and considering it WAS my parents who visited this time...

Let us start with the big news. While my parents were here for the Thanksgiving break, the New England Patriots won not one, but two games.  And before you start busting my chops and saying, "but Matt, that doesn't have anything to do with your parents visiting or Thanksgiving or even your adorable dogs" take a look at this picture:

Also, the Hokies won:

Ok, so obviously what I am here to blog about is the McPherson family's first trek to North Dakota.  The snow broke just in time to bring them into Minot International Airport with only a 2 hour delay.  We welcomed them to our humble house with open arms and ecstatic puppies.

We showed them all of the sites that Minot, ND has to offer:

We took them to our favorite restaurants:

We played several board and card games:

And we played copious amounts of Beatles Rock Band:

Mom even got so good she played without looking at the notes on the screen:

We did take a tour of my work offices and we tripped out to the field.  Due to a minor identification issue we were not able to go downstairs to the LCC.

There was much relaxation and plenty of napping.  Most of this part of the vacation was taken care of by the dogs:

In addition to all of the normal vacationy type o' stuff, I woke the dogs up waaaay before there normal time and started Thanksgiving dinner.

A few hours later, the rest of the cooking was under way, all according to the foreman's schedule.

Final preparations were made and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

All said and done it was a truly wonderful visit.  Katherine and I had a blast showing off our little home and our unique lifestyle up here.  The family seemed to really enjoy seeing us and our house.  Before Katherine's family's previous visit and my family, the dogs have never seen so much or such constant attention and now think they are permanently allowed on the couches.  The weather even behaved marginally well.  As with any family visit we put my parents to work and now have freshly painted chair-rail to go into the bedroom and a finished basement bathroom ready for a coat or two of paint.  Only about a thousand pictures were taken and in true McPherson fashion there are 4 copies of each and every picture taken from a different camera at a slightly different angle. 

So, until next blog remember these few simple things: go Patriots, if you visit for a week don't plan to leave without doing some sort of home-improvement project, always give my dogs more attention than even they can handle, and it is NEVER ok to eat the next to last piece of my chocolate pie!!!!
-Matt

road trip to alabama

Great friends of ours, Chris and Jackie, moved to Alabama but had to go at two different times.  Chris went ahead in September to start his doctorate program.  Jackie stayed in Minot until her seperation date from the Air Force, November 8th. 

On the 9th of November, Jackie and I hit the road for our drive down south.  We headed out with the VW neon green bug packed, coffee in hand, and plenty of good music!  It was a great three day trip.

Day One we drove to Minneapolis.  We stayed the night near the mall of america and went shopping for a few hours.  Day Two we drove to Illinois and stayed with my Aunt Julie's family.  We spent the evening having some great food and catching up!  Day Three Jackie drove me to Atlanta and she went on to Auburn.  It was a great drive but bittersweet.  It is always sad to say bye to such great friends!

While I was in Atlanta I also got to see some family!  The night I got to Atlanta I stayed with Aunt Karen and Uncle Mark.  The next morning they drove me over to Athens where I visited with Grandpa Tom, Nana, Papa, Aunt Nancy, Sam, Morgan, and Will.  That evening Sam, Morgan, and I headed back to Atlanta and we spent all day Saturday hanging out.  On Sunday morning I flew back to Minot. 

Overall it was a wonderful trip and I enjoyed all the opportunities I had to see everyone!
.katherine.
 

lola's birthday

Halloween wasn't just a fun holiday to dress up for...it is also the day of Lola's birthday!  She turned two this year!!!  She enjoyed the day by running around, playing with her favorite toys, and getting treats.  She also got spoiled the next day since Matt was gone for her birthday. 

halloween

We celebrated Halloween a little early this year.  Our friends, Matt and Mandy, had a Halloween party on the 28th of October.  Matt and I dressed as Hippies this year! 

The party was a lot of fun.  The house was wonderfully decorated complete with fake blood, flying bats, and lots of spiderwebs.  We enjoyed ourselves and spending time with friends.

On Halloween Matt was on alert so the dogs and I celebrated together!  They were both pumpkins and looked adorable in their costumes!

I went over to the Ehn's for book club that evening.  We saw a few trick-or-treaters at their house.  It was a good Halloween weekend.
.katherine.

first snowfall

On the 27th of October we had our first snowfall in Minot!!!  Areas around us had gotten snow earlier but this was the first for Minot.  We got about six inches and, of course, Matt was on alert.  (We have a joke that he is always on alert when it snows enough to shovel.)  The snow looked beautiful covering the flowers but looked odd on all the Halloween pumpkins.

The dogs weren't sure what to do with the snow.  Oscar didn't mind being outside but didn't really want to go through it.  Lola, however, loved playing in it.  She jumped into piles, fought with my hand when I was holding it, and tried eating it.  She really didn't like when it was falling...she ran around the yard, nose in the air barking at the snow falling.  I guess that would be confusing for a little dog.

.katherine.

pumpkin carving

A week ago we carved our Halloween pumpkins!  A year ago was the first time we hung out with Abbey and Eric Ehn, so we figured we would keep with tradition and carve our pumpkins together again.

It was an added treat to have a fifth member with us this year...Henrik!  He loved the pumpkins and we all enjoyed playing with him!!!

It was a great night and we got some amazing pumpkins carved!

What a wonderful year of friendship!  Hopefully we can keep up this tradition next year.
Happy Halloween!!!
.katherine.