We headed for Texas for Thanksgiving this year. Andy brought a book or two to study for boards while we were there. I drove so he could study on the drive.
Notice he is holding the blanket up so that he couldn't see out the sides or front. That way he didn't get motion sick while reading, and the shadows from the trees on the side of the road didn't bother him as much. :0)
Eliza gave his shoulders a good squeeze to help release the tension.
Since it was a holiday he took a break from studying, meaning he only studied for about 2 hours a day instead of ALL day.
Some of the fun things we did include:
Shooting the bows and arrows.
Holden taking aim.
Calais helped Eliza and Nathan with their aim.
Bradley didn't need any help.
Daniel did pretty well too.
Let her fly!
We also rode bicycles and scooters on grandpa and grandma's new driveway!
Nathan loved cruising down the driveway.
Grandpa and Dad worked on the tractor.
Daniel on his scooter.
Even Eliza come to get in on the action!
Josh on his 6 month birthday!
Grandpa got a seeder for his tractor. He was super excited to try it out.
Dad and Josh went to see the cows.
These mamas weren't sure what Dad was doing with that small man child. Josh liked them!
We went down to the pond to see what things looked like now. There were little water plants growing all over the water. It was pretty and creepy at the same time! The canoe was swamped!
Then they headed out into the pasture to see some big trees that had fallen.
Grandpa gave tractor rides. Eliza was first.
Dad got caught sneaking around with a stick.
Can you see the monkey in the tree?
There was a pretty good pit underneath this tree. Luckily no one was injured in the exploration of this tree!
Nathan scored a ride!
He lost a shoe in his hurry to get a ride.
Bradley's turn.
Grandpa found a way to give more than one a ride at a time.
He lifted them clear up...and got lots of squeals.
Setting them back down. They loved it!
Then they stopped to check on that monkey in the tree.
Josh enjoyed jumping in Grandma's doorway.
We also saw how long we could keep a birdie in the air.
Daniel, Macy, Calais and Guard played first, with Clover and Eliza watching.
Get it Macy!
Calais
Daniel
Aunt Melissa and Grandpa watching.
Nathan was ready to give it a try.
We also checked out the eves where some bees decided to move in. There is quite a bit of honey up there. Grandpa just isn't quite sure how to get them safely moved.
We did a lot of chalk art on their nice cement.
Eliza did quite a few animals.
This is her giraffe.
A turtle and some flowers.
Calais
Guard with his Parana.
Atlas helping grandpa. It's hard to believe his is driving already!
Macy
Macy, Clover and Calais with their butterflies and flowers.
We also did a brush fire because we can't go to grandma's without burning something! :0)
Bradley doing his fire dance.
This is the neighbor's dog. She kept coming over to play with the kids. She was really good with them, and they kept sneaking her dog food. Grandma told them over and over not to feed the dog, but they just couldn't help it.
We had to do s'mores while we had a fire.
Guard and Daniel roosting their marshmallows.
Grandma and Aunt Vickie helped reload the roasters.
Aunt Melissa got a golden brown one. Just perfect!
Aunt Melissa "fed" the perfect marshmallow to Calais.
Looking good Calais.
Eliza enjoying a s'more.
Atlas brought out all the BB guns so they could shoot after s'mores.
He got the marshmallow off the roaster without using his hands! It was pretty impressive.
All gone!
Eliza roasting another marshmallow.
Holden also did some great roasting!
This stump burned for hours! It has a couple wholes in the bottom, so it got plenty of air. It got HOT!
Air intake on the side.
Whole in the bottom of stump.
It acted like a chimney.
Or a volcano.
You can see the large branch they put across the top to hold the dutch oven. They wanted to make ant hill art.
Atlas gathered all the pop cans to melt down and pour in an ant hill.
The stump/volcano heated it so well that Uncle Daniel got burned through the welding gloves when he tried to pour the melted cans into an ant hill. It was fun experimenting with it.
More jumping!
Josh loved to watch the kids play outside the back door while jumping.
He was watching Dad and Grandpa power wash the back porch.
Thanksgiving prep was well under way...Aunt Amber made a LOT of stuffing!
We had a lot of really good food!
Table set for 35 people.
Everyone coming up to the table.
We had Uncle Levi and his family, Aunt Melissa and her family, Aunt Donna and Uncle Dick, Aunt Vickie, Nita and Rodney, Grandma and Grandpa and our family.
It was a great feast! This is the last picture we have of Uncle Dick, standing on the left side of the picture. He died a few months later from cancer.
Daniel, Holden, Nathan, Eliza, Verin, and Zora
Zora and Eliza loved playing with "Buddy". That is what Eliza named her.
Check out Eliza's hair! It is so long!!
Uncle Levi showing Rodney one of his new hand guns.
Grandpa supervised so that no one got hurt. :0) They shot an exploding target that was pretty impressive. Andy and I were visiting with one of his buddies down the road and heard it go off. It was pretty loud.
The kids made a fort in the bushes out front. They all had so much fun playing together.
Late the night of Thanksgiving we were sitting around talking when this scorpion ran across the floor. The guys caught it and put it in a zip lock baggy and then in the freezer so we could show the kids the next morning. When they were all up we showed them the scorpion and told them to watch out for them. Everyone had to pound their shoes out before putting them on. Mid morning Clover, age 3, wanted to go outside and brought her shoes to her mom. Aunt Melissa helped her get her shoes on and sent her out. She took a couple steps out the back door and started crying. She kept saying something hurt her foot. She woudln't walk over to me so I had her sit down. I took her shoe off and turned it upside down. Another scorpion came out! Poor girl. Luckily this scorpions don't have a dangerous stink, just painful.
We had a very fun visit and enjoyed visiting with all our aunts, uncles, cousins and grandma and grandpa.
