We have a long-standing family tradition, on my side of the family, that we have our family Thanksgiving meal the day after Thanksgiving. It started many, many years ago, and we've kept that tradition. We're all spread all over the U.S., so we're not able to get together every year. But it's important enough to us to try to get together as often as we can. It had been 4 years since the last big shin-dig, so we decided to do it right. 70 people in one house didn't sound chaotic before it happened...

Chris, Matt, and Jeff


Uncle Tommy and Angel


Uncle Danny and Connor


Megan exerting a little energy.


Matt and Rylee


Corrie and Scott


Double G and Granna


Aunt Kari and Grandma


Kati and Ryan


Aunt Lisa and the 2 tables of food...it was the loaves and fishes, people. No joke.


The greats and grandkids, minus 1.


Grandpa and the gracious host, Aunt Joan. Her house will never be the same.


And last, but not least, the brains or not so brains, behind the gathering. Me, and my partner in crime and fellow kitchen idiot - Jana.


All joking aside, it was a very wonderful family gathering. We missed those who weren't able to make it. Next time...we're already looking for a venue to host the next production.

We got up extremely early on Thanksgiving morning to run in the Fort Worth Turkey Trot. When we left the house it was 68 degrees. When we arrived at the race, it was 41 degrees, extremely windy, and rainy. When we got out of the car, it was 38 degrees. It was, by far, the most memorable race I've ever run. Don't get me wrong, I've run in some fun races with some of my favorite people, but this race was very special to me. My brothers and I ran the entire 6.2 miles together, in stride. We talked the entire time and laughed at least 20 times a mile. We ran through the ghetto, narrowly escaped a freshly murdered squirrel in the road, dodged dog poop, and stood astonished at the "turkey lady". Grandpa and Daddy took off and left us in their dust, but we caught up with them later. Kudos to Lisa and Amaya for braving the cold, wind, and rain to support us. Also, thank you to Krissa, Scott, and Corrie for watching our kids so we could run.

Before the race...it was stinkin' cold!!!



After the race...it was STILL stinkin' cold!!!



After the race, we got down to normal Thanksgiving business. While I was running, Krissa surprised me by making the dish that I was assigned to bring to the Goulding Family Thanksgiving. Whoo hoo!

We met at Gran and Papa's new house. It's perfect for big family gatherings. As promised, Megan's girl cousins were all there. Connor wasn't really sure what was going on except that there was food involved and the cousins were all running around him.

Daddy and Uncle Shawn got turkey carving duty.



Connor and food



Somehow Papa got a reserved seat at the kids' table.



Megan was extremely happy about the day...

While my brothers' families were here for Thanksgiving, they let me kidnap their children for a photoshoot. Not really. It was a ginormous group effort to get all the kids looking in one at least similar direction. Here's a little of the math: it took 12 adults to help 7 kids; I took over 500 pictures and approximately 30 were usable. While the photography isn't that great, the kids sure are cute!! And Grandma was happy!



Granna and Double G with all of their great-grandkids.


My favorite part was Megan singing and bouncing Amaya to try to soothe her. It worked sometimes; others not.



My kiddos...


Then I got some non-wiggly subjects who actually looked at the camera and smiled and didn't get up and run off as the camera was snapping.

November 14, 2010

We spent the afternoon with family, some of whom we haven't seen in a while. Megan and her girl cousins ran around for hours. They sincerely enjoyed every minute of time together. They played in Great-Grandma's old costume jewelery and played dress-up, which was quite hysterical. Megan cried and cried when we left, and made us PROMISE to get them all together again soon.



And this is the for real picture.

Yes, after 4 years and 1,570 up-to-date blog posts , I admittedly, and purposely, took a break for personal reasons. While I could just say that I didn't have time, I won't. I had the time, off and on, but chose to spend that time doing other things - some important and some not-so-important. Anyway, I REALLY missed it. So now that I've gotten some important things out of the way, I can concentrate on catching up on my blog. We've been up to a lot of stuff, so it'll take me a while...happy catching up on our life!

Daddy, Papa, Connor, and Megan made the much anticipated trip to Glen Rose to...drum roll...Dinosaur World. Megan has been waiting for this trip for a very, very, very long time.

They started out at Dinosaur World. Megan was so excited to get to see "used to be real" dinosaurs.











After that, they went to the State Park to see dino tracks.







Then they went to Fossil Rim Wildlife Park.







And then, as you may have already guessed, they passed out. Thank you Daddy and Papa for such an adventurous Saturday.

And what did the Mommy do while they were gone? The Mommy went to a yoga class, the library, and Central Market, took a long, quiet, relaxing bath, read for a while, and zoned out. :) We ALL had a wonderful day!

I asked the kids to rest before trick or treating. Connor went to his bed, Megan went to mine. While I was changing loads in the laundry room, Megan got Connor from his bed and brought him to my bed to read him stories. I found them like this:



Even with all the bickering, they really do love each other and enjoy each other.

Last night we met up with Grandma for Trunk-or-Treat.

Megan decided a long time ago that she would be Tiny the Pteranadon from Dinosaur Train. Her best bud from the neighborhood decided to be Buddy, so they have planned for months to be "the pair".

Tiny


Connor just doesn't get the whole costume thing, and he really didn't want to wear anything. I've tried several costumes on him, each ending with a huge fit. We borrowed a costume for him and tested it for a few days. He relented.

The Dragon


A tender moment


And a not so tender moment/reality


Neutrality


I just loved this picture of Connor talking to my mom about candy.


Megan and her pal Ellie wanted to go trunk-or-treating "alone". They're 4. I agreed, to a certain point, and just followed behind. I kept getting dirty looks from them because I was "bothering" them. :) Already????

Well, like every other paparazzi mom, I dreamed of awesome pumpkin patch pictures this year. My kids had other plans. The timing was off, the lighting was off, the bus load of kids didn't help, the kids were pissy, ETC. Nothing about the trip to the pumpkin patch was right. They didn't even like being there, which I probably didn't have to tell you that...the pictures say it all.

Please don't ride the pumpkin...


Please sit still, or smile, or look at me? Or even just look like you want to be there?


Please no superhero faces?




How tall are we?




This is all I got...


But mostly they looked like this: