Thanksgiving Fun

We had one of the best Thanksgivings ever. My parents, sister and her new husband came down for the weekend. We had good weather and had a general blast the whole time.


Grandpa found his favorite game ever. Alia liked it too. The two of them would sit and rock every day. Alia was quite sad when Grandpa left and she didn't have a rocking partner.


Avery had the time of his life as the foreman of the fort building operation in our backyard. He would direct everyone as to where to put the sticks. The interaction went something like this "Whoa whoa; Grandma, whoa, look at Grandma she has lots of big sticks". "Okay there have to be sticks on roof, but not big ones. The big sticks don't go on the roof they go on the sides but don't knock down sticks on the side". Laura said that Avery did a good job not moving an inch and doing no work while keeping the whole job organized and under control.


We had an indoor day when it was rainy out. We randomly found a cassette tape in Brandee's old teacher bag. It was Willie Sterba with a bunch of crazy kid's songs. The kids especially liked Moonkees Da Na Da which I thought was Monkeys gonna die. Kids and adults alike were all dancing crazy, singing "Monkeys gonna die, monkeys gonna die"! We played that one multiple times. Tons of fun for all.


Avery has recently gotten into cooking and internal organs (but not necessarily in that order). It was no surprise then that he LOVED helping cook the turkey. Anatomy lessons while cooking, what could be better? Here he is proudly holding the liver. His favorite was the neck but it was too gross to show.


The whole gang for dinner


After the excessive eating we ventured out the next day to do some much needed geocaching. This was one of the more extreme trips in recent history. The first cache was covered in (fake) black widows. It made us jump at first. The next cache forced the brave Tony to venture out into the middle of a boggy swamp supported only by rotten, downed trees. Needless to say, he came back muddy, proud and a winner in my book for the most extreme find ever.


We packed lunch and enjoyed a nice lunch overlooking the lake.


For our final adventure we went to Callaway Gardens for their fantasy in lights display. It was one of the largest light displays I have ever seen. They lit up miles of roads through the park. My dad took a picture of one of the bright "tunnel" section.

We had such a good time and we were all sad to see the family go. The kids really enjoyed the extended time and additional attention. They are already asking when we get to see everyone again.