Thanksgiving 2023

 By some miracle we got Dada's whole side of the family together in one spot for Thanksgiving. The cousins were PSYCHED. The fellowship was so refreshing. And there was far too much food. 

Trypophan's a real thing... all the brothers are out!

Gaming and eating and eating and gaming

And cooking and splashing

Did I mention eating?

So then there was hiking and we found huge sycamore leaves!

And more photo sessions. Couples and cousins

All the cousins, above.

Below, one of those is NOT a firstborn...

Crafting and more cooking which led to more eating.

Rinse and repeat! 

Thanksgiving 2016

We are blessed with incredible neighbors who watched Triskal for Thanksgiving so that we could travel over the river and through the woods to Uncle Kelly and Aunt Becky's house. Thank you SO much, you guys. 

We headed out there Thursday morning and there was hardly anyone on the road. It's not a bad drive by any stretch of the imagination, and we had small cousins waiting on the receiving end.

There was far too much food for 7 adults and 8 kids, and everything was yummy. I think one of my new favorites was a simple 3 ingredient dish which consisted of sliced strawberries with sliced green grapes and chopped mint all mixed together. It was sweet and simple and summery and I couldn't get enough of it! Kind of like the cucumber, tomato, feta cheese salad I had the other day while on a lunch date with Dada, "but that's another story, never mind" ("Into the Woods" reference). 

We had a great time catching up with cousins we hadn't seen since March. Sweet Rosalina is mobile and charms everyone she meets. The cousins played games inside and out and even had a night together with babysitters plural while the adults headed out for the Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith Christmas concert, which was amazing. We had an excellent dinner and enjoyed every minute of the concert while the kids watched "Finding Dory" and had popcorn and played more games. 

Uncle Kelly took all the boys and Carrie on a hike at nearby park to burn some of the stink off. It was cold but it was perfect hiking about weather with several six year old boys, including a classmate we picked up en route.

It was fun to have hills in Indiana, hehe!

Aunt Becky enjoys directing the raising and decorating of the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, so we got to be part of that this year. Here's the mostly finished result, including Pap:

We headed back home Sunday morning and again had very little traffic. We didn't get dumped on with awful weather, there weren't accidents blocking the highway, everybody was on good behavior and we all made it home safe. Thanks for hosting, Kelly and Becky, in your lovely home, and for doing all the work. Hehe. We had a super time! We love you all and hope you have a blessed Christmas and New Year!

Hiking About

Okey dokey, this post is mainly for Aunt Chris, who misses PA woods. They're a month old already, but it was the best I could do with my iPhone as it was drizzly all day and I didn't want to take the real camera out. Enjoy!

 

Above is the view from the top of the zipline.
 

 

Above, Zak playing on the drywall stilt "toys" that Eric brought.

Below is the view to the top of the zipline from below.
 

 

Above is Table Rock, one of the favorite camp picnic spots. There's a good swimming hole here too and small waterfalls upstream.

Below is the bottom of The Admiral, which is a rather strenuous hike in dry weather but can get absolutely treacherous (and therefore much more fun and satisfying) when wet and slippery. For Owl Patrol, we used to position counselors up and down it to help the campers hike it in the dark. Awesome.
 

 

 

 

If anyone knows the name of this landmark, please let us know! It's on the way back from the top of the Admiral, but is below the path. Off the beaten trail, so to speak. We checked the map in the dining hall, but we didn't think it was listed...
 

 

 

Shrooms and pretty leaves!