Thanksgiving 2008!

This year we were lucky to have Glenn off for 3 days! We decided to go to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. We left on Wednesday after school. The normal 3 hour drive, took us 6 1/2 hours! I wanted to die!

(Jesse, Chad, and Chris)

When we got there, we were glad to be able to spend time with my step-brothers that I hardly knew and their families. One of the twins wasn't there, but I got to see Chris and Jesse. Charles got to know his cousins, Wesley and Alex. They played video games for hours and hours!
(Charles and Alex)

(Grandpa Smith and Grandma Nelda)

Of course we also got to spend a lot of time with my mom and Chad's dog, Emmy. She's gigantic! She's 80 lbs. and still a puppy! My mom made her a special holiday dress to wear on Thanksgiving. They think she's a human.


Dinner was so great and the visit was relaxed and pleasant. My mom did a great job with the cooking. The turkey was beautiful. She even made homemade apple pies! They were huge! She put 8 apples in each pie. She also made aprons for all of the women and Maryn.

(My SIL Amiee, Slade, and Me)

My mom convinced me to go to Black Friday. I have been against this idea from the start because I HATE getting up early and I really don't care for shopping. But the time with my mom was worth it. I had so much fun with the "girls"! Brenda (Chris' girlfriend), and Jeannie (Jesse's wife) went and so it ended up being a great opportunity to get to know them. They were both so much fun to be around! I am so glad that I got to know them! We went to 4 stores and I was so good. I didn't even buy a lot!

(Brenda and Chris)

(Jesse and Jeannie)

When we got home from the stores, we immediately packed up the car and made our way home. We had promised the kids we'd take them to Santa Claus Lane in Carpenteria, but when we got there, it was gone!! No candy shop, no bakery, no toy store, no ornament shop, nothing!! They have made it a surf town. We were so disappointed to say the least. I've been going there since I was a child.


Since we missed all of that, Glenn and I madly tried to make other plans. We ended up taking the kids to a beach in Ventura. It was so beautiful! The best part was playing Freeze Tag as a family. I enjoyed this so much and will remember it always! Running on the beach in my UGG's was so tiring! We were in this hilly area with little dunes and so it was fun trying to run around and catch each other. What a wonderful trip we had!

(Maryn Enjoying the Appetizers!)