Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Fabulous Thanksgiving this year! A bit cold for my liking, but we were invited to spend the day with a bunch of Ryan's uncles and cousins and such in a beautiful (almost finished) cabin in a remote canyon in the dessert. It was paradise for the 18-plus scrapper kids running around all day and quite enjoyable for the adults left chatting and cooking and eating inside near the heaters. I never saw my kids all day and only ventured outside for a few photos (did I mention it was freezing?) All in all, a lovely day!

Guns seemed to be the most popular toy up there and luckily they were mostly just BB guns. Brandon had the forethought to make sure his own Red Ryder BB gun was brought along for the day and he was seldom without it. He loved hanging out with his older cousins that he doesn't get to see very often. They taught him all the finer points of shooting fish in a pond.

At one point, one of the cousins had the bad luck to drop his gun through the layer of ice into the pond. Two other cousins helped him retrieve it by holding his ankles and dangling him head first into the water so he could grab it. Such quick thinking!

There was also a swing that was loved by all.

Especially Missa. She wanted to be outside so badly, but we came very ill prepared for the weather and she had nothing but a light jacket. She would stay outside until her fingers and nose were so numb she couldn't take it anymore and then head in to warm up.

The outdoor activities also included riding bikes and skateboard-like things down hills, digging holes, climbing trees, exploring a mine, and other such kid-friendly activities, but by this time, I was completely done being outside!

Dinner was a huge success and the kids did clean up and come inside long enough to eat it.

And so from our family to yours: Happy Thanksgiving! I won't list all the things I'm thankful for this year, because it would take too long, but I do have to say that I'm thankful for strawberry pretzel jello!