Thanksgiving

When we took our trip to Utah over the summer my parents were hoping we'd make up the remaining distance and go see them in Washington. Northern Washington to be exact, just south of the Canadian border. Well, to be simple and honest, we just didn't want to drive coast to coast (literally) in the span of one summer. Our energy, time and financial resources were rather limited. But we did want to see my parents, the kids wanted to see their grandparents and since my grandparents are living up there with my parents, we decided that we'd take a trip out there for Thanksgiving. That way, giving us a chance to settle into a new house, new town and new job. Most importantly the job, giving us the income to be able to travel!!

Hindsight, we probably should have gone up over the summer. BUT, going for Thanksgiving was a good option and we had a great time. The travel coast to coast and back in a week was a little rough!

We drove 3 + hours to Philadelphia to catch a 7 hour flight to Seattle WA.  From there we drove the 2 + hours up to my parents house. It was a little tiring!! (and we had to do it all again 6 days later)  We were able to spend the week with my parents, grandparents and my sister Andrea and her family.  We LOVED seeing everyone!  Elayna got to get to know her cousin Sofia, who is just a month or so younger, and they had a blast!  I got to spend time with my sister who I haven't seen much and just hang out which was nice.

Eating pomegranates... these two ate about 3 themselves!

The kids got a turn to shoot my dads pellet guns, sadly we didn't get any pictures of that. Afterwards they went and had a bon fire with my parents burning trash or something. The kids wanted to make s'more's which I was fine with, except that I wasn't sure burning garbage flavor was the best topping on a dessert!

We took an afternoon drive out to the beach and looked for shells and treasures. We ended up bringing home a bag of shells after running experiments with bleach and vinegar on the rest.

I know, goofy face!!  But we were looking into the sun and Weston isn't the best at getting happy faces from his subjects!   But this proves it! I was there, and not always behind the camera.

The boys started skipping stones, and John soon joined in. It went from a 'cool, look what I can do', to a competition, to 'let's just watch dad and see if we can find rocks for him' event!  Probably because John was really doing well.  He had me try and get a shot/s of him to see if we could catch it on camera. This two were okay shots,  you can see most of the puddles and then if you look to the far right, on the right pict you can see the last puddle - I think this one was way over 15!

 Walking back to the car and enjoying the sun!!!

They had to get in just a few more rocks, this time more challenging though because we were up from the water's edge. I LOVE Weston's face... rather serious and such!

We had our "Thanksgiving" dinner the day before Thanksgiving, so on the actual holiday John, my nephews and my dad and I went shooting at a gun range. If I had to choose one tradition to keep for Thanksgiving - that would be it!  I love to shoot guns! And surprising or not, I'm actually very good at it, as long as I can remember to close the correct eye. According to my dad (x-DEA agent) I'm exceptionally good at shooting hand guns!!  I really liked shooting his new handgun!!  In fact, it is unofficially on my wish list now.

The weather was rather nice the whole time we were there, but after a short week we had to head home. We are really glad we went. I'm not sure when we'll make it up that way again. Maybe next time we'll try for the warmer months and take a few days in Seattle. We do miss Seattle!

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