Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving down in Texas with Dan's family and we had so much fun! We drove down (even though I swore I'd never do it again) since airplanes flights are still ridiculously expensive and driving costs about the same as 1 ticket. So we left late on the Friday before Thanksgiving and stayed the night in Monticello and then drove to my sister-in-law's home in Dallas on Saturday.  The drive was long...very long. We discovered on our way down that Ethan gets carsick...boo. So when we pulled over to clean off and take care of Ethan, Austin decided to jump on that bandwagon and throw up his entire bottle and blow out a diaper. In his car seat too. Needless to say, the rest of the drive to Dallas wasn't the most pleasant experience ever but we did make it there and spent several days with Jamie and John and their girls.   Ethan had so much fun playing with Bex and Livia in the backyard.

Jamie and John took us to the Fort Worth Stockyard and downtown Dallas to sightsee.  Ethan loved seeing the longhorns at the stockyards and was pretty excited to get to "ride" one with Momma. 

The Fort Worth Stockyards is also home to the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Stockyarsd Museum. We didn't go in but ended up moseying up and down the cobblestone street and staying to watch the Longhorn Cattle drive that went down the street.

We spent a lot of time at the playground near Jamie and John's home. The kids and Dan) had a blast running around through the slides and stairs while Austin loved sitting in the swing with a big smile on his face.  Ethan wanted to join the fun and so Dan ended up pushing them both. They loved it!

 We finished the drive down the Dan's parents in Orange (which wasn't too bad-no carsick kids) and the boys got lots of love and attention from their cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. 

Dan, Austin, and Uncle John relaxing on the couch. 

Ethan and Bex built houses out of blocks

Ethan and Joshua loved playing together!

Pelfrey cousins!
Joshua, Livia, Trista, Austin, Ethan, and Bex

Thanksgiving dinner was great! The Pelfreys have a tradition of smoking their turkey so we ended up with lots of delicious turkey and fixings, football, and family. Jamie, Tara and I helped the kids put handprints and thumbprints (or footprints in Austin's case) on plain Christmas ornament balls to take home.  We took a family picture in the front yard under the big tree. 

 Dan and Ethan ended up here...

Ethan wasn't too happy but we still got our picture of all the grandkids.

One big happy Pelfrey family!

We had a wonderful time in Texas and even though it's a long drive, it's one we happily make to be near family for the holidays! 

One big