A thanksgiving tale...

(to the tune of O, Christmas tree..)  

Oh turkey day! Oh, turkey day!!

 Oh how we love our turkey day!!

 And I'm not creative enough to come up with the rest of the song..haha!

We spent Thanksgiving with my family, in the middle of nowhere. Seriously. Does it look like there is ANYTHING around???

They had been running in the hills! Its every kids' dream.

It was so great to have all of my siblings and their spouses there. Cousins are built in best friends and these cousins are no exception. They love to play with each other. 

 

 My brother in law, Dustin,  recently came back from Afganistan. He has been there since early this year. It was so great to finally see him again. There has been a lot of violence over there and he told us some crazy stories, and we are so thankful for his safe return.

Dustin had this flag flown over the base in honor of my mom and dad's family. It was the coolest thing. A very special moment when we saw it.

Also, his souvenir that he brought home was a really old Afgan gun. I forgot to get a picture of it, but I did get a picture of my super-talented nephew's sketch of it. At it was very accurate!

Fun with Grandma!

Lots of "new"/crazy rules UNO.

Asher the escape artist. I think he is Houdini's incarnate. ;)

Dustin the pie making army man!!

The turkey...my brother...ok my brother isn't a turkey but that turkey was sure a TURKEY!! It will come up in a moment.

And more UNO...played the "correct" way. These kidos are all 4-5 and they played so well together!!

These kidos played together well too...yep thats my mom!

 

 

 

Darn that turkey!!!! Apparently if the family gets into a deep, religious, conversation, then the turkey can somehow get grease on the bottom of the oven. That grease is also flammable when hot (especially with paper towels). ....and thus there is a lot of smoke....a lot of smoke!

 Did you know that if the fire alarm goes off in a church, that the fire department will automatically show up? And church authorities will show up as well.. It is an experience that I DO NOT recommend.  

But never fear! The firemen were very nice and even gave all of the kids a helmet and sticker-badge. They wore them like kings! For the rest of the night they played firemen rescuing everyone.

All of them were good sports about it. I love these guys!

Later that night we were able to make sleds out of candy-bars...

and we decorated our gingerbread houses.

I loved being with my family!!  I can't wait to see them again! Next time we'll do without the firemen.