I hope your Thanksgiving was full of turkey and stuffing smothered with gravy, friends and family, a nice long nap, lots of blessings, a glass of champagne, phone calls from loved ones far away, pumpkin pie, hugs, a moment of quiet to think about our troops overseas, pecan pie (pee-can or puh-cahn, whichever you prefer), the Macy's parade on TV, and photographs that captured the day, all served with a heaping helping of cranberry sauce!
Ours was all of that, and to make it even better, I didn't have to cook or wash dishes. My parents treated us to a fabulous Thanksgiving buffet in a big red barn. My dear friend S who works there scored us the perfect table in one of the "horse stalls". It was like our own private dining room.
The delicious food and beautiful Christmas decorations got me in the holiday spirit. I'm feeling duly thankful for all the blessings in my life. I'm now ready to tackle the holidays - the shopping, the baking, the wrapping, the chaos, the parties, the tree-trimming. Bring it on!
Happy Thanksgiving!
For part two of our San Antonio vacation, we headed to the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch. Those of you who know about my love affair with the Hyatt Hill Country may be wondering why on earth we would stay anywhere else. The answer is actually pretty simple. It was cheaper, had more space (condo vs. hotel room), AND we still had privileges to use all the amenities at the Hill Country right across the street. For those interested, I'll post later about the differences between the two.
Anyway, the Hyatt Wild Oak proved to be a great choice for us. We just spent the middle of the week playing and relaxing.
We swam,
went down the water slides,
floated around the lazy river,
played in the playground,
climbed in the treehouse,
roasted marshmallows, and ate s'mores at night.
When we weren't frolicking around the Wild Oak Ranch, we were hanging out at our other favorite spot, the Hill Country.
We left no lazy river untouched on this trip.
Our other river excursion was to the San Antonio River Walk downtown. That is always such a great way to spend an afternoon or evening.
We went on a river taxi ride,
and had lunch at The Republic of Texas.
Mostly, we spent our days at the Wild Oak Ranch, relaxing, lying in hammocks, and floating around with smiles on our faces...
except of course, when the children were tired and hungry for lunch and their mom made them stand in front of the cool "Greetings from Texas" sign... not too many smiles then.
Clearly, I should have taken a picture of the sign by itself. Nina and Addie are sort of killing the whole "happy vacation" theme of this post. Overall though, part two of our trip was just very laid back and carefree... pretty much perfect.
Our vacation lodging was mostly a Cabin of Estrogen. The girls outnumbered the guys 7 to 3. Still, that ratio was a little better than what J.C. is used to, so he enjoyed the male company. When we were out hiking,
the boys had fun doing those things that boys do, like having leaf races in a stream,
and jumping off of stumps.
Then we came across some cool beaver work.
When the boys saw this one, their eyes bugged out, their chests puffed up, and they had testosterone pouring out their ears. "Do you think we can knock it down?", "I bet we can.", "We really should. It is a safety issue." "Yeah, it is our responsibility to knock it down so the trail is safe." "And I could tell everybody at school I pushed down a tree!" "We can totally knock that down." "Let's do it."
There was no stopping them, so they pushed and pulled and kicked and scraped until that tree came down. Then their heads exploded from the pressure of the giant egos.
Here is their handiwork.
Then there is this picture. I'm pretty sure J.C. just couldn't contain all the testosterone in the air. Its a good look for him, eh? Or, uh, not?
We spent our Thanksgiving holiday near Boone, NC, with our favorite travel companions and good friends the B family. Despite the chilly temperatures, we had a wonderful vacation with so many blessings for which we were thankful. My friend over at Brightenthecorner posted her Thanksgiving A to Z where she went through the alphabet naming all the things she was thankful for. I loved her post, so I'm taking inspiration from her with this post... Thankful, the vacation edition.
On our trip, I was thankful for...
Sweet little A, a fabulous playmate for Addison. I loved this picture of the two of them with their morning juice watching Dora. The poor little thing was battling pneuomonia on our trip, but she was a trooper!
Foosball and...
Ping Pong...
for the days when it was too cold for hiking.
Loving sisters and beautiful views from the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Happy, healthy kids.
The perfect Thanksgiving dress...
which was apparently just right for collecting rocks.
My dear friend J who is an expert turkey preparer (which was key to our Thanksgiving dinner since I have NEVER cooked a turkey!), and a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with all the trimmings.
Sweet babes who loved "iking"...
in their backpack carriers
K, my partner in crime in photography...
who miraculously was able to capture this picture of ALL SIX kids smiling and looking at the camera. I have trouble getting three kids to do that. He's my idol!
A hot tub where the grown-ups could relax after all the smalls had gone to bed and where the kids could laugh and have fun.
(It was about 25 degrees when these pictures were taken!)
Free hot chocolate in downtown Blowing Rock when the wind chill was in the teens... brrrr.
This insane brave bluegrass band that somehow managed to play their instruments despite surely having no feeling in their fingers.
And lots of smiles!
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