A Happy Thanksgiving

Early on in our marriage we started going to my family for Thanksgiving and Cory's for Christmas. Thanksgiving has moved many times from family member to family member but I am always thankful when we get to spend it with my family. Sometimes it is the only time we see them the entire year. For the last two years it has been at my brother's house in Orange County. This year we left early Wednesday morning and flew into John Wayne Airport, got our rental car and went to our hotel - the Hyatt, right next to Balboa Island. Which was kind of a wonderful surprise for us as we had never been to that quaint little island before.

Crazy shot of Cam in bed watching a game on TV.

Cory doing some stuff on the computer and listening to the game on TV.

Wednesday night, after some shopping and food preparations at Allen's we met our friends Alex and Lori for dinner. We don't get to see them very often and we were needing to plan our next big trip. It is so nice to get together with them and visit. We got back to the hotel so late that I decided I didn't want to run in the Turkey Trot the next morning. I stayed at the hotel and slept, as did Cam - and Cory went by himself to the run in Dana Point. I think he got 27 seconds slower than last year and thus Thanksgiving was officially ruined! (kidding - sort of).

A surprisingly good picture of everyone in our family.

The blurs! Don't know what happened - looks like it could have been a good one!

Cam was in this position for most of the day - with all the games on TV.

Allen and I in the kitchen catching up and preparing food. It is always so good to see him!

Mom doing the rubbing rounds. Everyone loves her massages - except her own kids??

After the food fest - we converge in the back yard and those who can still move play basketball or jump on the trampoline, the others watch!

From left to right - Norm (Allen's Dad), Mandy, Mom, Pam and me - Tori is jumping next to me.

On Friday we rented bikes from the hotel and rode over and took the ferry to Balboa Island and rode around on the beach for awhile. It was beautiful!

I look a little too giddy! Don't know what is up with my brother!

A nice day for a bikeride.

Gorgeous scenery!

The water was very cold - I felt it to make sure.

We went back to the hotel and played a little ping pong. Since Mom wasn't up for a bikeride or ping pong we went over to Allen's to pick her up and then went out for Mexican food, which is a nice change after traditional thanksgiving food.

Later that night we drove up to our old neck of the woods (Pasadena) and met Alex and Lori again for dinner - more Mexican food! We were so stuffed we didn't sleep very well that night. But we have to visit with them as much as possible while we are in the area. I think we decided we will take a trip to Spain this next year!

A great trip! A great Thanksgiving! We even beat most of the holiday travel hassle. It was nice to get home and pick up Kitty - who was staying at a nasty kennel and wasn't very happy about it. Today, since I am off work I am putting up the Christmas decorations!!