St. Louis | Thanksgiving 2011

One of the things I am grateful for is that my family, who lives all over the U.S., gets together often.  Twice a year we all converge on my parents house at the same time.  Someone else may call it hectic, chaotic, loud, crazy, but we call it PERFECT.  I love my family, they are perfect for me.  I love the feeling of being surrounded by them.  It makes me feel really, really happy.  This year, we traveled there the Monday before Thanksgiving. Most everyone else had gone home by the weekend and the kids and I stayed another week.  We:

 

Pet the goats while wearing crowns with veils, and carrying bananas for them to eat out of our pockets {Angi},
 

Participated in some cage fighting,
 

Showed off our muscles,

 

Practiced our gingerbread house skills (and covertly took a picture of Grandma in her curlers so we will always remember it.  Such a fond memory for me),
 

Had beautiful make-overs performed by all of the neices,
 

enjoyed {some} down time,
 

Lots of good time with Grandma JoLynn,
 

Went Geo caching,
 

Competed in races while holding small children,
 

Took Great Grandma Stratton out for sushi (where she unknowingly ate the entire glob of wasabi in one bite all by itself and didn't even complain, GO GRANDMA!),
 

Enjoyed the kids almost completely entertaining themselves all day everyday,
 

Spent some one-on-one time with G G Stratton,
 

Played school at the Magic House
 

Learned about Static Electricity
 

Played games with Grandma and Papa,

Swung on Papa's Famous Tire Swing (Some of my earliest, and most vivid memories are of my dad pushing me in a swing just like this one!)
 

went for walks in the clearing,

and played in the tree house.

and had one big week long sleep over, and had a talent show, and laughed and talked. . . oh, and ate thanksgiving dinner.