Thanksgiving!

I hope this finds you enjoying lots of Christmas cheer!  And I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We sure did!  We packed up our kiddos and headed to Albuquerque to spend the holiday with Steve's family.  It was a long overdue trip...we hadn't been home to ABQ in 2 1/2 years. 

The trip from Frisco to Albuquerque is rather long, but it's an easy drive.  It actually felt like a breeze compared to the drive we used to "enjoy" from Philadelphia to Raleigh...no Philly, Baltimore, or Washington DC traffic to deal with...the biggest town between us and ABQ is Amarillo, with a population just a bit more than 250,000 :)

We enjoyed the drive, although this part of Texas doesn't offer much as far as natural scenery.  Driving through all the little towns gave an interesting glimpse of "small town Americana", though...I love road trips :)  We all got excited when we saw the first butte and the terrain began to change.  It was so refreshing to see mesas and buttes and eventually mountains!  

Here are some pics from our drive...we even saw antelope, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera :)

We learned a bit about wind energy~

The beautiful mountains of New Mexico~

Our time in Albuquerque was really great...it was wonderful to see Steve's parents and family and the change of scenery was refreshing.  This was the first time Steve's parents got to meet their newest granddaughter...she was a hit :)    

On Thanksgiving day, we all (Brandon, Kathy, John, Jarrod, Annesa, Haliegh, Lauren, and Tanner) gathered at Steve's parents house and shared a fabulous meal...turkey, ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce...all the delicious fixins!  And Kathy brought two of her amazing homemade pies...yes, we were stuffed!

Gracia and Granddaddy :)

Hungry cousins!

 

Kathy's pies...yep, they were AMAZING!

Our girls don't get to see their cousins often, so it was really a treat for them...the weather was nice and the kids had fun playing outside.  It was sweet to introduce Gracia to Aunt Kathy...who inspired Gracia's middle name.  We got to spend time with Uncle John too...the girls and I had not seen him since we left Colorado...far too long.  It was a nice time of catching up, eating, hanging out, and eating.

The kids had fun pulling each other around in this garden cart :)

Gracia loved getting pushed by her cousin, Tanner...even though she can't seem to smile for the camera :)

And more swinging...yep, she was spoiled :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We visited Kathy the next morning and got to see her new place and her horses.  Last time we were there, we got to meet baby Chance, Kathy's 1 month old colt.  Now he's a two year old...we were all amazed at how much he has grown!  We also hung out at Uncle John's new place for a bit.  Uncle John is a "rock hound" and the big girls had fun polishing rocks with him...thanks Kathy and John for a great visit :)

Kathy and Chance~

Sophia "riding" Buford, the roping bull...at Aunt Kathy's

Girls and mares~

Bella with Chief~

Sophia with Chance~

Gracia liked his soft ears~

Gracia Kathryn with her Aunt Kathryn :)

Giggles with Uncle John~

John polished rocks with Sophia and Bella...Sophia, the rock hound, was thrilled!

We also enjoyed a visit to the book store where Brandon works...anyone in the ABQ area needs to visit Alamosa Books...a fabulous book store...one of the best I've been in!  We picked up a few Christmas gifts and tried to keep Gracia under control...she may be banned until she's a bit older...but, she didn't rip anything, so I kind of consider our visit a success :)

We spent our last morning in ABQ hiking in the foothills.  One thing the girls really wanted to do was spend some time on/in/around the mountains...they are a bit uninspired by our local, very flat scenery in our part of Texas.  The weather was near perfect, the sky was brilliant blue, and we all had a wonderful time hiking.  Steve took the big girls up to some rock outcroppings near the top of the ridge...I stayed down with Gracia...everyone had a great time.  It was refreshing for all of us to enjoy some time out in God's creation.  

Both big girls were delighted to be hiking in the mountains~

Steve and the big girls were heading to the rocks at the top~

And they made it!

I saw this roadrunner right in front of me when I rounded a corner coming down a path...beep, beep~

Self portrait~

Gracia did some rock climbing too~

Our last afternoon in town was spent hanging out with Brandon and Steve's parents...and then we were off to Albuquerque's River of Lights...a special treat was to hear our niece's choir sing at the festivities.  We met up with Kathy and John again and enjoyed hearing sweet voices singing and all the pretty lights...it was a nice way to end our visit :)

Goofing around with Uncle Brandon~

I hope you enjoyed a blessed Thanksgiving~

Rach