S'MORES'ED

S'MORES BY MAMA

My fire didn't last long, but it was long enough to roast some marshmallows!

MORE COLD CHRISTMASING

Jay spent the day at Cottonwood brewing his infamous Strong Scotch Ale with Zack for a special Key City Beer small batch, so the kids and I roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, and got the outside lights put up! The s'mores kits were the "happy" given out at a birthday party the day before (where I failed to take a single picture - it was at the skating rink, for Anna Paiten's 10th Birthday).

They may have driven me a little crazy a few times, but I was very grateful for their help!

CALIFORNIA THANKSGIVING 2019

We arrived late on Saturday night, and while the kids made it through the drive to NOLA (including a fun lunch with alligator at Middendorf's), the lengthy wait at the airport, and the nonstop flight, they passed out almost as soon as they were buckled into PawPaw's Suburban.

James discovered the fun of Sunday morning comics!

After Cora helped PawPaw tidy the yard, we took Grambot for a walk around the neighborhood.

Then we headed up to Elk Grove to meet Taryn, Eli, and Addy, and the Sanchez-Munger crew for a bowling and arcade adventure!

(Just an example of how hard it can be to take a "nice" photo with Sophie...)

The bowling alley had a pretty good restaurant (and pitcher beer specials), so we took a break there for a bit before hitting the arcade.

On Monday we took a drive up out of the valley (and away from the smoke and hazardous air conditions from the Camp fire) to take a cave tour, but the cave was closed, so we went gem mining instead.

This fountain took us all by surprise when Cora's side arched all the way over to hit James:

On Tuesday we went to see Grandma and Grandpa's new apartment and visit with Grandma over coffee in the downstairs bistro, and Cora was shocked to see a version of herself in the photo Grandma keeps of her grandkids:

On Wednesday we had an early Thanksgiving celebration (because David had to work on Thanksgiving) with an amazing meal made by Taryn (and some yummy side dishes made by mom). It rained all day, so we weren't able to take the kids to a playground or go for a walk after lunch, but the rain cleared the air and we all breathed a sigh of relief!

Jay took some (indoor) family portraits for us before lunch:

We played a lot of games and had a great time just hanging out!

On Thanksgiving we had a quiet day at home and the kids got to enjoy some time in Grambot and PawPaw's backyard for the first time since we arrived!

We even made s'mores!

On our last day in town, the kids stole PawPaw's chair for a bit, helped decorate the Christmas tree, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with their cousins.

(We had to wait on David to get home from work and we kept hoping he'd get sent home early)

The kids were so sad to leave their cousins that night, knowing they wouldn't see them again for about a year, but they were definitely tired...

Baby Doll, especially, was exhausted after a week of late nights and too much fun. Asleep in the car on the way to the airport, asleep in the airplane, and asleep again on the drive home from NOLA.

While it's always fun to travel and see family, it's always good to get home to your pets and your own bed too. I was surprised just how much I missed Binx and Obby (pretty sure they missed me most too), and we discovered that Claw'dia missed Jay a lot too (and has since become quite the lovey-dovey cuddle cat with him).

(Buster spent one more night with Zy because Lawrence and Christine sent us this picture and asked us if we could let him stay, since he was already snuggled in to bed.)