Monday, November 26, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012


We decided to do something a little different this year for Thanksgiving.  Delores (Kelda's mom) spent the month of November at the beach in her RV so we were not going to be able to spend Thanksgiving with her this year.  We got an invitation to spent the holiday in the Tennessee mountains, in a cabin with Kelda's lifelong friend Jodi.  We decided to go and allow our two exchange students to see Tennessee.

We, like most everyone, ate too much but somehow the only pictures I got of the food was sweets.  Maybe these will become our traditional Thanksgiving staples.




It was great to spend time with Jodi and her family.  It is amazing how they all have grown up.  Too soon we will be empty nesters.





We also got a chance to go shopping and see Santa.  Zhibek and Therese had never sat on Santa's lap so we "had" to do it.



 Therese

 Zhibek

 Victoria

 Gabriel

 Tuffy (of course I had to get my picture too!)

 Kelda

I think this is the non traditional Santa picture.  Not sure if it will become a family tradition or not.

Here are some of the other photos while we were out shopping, eating, etc.  As you can tell we had a blast.
 See Therese in the jug by Annabelle Victoria?

 This is the road that Kelda and I will retire on!!


 Beautiful Gabriel!


On the way home we decided to go through the Smokey Mountain National park so Zhibek and Therese could add North Carolina to the list of states they visited while staying with us.  The drive was beautiful and we even saw leftover snow from a couple weeks back.


 My beautiful bride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I think the high elevation got to somebody!!!

 All my girls!!!!!!!




I will try to post more pictures of our adventures.  We can't wait for Christmas so we can spend time with our family.  


Thursday, November 8, 2012

October

A tradition continued this year.  Kelda and I have been going to Burt's pumpkin patch since the year before we got married.  24 years!  In recent years we have taken friends and Gabby's boyfriends on this journey.  This year was no different.  We took Gabby's boyfriend Stephen, Zhibek, Lacie and Casey (neighbors).



Per our tradition, we got very large programs which require two people to pick up.  Many people ask us how do we move them.... here is how we do it.



I thought it would be interesting to see a comparison to previous years.  2012 verses ?



Enjoy these pictures from previous years.






Just so you know we DO carve these pumpkins.  Typically we carve them the weekend before Halloween so the pumpkins do not go bad.  Take a look at this years action.  Zhibek and her friend Andrew had the honors this year.