Thanksgiving 2013

This year the table's were turned for Thanksgiving.  Not only was the destination California instead of Connecticut, but this time Sarah flew out early with the girls and John caught the tail end of the visit.  Indeed, you will just have to trust us that John was there, because he did not make a single picture in this post.  And that is pretty amazing, because this post has a lot of pictures.  

The adventure started with Sarah, Callie, Reese, and Grammy heading to the Oakland Zoo to meet up with Kate, Ashlyn, Lauren, and Lauren's parents.  Within moments of the girls seeing each other they were off and running.  Lauren and Sarah constantly feel so lucky that the kids get along so well.  It is fun to see.

Callie and Kate particularly enjoy each others company, and typically ask when the next visit is going to be.  And the question is usually posed only moments after the last visit has ended.  On this trip they showed their navigational skills and led the group from one exhibit to the other at a pace that many of their elders had a hard time keeping up with.  It is just so cool to see the picture of the two of them here when you compare it to pictures taken of them when they first met in Monterey when Callie was 9 months old and Kate was 3 months old.

Unfortunately for the other two girls, their love affair is still a work in progress.  Ashlyn had a few issues to work through, and unfortunately required some one on one Grandma time.  Reese was not too dismayed, however, and took advantage of the situation by clinging onto Auntie Lo the entire time.  It is funny how holding your friends' kid is so much more tolerable than dealing with your own clingy child.

All the girls for the most part were content with posing for pictures that Lauren and Sarah required for the sake of posterity and their own amusement.  Besides, they were just having so much fun together that they didn't mind hamming it up a bit.  In fact, this was a photo that Kate and Callie specifically requested be taken.  That doesn't happen too often, so Sarah took advantage of the opportunity.

After the trip to the zoo, the whole clan headed to a local ice cream joint to reward all the good behavior.  This was a true creamery and is apparently pretty well known in the area.  The girls were certainly pleased and wouldn't mind a return trip.

This trip was extra special because we not only got to see Mr. and Mrs. Yee, but we also had a short visit with Grandma Wong, who is 92 years young.  It meant the world to Sarah to introduce Callie and Reese to Grandma Wong.

To make the most of our trip to Oakland, on the way back to Sacramento we stopped off in Benicia to have dinner with Uncle Zac.  The girls seemed content and quiet on the drive to dinner, and once we stopped the car we found out why.  Pictured here is exhibit number one, Reese caught green-handed.  Apparently she was bored using the regular coloring book and decided to see what it was like to color her hands.  Now she knows.  She must be ambidextrous, though, because both hands were pretty well covered.  Impressive to say the least.  Although we washed her hands for quite some time at Uncle Zac's house, the evidence was still there for a couple of days.

Grammy wanted to have the girls help her with some Thanksgiving crafts.  And what is better than a craft that you can eat when you are done.  The turkeys are made with oreo cookies, Reese's peanut butter cups, whoppers, and candy corns.  You can see from the smiles that they were a big hit.

GA and Aunt Haley also wanted to get some good cousin time in while we were on the West Coast, so they decided to throw a cousins birthday party.  The party was full of activities, cake, and presents.  It is amazing that in just a short period of time we have expanded to have seven cousins all age six or under.  It was a bit chaotic, but it was fun chaos.  And this is what John (not pictured here, or anywhere else on this post for that matter) flew in to see.

Speaking of expansion, here is GA with the two latest additions to the clan.  Harper, dressed here in blue, is Haley and Ryan's youngest and at Thanksgiving was nine months old.  Sadie, the littlest one of all, was born to Sara and Tyler in July and will grow up having to keep pace with her older brothers Brady and Chase.  But at this point, Brady and Chase are outnumbered, five to two when it comes to their immediate cousins.

Next up on the visit was a day with Great Grandma Lucas, who was kind enough to move to a place with a big playground across the road.  It won't be hard to get Callie and Reese to visit again when they know that this playground is part of the deal.  They got to run around while Sarah and John got to catch up with Great Grandma.  She is as feisty as ever, and loved being able to watch the girls in their element.

We had to snap a quick picture of the multiple generations before the visit was over.  It's always a good idea to capture such photogenic individuals whenever you have the chance.

The girls had fun asking Great Grandma to watch them climb this or slide down that.  And Great Grandma enjoyed the energy that circled her.

Very few pictures capture the joy that this relationship brings to both parties quite like the one to the right.  Reese loved being able to ride on Great Grandma's walker, and Great Grandma would have been happy to push her around for hours on end.  You also get the sense from this picture that Reese and Hazel are kindred spirits.  It is not far fetched to imagine that Reese will also celebrate her 80th birthday in Las Vegas.  We are so lucky that this is a relationship we have been able to nurture.

Thanksgiving Day found us all at GA and GU's house.  They were generous enough to host the whole gang, which meant dinner for 22 total.  The adult to children ratio was just over 2 to 1, but when you have 7 kids in a house, you really want at least a 3 to 1 ratio to feel safe.  We did convince all the kids to lie down in a star shape so we could capture them all from above.  It worked out pretty well.

Here are all the cousins who can stand on their own two feet and have a couple of Thanksgivings, Christmases, and family reunions under their belts.  They have a lot of fun playing together, and we are lucky that they get along so well when they only see each other once or twice a year.  Callie and Reese happily shared their chocolate turkeys with the crew, which certainly didn't hurt the warm welcome they received.

But the trip wasn't done yet!  The next day we ventured into downtown Sacramento and paid a visit to Sutter's Fort.  We have driven by it numerous times, so it was fun to actually walk around and check out the place the represents part of California's early history.  John could have been in this picture, but he was off somewhere in the fort taking pictures to use in one of his American history lectures.  Oh well, maybe he'll make next year's Thanksgiving blog post.

The final picture of the post captures part of our last night in Sacramento, when we had dinner with Grandpa Dan, Great Grandma Lucas, Keith, Uncle Zac, and Grammy.  The food was great and the company was even better.  We are so fortunate to get that time with all of them.

Before we knew it, the time had come to pack our bags and head to the airport for the return trip to Kentucky.  Thanksgiving had now passed, and we needed to get ready for the next series of events.