Thanksgiving in Texas

On the 17th of November we packed up and headed out to Texas. Always a fun adventure spending 18 hours in the car with two kids under the age of  three. But I will have to say the way out there is always better than the trip home! 

We arrive in Bedford at Noni and Papi's about 10:30 Thursday night. We were all ready for a good night sleep. Mac and Chloe made the trip with us this year, and it has been several years since they have traveled with us. It was a long night in the hotel the night before with them. They were so unsure about the place and was barking at every noise they heard. It was about 2am and Bryan couldn't take it anymore and decided to cover up the door with towels. We were able to get a couple of hours of sleep after that, but wasn't the same. 

After a full day of rest we decided to venture down town Fort Worth. Bryan and Audolio enjoyed an evening at the Flying Saucer while Noni, Bryce, Isaac, and I went to a mexican restaurant. Downtown was decorated with all the Christmas lights, and horse drawn carriages were in full gear ready to go. 

Off to work with Papi!

 Bryan and Bryce went to work with Papi. Bryce enjoyed seeing all the cement trucks and tractors. After a long hard day of work they treated themselves to lunch at Redneck Heaven. 

While the boys were off work (hahaha), mom and I were running around getting all the stuff for tamales. As of November 2010 we have a new tradition and we are going to make tamales every Thanksgiving. This year was our first time for these two white girls to make tamales. After reading about 10 recipes online and talking to Aunt Sally about her famous tamales we came up with the best tamale recipe to white girls could come up with. It was a lot of trial and error, but we were able to make 30 dozen tamales in 2 days. It was a experience to remember forever! It was a great way to bond, I think we disagreed about everything with each other and we both wanted to do it our own way. 

Took a break from making tamales and Bryan and I had a date day! Noni watched the boys for us and Bryan treated me to lunch at a local BBQ joint. After a fabulous we headed over to the Gaylord in Grapevine, Texas for the ICE show. It was nothing but amazing, and freezing COLD! 

Thanksgiving day came a day early for us, Brandon, Chris, Randy, Ashley, Collin, Papi, and Noni were all there to get there fill of turkey. 

With all three cousins together it's always fun to see how they interact with each other. Bryce loved Collin and wanted to share everything with him, until he wanted it back of course. These are some of the cute pictures we were able to capture while playing in the back yard. 

It's official I am now a member of the tattoo club. Everyone thought I was just joking around when I asked my brother for a tattoo. 2 1/2 hours later 

 I love it, and love the fact that it represents two of the most important people in my life! 

After a long day of eating and playing with the kids we packed everything up again and headed up north to Sherman. Randy and Ashley had a full night of work planned and we decided to take Collin with us to Pawpaw house. First we made a stop off at Caruss to visit with Papi John and Granny-dot. She always knows how to put a smile on my face! 

PawPaw was on cloud nine, this was the first time that he was able to get all 4 grandkids together with him for a picture. Collin, Bryce, Isaac, and Harley all put on there happy faces for 2 seconds and we were able to snap a picture. 

Thanksgiving day we woke up to freeze cold weather. It was raining, and the temp dropped about 30 degrees. Burr we packed coats and sweaters, but we weren't ready for snow. It was all over about 3 in the afternoon, and the sun was peaking out of the clouds. Bryce and pawpaw were happy for the sun! This meant they would be able to go fishing the next day.

Black Friday...Bryan and I are always excited to wake up early and hit the stores for black friday morning. But this year it was a little different, because we had the kids with us. Everything worked out great, the kids went with us to Home Depot, Walmart, and Office Depot for some door buster deals. LED Christmas lights at home depot for $1, and 40 piece rubbermaid set at Walmart for only $9! The Christmas lights were such a good deal, we couldn't pass them up. The only problem was we needed solid color lights for our light project we are doing this year on our house. So, this evening we made each string into a solid color light. 

Not only were we able to hit up some great black friday deals while at my dads, but we were able to get some GREAT pictures of the boys roaming in the country. My dad lives on 50+ acres in the middle of no where. While Pawpaw took Bryce and Bryan fishing Isaac and I walked all over dad and Judy's place. I walked behind Isaac as he explored EVERYTHING. Here are some pictures of my little nature boy who lives in the city...

Bryan did the same thing with Bryce while Isaac and I visited pawpaw John and Granny-Dot in Sherman.

Bryce's first fishing experience with Pawpaw Higgs. They didn't catch anything, but that's not what matters to a 2 year old. Bryce had a blast, and best part of all he was with his pawpaw and he had a Car's fishing pole.

As all good things must come to an end...we packed up stuff up and headed out on Friday evening making it to Amarillo, Texas. Saturday evening we were back in our own beds with a full night of sleep! It was a great trip full of memories, another Thanksgiving for the books!