thankful thanksgiving

Hello all! We are back here on the web after quite a thanksgiving break. We spent the week of Thanksgiving in St. Louis with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Marian's house with Tillie their dog. On the way, we stopped at the Elephant Rocks State Park and enjoyed a day of climbing and hide and seek in the amazing granite boulder playground. (Pictures to follow soon.)

Our time in St. Louis was full of fun and family with lots of time to play with cousin Anna from Dallas and Aunt Chris and Uncle Ted too. We also had lots of fun at the Magic House and the Museum of Transport where we enjoyed climbing all over the old trains, especially the Union Pacific Big Boy Locomotive," that had 9 wheels in front all bigger than mom!" I am not really quite sure how to take that, does this mean I am tall or round? I'll let it go.

Thanksgiving dinner at mom's house was the tastiest I can remember with turkey by Bryce, Uncle Jerry's sweet potatoes, dressing and gravy and all other delicious fixins. What a treat! After supper Anna, Henry and Wynne disappeared to the basement to design and build a zoo, town, railway system and playground.

We had a fun but it was time to move on. On to Kansas City and quick visit and scooter tour of my friend Katie's neighborhood, where the boys left me to spend the night as they went on to Adrian to see Grandma Janet and Grandpa Scott.

Katie and I shopped and dined ourselves silly before retiring to Katie's house where I got to sleep in a bed all by myself! I think Jasper, her dog would've liked to have joined me, but was kind enough to let me have the bed for the night. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but I assure you, for me, this was a HUGE deal! I have not slept in a bed all by myself for YEARS. Ahhh,,,the restorative power of sleep. After chocolates and coffee for breakfast, Katie, Andy and I checked out some gingerbread houses in the Crestwood shops and had lunch at Cafe Europa before heading to Belton to meet up with Janet, where Katie and I planned our next adventure.

On Saturday, Grandma Janet, Aunt Rachel, Liam, Henry, Wynne and I went to the Christmas Train with Santa in Adrian's Antique Village, while Eric and Bryce drank themselves silly while watching the MU/ KU game on t.v. (MU won...making Sunday morning much more enjoyable thank if otherwise had been the case.) The train was lots of fun, but I got moved to a different rail car as the engineer stated to me,"we might just derail if you sit there miss." Apparently, I had eaten a bit too much pumpkin pie in the last few days. The train was fun and the weather was perfect so were all happy. This was Liam's first train ride and he was a champ. I don't think he stopped smiling until he saw Santa where he held up his palm to Santa and said,"NO NO." Wynne and Henry however were not afraid to share with the white bearded stranger exactly what it is that they want. We were lucky enough to catch up with Linda, Aunt Allison, Aubrie, Oliver and Alisa while waiting in line, getting a sugar high from the cookies Grandma Mary baked (along with all the 'Antique Ladies') for all the kids in the town. It was a great time with great treats. Now where to find Earth heroes and a loop-de-loop, sideways superfast racetrack with a racecar with a spoiler on it?)

Sunday was full of fun getting ready for Thanksgiving Dos at Grandma Janet's. Scott and Wynne disappeared early to do "chores" while Janet,Bryce, Henry and I tried to help out with setting up. At noon, the festivities commenced with lots of delicious food and lots of family. Unfortunately, Henry had enough of all of it and was under the covers with a fever - until dessert was served. Hmmmm....?

We headed back here to VanBuren and our sweet, very cold, cabin on Sunday evening. We're back to our old tricks; biking, hiking, crafting, and so on.
We have 3 bald eagles camped out across from our cabin. Bald eagles!!! This is great fun to watch when the boys aren't being crazy scaring the hell out of them making the poor birds fly away. We've also discovered "frost flowers" which have been great fun to talk with the rangers about. We're also pretty sure the deer have figured out this is a nature sanctuary, since there is a nightly dinner party of at least 50 in the open field down from the cabin. Well, I am sure if you aren't sleeping now, you should be. Its the same old stuff here. Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Marian are visiting this weekend and we just finished eating all the candy they threw at us at the Cowboy Christmas Parade, so I should probably give up on mooching any more of the hotel's internet connection out here. I'll try to catch ya'll up again soon.