our sandy Thanksgiving
Sunday, November 30, 2008 at 11:57PM was truly a delight. We did break suction with our house by Wednesday noon-ish. And there was no looking back. This post is purely for me & family & memories so feel free to skim...a picture overload of our Thanksgiving Dunes 2008.
A was seldom helmetless, always wanting to be doing this...
"Red Cat" is his best friend now. Apparently. Even in spite of a small crash. Jim made him get back on the quad even as the tears flowed...it hurt my mother heart, but I knew Jim was right. And I think the biggest comfort came to A when everyone started sharing their own "I fell off a quad" stories.
I thought we might finally get Davyn riding on this trip, but he was not interested. He found a different best friend.
Jenna's Tyler is now officially his favorite person. I love that my boys are surrounded by amazing aunts & uncles on these trips. I'm sure they'll make the rounds through all of them as "favorite"'s over the years.
A little history: Jim's brother Daniel married Tonya. We've gone to the Dunes for years with both her family and the Scott family. Almost two years ago, Tyler (Tonya's brother) married Jenna (Daniel & Jim's sister), doubling the family connection. 
Teambuilding with Tyler. These were still in the back of our toyhauler from girl's camp. Guess how far this group got? Yes, the Jake caboose was more interested in his Sprite than in his "team".
Poor D has no bum. Neither does Jim. Neither does Mike. So this was one of the MANY times Jim (or me..or anyone) pulled his pants up.
Davyn & Jake in the Arctic Cat...a favorite spot. Tasha took D on many a ride.
Gratitude Garland made by A & D & me.
The only picture I got of Thanksgiving dinner. Which was delish!
The only picture I got of Jim (delish!).
We dump shoes periodically during the day (mostly when we go inside the toyhauler). This picture is no joke. D's shoe. I'm not sure how his foot still fit.
Saturday was Jayson's birthday (Jim's brother who passed away 13 years ago). Our family tradition is to send off messaged balloons and eat brownies (his favorite). I vividly remember my first year as family to this rite...my A boy was in my belly and I just knew he knew the uncle I had never met.
We usually send the balloons off at night, but they were gorgeous in the bright blue of the dunes' sky.
My gorgeous Abby Kay neice. The kids (of course) each needed an extra balloon as a "keeper".
We weren't sure who won the ASU game, but on Saturday we had some football of our own. I was obviously not part of the "we", but Jenna gladly joined the fray. She's such an awesome mixture of sporty & girly (and might take issue that I define those as opposites in any spectrum). 
Aidan frayed, too. And grinned hugely at being included.
What I didn't photograph:
- Laughing with Shanon.
- Envying her mega-lens.
- Winning a mean game of Life.
- A philosophizing drive to Wal-Mart & back (talking with Jenna is always a treat).
- A whole pecan pie (Kay makes the best in the multiverse) that my toyhauler devoured.
- The new $10 vacuum that gave me endless, sandsucking delight.
- Being pee'd on by D.
- Fighting Jim from cabbaging my book when I was enjoying visiting more than reading. He actually started reading it when I wasn't yet finished. Shouldn't there be a law against such a thing?
- Finishing (and LOVING) the book (hurry, hurry Jim..I need to talk now!).
- Winning Cranium with Jim.
- Watching Tasha draw tea bags.
- Acting out "hackey sack" with Jenna as my puppet {she said it hurt}.
- Talking parenting with Tammy.
And since this post is already mega-long, I'll include my favorite conversation from the road trip.
I'm the i-pod controller on these trips. And I do try to please all four, but this was in a moment of pleasing myself.
Aidan: Why are we listening to this song?
Me: Because I want to listen to it.
Aidan: You're a witch.
Me silently: what??
Me aloud: How am I a witch?
Aidan: Because you always get Dad to do whatever you want.
If only, if only....
Reader Comments (19)
I love the photo of the sand-filled shoe!
love the sandy shoe and the garland. brilliant idea!
ps- a witch, huh?
I'm just glad you're back with no punctured lungs.
That looks like a great family outting. Have you vacuumed out your car yet? I can only imagine how much sand you will be cleaning out of everything for the next week or two.
I'm glad it was a great trip. The balloon launch is a wonderful tradition.
What boy wouldn't want to spend all his time on the 4-wheeler? (shh, don't tell me boys, they've never tried it...)
Tawnya