Thanksgiving

We've had a very busy weekend.

My mom's brother, Ken, and his wife, Ann, drove down from Michigan to join us and my grandparents for the holiday. It was a good time visiting with them, I don't think we've seen them for 3 years.

I have been searching the Black Friday deals in hopes of finding something to get me out of bed at 2 AM. Unfortunately the "big" gift for Ellery this year has not been on sale so I took advantage of some Thanksgiving day sales at Michael's craft store. Friday morning I got up and went back to Michael's just to take advantage of another special, only available on Friday morning. However, I got there after a stop at Starbucks and around 8:15.

Then it was rush, rush, rush to get packed and headed out of town to visit with Cary's parents at the farm.

A new tradition for Ellery is a "hay ride" down the farm from the house to the cow fields, about a mile back on the property.

Granddaddy just got a new tractor and Little Miss LOVES it!



Brilliant me, forgot a coat. Don't know what I was thinking but thankfully Sweetie gave me this lovely camo coat. Although it's not SUPER attractive it's incredibly warm. I wore this jacket every day of our visit.





Amos loves the farm. We didn't really let him out of the trailer while in the cow fields because there were a couple of huge bulls that didn't look like they would tolerate our herding dog in their territory.



Random story about Cary and hunting. He visited the farm a few weekends ago and shot his first buck (GO SWEETIE)!! This visit he decided he wanted to hunt wild turkey or coyote. Take a moment and imagine me straight faced shaking my head like "Really? Unbelievable."

Well I came into the den on Saturday afternoon and he was on the computer and out of the blue I heard the most horrific sound. Cary was researching sound clips of dying animals to play on the computer, outside, in an effort to attract the coyotes.

The "cotton tail in distress" sounded more like someone was beating a rabbit in a cotton sack with a golf club. No joke. I didn't even know rabbits had vocal cords, but let me assure you that according to the sound clips he made me listen to I learned something new about these cute furry animals. Imagine a baby shrieking combined with the sound a puppy makes when someone steps on it's tail.

Break my heart!

Needless to say, you will not see any pictures of triumphant kills because apparently the sound of a dying bunny is not loud enough from a laptop soundboard to attract wild coyote.

I'm just glad I don't have to listen to it any more, ever again.









The gentle rocking of the trailer as we were heading back to the house, in addition to the warmth of snuggling up to Granddaddy put Ellery to sleep.




We wrapped up the weekend with the traditional cutting of our Christmas tree.

And the lovely camo coat makes another appearance.



This is one of my favorite parts of our weekend in the country.



It's so exciting taking Ellery back each year and watching her interaction develop.





Cary and I had a few in depth discussions about our tree this year. Since it's going into our new house, which has lower ceilings, it also requires a more narrow diameter base. It's so crazy trying to pick a tree out in a HUGE field. This one looked soo small in its original home, but now that it's in the house it's a perfect size.



Cary and I were commenting on how relaxing of a time we had at the farm this weekend. Walter & Lynn are fantastic grandparents. They love to actively play with her and plan special fun events for her, like the hay rides. We just sit, Cary read every magazine he has been hoping to read for the past 3 weeks and I get started on the blog book. When we arrived we both sat in the barn, "hunting," but we were really just taking an opportunity to sit in peace and quiet to clear our heads. When we leave the farm we feel like we are heading home with quieted hearts and cleared heads. It's not very often you get a chance to clear your head when you have a toddler. Thank you Mimi & Granddaddy.