Thanksgiving 2024

It's our year to have Ethan and Kassie for Thanksgiving! Next year we get Christmas! 

Mathew won't make it, he's having his last Thanksgiving in Idaho with his best friend, Damian. I'm happy that he's got people there that he will miss and that will miss him. 

We will make our assigned dishes and head over to the Flynns, as we do. 

Winnie is front and center, helping me with ham, rolls and chocolate lasagna. 

She drives me a little batty, but that little warm bird belly on my forehead is pretty adorable, too. And she has an excellent vantage point hanging from my hair.

The Spread

The Friends (Laney is taking the photo)

Aidan's brave debut of his most recently learned chords...I do believe it was the infant stages of The Sweater Song. 

Some high caliber chillin

Kylie, Miranda, and Emma took Laney, AJ and Everly to see Wicked at the movie theater. So we made our way to the basement to watch Fall Guy. It is and will always be one of my favorites.

Silliness! 

We went home full, happy and entertained. It was a perfect day! 

Coaches

Mark is under the gun at work. The sky is falling over there.

So the rest of us are handling matters at the gym. Thank the heavens above that I'm finally off crutches. 

It's CPR night at the Hufford House and we're having Butter Chicken and garlic naan....because I love these yahoos. 

SBL: Cousin Time and Sabbath Rockets

Jordan and his family stopped over on their way to Nauvoo. It's been a while since they were last here. In fact, I don't think little Mac or Indie had been born yet!

We loved having little ones in the house again. 

Our train tracks have been sadly neglected.  Mac was happy to dust them off. 

Mark always brings the cool factor with a jam sesh.

We grilled up some pepperjack jalapeno burgers

and Mac enjoyed playing in our "park"

We decided we would do our Rockets and Shakes tradition while the cousins were in town. Andy built a special rocket...a double decker...just for the occasion. Mark and I went to the Hobby Yobby yesterday and picked out two rockets that took zero work. 

The first rockets were launched! The scramble ensued! Andy's rocket fired its first engine!

And then riiiight as it topped off and turned to it's descent, the second engine fired and it launched itself violently into the ground. 

Remember how long that was? It's buried at least a foot. 

We spent a couple hours launching the rockets and letting everyone try to catch one. 

Since it was Sunday, we skipped Freddy's and had everyone bring a favorite ice cream flavor to share. 

Omaha Zoo and the Murder Basement

After 23 years in the Midwest, we finally decided we should go check out the #1 zoo in the country.

To Omaha we go!

We invited the Flynns to go with us and because they're the best friends ever, they agreed. When they saw the house I rented, they probably regretted that decision. You know that smell every grandparent's house has? I mean the REAL grandparents....the ones with scary cellars full of mason jars of peaches and pickled beets?

That smell. 

If you don't know what I mean, then you haven't lived....also, I know a house you can rent. 

On the bright side, it was only a short walk to the zoo!

I only took a few photos of my favorite animals:

 We loved the jungle house and the butterfly dome. 

We spotted the lions when we went over them in the sky ride. 

Those glowing jellyfish never disappoint.

There was also a dark basement full of alligators. How the world they aren't always in the news for that place, I can't imagine. There were some excellent beavers down there too...but it was dark, so we didn't really get to see them. weird. 

It was a quick trip, so we really only had enough time for crazy expensive burgers, singing to Mathew, a day at the zoo and investigating the murder basemen. Don't believe me? Let's take a little walk down, shall we?

Open the door to the basement and head down that nightmare

Oh look! There's A DARK HOLE beneath the the scary staircase you were just on. Fun.

Is that a tarp??? 

It took another adult going down with my to work up the guts to move that tarp. And in the most horrific move of all, Todd pulled that door open just far enough to stick his arm in there and video what was in there. Pure horror. 

I'm still convinced if we could shine a light in there, there would be a child sized rocking chair right in the middle....just rockin....back and forth. Back and forth. 

I'll never sleep again. 

But hey! The loft was perfect for the girls!

I'd give this place high marks for entertainment value. But, between me and you, St Louis Zoo was way better!

An Eclipse Sandwich

The path of totality came across the US for the last time in the next 20 years. Next time we have the opportunity, Ethan could be sending a kid to college. Everly will be 31. 

We aren't gonna miss it, by dang.

Mark had his USAW training, so he didn't get to go with us. Megan couldn't get out of her classes, so we packed up the truck and set out for Beaver Springs Campground in southeast Missouri, just us four. 

It was a VERY long drive...but they found ways to pass the time. 

We arrived around dinner time and set up camp. We made a quick dinner...stew over rice, and the girls cashed in for the night. All that sleeping really wore them out. 

Next morning, we were up and ready for our breakfast sammies, pop tarts and cocoa. I was smart and brought super easy food that I could have made by other people in a factory and purchased at Costco by me. I'm a smaht lady. 

Right next to our campsite was a RC track. Todd brought a car and we rented one from the business savvy homeschooled son of the camp hosts. I salute you, off the grid family! It was well worth the 8 bucks. 

The other awesome part of the campground was the multitude of prime hammocking trees.  And the camp hosts didn't feel compelled to moniter our strap width or fire height every hour on the hour. It was wonderful. 

Todd and Courtney set off on a hike and I enjoyed a quite moment to do exactly nothing. The pups played a game in the tent and get this...they were getting along. 

And laughing. 

It was a camping miracle.

Finally, it was dinner and we were able to surprise Courtney with her birthday cake we hid in the truck for two days. It wouldn't be camping without celebrating a birthday in the woods!

50 years old!

We spotted a drive-in about 15 minutes away from the campground and we decided to go and watch Back to the Future just for kicks. 

The place was pretty cool and old school. 

They were pretty happy that I said yes to popcorn AND soda. I was in a "why not?" kind of mood. 

We set up our chairs 

And tried to get comfy in the back of the truck. But soon it got very cold and with the speakers not working, most of us ended back in the cars listening over the radio and hoping the batteries wouldn't die. 

Monday morning....ECLIPES DAY!

We got up and started packing up the camp so we could get down and claim a prime eclipse-viewing spot on Clearwater Dam.  Little did we know that we didn't need to rush. Folks were not clamoring to spend 4 hours in the sun. They just strolled on down about 30 minutes before totality. 

We ended up squatting in an empty campsite nearby, while the kids went hunting for geods down by the water. I donated my toothbrush for geod scrubbing purposes. 

I was understandably concerned that one of my kids would permanantly damage their eyesight when they inevitably forgot to put on their glasses before looking right at the sun. Being a mom is A LOT sometimes. 

I'm happy to report, that no retinas were burned this weekend. 

When it was getting close, I let Todd and Courtney drive the truck with all the kids in the back so we could jump the barrier and watch from the dam. The kids were super stoked...it's been a lifelong dream to risk their lives being rednecks.  I rode back there too so as to save their lives in the event they forgot not to jump out while traveling at high speeds. 

I don't really know what to say about it because it can't do it justice. 

It was SO COOL.

As the moon moved in front, it got darker and cooler. The girls stopped looking for geods long enough to look up and check the status. Aidan worried out loud that they might miss it if they didn't stop looking for sparkly rocks! 

But there was no reason to worry. When totality hit, it took our breath away. I've never seen something so awe-inpiring. A 360 sunset and the most beautiful glowing circle in the sky. 

This picture just comes nowhere near what it looked like. I'll never forget it. 

This is a photo taken by the James Webb Space Telescope: 

And then it was over. 

We packed up the rest of camp and started to long drive home. It felt like it took us forever to get out of those Missouri hills. We lost service and were not actually sure we weren't heading to Florida for awhile. 

But we made it and it was totality worth it!