One more from the weekend

Another picture from the weekend, with editing by Carl.

And lest I get in too much trouble for forgetting to include the ONE photo he specifically requested I include, lets just say that this one was worthy of its own post, and leave it at that.

A Family Thanksgiving

This year, we spent Thanksgiving with much of my family at my uncle Bobby's property in Concan, Texas. Its a beautiful little piece of Texas we'd never visited before, and we had a great time enjoying the outdoors, nature, and family.

Team Danger shared a house with my cousin Julianne, her husband Mark, and their six month old baby, Graham, aka the Next Generation in the extended Caran-Cary-Coffman-Cox-Olsen-Rouquette-Swanson family. Our house was along the Frio River, and the boys loved walking across every morning to try and skim stones across the river (they always sunk, so clearly we need a bit more practice). They also enjoyed finding "gun" rocks because if Team Danger can find a way to turn something into a weapon, they will.

Back at the main house were my mom, BeBe, Margaret, Cheryl and Glenn, and Bobby. And Bobby's three dogs, Cheryl's two dogs, and Julie's dog. Not to mention the roosters and chickens, which Alex particularly enjoyed chasing.

Ryan's highlight of the weekend was baby Graham. He just adored his latest little cousin. Ryan loves little children, and has been asking us nonstop when we'll have another baby. Since that isn't likely to happen, having a new cousin was the next best thing. He hung out with Graham non-stop.

Where Graham was, Ryan was not far behind. ;)



On Thursday, Alex thought the temperature was just right for an impromptu dip in the river.

Bobby has an old-fashioned trolley, and he took us for a ride after the turkey dinner. This was right as the cold front rolled in, so we definitely put the "chill" in chillax by the end of the ride.

On Friday, we went fishing at Garner State Park, which is about ten minutes away from Frio. Alas, the fish were not biting, but we had a lovely time enjoying this beautiful fall in the park.

 

 

(I know, this is a gazillion photos, but I just love them all, and since I've just purchased 20GB of photos to use with this blog, the photos, they-are-a -comin'.)

The best part of the weekend was getting ready for Bobby's "Its a Concan Christmas" extravaganza, which is sponsored by the town of Uvalde, but is on Bobby's property. Alex dressed up as an Elf, and shockingly, he just LOVED being an Elf. He wore that sucker for about six hours straight - longer than he has ever worn any costume at one time.

Three bands performed that night, and there was also petting zoo, a pot bellied pig, fake snow, more trolley rides, hay rides, and lots of vendors showed up, which gave us the chance to become the owners of yet two MORE lighted swords/lightsabers. I do believe we now own more of these suckers than the Jedi Council . We roasted smores at our own private fire pit, and we even got to visit with a drunken Santa. The "real" Santa called in sick for the night, so after a few rejections from some of the more sober folks - I'm looking at you, Carl - Bobby picked the only person intoxicated enough to agree to dress up and play Santa for scores of children.

 

 

  

Santa looks particularly festive in this photo with baby Graham.

We had a great holiday weekend with everyone, and our only regrets were that we were missing our California clan: Beau and his family, as well as my cousin, Lauren (who lives in San Diego). Still, I think that this marks the most of our family together at a non-wedding event in decades, which is definitely a reason to be especially thankful.

And if you haven't seen enough photos of the weekend, check out Julie's blog of the family fun.

I am Thankful

Monday and Tuesday were special days for Alex and the other 1st graders. They participated in something they called a "kiva," which was a series of Thanksgiving themed stations in all the classrooms.

In one room, they made a headdress with brown paper bags and feathers. In another, they made art to symbolize the Pilgrims voyage from England to America. And in another, he made this adorable little booklet, "I am Thankful."

There are so many wonderful things to be thankful for, each and every day. Really, what an amazing holiday Thanksgiving is, to actually get together with friends and family each and every year, and spend one day just being thankful for the gifts God has given us. Fairly amazing for today's "me, me, me" society, really. So here's to being thankful for Thanksgiving!

Eclipse DVD

The Eclipse DVD is scheduled to be released at midnight on December 4. But which copy to buy? There's a length description at this blog of all the different versions.

Sadly, it looks as if Borders isn't offering a special edition to match my Twilight and New Moon special edition DVDs.

The Target special edition, though, seems quite similar in design and content, so fingers crossed it will line up nicely (not that I'm a little OCD or anything ;)) with the other two. But I'd hate to not have a nice, matching set.

Talent Day

Friday was a chance for Team Danger to show off some of their cultural skills.

First up, was Ryan. He and his class did a skit of "The Very First Thanksgiving Day." He had practiced his lines a bit, and we had talked a lot about projection and volume. A few years back, when Alex played Christopher Columbus in a Columbus Day play, you could barely hear a word the boy said. I was determined history would not repeat itself.

And I'm proud to say he did a great job. Definitely the loudest voice in the room.

Ryan was especially pleased with his "prop." Not every child got to hold a prop. And he's all about his props these days. Its his new favorite word. He came home a few weeks ago and happily announced, "I've got a prop." And a prop he had. We even get to keep his prop.  Bonus.

The day wrapped up with Alex's Talent Show at the YMCA Aftercare program. Alex was all excited to sign up for the talent show, although he originally wanted his talent to be dancing. Really? Dancing? Its not as if he's ever had a dance class. No clue where that came from. We reminded him he had a real talent - taekwondo - and so he decided to do his form and break a board. Carl helped him with the board breaking, since you need to have someone who knows what they are doing hold the boards. So because Carl was helping him, and because I didn't make the talent show, we have no pictures of Alex's first talent show.

Well, I take that back. Our friends Brian and Drew (from the boys' soccer team) were there with their mom, Shelley, to watch Alex and the other talented (or talent-less, as Carl deemed all the other performances) children, and he snapped this photo.

Which pretty much sums up Carl's view of the "talent" show.

Which can also be summed up by the texts I received from Carl during the late afternoon on Friday. "F***ing torturous... I want to die...its so much worse than u can imagine... burning alive would be less painful...OMG, its actually going downhill... getting worse... inconceivable...am almost in hell... no wait, we just got there."

Apparently watching little girl after little girl dance to Taylor swift and Katy Perry was not Carl's idea of a good time. He has no idea how lucky he is that he ended up with two boys.

And mental note to make sure Carl gets the talent show duty every time. ;)