Thanksgiving Weekend

I tried to put this all into one post, but good night, Irene, it became HUGE. Plus I just discovered I need to upload more photos. But more than that, I need to go to bed. So here's the first part of it. But it will be finished in the second part, which is pretty much finished. Because I don't want to do that multi-part, never-ending blog story again. But I digress.

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We had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend. Carrie, Chris, and most of the kids came out for a visit. They arrived Wednesday afternoon and we hung out for awhile, then headed off to Bird Dog for some excellent BBQ. Mom and Dad joined us, too.

Since our house is a bit on the cluttered side, adding 5 people to the sleeping arrangements is a little interesting. So we borrowed Mom & Dad's motorhome so Chris and Carrie could have a guest room in our driveway. Unfortunately, the heater quit running in the middle of the night, so Carrie was a little too cold (fortunately we didn't have this week's weather, because it's going to be very, very cold. But that also meant that she was up and in the house much earlier than otherwise. Once I smelled the coffee and heard the talking, I joined her. Since John's an RV technician, he was able to get the furnace fixed that morning.

Everything for the Thanksgiving dinner came together nicely. Mom brought her amazing pies, delicious (or so I hear) sweet potatoes, a veggie (whew!), and cranberries. It's what she always brings. Susan (my sister) brought homemade rolls and biscuits as well as some Cool Whip for the pies. We provided turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. It's all pretty standard most of the time. Susan and her family used to spend the day in Denver, but it's been nice having the here with us now.

Apparently I'm the pie nazi because people sure wanted pie in a hurry after that big old meal and I said, "no." Because I'm mean like that.

On Friday, seven of us headed to Denver to go to the Aquarium. It's been years since I've been, so it was fun to be back there again. Our boys stayed home and while we missed them, it did allow us to take one vehicle. Had a tasty lunch at Red Robin...yum!

Plenty of leftovers for Friday's dinner and it was nice to just hang out at home after being out and about all day. Carrie and I did make a couple of small grocery runs, though.

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Saturday, Carrie, Chris, and I got up super early again as I'd heard there would be hot air balloons flying in from the west over Pike's Peak shortly after sunrise. Bundled up, we arrived before sunrise and got some beautiful pictures.

Following the live stream of the launch, I learned that they would have to move to a new location. By that time, we'd already shot the sunrise, the Peak, Garden of the Gods, and whatever else, plus we were cold and in need of caffeine. So we zipped down to Starbucks and headed back over to a slightly different vantage point for some new photos. The balloons finally were visible, but they were so far west of Pike's Peak that they were just little dots in the sky. Enough of that.

After we dropped off Chris, we picked up Jack and his skateboard and drove down to the skate park. Fortunately, it was very UNbusy, which was nice for Jack to try things out. Of course, Carrie and I walked, sat, and took pictures. It's what we do.

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Stay tuned for Part 2.