Thanksgiving 2012

Whew, am I glad to be home!

We left last Tuesday evening and it started with a bang, literally.  We weren't an hour out of town when, flying along in the left lane and pulling a flatbed trailer, we had a tire blow.  Troy did a great job of getting us off the road.  After trying to change it on the side of interstate, Troy made the executive decision to ride the rim to the next exit.  An hour and a half later, we were on our way.   He drove all the way to San Antonio, we pulled in at 3 am.  

After a few hours sleep, we reloaded the van and headed to a local Starbucks to meet up with the Bakers.  We had a little exchange to make--a piece of their luggage that we brought back from China for some precious items, including this photo, that were with TingTing when she was found many years ago.

Thankfully there was a Firestone shop about half a mile from the coffee shop, so we had our tire replaced while we visited.  After our visit, we made the last 3 hours of our trip pretty uneventfully.  Over the next couple days, all the kids and baba went hunting while I held down the fort and cooked.  

For Thanksgiving, I fixed our first fresh turkey (from Gotreaux Family Farms).  I brined it using  this recipe from Pioneer Woman and it was AWESOME.  We also had mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green beans with onions, and dinner rolls.  Oh yeah, and pecan pie for dessert.  

 Connor and Jacob both killed bucks.  Troy took Eliana and Grace in the stand together because they aren't as serious about it as Shaoey...  Shaoey means business when she's in the stand.  She'll sit still and quiet for 3+ hours, never fussing or making noise.

These 2 are so funny!  This is how they were watching tv.  Doesn't Shaoey look like Elastigirl from The Incredibles?

A small portion of the ranch house we stay at every Thanksgiving

Eliana, Baba, & Grace

Shaoey and Baba
This girl is one serious hunter!

Connor

Jacob's 

We got to watch them bring the sheep into the paddock.

This little one just kept watching us.  So sweet!

It's so dry there wasn't even much of this pest this year.

This was WAY off in the pasture.  Mama was bringing the baby in but stopped when she saw us.  After I snapped this picture, she hid it from us with her body.  

We stayed until Sunday morning.  We were very thankful for an uneventful drive home.  Oh, I forgot, on the way home Troy stopped to tank up at a Buckee's--that was a first for us.  I had no idea what a big thing they were.  LOL  On hopping place...