November 2011–Thanksgiving Trip

For Thanksgiving last year we drove to Daniel’s sister Gretchen’s house in Phoenix to have a mini-reunion with some of his family (we missed you Audra and Anthony!).  It was such a great trip, partly because we had such cheerful travelers:

We have a new goal of visiting as many national parks as we can, so we decided to stay in Carlsbad, New Mexico the first night of our trip so we could visit the Carlsbad Caverns National Park the next day before continuing on to Phoenix.

Here is Oliver enjoying his Pizza Hut dinner in Carlsbad:                                       

The sleeping arrangements at our hotel – Cynthia in a hotel crib:

Henry on a little bench scooted next to the wall:

And the older four sleeping sideways on one of the beds.  I love the way Rachel and Lizza are holding onto each other. 

The next morning we got up pretty early (not necessarily by choice – try sleeping in a hotel room wih six kids and you will see how that goes).  We packed, ate breakfast, and took off to the Caverns.  We ended up being glad that we were on the road so early, because we were able to see a lot of wildlife along the way.

We also had time to explore a few trails:

And some Indian ruins:

All the kids outside the Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center:

Because we got there so early, we were first in line to go down into the caves.  The caves were pretty neat, and everyone was impressed.  Except maybe Cynthia – it was naptime for her, so she fell asleep in the pack.

After we left Carlsbad, we took another little detour to visit the Guadalupe Mountains National Park (we figured while we were in the area we should cross that one off our list, too).

We hiked a short little trail to Manzanita Spring. 

Lizza on Ollie’s back, Rachel on Daniel’s back, and Henry on Tristan’s back:

We stopped in El Paso for a quick lunch at Five Guys:

And in Tucson for dinner at El Guero Canelo (a Man vs. Food spot).  If you are ever stopping through Tucson, go here – it was really good.

We got to Gretchen and Adam’s house late that night.  They have three kids, and our kids hadn’t seen them for almost a year, so there was lots of cousin love and excitement.  The older kids all got to sleep in a big room together, which they loved.  And I am just finding out that maybe I should use the term “sleep” lightly – Rachel came in as I was typing this and saw this picture and told me “Oh, I remember that!  That was so fun!  You didn’t know this, Mom, but sometimes we would wake up really early and just talk about stuff.  And sometimes we didn’t even go to sleep!!” 

I raised my eyebrows at that last statement, and she added, “Well, maybe we slept a few hours, but to tell you the truth, we did go to bed as late as we wanted.”  Haha.  I guess that’s what sleepovers with cousins are for.

They all had so much fun together the whole trip, and were an easy bunch of kids – they basically took care of themselves.  The next morning by the time the adults got up, they had already started their own little school.  They played school a lot during the next few days.                                                               

They took it pretty seriously, grading papers and giving out certificates and everything.  Here Rachel is after completing a “how to draw a dinosaur” worksheet that Tristan made (the step-by-step instructions are on the left; her finished dinosaur is on the right).                                                

Of course, the first thing Henry asked when he woke up in the morning was “where do they keep their puzzles?” He went right to work.                                                    

The weather was sunny and perfect the whole time, so the kids were able to spend a lot of time outside.

Both Gretchen and Daniel’s mom have dogs, so Henry was in dog heaven.

Playing Phase 10:

Henry doing another puzzle.  He started this puzzle so many times, but I don’t think he ever finished it because it kept getting cleaned up before he was done.  Not many things stress Henry out more than an unfinished puzzle – he just came in and saw this picture, and said, “Ooh, Mom, when can we go back there so I can finish that puzzle?”                                                                        

Eating lunch outside at Joe’s Farm Grill in Gilbert:

The kids playing some sort of ninja game, with Uncle Nick in the background:

Presents from Grandma Nini:                                         

Everyone sitting around;  Daniel telling stories.  I just love this kind of scene.                            

More school.  They set up stations for everyone to go to, with different activities at each spot.

Gretchen took family pictures for us while we were there.  I’m so happy to finally have an updated picture of all of us!  She also took portraits of all the kids, and they turned out so great.

Later that day we all went to the Phoenix Zoo.

Henry loved the idea of the zoo map, and during lunch kept trying to plan out all the places we should go.

There was a really cool squirrel monkey habitat, where you could walk right into the area with the monkeys and watch them while they played all around.                            

And this is Tristan, right after finding out with great relief that what he thought was a monkey going to the bathroom on his head (we had been warned not to stand under the monkeys) was really just Uncle Nick pouring water on him to make him think that it was a monkey.  It was pretty funny. 

Rachel being cute:                                                       

Henry being so tired after we got home from the zoo.  He’s not used to missing his afternoon nap.

But when he heard there was some sort of game going on in the backyard involving Uncle Nick and the hose, he hopped right up to join in the fun:                                    

The older kids watching a movie.  Notice Rachel and Lizza are completely zonked out in this picture – I guess I won’t show this to Rachel, and I’ll let her keep thinking that she stayed awake all hours of the night like the big kids.

Lots of game playing – one of the best parts of family get-togethers, I think.

Henry doing a little bowling while he waits for the Thanksgiving meal to be prepared:

Lizza taking care of Cynthia:                                          

Bottle rockets!

Thanksgiving dinner:

Henry was cracking us up, because he loved eating the Thanksgiving feast so much.  Long after everyone else had left the table, he was still sitting there, finishing up every last bite from not only his plate, but from some of the other kids’ plates as well. 

Pie!                                                                               

Football out in the backyard:

Henry all alone in the kitchen, still eating pie:                 

The kids making pancakes the next morning.  Adalynn (Gretchen’s oldest daughter) taught my kids all sorts of cooking skills, and they felt so grown-up providing breakfast for us. 

Henry was still going strong on the puzzles:                       

My kids loved the piano!  There was almost always someone playing on it, which made me sad that we don’t have one at home (our little keyboard doesn’t really compare), but probably made Daniel glad that we don’t (they only learned one new song while we were there, and they were all playing the same one over and over). 

The day after Thanksgiving we all went over to a park nearby.  It was warm and sunny and the grass was heavenly.  Cynthia didn’t even know what it was – she is not used to grass like that.

Racing:

Racing without pants (not usually allowed, but he couldn’t handle all the sand in there):                                                                                

On Saturday we packed up our things and got ready to head back to Texas, but first we had one more adventure planned, to fit in a third national park on our trip. 

This is Saguaro National Park, just outside of Tucson (a few hours away from Gilbert, where Gretchen lives).  Gretchen’s family came too, so we could all spend some more time together before we continued on our way home.

Adalynn and Rachel were like little nature scientists – they were carrying around notepads and taking notes on all the things they were learning about at the visitors center. 

Some of Rachel’s interesting facts about the Saguaros “Cactic”:

All the cousins:

Henry doing his best cactus impression:                         

Hiking along:

After our hike we drove into downtown Tucson for lunch. 

Rachel, Adalynn, and Lizza walking along in Tucson.

Henry up a tree.                                                              

We found a great little Italian restaurant with tables out in the sun:

After lunch we said goodbye. Gretchen’s family headed back home to Gilbert and we drove on to El Paso, where we stayed for the night. 

We made it back to Austin the next day.  It usually feels nice to be home after a long trip, but after this one, I think we all just wanted to turn around and go back – we had such a good time.