Little Honey Homestead: Thanksgiving in California

Thanksgiving Break: Well I finally got some good pictures at Thanksgiving! It seems like every year I just forget to take any pictures but this year we got some fun ones! Here we go, our (almost) week in Cali with Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters.... It was awesome.

Just a picture I like of Nate that I took while I was sending Wendy pictures of our clothes getting ready for the family photo shoot

Getting the farm ready for our absence - Blain and I had to catch the kitties and get them out of the coop, move the water bowls, move 5 bales of hay to the tool storage shed so our neighbors didn't have to go into the dry lot with the Bulls, and fill up the water troughs. We came back with everyone alive but thirsty! Somehow the power to the waterers got turned off so their water was mostly frozen. It's all fixed now but just makes be feel like something will always go wrong while we're away.

Blain made a yummy loaf of bread on the last day of school

Pokemon Go!!: All the kids got super into hunting Pokemon and would take turns walking around the house looking for Pokemon. Nate also let Chloe and Blain help him battle at his first Gym. On Saturday Nate and Theron took the older kids for a 2 hour Pokemon adventure which I heard was full of giggling, excited yells, and lots of "stay in, stay in, stay in" which is their little chant for helping the Pokemon stay in the pokeball.

Watching an "evolvetion" - that's what they call it when we evolve a pokemon

To the Park: On Wednesday we went to Hart park in Newhall which was way cooler than I remember! There were several animal enclosures (pig, chicken, cow, horse and donkey, geese, deer and bison!) a little hike and a big grassy area for some duck duck goose and Red Rover games. It's so fun watching all those little kids play together and explore!

Avenlea and Ruby on the way to the animals

Pot Belly Pigs

Summer and Dylan Checking out the big Cow

Just a few of the cousins

Blain and Dylan watching the Deer

These two boys are really enjoying playing together, finally! You'd think only being a couple days apart they would be instant best buds but it's taken a couple years! Poor Benji broke some glass with his head before Thanksgiving and had to get "glued" back together.

Chloe and Auntie Shum in front of the Chicken named Marie

Avenlea, Timmy, and Blain with the Horses

Red Rover, Red Rover, send Blain right over!

We also spent a little time every day at the park across the street from Momma's house. It's the perfect distance away for these kids to walk to and they all had a blast playing on the playground

The slide was so fast! It was hilarious to see them zooming off the slide!

Chloe loving the monkey bars as usual

I love how everyone besides Blain looks like a blur going down in a long train

Thanksgiving Day: The boys played turkey bowl, made boats with the kids, and we all helped make a wonderful feast that helped remind us of all the things we are thankful for.

Blain was sitting with Nate for a really long time and I thought how sweet it was, until I realized that he was just watching Dylan play Mario on his nintendo DS. Poor Dylan got stepped on playing turkey bowl that morning and had to ice his foot for a while

Playing swans and ponies

We were in charge of mashed potatoes which meant peeling, chopping and boiling 20 lbs of potatoes. I had some good help!

Chris had the awesome idea to make a Daddy and their kids project while most of the cooking was going on. Chris cut out individual boat kits from some of the wood he had laying around for them all to decorate and assemble and then race in the pool!

Painting the boats

Painting some more after gluing the parts together

They all had so much fun - look at all those good daddies!

Blain and his Blue Boat

Chloe was introduced to bubble gum (thanks auntie shum) and blew bubbles all week!

coloring in Auntie Shum's fun coloring book

Me and my Daddy - it was really nice having all 4 grandparents from my side there for Thanksgiving

Working on Thanksgiving dinner!

We love Auntie Shum and Uncle Q

The kids all sat at their own table with a coloring table cloth, juice box and of course yummy turkey dinner!

Of course, Roll on a fork

Beautiful Table setting with Chris' Great (great?) Grandmother's China

Blain's favorite part was the mashed potatoes and the juice box

Chloe of course ate like a champ and loved her pumpkin pie for dessert

Avenlea went missing before dinner and when I found her she was curled up asleep in the closet in the room that we were staying in. She slept all through dinner but we made her a plate when she woke up.

Avenlea had 2 rolls with honey on them and a bite each of mashed potatoes and ham, just to earn her pie of course.

Zeyta and Matilda happily chasing after Shadow. Matilda was so sweet to both Gabe and Zeyta giving them hugs, kisses and sharing the toys

Chloe getting her hair brushed by Grandpa Tony

Zeyta loving shadow - the vidoes of her happy scream while petting her are awesome!

A little more from the Trip: Chloe finally got her haircut that she's been begging for for 6 months now! She loves her new short hair and of course the ease of brushing it!

Chels and Chloe

Doesn't she look so cute!

It's so hard peeling Avenlea away from me when we are around people she's not used to but she sat with grandpa for a while and watched some home videos that he had on his computer

And these two loving their Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Tony

Chloe and Blain and Grandma Janice

Blain and PopPop

Poor PopPop wasn't feeling so well but took a picture anyways:)

They all loved the swing!

Beautiful Chloe

Don't swing too High Daddy!!

Vasquez Rocks: I've been prepping for this shoot for about a month and it turned out so awesome!! Wendy is seriously amazing and I love all the pictures she took of my family. Thank you Thank you Thank you Wend!!