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11.30.2012

Thanksgiving Travel - Part 1

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, this family of six boarded a plane to the Midwest for a week with family and friends.


It's pretty slick how the big kids now offer to help.  And it actually is help.


Can you believe I got away with only carrying my purse?! 


I told Jude he reminded me of the Grinch attempting to steal Christmas with those bags!

As the family photographer, there is a certain amount of pressure to capture moments that are so rare and so special for our family - time spent with grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and great aunts and great uncles.  Yet being behind the camera means I can't be quite as present as I'd like.  Not to mention I feel like a slacker when I have four children to keep an eye on, two of whom require close supervision.  (I won't mention any names, but they rhyme with Shnevie and Biris.) And so, many (most!) of these moments were captured not in my camera, but in my heart or jotted down in my journal to be remembered. Which is a nice way of saying I missed a lot of great photo opportunities.... but I did my best.

Our first stop was at my aunt's house where we spent time with their family as well as my paternal grandparents.  Somehow I left without snapping a single photo, my camera buried deep inside my luggage.  We had a fantastic time which included eating the best guacamole of my life.  In Minnesota.  Who would've expected that?

For the next portion of our trip, we stayed at my maternal grandparents' house, having an entire basement to ourselves and, more importantly, having grandma and grandpa to ourselves!  :)  Of course, on the top of the kids' To-Do list was a visit to my parents' farm, only a few miles away.




It's become a tradition for us to make a trip to Margie's farm, a friend of ours.  It may as well be Christmas morning.

There are goats!

 
 Chickens - friendly ones!





 Two donkeys, who are perfectly content with kids on their backs.





{That's Margie in the blue jacket and my lovely mom on the right}

And there's more.  Oh yes, there is more.  Horses!





 


Waiting for a turn sometimes tries the patience - there would be no smiles from this girl until after the ride.


The sun set on this beautiful farm and we made our way inside for hot chocolate.



I asked Jude what he thought of farm life.  He said it was fun, but that animals are a lot of work.  They don't feed themselves, you know!  The boy's a realist.

{This post is brought to you by the letter M for Margie.  ;)  Thanks, Margie! }

4 comments:

  1. Oh, these are absolutely wonderful!! What camera and lenses are you using these days?

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    1. Thanks so much! I'm using a Canon Rebel xs that's 3-4 years old now. Last Christmas, my husband bought me a 50mm len. I think it's this one. http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Standard-Medium-Telephoto-Cameras/dp/B00009XVCZ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354341495&sr=8-2&keywords=canon+lens+ef+50mm+1%3A1.4

      I also have an 80mm but I rarely use it. :)

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  2. Just catching up on your blog! I have the same problem with not taking pictures. :) It irritates my family, but I love just being in the moment and experiencing life, so it's hard to remember to take pictures unless I'm REALLY intentional. We don't even have pics of the first time we met M. We visited twice before going to take him out, and the first pics we got were that day we brought him out. ;-)

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  3. Forgot to say: the pics you did get were great! I love that the kids got to interact with all those animals!

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