Thanksgiving with the family

Daniel and I flew home to visit my family the week before Thanksgiving. My brother and his family were going to Florida the next week to visit her family, and we all wanted to be together. It was an awful trip getting home. There was snow in Chicago, which messed up all our flights. After 12-13 hours, we finally made it to my parents' house. Man, next time, I'm taking that direct flight.

It was fun to see everyone again. Garrett's getting big, and Devon's so much fun to tease. You can tell a four-year-old anything and they'll believe it. :) I don't know how he does it, but somehow Mom's cat lets Devon chase after her and pick her up, and even carry her upside down, and she never complains or scratches him. Anyone else though, and she runs for the basement. Here's Devon and Gizmo, although she doesn't look at all happy to be held.


That weekend, the one before Thanksgiving, was the first weekend of deer season. Both my brother and my dad hunt, and they have for years. My dad was going out on Friday, so on Thursday, I asked him if I could try my hand at target shooting. He set up a target about 50 yards away. He shot and hit about an inch from the Center. Of course, he's been doing this for years. I tried, and my first shot landed about 5 inches away. Not bad. :) I tried two more times, and I hit 2 inches, then just 1 inch from the center. Woo! Of course, it's a lot easier to hit a paper target than a moving animal, so I'll leave the hunting to him. Here I am taking aim.


We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner. As I said, it's fun to tease little kids. Devon didn't want to eat his noodles, but he was all for having his cake. So we told him that we'd made a noodle cake, which greatly distressed him. He didn't want to believe us, but he wasn't sure we were lying. Finally, his mom let him have a piece of the 'other' cake, the non-noodle one. He's a cute kid, and looks just like his dad and his granddad.

Garrett and Devon both loved playing on my Gameboy DS, although Garrett liked the games, while Devon just wanted to draw pictures on the screen. It was a nice visit home.