A Pennock Thanksgiving

Thanks to blogger doing some pretty funky things with picture uploads and my less than savvy knowledge of computers (and having a very sick little girl and a son that just managed to have a blow out in the front, back, and both sides of his diaper right now), I'm a bit late with a Thanksgiving update.

Thanks to a sister who is very savvy with computers (you are amazing Katie!) and lots of kind words from friends and family about this blog, I actually am updating. High five to one and all!

Holidays in and of themselves are great, but what I really love about them is seeing my family. And this year we got all the Pennocks together. That's right, a grand total of 20 people were in my parents' house consuming a Thanksgiving dinner! Well 21 if you count Willoughby.

That takes some fancy seating arrangements!

My brother's family flew in Thursday night from Idaho, so we actually celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday instead. Only in the Pennock household would the thought of changing a national holiday to a different day would occur. I affectionately referred to it as Fakesgiving.

Fortunately a Thanksgiving meal prepared on Fakesgiving is still tasty!

We each wrote on little slips of paper what we were grateful for, and then placed them in the center of a roll and baked them. Then whenever someone ate one of these rolls, they would pull out the slip of paper and try to guess who had wrote on it. Topics ranged from butterflies to family, pituitary glands to kidneys, and hot chocolate to the stock market. Twas a grand time!

On Thursday Thanksgiving there were 3 mile runs (this was my first run in 5 months!!!) a family football game (which I wish I had photographic evidence of. It was epic!) and foosball games.

Friday Fakesgiving began bright and early with family pictures in 30 degree weather (be excited for those pictures to come), followed by a tea party to celebrate Becky's third birthday, a wonderful turkey meal, our traditional Thanksgiving movie (this year it was "Brave"), a feast of pies, a game of world domination Risk, and late night chats going until 2 in the morning!

Other highlights were going to Bayne's for apple cider and cider donuts,

and having Michael and Ben enter the attic to pull out their childhood toys.

Kyle asked them to pick out their favorite Star Wars toys and this is what they came up with. And since Michael's love and knowledge of Star Wars surely surpasses that of George Lucas, he was allowed to pick two.

Another great part was Nora and Avery getting to meet up again. With only 3 months separating them in age, I think we have many fun family reunions awaiting us.

           

And this might be my favorite photograph of the whole trip since it captures the love and chaos of having all those people (and all that awesomeness) in one place. 

On the left we have Nora who wanted to get in on the "cousin fun" but was getting a bit overwhelmed by the noise. 

Next is Kristin's loving arm being offered to rescue her daughter Nora. 

This is followed by Avery gnawing on one of Kelsey's many key chains in one hand and toying with Becky's braids with the other. 

I'm behind Avery receiving a painful head thrust from her while trying to maintain hold of Nora and Becky. 

Becky (with bangs she cut herself) is trying to "decorate cupcakes" on my Mom's I-phone and avoid Avery's wandering hand at the same time. 

Also take note of the smattering of games and toys in the background. Add some laughter coming from the kitchen, video game music coming from the Wii in the basement, the smell of delicious food, and you have our Thanksgiving in a nutshell.

And we can't wait to see what our Christmas will hold in a few weeks! Because as awesome as it is to have all the Pennocks together for Thanksgiving, it will be just as cool to have all the Bradleys together for Christmas. We are truly blessed with the families we have and the opportunities to see them!

Big girl

This girl can now conquer steps,

pull herself up into the recliner,

and read magazines.

She is very grown up and very righteous! ;)

Sawyer

I love my son for many reasons. One of them is for his magnificent chin.

He also has an awesome cry that sounds like a dinosaur,

and makes some of the cutest faces in the world,

but his chin...that beats all!

He is ridiculously good looking.

Beasley Apple Orchard

My favorite thing about growing up in the Midwest is Autumn. Sure Summer is wicked humid, winter freezes you clear to the bone, and Spring is just a soggy mess until you hit Summer, but fall...it is something the Midwest has figured out.

So we had to take our wonderful family from Colorado to Beasley's Apple Orchard to enjoy some of the fall festivities.

We stopped by their store before going to the apple trees. Isn't it Cracker Barrelesque? Only better because it had delicious honey crisp apples and non-pasteurized apple cider.

We then headed towards the apple orchard, but Avery started playing with various objects on the store's porch. 

Here's Avery with the mums (the red ones are now sitting on my porch and are still alive! Yea!)

This cute little bench would have been an awesome photo opportunity, except my daughter wasn't too impressed by it and preferred to play in the dirty water in that plastic flower pot next to it.

Which was better than her playing with this torture device...I mean...what is that thing?

That's when we started re-making our way to the orchard...but we passed these bins chock full of pumpkins and had to stop for pictures. ;)

We then set off toward the trees, 

but lo and behold, we got distracted (sensing a theme here?) by silos,

a cute little boy,

wheels,

tetanus stricken machinery,

rocks,

and straw!!

There was jumping,

throwing,

endangering my daughter's life,

and family pictures.

We then really did try to go to the orchard, but Avery was in HEAVEN with this stuff.

And when your baby is showcasing her happiness by hitching up her britches

and clapping you wouldn't rush off to the orchard either.

And truth be told, by the time we made it to the apple orchard we spent a grad total of 15 minutes there before we headed home. 

But it left enough time for Grandpa to spot a cute little apple,

for his cute little granddaughter,

who loved that cute little apple.

And honestly, we wouldn't have changed how the day went at all.