Thanksgiving Catch up

Before I can post anything current I must once again play catch up.
We went to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving and had a great time. Four out of seven of my siblings were there with their families and so we had lots of fun and lots of people. The food, as always, was delicious! One crazy tradition that we have during Thanksgiving is to make lots of pies. We always have at least 20 pies and this year was no different. There are always the traditional apple, pecan and pumpkin pie, but then there are chocolate, butterscotch, lemon, banana cream, yogurt, and on and on. This year we had some interesting entries by my brother and Travis. My brother created a peanut butter/candy bar pie. It was interestingly rich. And Travis entered a spin on a pecan pie. He put a store bought pecan pie into the blender and then added a bunch of other ingredients. It too was rich, but surprisingly yummy. Anyway, after eating pie after every meal our car was definitely riding a little lower on the road home. :)


We went up to Mt. Charleston the day
after Thanksgiving to get a little energy out and to enjoy the great Vegas weather. We had a picnic lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon climbing on rocks and hiking the trails. The kids had a great time and I have to say that it felt great to actually get some exercise in.








These pictures are of my kids and some of their cousins.





My fabulous sister in law got all the fixings ready for gingerbread houses. I have actually never seen such an amazing spread of candy.
We made the houses out of graham crackers and then the kids tried to pile as much candy as possible on them. They all turned out extremely creative. The real trick came in trying to transport them back home. They all survived really well except for the one that was sitting next to Cael's seat. Unbeknownst to us he was snacking most of the trip home!