Thanksgiving = Food, Fun, Family

For years during Thanksgiving time I like to reflect back on the blessings throughout the year. I am thankful for my family, for the food we are blessed with, and all the fun times we share together.
This year for Thanksgiving we wrapped up the food, family, and fun into one and went pheasant hunting. Actually I wanted to go with my brothers to share in their excitement and to put in a good couple of miles of walking. Jake made all the arrangements at a private club and for the first time I shot my first pheasant.
Here we are getting ready and loading our pockets with bullets.
Bella was a good dog and even swam out into the river to get the hen that was shot down.
Wow! Cherilee actually hit a pheasant. That deserves a hi-5.
This is the rooster I shot.
Here we are flushing the pheasants out.
This is Teep trying to find the pheasant he just shot down.
And he found it.
Josh is bound and determined to get every last pheasant.
Grayce got a couple of nice pheasants.
Kaleena flushing out the pheasants.
Jensen wasn't to sure about putting the pheasants in the back of his jacket.
Teep and Greg searching for pheasants.
This is our little band of intrepid hunters and our 12 pheasants.

Turkey Trotting All The Way

Okay, I have to be honest with myself and say that the Turkey Trot was kind of a last minute thing. When this was first advertised Greg said jokingly, "Honey, you gotta win us a turkey." (Whatever I thought) but after being in the hospital for a few days, I really didn't feel like running a 5k race the following weekend. But as the day grew closer I realized that I couldn't pass up this chance. First of all let me explain a little. It only cost $1.00 to run and you would get a FREE T-shirt. And if you dressed up as your favorite Thanksgiving character you could win a prize. The first people in their age groups to come in would receive a turkey and second place would win a pumpkin pie.

So a few days before the Turkey Trot I got busy and made a few changes on an old Nun costume that I had laying around and turned it into a pilgrim. I found some left over material and made an apron and a head piece. My daughter Andrea was my designer who told me exactly what a pilgrim needed. After all how could I pass up a FREE prize.

This is how the final costume looked. Here I am lined up at the starting line.

I will have to admit it was kind of hard running a race in a dress. I caught a lot of wind and my head piece blew off. Here I am running in. My headpiece is in my hand and I had to move my apron to the back to run. I actually came in at 23:26. It is not my best time, but it was good enough to win first place in my age group(25-39)and bring home a turkey.
My kids also ran the kids 1 mile race. Jensen ran in at 7:43. Coming in 4th and Andrea had a time of 9:54. She was 21st. All the kids ran together ages 0-10.
This is a picture of the kids at the starting line. This is a much better picture.
Here comes Jensen running in.
Here comes Andrea running in.
Greg did a good job taking pictures.
Here we are together. Over all we all had a lot of fun. It was worth dressing up. My prize was a $5.00 gift certificate to Taco Time. And I won my honey a turkey!!

Halloween Activities