This year we headed south to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Northern California. Mackenzie couldn't go with us because she had to work and we missed her but we sure had a great time.
It felt good to back in sunny California once again.
Tuesday morning we went to the Sacrament temple.
It was fun to have the older kids with us. My mom and dad were working at the temple that day so they joined us in the baptistery and to do sealings.
Most of the grand kids slept on air mattresses in Grandma's living room. One gigantic sleepover!
Wednesday my brother Gregg arranged to take us all shooting. This is the first time that Brooklyn had ever shot a gun.
Family pic!
Steve getting ready to shoot the skeet.
Brooklyn trying out Uncle Gregg's pistol.
Grandpa Smith even did some shooting.
I had fun shooting at the targets.
Brooklyn and I shooting the skeet at the same time.
The field where we went shooting had this old tractor. So we took a couple of pictures on it.
The adults wanted in on the tractor pose too!
Uncle Alan took all the kids on a crazy truck ride through the fields before we left. It felt exactly like we were on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.
Alan and Lisa hosted Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Here is the cousin table.
And the adult table.
After dinner we went outside to take some family pictures. We missed you Mackenzie!
Brooklyn was in heaven spending 6 days with her cousins. They loved playing Wii in Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom.
Brooklyn with her cousins Jack and Kathryn.
The day after Thanksgiving Alan arranged for all of us to go paint balling. Here are Steve and Brooklyn all geared up and ready to go into battle.
Dividing up the teams.
Refilling Brooklyn's ammo.
After a couple of rounds both Steve and Brooklyn had some war wounds but they were still smiling!
Love that bright orange paint on your face Brooklyn. That was a first time paint balling for Brooklyn and she had a lot of fun.
Saturday morning we pulled all my mom and dads Christmas boxes down from the loft and helped them decorate their tree and house. It was so much fun and went so quickly with everyone's help.
That afternoon we all went on a 12 mile bike ride. It was a gorgeous day...almost felt like summer to us. We rode a beautiful trail around Lake Natoma.
Grandma and Grandpa even rode the 12 miles on their bikes with us. Nice job mom and dad! I hope when I'm pushing 80 years old I will be able to ride my bike 12 miles! That's pretty impressive.
We sure had a fun week spending time with family. We feel blessed to be a part of such an amazing family.
