THANKSGIVING in El Paso!!

We spent 3 days in El Paso, TX for Thanksgiving this year! Mark invited the whole family, but only us, Chad and Bret's family were able to come. Mark needed some more electric work done on his project, so that kept the boys pretty busy while Holly and I kept the food coming. We have so much to be THANKFUL for!!

We left Wednesday, Nov. 21st.

Chad came on Tuesday and spent the night with us so we could leave early!  We got up at 4:30am, but didn't get off until 6am. Lots to load! We arrived at Mark's around noon!

 Marks project is coming along nicely, although behind schedule. It was supposed to be completed by Thanksgiving!! His building is done on the outside, but they were texturing and painting when we arrived on Wednesday. LaVerl couldn't even do the electrical trim work because there still is no main power yet.

 Upon arrival, Chad and kids hit the hot tub. LaVerl & I took a little nap after our 5 hour drive on the lounge chairs by the pool.

 Thursday, Nov. 22nd was THANKSGIVING! The boys helped Mark put in his super massive, heavy duty, adjustable basketball standard!  

Once the stand was bolted into the cement, it took all 4 of them to lift the backboard up and me to run the bolt through to hold it!

 

 

 Its not near finished, he has all the netting to put up around it and the special rubberized mat that will all lock in that will have all the markings on it. It will be super cool when its done.

  

 So while the boys were outside working, the cousins were all playing together. The girls played with all the dolls and made tents in the bedroom. The little boys were playing with toys and the bigger boys were playing video game things.

  

The two youngest girls, Ivory & Wembley, cracked me up with their wild hair! They'd been in the hot tub earlier!

 

Meanwhile Holly & I are getting Thanksgiving dinner ready. These brussel sprouts with bacon were a hit along with the bacon wrapped green beans!  Yum!

  

Milea is a good little helper in the kitchen. She wrote a Thanksgiving poem she read before we all sat down to eat that was really good.

 

 Holly even had sparkling cider!

 

 What we'd waited all day for!!  A Thanksgiving Feast!!

After dinner-- FUN! And Relaxation! And PIE!

Friday, November 23rd.
 Some of us decided we need to burn off some pie, so Mark takes us up to Mt. Franklin for a nice little hike.
 The first part of the trail was all big rocks, not fun to walk on!

 Looking down at El Paso

 

 Making it to Mundy's Gap where you can see East El Paso
on the other side of the mountain range.

Saturday Nov. 24th
This is their hot tub, its so nice. The water flows into the little side pool. Somehow Chad fell into that hole!

The pool is beautiful too. I didn't get a very good picture. 

 This is their coy pond, its nice to just sit and relax and watch the fish swimming around.

 
 When everything in his backyard is finished, its going to be
 AWESOME!!

Mark and LaVerl worked on the big outdoor lights on Saturday. They put these together, then ran the wire to all the poles in PVC because its going to get covered up soon.

  
One last time in the hot tub before we left!
  They all headed to a movie- "Ralph Wrecks the Internet" and we headed home!!





I LOVE THIS QUOTE!

LaVerl home - Shelley in Queen Creek

After Time Out For Women I stayed in Queen Creek to watch Bret's kids for a week while he had to fly to CA. and Denver for work. I didn't get very many pictures!

London and Dempsey off to school. Trying to fix Dempsey's hair!

 I also spent some time over at Lisa's. Lilly came over to play with Ivory most of the days I was there. She stays busy with Landon and Lucy, who is almost to walk!!

Lilly sure loves to play with 'huggins'. 

Bret is always so sweet to thank his mom with a box of chocolates! 

While I was taking care of Bret's kids, LaVerl was home working and he surprised me by finishing a major project!

He's had this big trench dug up for about 3 years now. He needed to dig down to the water lines and connect them to the well water lines. 

 He had insulation down in the trench to keep the water lines from freezing. Trees had even started growing!

 Lots of digging!

 

I wasn't home to get anymore pictures, but here's the 

finished product!!  The hole is gone!!