Every trip we take home, I am reminded how unbelievably fabulous it is that even though we met in the Bay Area - our families live just 3.5 hours apart! That means we can fly into one airport (Boise) and hit both Oregon and Idaho in the same trip.  Some people think that's crazy -- but so much better than not being able to see one side of the family at all.  And it's what we did last week for Thanksgiving!

We flew into Boise late on Wednesday night and then headed straight to La Grande for Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is the only holiday my family has ever spent with any of our relatives and we look forward to it all year long.  Ironically enough, we didn't take a single picture over the weekend.  We left the picture taking up to Joy, my mom and my aunt - so no fun pictures to post here.  But, we did have a fabulous time.  We spent TG like we always do - with the annual trot/walk up Morgan Lake Road, games, and an obscene amount of food (average of one pie per person).  Friday was more of the same - which inevitably results in time around the piano, rounds of Catch Phrase, Something's Gotta Give and any other game that will make our sides ache from laughter.  There were some pieces of this Thanksgiving that were different - we missed having Vanessa, Garrick & Kim, and Nikki and Hunter there.  The house almost felt empty! Or -- maybe that was because my mom rounded up a couple of campers to help house the masses.  Lee and I ended up in a pop-up trailer that wasn't much more than a tent.  We called it our "November camping experience".  The first night the La Grande winds were so severe that I didn't get a wink of sleep.  You can just imagine what those winds did to the pop-up.... My mom was cute and really did try to make it a comfortable and warm place to sleep -- she bought a space heater to keep us warm in the night.  It worked pretty well except for the last night when the circuits blew.... We were happy to get a real bed on Saturday night!  I love being home and it was so great to see everyone, eat the family favorites and even see HS friends that I hadn't expected to see.  It was fabulous.

Saturday morning came quickly - and we got up and on the road early to be to Lee's house by noon. (That blasted time change doesn't work to our advantage when headed to Bruneau).  All of Lee's siblings were around, which means we got to spend time with the darling nieces and nephew.  AND Lee had a couple of aunts and uncles that made it home who I got to finally meet.  The Merricks are building a shop on their property and it was pretty impressive to see what they are building all on their own.  That occupied most of the men on Saturday....  Although a quick trip - it was really great to see everyone. We are thrilled that we'll be back to both homes in just a few weeks!