What beautiful weather we had for Thanksgiving weekend. We headed up to Lovelady on Wednesday afternoon to get settled in and ready for Thursday. Traffic, of course, was crazy driving out of Houston because of the three accidents that occurred on the freeway. It was such a relief to finally get out of Houston and off of I-45. We had a slight change in our mode of transportation. Tallulah (aka Lulu), my sporty non-Grandma car, just wasn’t cut out for the country roads. To replace Lulu, we found a nice sporty pickup that will suit our needs. It hasn’t been too difficult to adapt from a sporty car to a sporty truck. 🙂

 Thursday morning we were up early and ready to head to Kurtin (Bryan) to Natalie and JT’s house. JT was cooking a ham on an outside rotisserie and was preparing to fry the turkey.

Gianna and I were in charge of the dressing (or stuffing as we like to call it.) The pies had been made at home and were on the table with the appetizers. We had a great time being inside and outside – eating, visiting and watching the kids play. Natalie and JT were perfect hosts!

Charlie and I took the two oldest Grand Girls back to Lovelady with us to spend the night in the trailer and explore the land. They love staying in “Uncle Jason and Aunt Danielle’s” trailer and quickly made themselves at home. They were up early on Friday morning and ready to check everything out. Maddie immediately went to the oak tree to figure out how to climb on the vines that hang down.

Gianna was close behind her and with Charlie’s help they were able to sit on the vine. It was fun watching them trying to decide how to balance themselves.  After breakfast and hot chocolate on the deck, the adventure began.

They took turns riding the kid’s four wheeler and walked down the road to see the cows and the pond. (The cows are in the Back 50 again.)

All of the kids and grandkids showed up around lunch time for some homemade Taco Soup that I made and leftovers that Natalie brought from Thanksgiving dinner. Jason brought his four-wheeler over and we were able to use it for transportation to show everyone the features of the land. Charlie, Jason, JT, and Jeff along with Maddie and Gianna went to look around and see what they could find (aka signs of deer and hogs.)

Maddie wondered back after awhile to visit with the ladies and little kids. Gianna stayed with the guys and came back with a single antler that she found along the way. (It was apparently left over from the previous owners since it was cleaned and had been sawed off.) She was so proud of that – she carried it with her everywhere – except for inside the trailer because Kimmie made her leave it outside! Scarlett saw her big sisters in the oak tree and decided she wanted to climb the tree also. She needed some help but she finally made it!

Saturday night Melissa, Scarlett and Benjamin joined us and we had a full house inside that trailer! It was fun – we were making memories!

We had a great time out in the country and being able to share it with everyone. Charlie helped Jason and a friend hang outside lights at their house down the road for Raya’s first Christmas and did some local shopping. On Sunday morning we visited a local church and came back to Lovelady and had Chicken Fried Deer Strips and mashed potatoes with Jason, Danielle and Raya.

It was so relaxing and quiet being out there surrounded by trees and sky. Charlie definitely enjoyed reclining on the deck early in the morning, late at night and every minute in between that he wasn’t “walking the property.”