Oh So Thankful

Hey there friends and family. A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I can hardly believe it's come and gone and Christmas is around the corner. We are thankful and feel blessed beyond what we could ask for-- for our family and friends, our church, our Lord. And daily, actually hourly, our hearts swell with thanks for our son Gavin.

We enjoyed Gavin's first Thanksgiving with family and a great feast in our home. In fact, it was our first Thanksgiving or Christmas to celebrate in our own home since we've been married. Thankfully, I was not really "in charge" of the dinner meal. Andrew and Connie, Tony's brother and sister-in-law, did most of the work.

We took a mid-day walk down at the beach on the Dungeness Spit to work up an appetite. Gavin was working on his nap and kept bundled up because it was quite cool.

Here's the gang and the feast: Me and Gavin, Ellie (8), Andrew, Ethan (10), Connie and Alex (6). Tony is of course, taking the photo.

We loved having Andrew's family with us and Tony was thrilled to have folks to play laser tag with in our yard. He set up barricades, obstacles, etc. and they finished with a fire in the fire pit and s'mores. Connie and Gavin and I went shoppping.

Gavin LOVED having his cousins over. He loved the attention and all of the noise and activity. It was so fun to hear him talking up a storm. I'm not sure if he was responding to the attention or trying to make sure that he was still heard over the commotion. It was such a sweet treat, none-the-less. Now he's back to being stuck with just his Mama and Papa and it's a little bit more quiet in the house. But he continues to reward us with wide eyes, raised eyebrows and squeals so expressive and so sweet I want to bottle them up.

Just before Thanksgiving, the three of us were fortunate to have a getaway to the West Coast. It's beautiful country and our two nights away were so relaxing. Tony even got in some surfing. Note the hood, gloves, booties and thick wetsuit he wears to surf in Washington. Not quite the same as his Laguna surfing days.

These little cabins were great and the view was even better. We liked to dream of having one of our own someday.

At the start of our trip, after a 2 hour windy drive, we took a hike out to Cape Flattery-- the most NorthWestern Point of the contiguous United States. It was so beautiful. Rain Forests, Sea caves, sea stacks, etc. We really enjoyed it. Gavin, on the other hand, was first enamored with his Papa (see below) and then decided to talk another nap.