Thanksgiving update

This year we have much to be thankful for. We have loved being parents to our boy, Bridger, who turns 2 this month, and are getting ready for a little girl to join our family in January. Jim's job is going well. We love the area we live in and the friends we have made. We have been able to visit a lot of our extended family on all sides this past year. We feel very blessed.

For Thanksgiving, we were in the Sacramento, CA area to spend time with my Dad's side of the family. There were many reasons to celebrate the week together. One of my cousins returned from his mission, and we went to his homecoming.

We celebrated my Grandpa's 80th birthday. This is my Grandpa & Grandma (seated in the middle) & their kids: Rodney, Don, Linda, Brent, & Paul. (My cousin Andrew snuck into the picture between G & G.) All the grand kids & great grand kids that made it to the celebration. I missed my siblings, but had to represent.

This is how we kept the little ones in line at the Birthday party.

Jim was taping down something with blue duct tape and the kids seemed really interested to have some of their own, so this is the result of them coming back for more and more

They really liked it - I promise...

In the party after the birthday party, we returned to my uncle Paul's home to play Rock Band. I can not describe how entertaining this was. The sound on the video isn't the best, but I want to just point out my uncle Kirk (in red) rocking out the microphone even though he had never heard the song before, my mom (on the couch, without a mic) singing along, Jim's intensity on keeping up the beat on drums, and my uncle Paul (standing) unleashing his inner rock star as he dances around with his guitar.

The day before Thanksgiving, we attended the Loomis (the town we stayed in) "Day before Thanksgiving Parade". Bridger wasn't too into it at first, but then realized people were handing out candy and got very happy and very sticky.

On Thanksgiving day, my dad & I went to support Jim as he ran the Feed the Hungry 10k in Sacramento. Getting up early to spectate a running event may not seem like a lot of fun, but when there is 28,000 participants, it is actually really exciting.

Above is my dad sporting Jim's T-shirt. Below is some random pics we took while waiting for the race to start.

Notice that watermelon under my shirt? Yeah, that is all belly. Jim takes his place among the crowd. We took our spectating positions, and thought we were safe on the sidewalk down the road from the start. However, as you can see from the video - these runners didn't care so much if there was a pregnant lady with a camera innocently standing on the sidewalk. We had to climb up on the shrubbery to keep out of the way and avoid being trampled.

In order to take a safe route to watch the finish, my dad and I actually had to join the crowd and walk some of the race course to navigate our way back to where we should be. Remember that arcade game Frogger? That is what we felt like among the thousands of people. Here is my dad getting in on the action.
Jim ran a great race & set a PR: 6.2 miles in 45 minutes, 45 seconds.
On our way back home to Oregon, we took the long way and drove up through the Redwoods and up the coast. It was beautiful weather for a late November weekend.

Bridger is recently fascinated with Panda Bears, ever since we watched Kung Fu Panda for family date night. This is one of the many carvings we encountered in the Redwoods area.

If you ever find yourself hungry in Port Orford, OR treat yourself to The Crazy Norwegian. Don't be scared if there is a wait, because there usually is at peak times. However, they have great fish & chips, clam chowder & shakes. Yum.