The reason we made this circle back to Oklahoma was to spend some family time with people we love during the holidays. We started our time in Edmond, Oklahoma, where we left the motor home at Denisa's sister and brother-in-law's house. After spending the last year in the east with very little wind, Mark was reminded how hard it is to drive a tall motor home in a 30 mph side wind on the ride to Edmond. The ten-day forecast called for warm autumn temperatures and lows above freezing. So we decided not to winterize the motor home after all.
We were happy that Connie and Joe invited their children and grandchildren over the day we were visiting so we got to catch up on their lives. We even got to snap a picture of them with their five precious grandchildren.
Next stop was Yukon, Oklahoma, where Denisa's other sister also invited her children and grandchildren over. Once again, we seemed to take pictures only of the grandchildren. Below is a picture of two cute guys sitting by the fireplace, rocking their plaid shirts.
Just like Denisa likes baby dogs and cats, she is also crazy about baby humans. She got to spend some good quality time with the newest addition to the family, with his two big sisters and Grandma Debra making sure Aunt Denisa was holding him right.
We got to drive through our old home town of Weatherford, Oklahoma, where Mark's former IT department at SWOSU was celebrating the short work week with a pot luck lunch. Denisa also got to do laps with Patti, her former walking partner, and we visited with old friends in the Administration building on campus. We can say that in the last two years we have never missed our jobs, but we certainly miss the people we worked with.
Next stop was Beaver, Oklahoma, where Mark's parents still live. We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner here with all of Mark's siblings and many of our nieces and nephews and families. We had 25 people for dinner, and then spent the next two days playing games and snacking. We taught the youngest generation how to play spike ball on a beautiful Thanksgiving afternoon.
We don't have any babies on this side of the family, so we guess the newest family member would be our son's puppy. He's a golden doodle (golden retriever and standard poodle mix) and this was his first trip to the ranch. Everyone seemed to love him, except for the ranch's resident German Shepherd.
The youngest family members (and the youngest at heart) made the traditional trip out to the hay bales for some racing and chasing.
It was good to see that our sons still like to play tackle football on the hay bales after all these years.
We were particularly excited that our children could be here for some good family time. Our son Luke is in the second year of his Pediatric residency, and he doesn't have much flexibility in his schedule. After working another all-nighter at the hospital, he and his wife, Jordan, drove the six hours to join us for Thanksgiving in the panhandle of Oklahoma.
Our son Blake is an engineer, and we have been blessed that his schedule allows for more family time. He and his girl friend, Claire, made the four hour drive from Oklahoma City too.
It was absolutely beautiful weather over the Thanksgiving holiday, and we spent much of it outside playing games.
Since this is one of the few times our immediate family has been together in 2016, it was a great time to take a Christmas card picture. This isn't the one we chose for our card, but Denisa really liked the golden leaf background along the creek.
Instead of beautiful scenery, this blog contains many pictures of beautiful children and family members. It seems fitting that we would include these pictures as they are God's wonders, and some of the things we are most thankful for. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving as we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise from the panhandle of Oklahoma!
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