Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Thanksgiving 2017

This year Justin and I thought it would be fun to have our families for Thanksgiving at our house. My family wasn't able to come for Thanksgiving Day so Elainah, David, Benjamin, and my mom came for a few days before.

Oma and her grandson :)

Justin's hunting backpack came while they were here so Benjamin helped him test it out!

Benjamin just lounging with our new kitten and fixing his gun. 

*     *     *     *     *

Mom and the kids left early Thanksgiving morning so they would be home with the rest of the Sanger's for dinner in PA.  The Strite's all arrived by noon for our Thanksgiving meal. 



Mommy helped me make favors for everyone.

Kids table in the kitchen.

The kids table had an activity tablecloth that they could color.

All the yummy food...

 Aunt Sharon and her girls made the adorable turkey vegetable tray.

Dessert table...



Looks like the kids tablecloth was an attraction for all ages! :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with everyone!

SaveSave

Friday, November 24, 2017

2 Weeks in Texas

Justin's boss, Shawn, has sold his farm here in Arizona and is in the process of moving to his new farm in Texas.  He asked Justin if he would like to drive a load down to the farm and work for a few weeks.  The bonus part was that Benaiah and I got to go along too!

This was the load we took. 

Shawn and his dad also drove a semi loaded with a disk and some other farm supplies.

This is the canal that runs right past the shop on the farm.  Justin saw an alligator further down it on the bank one day!

We stayed at the house Shawn's in-laws have purchased in Texas.  The backyard view was pretty nice! :)

These longhorns roam the field behind the house.

Little man started crawling and pulling himself up on things while we were there!

Justin worked long days in the fields.  These fields had cotton in them this summer so they needed to be prepared for planting next spring.  First they mow all the cotton stalks and then they use an implement that pulls the roots and flings them out behind the tractor.

Next all the fields have to be disked.  Then they use an implement called a "lister cultivator" that makes elevated rows for the planter to plant the cotton seeds in when springtime comes around.

We got to ride with Justin quite a bit, which wasn't a problem for this happy guy!  He loves tractor riding!

Grocery shopping with this little cutie sure is fun! :)

Shawn's father-in-law also bought a former catfish farm and all the catfish left in the ponds are going to die.  So we went one afternoon and caught as many as we could.  We filleted all of them and then froze the meat to take back to AZ with us!

Watching daddy reel in a fish :)

"I think I know how this works!"


The one on the right was the biggest fish Justin caught!

Justin also went fishing in the Colorado River.  No, this is not the same Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon :)

On Sunday's Justin had off work, so the first weekend we went to the beach in Sargent.

Benaiah loved standing in the sand...

...until a wave came in and he wasn't to sure what to think!! :)

We also drove to Jamaica Beach on Galveston Island the first Sunday... along the drive there we saw sooo many amazing beach houses!  This is one of the more majestic ones...




Enjoying the water at Jamaica Beach.

I found some cool shells but didn't realize that one of the shells I picked up had a hermit crab living in it!

The second Sunday we went and saw the shrimp boats in Palacios.

We also went to the beach in Matagorda the second Sunday.

We walked out on this pier...

At the end there was a bridge where you could walk over to the jetty and onto the beach if you wanted.

On our way home from the beach in Matagorda we saw some wild hogs.  The way they are running reminds me of, "and this little piggy ran allll the way home!" lol  We also saw an alligator in a marshy area but didn't get a very good picture.

The day before we left to fly back to Arizona, Justin went fishing one more time.

We aren't sure what kind of fish this is, notice the little tooth thing on the top of its mouth?
If you know what kind of fish it is, leave a comment and let us know! 

Justin found this little baby lizard/gecko in the garage before we left.


We had a really fun time while we were in Texas, it was like a mini vacation for us!