Thanksgiving in Alabama

We all enjoy a trip to Alabama to play, get dirty, and escape from the real world for a while. We met Grandpa and Grandma Kirkham there for Thanksgiving and had a great time. It was our first time to visit since a tornado came through in April and destroyed about 80 acres of woods and damaged Grandpa's house and cousin Jim's house across the street. Both houses have been repaired (Jim's was pretty severe and just finished up last month!) and the salvageable timber hauled off, but the rest of the debris and stumps still needed to be burned. Jim had already piled most of the debris with Grandpa's new bulldozer, but they still got a little help from two willing volunteers.

I didn't plan this, but Ben happened to be representing Caterpillar courtesy of our friend Mr. Scott, who works at the Cat headquarters.

Shortly after these pictures, I learned that rolling in dirt gets the grease off of clothes. Who knew? My little pigpen cleaned himself up by getting dirtier.

The boys loved riding with Jim!

I even did a little driving myself. I have to admit it was really fun. Log across the road? No problem. I wouldn't mind cruising down I-10 in Houston traffic in this one day.

The boys' favorite part was going back out to the fires after dinner and roasting marshmallows....or "camping" as Alex kept calling it.


It's hard to beat a warm, gooey marshmallow! We're a perfect fit - I want the crispy skin, the boys want the mushy insides.

Messy? Nah, just the sign of a yummy dessert.

The boys' other favorite activity was catching grasshoppers outside. Ben loves anything he can keep as a pet. This one was Cheeky, his favorite. (but shhhh.....don't tell him I quietly removed one of Cheeky's legs so he couldn't escape!)

And Alex loved Donald. Poor Donald lost both his legs in a catch gone wrong, but turns out it didn't matter because Alex loves with all his heart and all his fist.

Little Donald didn't exactly hop away when Alex was finished playing with him.

Happy boys out in the woods!

It was a great Thanksgiving and we were so happy to celebrate it with family this year. Now we're thrilled about Christmas and can't wait for Santa to come down the chimney!