Thanksgiving Day

Before we get going with Thanksgiving, we need to talk about the luau we had two days before . We sent my parents on a cruise to Hawaii earlier in the year, and the luau was my dad's grand celebration. He made a movie of their trip, cooked a bunch of delicious Hawaiian food, and made some incredible Star Wars Baked Alaskas (and pulled a fast one on all of the attendees). And, of course, there was a ton of food left over.

But that didn't stop us from staring the feasting all over again two days later! Grandpa Russell took a few moments away from his role as head chef to console a sick/grumpy Aaron:

Some serious construction work in the sandbox/fire pit: 

Grandpa has the magic touch: 

Grandma Cathy had a fun craft for the grandkids: hand print turkey shirts!

Catherine makes some lovely turkeys: 

And Seth's shirt (zombie themed? Shocking): 

Aaron made one, too, but I was too busy keeping him from making a huge mess to get any pictures.

Neglected third child.

Potato peeling party: 

Preparing the pumpkin: 

Brian was on turkey duty.

He insisted we all HAD to have fried turkey, as it was the best thing ever.

Turns out he was right! 

Thanksgiving in Arizona is the way to go.

Look at this glorious sunshine: 

Corn is SO FUNNY! 

iPads are SO entertaining! 

Aaron SO needs a nap! 

Since they were so close, we invited Aaron & Ashley to crash the Mikesell family Thanksgiving. They even dragged Ashley's old roommate (who was out for a visit) to come with them. 

Lining up for deliciousness

As we were sitting down to eat, I went around snapping pictures of all the tables full of people. But when I got to the table of Bloods, this was all I found: 

Yep.

Already back in for seconds.

And here they are, enjoying their seconds: 

Look! I was there, too!

Aaron enjoys his first Thanksgiving dinner: 

Surprise! He loved it.

Because it's food.

Uncle Aaron is Catherine's absolute favorite person in the entire world: 

Sometimes I try to take a nice picture of Dad & Grandma.

And sometimes Catherine refuses to get out of the way: 

A rousing post-Thanksgiving game of Bang! 

Thanks to the Kofords for giving us awesome games!

Guess who loves chocolate pie? 

Aaron 1.0 and Aaron 2.0: 

The five Mikesell grandbabies: 

Seth is so proud of his Russell-holding skills.

Russell's daddy is not so sure of those skills: 

Another crazy grandkid shot.

Russell's levitation skills are pretty impressive: 

Zombie turkey shirt: 

Triple turkey shirt: 

See? Aaron did get a turkey shirt!

I am a good mother! 

(Not pictured: the epic ladder-golf competition between the Bloods, Weirichs & Kofords. It was a tough one, but the Aaron & Ashley Bloods knocked out the Weirichs with a crazy lucky set of tosses at the end. Bloods rule!)

It really was a perfect Thanksgiving with family, friends, and two delicious deep-fried turkeys.