We are THANKFUL!

David & I on Thanksgiving Day.

We went to Las Vegas for a 5 day holiday/soccer tournament combined event.

We stayed at my in-laws' house where they graciously squeezed not only the 5 of us in, but 4 people from David's sister's family stayed a few nights too!

Tina, Marina (14), Stephanie (24) & Debbie

Debbie is David's sister, Stephanie is her daughter. They live in Southern California a 3-4 hour drive from Vegas. This is the night my Mom & Grandma Harvey invited us to all go on a girl's night out to see "Phantom of the Opera" at the Venetian. It was amazing!

(I'll post a 4 generation photo soon, mine didn't turn out well lit, so one from another camera is on the way!)

"Blue Man Group"

(see the one on the right?)

Another night, we dashed from the soccer fields to make it to the 7pm show of the Blue Man Group which was a special treat gifted to us by the Oldenburgs (Dick & Miriam).

It was a fun show, and the kids really liked it!

Thanksgiving a.m. we headed over to "Red Rock National Park", which is only about 15 minutes from the Oldenburgs' house. It was chilly, cloudy and misting a light rain, but we were determined.

That's Debbie, Peter, Marina, Dick & Stephanie in the front row; Me, Jordan, David & Ryker in the back.

Look at Pete using his brute strength to clear a path among the rocks for us! Way up on the far mountain of rock formations - Jordan & Ryker.

My Mom & Grandma Harvey "GG" arrived shortly after we got back from our hike. We all enjoyed some games and relaxing while the feast was prepared. Chinese checkers was a big hit this weekend. That's the board David grew up with. Notice Jzo and Marina in the background with their Aunt Debbie, playing "pounce" - a multiplayer solitaire game. "GG" taught us that game when my sister Darlene and I were kids.

Stephanie's boyfriend, Mark, is a professional motorcross rider/guy (what are they called?). He is sponsored partially by "Monster" energy drinks (which if you've followed my blog for a couple years, you'd remember David is addicted to them) so they surprised David with a late birthday gift of a hat and really nice sweatjacket. Mark was a trooper with our crazy family - they've been dating going on 3 years and he fits right in.

David and the kids ventured into the spa that night. The rain clouds passed that evening and you can see the lights of "the strip" in the view. (about 20 minutes away) Las Vegas got record breaking rain that day... a whopping .17" - they thanked us for that. Let's just say we were happy the sun came out the rest of the days.

This is just to prove we really DID start this whole trip because Jzo's team was playing in the Las Vegas Turkey Shoot tournament. They made it to the Semi-Finals, but had a crazy last game and didn't make the finals. It was fun anyway. That's Jordan sitting and yawning... maybe he had too much turkey the day before?

Marina had fun with a couple other sisters, Hannah & Katie who are 4th graders, were pretty happy the older 9th grader was so friendly toward them.

Marina & Stephanie salute you along with Captain Grandpa Oldenburg (yes, he was a Captain in the Navy!)

Thank you to Dad O. and Miriam for having us all those days, all the delicious food and letting us use their car, etc., etc. It was a really fun Thanksgiving!