Thanksgiving with Levi and Chelsey

This Thanksgiving Levi and Chelsey invited us to celebrate Thanksgiving at the home they bought this summer. Mom of course had to up the ante a little and so we ended up convincing Jarom and Allie to abandon their families and come with us. We flew to Sacramento late Wednesday night and spent Thanksgiving Day at Levi and Chelsey's house in Auburn. Thanksgiving night we drove up to Chelsey's family's cabin at Lake Tahoe (about 90 minutes away) and spent all day Friday (including skiing) and Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we drove back to Auburn and visited a famous bridge, went bowling, and had In and Out Burgers for dinner. Sunday morning we left to come home having had a wonderful time.

Hanging out in the frequent flier lounge at Denver Airport

Thursday AM feast preparations

Allie enjoys a little breakfast

The puppies: Ari Gold

...and Zoe

The puppies know they have to stay out of the kitchen, but wait just outside hoping for a handout

Levi poses under one of about 10 redwood trees in their beautiful and huge backyard

Allie makes apple pie dessert

Levi puts the finishing touches on the turkey

Chelsey teaches us a new holiday breakfast favorite: sausage and cheese balls

What is becoming a Thanksgiving tradition at Levi and Chelsey's: watching the national dog show with the puppies (who are very interested and have to be calmed down now and then)

Levi exercising his right as the head of the household: the first drumstick

Papa Randy whips up the gravy

Grandma Jane makes the homemade rolls

Our Thanksgiving table

We are thankful for the food which we are about to eat

Friday the snowboarder (and skier) head to the Sugar Bowl ski resort for a few hours on the slopes

Friday evening we head into the town of Lake Tahoe for a little site-seeing and lake-side dining

Nothing says "vacation" better than relaxing in a mountain cabin with a warm fire, good food, family, good books and funny movies

The ForestHill Bridge is California's highest bridge, and was used in the opening scene of the Vin Diesel movie, "XXX" (triple X).

In a sad but sort of funny way, there are suicide help phone lines at both ends and in the middle of the bridge: Jarom talks to the operator about his options

Lots of love messages scratched into the railing

Winding up Saturday with In and Out Burgers and bowling

Allie made sure we had lots of pictures of Levi

Tasting some really hot chili sauce and attempting front flips on snowboards at the Sugar Bowl ski resort

Grandma Judy's 80th Birthday Celebration

Grandma Judy Guthrie is celebrating her 80th birthday this week and for her birthday her children (us) decided to surprise her by those of us who live out of state flying in for a party. The surprise part of the plan was executed perfectly; Jason and Leslie took her to Knott's Berry Farm on Saturday and convinced her to go on the steam-engine ride. Once on the train we all entered the car behind them and as Jason had Mom pose for a picture we all creeped-up from behind her and posed for the picture. After he took the picture Jason had her look behind and there we all were. The other people in the train all cheered as we wished her happy birthday. We spend the rest of the day walking around and going on rides. The wilder rides mom sat out with Kelly and Katie, but she really was a trooper and went on quite a few. When we all got tired at the end of the day we went back to Mom's and were joined by Aaron Cassaro and Wes Bedford and their wives for a BBQ, including a great video Jason and Leah put together with pictures from Mom's life. A great family day and a miracle we were all able to get together for the second time this year. Note: Holly's family is having a "planking" contest (look it up) and so we helped her pose for some hopefully-winning shots.