Thanksgiving 2011

The last 6 years of holidays, while living in Alaska, have been spent either at our house or Brandon's sister's house, excluding Easter two years ago when we were in Hawaii and last year when we were in Montana for Thanksgiving .  This year for Thanksgiving we ventured to Big Lake, AK where Brandon's cousin Christy lives with her husband Chancy and their 3 daughters.


~We hit the road about 11:30am.  The road conditions were great and the weather was clear until we started getting closer to Big Lake, at which time it started to snow, but the roads were still decent.  The drive took us about 6 hours with all of our stops.

A rainbow around the sun

The dogs hated being in their cage and whined most of the trip down and back

Tanner did awesome on this road trip!

~ The feast on Thanksgiving day was spectacular.  Christy and Chancy did an awesome job in the preparation.  My favorite sides were the cranberries and the dressing with moose sausage in it.  In my opinion the Turkey was cooked to perfection! It was so much fun spending the day with family we don't get to see very often.  I'm so thankful for all the family we have in Alaska. 

Our gorgeous turkey

A little bit of everything

Some after dinner wrestling

3rd-cousins in the tub

 ~ Friday we got out for a bit and played in the snow since the temps in Big Lake hovered around zero instead of -20 and colder, which is what we're used to in the Fairbanks area.

Getting ready to make a sled trail down the hill

Zhart Family

Cuddling and watching a movie after playing outdoors and drinking hot cocoa

Maggie and Duckie enjoying the wood heat

~ We had great weather and great roads all the way home.  We got some awesome shots of Denali on our way home.  We have always found Denali to be a bit allusive, hiding behind clouds and snow. 

~We saw a total of 15 moose on this trip and didn't even get a picture of one them!
~Tanner LOVED playing with his third cousins who are right around his age.
~I was so thankful for Jess rubbing my feet!
~Crocheting/knitting while catching up with Christy was so much fun.
~Brandon enjoyed getting firewood with Chancy.
~Learning how to play spades until 12am was a blast.

A very memorable Thanksgiving for sure!