Thanksgivings Present and Past

When we last left you, we were just getting ready to shut the lid on the washing machine and clean the girls. Well, after the final rinse cycle, they were ready for the dryer. Sophie is now back with her parents in Spearfish all cleaned and refreshed. 

Now, they are clean and good to go!

Of course, our big event for the week was Thanksgiving, but we managed to get out on a couple adventures. Although Barb filled our woodshed while I was at the farm, we were a little short of dry wood to burn this season, so we headed out to the National Forest in search of some dead trees to cut up and burn this year. We brought both Rangers and filled them up with dried logs. In the span of two hours, we had them cut, split and stacked.

Later that afternoon Barb and I decided to hit the trails to cross off one more hike off our quest for 100. This time we decided to do Little Devils Tower inside Custer State Park. We parked the car at the Sylvan Lake trailhead at 2:15pm knowing we had just over 2 hours to complete the hike. The hike is rated as Strenuous with some class 2 bouldering near the end. We did not know what that meant at the time, but we were about to find out!

The trail is nothing but up, up and up. It lived up to its rating and even though it was only 45 degrees, we were sweating up pretty good. 

The combination of the snow, rocks and green of the pines made for some spectacular pictures. 

We FINALLY made it the Class 2 bouldering area where we learned what that meant. 

We had to climb up several crevices, grippy shoes were a must. 

The nice thing about doing the tallest peaks is the views once you get to the top. The bad thing about them is, unlike a lot of hikes, there is a lot of up to get to the top. This is the 12th highest peak in the hills topping out at 6,960'. Our lungs and calves were burning. An hour and 15 minutes after leaving the jeep, we made it to the top! 

You could see forever in every direction. The only thing higher than us was Black Elk Peak across the way. You can see the watch tower in the picture below. That is a hike for another day, as it is an all day hike. 

The shadows were long and the sun was setting on our way down making for some incredible scenery. 

When we finally arrived back at the parking lot, we were the only vehicle left, what an awesome hike!

Now, for the main course (see what I did right there?) 

We had a great Thanksgiving with the gang. Kevin arrived first to watch the Packers/Lions game. much to Sophie's parents' chagrin, we dressed her up in a Lions jersey. 

The turkeys made an appearance as well. How many do you count? I counted several times and finally settled on 42.

Kevin also helped us take out our old couch and love seat and bring in our new furniture. Once we got it in and unwrapped, we noticed the couch had a tear in it. Nerts! Oh well, nothing we can do about it now. (Barb talked to them the following Monday, and they are bringing us a new couch). We sat down to watch the game and I looked over to see Kevin fast asleep on the loveseat. Well, I guess they are comfortable!

 It was not until a few hours later that I remembered that Kevin is having hernia surgery in about a month and probably should not be lifting anything!

Dan and Bonnie came over about 1:00 and Cheryl a while later. We had supper around 4:00, everything was incredible!

My earliest Thanksgiving memories are from around when I was 8 or 9 and involved mom and dad packing us up driving us south to Des Moines Iowa. Destination Aunt Jean and Uncle Joe's house. I do not recall if all our family members were there at the same time, but if they were, there would have been 16 kids and 4 adults. What I do remember is that they lived in a mansion. Huge 3 or 4 story brick house. We played a lot of hide and seek. I think the last of those Thanksgivings took place around the mid 70's and we have not seen our cousins in decades. I drove my mom down to see her sister a couple of times through the years but now both my parents, as well as Jean and Joe have long since passed away. Still, memories I hope to never forget. I know my cousin Duffy reads the blog once in a while, maybe he can shed some more light.

Later in life, after Barb and I got married, Thanksgiving was centered around deer hunting. We usually got together with my mom, and my brothers and sisters, more often than not, at our house so I could deer hunt in the morning. Memories the kids and us will never forget. 

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the families of our daughter Jessica, and son Forrest are spending their first Thanksgiving together in years. Brother, sister, cousins and spouses making Thanksgiving memories of their own.

Every year for the past few years our daughter has been going out deer hunting on their property in Pennsylvania. She takes her daughter Kendall out with her every opening morning. Each year, they look forward to spending a frosty morning with each other out on the woods. Hot chocolate, snacks, handwarmers. They do not really expect to get a deer, it is more mother/daughter time than really hunting, it is a special time for each of them.  She sends us pictures every year. 

An hour or so after receiving that picture, we received this text. I took a screenshot of the text just as we received it. Warning, dead deer picture ahead.... 

We were beyond excited for her, and as you can see from her text, she was excited as well! We waited with bated breath for the next update. About 30 minutes later, we received this picture. 

The next picture we got from her.

That is one happy girl, and we are two proud parents. Proud of her for getting her first buck, but prouder of the Thanksgiving traditions and memories are kids are making together.