November 28, 2006
Thanksgiving at Mammoth Mountain
After a few crazy weeks of traveling, deadlines, and speaking, we are returning from an amazing week of family vacation. The kids joined Steve and me in Los Angeles for Thanksgiving vacation. Monday morning was spent seeing old friends and visiting old haunts. We spent the afternoon and evening at Disneyland and California Adventure. Tuesday we took family pictures up in the hills of Malibu for this year’s Christmas letter.
We spent the rest of the week at a rented house in the mountains of northern California, near Mammoth Lakes. My full, step, and half brothers and their families joined my mom and Roy and our family for a week of R&R! We spent Wednesday driving but Thursday began bright and early with lots of cooking.
We watched the Dallas Cowboys game, took naps, played games, ate turkey and all the trimmings, and watched “Nacho Libre.” Such a silly, funny movie. We also took a trip to swim in the natural hot springs near Mammoth but it was closed due to geological activity. I almost hit Bambi on the way, which made for a very exciting drive up the mountain.
The next morning we were planning to go skiing and snowboarding but the snow conditions were too icy. We were all very disappointed. We cut our losses and chose to go hiking and rock climbing. It was freezing cold but as long as we were climbing uphill, in the sun, it was a lot of fun. We also found time for a quick trip to Starbucks where my amazing baby brother, who is a new youth pastor, led my girls in a little devotional.
That afternoon we decided to give the hot springs thing another try. We heard of a Hot Springs Resort about an hour south that was open. To be honest, it looked and felt like a giant bath tub to me. The water wasn’t really hot enough or bubbly enough to be considered a Jacuzzi and it wasn’t really cold enough to be a refreshing pool. But, we all jumped in and had fun. My mantra for the day was, “We’re making a memory. It may be a dud memory but it is a memory, nonetheless.” That night we all went to see the movie, “Happy Feet.” What a cute movie.
Saturday was probably my favorite day of the whole trip. It didn’t snow so we still weren’t able to go skiing so we decided to laze around the house all day and just enjoy being together. Roy cooked a delicious ham and eggs breakfast. We played Spades. Steve and I snuck off to Starbucks. We all snuggled up on the couches and watched movies. I made Rachael Ray’s fudge Christmas wreath and it actually looked somewhat like a wreath. We played a marathon Monopoly game. We took more naps and then we all went out to dinner where we took over an entire wing of the restaurant with our very loud fun.
It is now 4:30 in the morning and we are driving back to Los Angeles to catch a flight back to Dallas. I sure hope you had a restful and enjoyable Thanksgiving and I hope you got to spend some of it with family. We have so much for which to be thankful but I will have to say that the gift of family is always at the top of my gratitude list. By the way, you’re way up there, too!
Posted by weblion at 02:22 PM
