November, Part 2-Grandma and Grandpa Black's 50th Anniversary

For Thanksgiving week, we spent it with the Black family in San Antonio and Wichita Falls to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary. After Tessa's race in Houston, we drove back to San Antonio and met up with my parents and Scott and Nevla and family. We stayed in an Air BnB about 15 minutes away from Scott's house, so we split our time between hanging out there and hanging out at Scott and Nevla's. At Scott and Nevla's, the kids spent a lot of time playing Rock Band and just hanging out with cousins.

We love being with the cousins. I kept finding pictures to take with the girls. Here's Taryn with Haley and Abby with Haley.

Here's Abby with Nadia and Aubrey with Alexa.

 

Tessa took her picture with Chloe and here's Taryn with Daniel.

Tyler also got into the pictures and posed with Alexa and Aubrey for this picture. And then I took a picture of Abby and Nadia because they were in matching blue dresses for church.

We had some meals together so I took a picture of the kids table as they ate breakfast. I love when we're all together. Paul and Melody and family also came down to be with us, so Rebecca's in this picture too.

Grandma found a Thanksgiving activity online and had all the ingredients for the kids to make fruit turkeys. It was a lot of work to prep and set up but the kids had fun making their fruit feathers to go on the pear turkey body. We took pictures of all of the final masterpieces so here's Grandma and Grandpa's turkey.

 

Abby and Tessa each made their turkeys and were very particular about which fruits they used and the order they put them on the skewers.

Aubrey and Taryn also had beautiful turkey masterpieces. It was fun and the fruit was yummy.

Abby made some caramel apples in Grandma's tiny kitchen and they were delicious. The kids also had a bake off and were split into two teams and each had to make a dessert for the adults to taste and judge. I only got a picture of the team who cooked in Nevla's kitchen. It was Rebecca, Taryn, Alexa, Abby, and Daniel. That left Tessa, Chloe, Aubrey, Nadia, and Haley who cooked in Grandma's kitchen.

 

We have a lot percussionists in the family. Rebecca, Chloe, and Tessa are all percussionists in their school bands. They included Aubrey and Taryn and they learned a body percussion number to Pentatonix's White Winter Hymnal song. It was pretty good and they had fun practicing it and then performing it for the rest of the family.

We had to get a picture of everyone together. We were only missing Joseph, Matt, Taylor, and Mollie who couldn't make it down to San Antonio. 

We saw this picture on Scott's wall and decided we needed to do a recreation. Chloe, Aubrey, and Rebecca are each 6 months apart and we had this picture taken right after Rebecca was born. It was hard to hold these 14 year olds in our laps, but it was funny trying to get them in their same positions. Too cute.

We wanted to take some family pictures, but the weather was not very cooperative. It rained all day when we had planned to take pictures. I still took some of my family on the swings which I thought would've been a cute family picture, but we didn't have on coordinating outfits, so it's not as fancy as I was hoping, but it's still cute.

Because of the rain, we compromised and found a spot to take pictures in the covered garage. Grandpa pulled in his truck to give us a backdrop and some levels with the bed of the truck, but the siding of the garage was not my favorite. But the people still looked good, so here's Scott's family and Paul's family.

We took some pictures of just the girls and these were some of my favorites.

We took a lot of all cousin pictures too and I loved this one of the big girls in front with all of the littles behind them. 

 

We got some of just Grandma and Grandpa and then some with Grandma and Grandpa and all of the grandkids. We were celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary which is in December. We wanted to all be together, but the best thing we were able to do was get most of us together in San Antonio and then most of us together in Wichita Falls. It was fun to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa though.

Here was the best picture we took of everyone together. Just missing Joseph, Matt, Taylor, and Mollie, but still a good looking family.

The Air BnB we stayed in was pretty fun. They had a covered pool that had been converted into a man cave. It had a tv watching area, a reading nook, and a table for games or poker. We took a picture of some of the cousins in there, so it was a little weird sitting around what you could tell used to be a pool, but it was definitely a unique experience. The house also had a game room with a pool table, air hockey, and a basketball hoop. The kids had fun playing there and I got this picture of Tyler and Abby playing air hockey.

 

Before journeying to Wichita Falls, we had one last dinner with Scott and Nevla's family because they did not take the trip with us. We ate at Cane's because all of the girls love it. It was fun hanging out with cousins and we love being all together.

In Wichita Falls, we stayed in another Air BnB. It was a huge house with lots of bedrooms and bathrooms. The owner even took us around on a tour and told us of scary stories about some of the rooms and back stairwells. Tessa and Aubrey even stayed in the room with all of the scary stories. They thought it was cool. There were two different living areas so the kids hung out upstairs watching movies and playing games while the adults hung out downstairs watching football and visiting while cooking. We were excited to see the rest of Paul's family, so it was fun to have Mollie there to play with the cousins.

Abby and Tessa wanted to take fun pictures at the house, so they liked this flower arrangement and took this silly picture while we were searching for picture spots. I got a closeup of Tessa too near the flowers. Such pretty girls.

 

We had a huge Thanksgiving meal which was delicious. We squeezed all of the adults together and Abby was able to get a picture of all of us together.

We took more family pictures outside of the house. Abby wanted some pictures of just her so she was a great model as we looked for picture spots outside. I needed a picture of me and Tyler for our family calendar for next year, so Tyler came out long enough to take a few pictures with just me. I love this picture because we're on the verge of laughing out loud as Tyler tried to lift me, so our smiles are pretty good.

I love getting pictures of Abby and Aubrey together because they don't always get along. I thought this picture was adorable. We finally got Tessa to come out for a few pictures, so here was my favorite one of the three of them together.

 

I liked this picture of me and Tyler too looking through the arched opening by the front door, but we're almost too small for the picture to be great. The brick house made for a pretty background for a lot of our pictures.

Abby takes the best selfies, so those were some of my favorite shots. Aubrey and Abby are definitely more of my picture girls. They don't mind doing photo shoots unlike Tessa and Taryn.

I did get all of the girls outside so I could take some more family photos. I wanted one with all of us girls surrounding Tyler. I liked how this one turned out even though it almost looks like we're squishing Tyler more than surrounding him. 

We set up the camera to take a picture of all of us together. So here we all are except for Scott and Nevla's family. 

We took some pictures indoors too using the stairs. I took this one of all the cousins as we got set up - Mollie surrounded by all of the older cousins. I thought it was super cute. We got everyone in the picture together for another full family one. It was a fun to all be together to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Tessa did stay long enough during the photo shoot to get a picture by this tile mosaic that was outside the house in the backyard. The blue was pretty, but the picture didn't turn out as nice as the brick background of the house. Tessa and Chloe had created this tall Lincoln Log tower when were together at Bass Pro Shop in San Antonio. The girls were so proud of their creation that I had to get a picture.

While in Wichita Falls, we also went to the annual Christmas Fantasy of Lights display at Midwestern State University where Grandpa used to teach. We usually go whenever we're in town and they had just opened for the holiday season this year. We took a lot of cute pictures as we walked around. Here are some of my favorites of the girls with Rebecca.

 

There was an awesome throne chair so I took a picture of each of the girls sitting on the throne like a queen. Here's Tessa and Abby.

Here's Taryn too. Aubrey didn't want a picture of herself, but she was in our family picture with Rebecca in front of the very first Fantasy of Lights display - the flowerpot.

We took a picture of everyone on the steps of the university as we finished up walking around. It was cold, but I love this picture because Abby, who stood next to Melody, must have said something funny because we caught Melody smiling big for the picture which isn't very common. I love this picture and I love my family!