Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Thanksgiving Snapshots.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We were delighted to receive an invitation to spend the day in Wichita with our Great-Uncle George and his wife Nancy. Two of their boys and their families were there as well and we so enjoyed spending time with them! Of course Grandma was there too, and though the Ansons were at home with guests, the Shepards were able to come up for lunch too! What a wonderful day we had! After a delicious lunch (Aunt Nancy and Grandma really know how to cook!!), there was time for visiting, taking walks, cards games and several installments of a football game in the front yard!!
Justice and Silas eating while listening intently to Moses!

Enjoying Aunt Nancy and Grandma's fine cooking!!

We all love the time we get to spend with our adorable little Shepard boy, who we don't see enough of! Here Uncle Seth and Aunt Esther give Justice some attention- what a cute little nephew!

Hmmm.......Dad has the best spot in the house- 3 kinds of chocolate pie, a chocolate cheesecake, peanut-butter pie, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cake- which one do you choose??
Playing Spades after lunch.

Uncle George must be giving us tips how to win the game!!

Enjoying the good weather and the company for a walk after lunch.

The swimmers and Aunt Nancy!
Thursday night found a few of us older ones driving down to Parsons in time to catch 3 hours of sleep before we were up again at 3am to go bargain hunting with Andrew. I think most of us were awake!! :) Back in Wichita Mom waited until a slightly more reasonable hour to go shopping while Dad and our youngsters got to go swimming in a indoor pool at the YMCA!
Aunt Nancy gives good swimming lessons!

Elizabeth and Noah.
Friday night found the rest of the family arriving in Parsons where Andrew and Rebecca had invited us all to visit!

Andrew & Seth and Rebecca & Mom deep in conversation.

Rebecca bought a bunch of old-fashioned jewelry for the little ones to enjoy. Apparently it was a little too much for some of the older ones to pass up--Noah couldn't resist 'decorating Mom'!

Quite the fancy lady!!

Rebecca's beautiful decorations!

Uncle Seth and Justice grinning together!

Playing Spades to pass the time in the bus....
(Gotta love Esther's multi-tasking!! )

We stopped by our dear friends the Stumpfs for a quick hello, which turned into a slightly longer one when the bus wouldn't start! Mr. Stumpf was quick to supply us with jumper cables, and we were on our way again! We love you, Stumpfs!!

After leaving Stumpfs we attended the Ulmer-family reunion, and enjoyed getting to see Dad's two sisters- Aunt Texye and Aunt MaJana, as well as the many other Aunts, Uncles and cousins!! (We were sorry to miss seeing Uncle Bernard's and hope they will come visit us soon!!)

It wouldn't be the Ulmer reunion without a game of spoons!! It can get a little wild though, one year Seth pulled our cousin Tommy out of his chair and all the way across the table, both fighting desperately for the spoon!!
This year Aunt MaJana was the champion!!

Esther are you looking at Aunt Texye's cards???

We love our cousins!!
Mauri, Elizabeth, Parker and Esther!!

It was a rather late night driving home from Southern Kansas!!
Ali, Esther and I helped keep the driver awake!!

6 comments:

~AliisaJoy~ said...

I love all the pictures, but I think my favorite had to be Mr. Ulmer with all the pies!!! It was so sweet to reminisce all the fun we had that weekend!!

I miss you all SO MUCH!!!

~AliisaJoy~ said...

Actually, my favorite one may be the one of Mrs. Ulmer all decked out!! I can't decide between the two.

So, we actually had one of us 3 girls that turned out okay! That trip was so memorable! Lots and LOTS of laughs! ;P

Anonymous said...

Great pictures...looks like you had a terrific time. There is nothing wrong with multi-tasking, it has really nice results.

The Ansons said...

Nanna- with all those beads you really look like a grandma!! We love you!
Paul and Marcus

Anonymous said...

I love these pictures! They look like some wonderful memories in the making. Family is the best. :-) The one of you & Noah is cute - brothers are good for sitting on! LOL

Hillary Hipps said...

Well, Well, Well...

Noah, 1. One should not 'kibitz' during a card game when there are cameras present. 2. While your mother looked darling...How shall we say I would not suggest cosmetology as a future occupation!

Elizabeth, The pictures were quite funny. You should read the comments on the gun post of our blog... We have quite the case going! I am glad you all had so much fun on thanksgiving. We were really looking forward to the picture of Seth dragging the cousin across the table. Oh well, Next year.

Hopefully we will see you Sunday!

-Hillary