A Very Carlin Thanksgiving, Pt. 2

Now that we are in the post-Christmas "slump," I'll have a little time to catch up on our holiday season. Right now I'll flash back to Thanksgiving, and the remainder of our family's visit...

Family portrait at the Desert Museum

While it was fun to lay around like slugs on Thanksgiving Day, both the Carlins and our family wanted to get out and get moving for the rest of the weekend. And we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit in the process!

We opened up our Black Friday by taking all the kids mini-golfing...

Note also Aurora's daring leap into the sand trap...

 ...and playing on the playground (it was a beautiful day!).

My cutie-pie niece Laura

Later that afternoon, the dads took all the kids (except for Aurora and Laura Carlin) to see Wreck-It Ralph, the Disney holiday movie that our family is currently crazy about. The main character is a video-game villain who is tired of being the bad guy. When he tries to "change the rules," chaos, hilarity, and heartwarming hijinks ensue. It's pretty great. Maybe I'll write a full review sometime.

Anyway, when they left for the movie theater, my sister Jocelyn and I took our "babies" (technically, Aurora is my baby, but she looks awfully big compared to Laura), and cruised around town. We spent time talking about life in general, visiting Trader Joe's (one of my favorite stores, and Jocelyn's first visit there!), eating lunch at El Guero Canelo (to introduce Jocelyn to the wonder that is the Sonoran hot dog), and doing some shopping!

Last year, I ventured out into the late evening cold of Black Friday, and found myself quite overwhelmed at Walmart. However, this time we snuck into a Target at about 2:30 pm, and guess what? It didn't seem like Black Friday at all. In fact, it felt like any other slightly busier-than-average retail day. The cashiers and my fellow customers were all relaxed and friendly. Best of all, I still managed to find a couple of nice deals...I got a new copy of Wii Sports Resort (Aurora had broken our copy several months earlier) for a better deal than anything I'd seen either online or in secondhand stores. Score! I also got a couple of cheap DVDs, thanked my lucky stars, and called it a day on the shopping front.

That night we relaxed and pretended it was July 4th by setting off the rest of our fireworks. They were a big hit--particularly with Aurora, as you can see by all the jumping around!!

 

 

Saturday was the last full day with our family, and we decided to take everyone to the Desert Museum, a favorite destination of ours (particularly in the fall/winter, since most of the museum is outdoors). This time, Nate's brother Ryan, his wife Judy, and their son Cameron went along. We made up quite the caravan!

Aurora really enjoyed petting this snake!

The family checking out all the creepy-crawlies...

...including all these cockroaches. Eewwww...gross!

Our kids' favorite place in the Desert Museum is crawling around in this artificial "cave"--very fun!

Lorelai relaxing next to some gem formations

Up close and personal with the Desert Museum's resident cougar

Uncle Ryan navigating the maze

The girls solving the Native American maze with Aunt Judy

Watching the bighorn sheep butt into each other...they were pretty testy that day!

After the Desert Museum, we all headed to a nearby Panda Express for lunch, then finally returned to Sahuarita for fun and games with the family. Really, that was what most of the Thanksgiving weekend entailed...quiet times and joking around with the family. I can't remember specific details of those conversations, but it is always nice to just relax and shoot the breeze with family you don't see too often.

The Barretts at the Desert Museum...Cameron was quite a fan!

Besides Simon trying to escape, the Desert Museum was a lovely day-trip for the Carlins

The next morning, both the Barrett and Carlin families packed up their things, climbed into their cars, and headed back home. We will miss them, but we were also grateful for the time we were able to spend with all of them. We hope to see everyone again at various points in 2013. Their departure marked the end of Thanksgiving weekend, but also the beginning of the Christmas season! Time to start pulling out the decorations...