California Thanksgiving 2012

Well, it's been almost a YEAR since Jordan and I had visited my home state and I sure was excited to go back there! We left the Saturday before Thanksgiving and came back the Saturday after. I suppose it was a long trip, but it felt like it went by so fast! It was so fun to see my family but sadly Matt was stayed at BYU for Thanksgiving since he's coming home for Christmas. I don't know when I will ever see him again! :(

I always try to think of things to take Jordan to do in California that he hasn't seen or done before. I don't know why--maybe I just really want him to like Cali? Anyway, this time we decided to go see the big redwood trees that are so famous.

On the long drive up there, we stopped at this pretty river. Dad always has to stop and see what the fishing situation is.

We finally made it up to the Calvaras Redwoods. This was a HUGE tree that they (sadly) cut down in the 1800s to make a dance floor. It's like 40 feet across or maybe bigger.

Here's Mom and Brett posing by the Mother and Son trees. They are two separate trees that just really love each other!

Here's me and Dad!

This is a tree that they cut the middle out of. It's still alive but just barely. Isn't that kind of sad? But since it's there, we might as well take a cute picture!

Here's the red wood of the red woods.

So huge!

Thanksgiving, of course, was the big event. Dad decided to get brave this year and smoke the turkey instead of letting Mom bake it in the oven. Since he had only ever smoked one other piece of meat ever (the week before) I think we were all a bit nervous. But it turned out absolutely delicious!

Mom and I did a lot of the cooking. I was in change of the spinach dip, the yams (thanks to an amazing recipe from my friend Kristi), and the ham glaze (which I almost ruined, but it turned out fine). Jordan made the stuffing. He's so talented! 

Grandma and Grandpa Gallacher and my Aunt Lynn were all present at Thanksgiving dinner, but I was lame and didn't take pictures! The food was all amazing and the company was great!

I had seen an idea on Pinterest that I absolutely loved and Mom was nice enough to go with me on it. I wrapped a wreath in yarn and then made "leaves" so everyone could write a few things they were thankful for on them and then pin them onto the wreath. Everyone humoured me. It was fun to see everything people wrote down!

Brett wrote "Family" and "Cats." He has a cute cat named Lancelot who is pretty nice.

The completed Thankful wreath!

My dad is silly. He wrote, "Each one of my kids, and sometimes some more than others." Don't worry, he's kidding...I think.

Friday was our horse day. It had been raining practically every night the first few days so everything was super wet so we couldn't get the horses out. So lame!

I took this cute picture of Mom and Dobba-do walking out to the barn. He is such a HUGE horse!

I am slowly turning Jordan into a horseman. He's got the basics of riding down, so this time I taught him how to lunge. He did really well! He's a natural. He just needs to work on his canter cue. You have to say it just right. "Can-TER!"

Isn't he the cutest horse you've ever seen? Pretty much every day we were at my parent's house, I would look out the window and go, "Look, Jordan! Scout's eating/sleeping/rolling/biting Dobbin. Isn't he just so cute?" Jordan thinks I'm a little crazy.

Here's me with my sweet boy. Please ignore my dad's ugly sweatshirt and the fact that I'm not wearing makeup.

Friday afternoon we hit Old Town Sacramento. It's along the river and is just basically a touristy place where  they keep all the shops looking like of like they did in the 1800s.

Here's Mom and I by an old train.

And we're not really sure about the sign, but the salt water taffy was delicious!

We finished it all up with dinner at In-and-Out Burger (my favorite!) and the next morning headed to the airport. I sure love my family and I'm grateful for everything they do for me! Can't wait to see them in the summer!