Thanksgiving 2018

High Society

The kids got a taste of high society as we dined in style at the Baltimore Country Club. Food was great, tour of the bowling alley with Aunt Rita was pretty awesome, and running around outside on the old golf course was even better ... until the kids were freezing cold.

Pic 1: RJ looks downhill and prepares to run, while Julia is not so sure she wants to have her picture taken.

Pic 2: A bit blurry, but it was quite a hill ... may have to revisit this with a toboggan when it snows.

Later On

We spent the night at Granddad's house which included:

• Playing the roller coaster game
• Watching Nick Jr.
• Picking up sticks and throwing them in the fireplace

Pile of Leaves

Raking, Mowing, and Chipping

While Mom was in Phily we got outside and started raking leaves. Or should I say, we pushed leaves around while the rider-mower blew them all into a pile.

Julia wonders where RJ is ...

The Aftermath

Sycamore leaves are highly irritating. After an hour of fun, RJ had a sore throat and scratchy eyes. But I could tell that he learned from the experience ... because the next day he was back outside raking maple leaves.

Johnson Family Reunion

November 10, 2018, Kipling, NC We had a great time at the Johnson Family Reunion at the farm in North Carolina. The event was full of history and outdoor activities including hiking, horses, soccer, fireworks, stoking the fire, 4x4 rides, and hay rides.

Opening night sign in with name tags and chili.

It wouldn't be a trip to the farm without a hike to the waterfall rock. Kids loved the hike.

Kudos to Aunt Debbie for taking off her shoes and helping everybody get across the stream with dry feet. We did a good job keeping our feet dry until RJ slipped on some brown moss while throwing leaves in the waterfall.

RJ spent a lot of time throwing sticks in the fire. On the first night, we walked around in the dark looking for sticks ... by Day 3 (pictured below) RJ was pulling wood off of the regular log piles.

We also spent time diagramming our family tree. This turned into quite the art project.

Amazingly everybody lined up for pictures of the entire family as well as one with just the Eliot & Dorothy descendants.

The farm was in excellent shape due to an arrangement between Tim and a local guy (Mike?) who is boarding his horses at the farm. He let the kids pet and ride horses. The only issue is that the horses would not eat hay ... so much for the saying "hey is for horses." Don't worry ... the electric fence was turned off.

Kudos to Uncle David for getting some good pictures of the farm.

The general store.

The new house (constructed in 19??)

Trip to the graveyard featured fire ants and climbing deer hunting lookouts

And last but not least ... there is always time to play catch with a box of dynamite in from of a 4 year old.

Pickleball

Unexpected Visit

Mom did not tell the kids that Grandma and Grandpa were coming until leaving to get them from the airport. During the visit Grandma Diane and Grandpa Farmer Bob treated RJ to a game of pickleball - tennis on a smaller court with small paddles (or something like that).

This is almost as good as shuffleboard that we learned in Texas.