Thanksgiving day 2

We woke up from our cozy little cabin in the woods and decided to check out a cute little town I read about somewhere on the internet.  Solvang.

It's no secret I love Europe.  I'm sure I've annoyed several people by talking about it a little too obsessively, but sorry-not-sorry.   Anyways, things being what they are, it is doubtful I will be getting back there any time soon, so when I heard of a tiny little town that was practically plucked from Europe itself, I was all in.

We loved it.  It was fun.  It was really cute.  The architecture was great.  But it was kind of a super touristy hodge-podge of a few European countries.  Germany, Holland, and Denmark come to mind.

We got Ebelskivers at a little Danish restaurant. 

And found the little statue of the Little Mermaid which is a replica of the one in Denmark.

We posed in front of the giant windmill.

We window shopped in stores full of imported goods like liederhosen and dirndl's and cuckoo clocks and knick-knacks and other various touristy crap items.

And of course we enjoyed some gelato, because what is Europe with gelato?

I have to confess, something was off for me most of the time, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  And then I realized that everything was too straight.  You knew that every building was built to code, and I was honestly missing that feeling that the building could possibly fall over at any given moment. There are so many buildings in Europe that are hundreds of years old.  Many hundreds of years. 

 They've withstood wars and plagues and are still there to tell the tale.   These were only a few decades at the most.

And when we had our fill of Europe, we then headed back to the USA in the grand American way of making gluttons of ourselves in the best way we knew how - at Slaters 50/50 where bacon is the main ingredient on the menu.  Everything has bacon added to it in some way or another whether it's ground into the hamburger meat, or added to a giant brownie.  It's pretty fantastic.  If you like bacon.

Thanksgiving day 1

I love Thanksgiving in theory. I think the idea of getting together with family and eating a fabulous meal, and thinking about and talking about and celebrating a day of thankfulness right before a season of excess and shopping is fantastic.  I love the idea of going to Grandma's house and seeing cousins and aunts and uncles and everyone brings their "famous" dishes and the kids sit at the kid table and all the Norman Rockwell-esque  things that go with the day.

But that was not what Thanksgiving was going to look like in our home this year (however, to be fair, after I made other plans, I got SEVERAL invites from our amazing friends.) This year, it was just going to be the 4 of us, and only 3 of us actually eat anything you might find on a Thanksgiving table.   It was going to be me spending HOURS making everyone's favorite dishes, then roughly 15 minutes of eating, and then me spending HOURS cleaning up and trying to figure out where to stick all the leftovers. 

Several years ago, after just the same scenario, I announced "Never Again! Next time it's just us, we will eat sandwiches! (turkey of course) Someplace exotic, and memorable, like the beach!"  And so the idea was hatched.  It took several years to realize my dream.  I mean, don't get me wrong, that just meant that we were having Thanksgiving with the grandparents and the aunts and uncles and cousins (both sides of the family depending on the year).

And so, this year I got on the internet and found some cheap sleeping accommodations, we picked up our turkey sandwiches from the local deli (minus Christopher of course, we brought along the fixings for a peanut butter sandwich - no jelly, he's weird)

We cruised along the Pacific Coast Highway, rolled down the windows, and listened to good music, like the dorks we are.  I wish oh wish we had a convertible, but alas.

We found a spot on the beach that was away from tourists and enjoyed our meal. 

The kids got their feet wet, and Maddie attempted to do some yoga on a rock.

We played for awhile and then headed off to find our tiny little cabin in the woods. 

And I mean tiny.  It was this tiny little cabin on wheels with 2 sets of bunkbeds, a tv and dvd player to watch movies, a bathroom, and the tiniest little kitchen.

 It was perfect.

Drama Queen

Maddie loves all things to do with theatre. 

You might say she's a giant drama queen. 

Well, this year she took it one step further.  First she was selected to be a part of her high school drama council, which meant she had to go to a leadership camp with all the high schools in the area.  And then at that leadership camp she was selected to be a State Thespian Officer.  They are the kids who run all the major state activities like camp and festivals and what not.  Besides being an honor, it's crazy good for a resume and college application.

So this month was the giant Arizona State Thespian Festival.  Basically all the drama kids from all the schools in the state of Arizona get together at the Phoenix Convention Center for two whole days, and Maddie and her fellow STO's were running the whole show.

Needless to say, she had an amazing time, made lots of new friends, took exactly one picture, and came home completely and utterly exhausted.