Thanksgiving at the Ranch

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Ranch with my parents and Meish's parents too!  Jeremy headed over first thing in the morning to get his bacon wrapped BBQ turkey going...

 The kids and I stayed home and watched the parade and got ourselves ready and the food I was bringing made.  Around 2:00, we headed over to the Ranch for the feast!  We had fun playing with our cousins...

 Some of us had fun staring at our phones...

 We totally ate ourselves silly...

And then we ate more, because....PAPUSAS!

We got lotss of Kringel love in...

 And this little lady and I did the clean up because Nana wasn't feeling too well.

It was a nice, low key holiday and we ate until our bellies ached!  I love that we got to spend it with so many loved ones.

I am so grateful for so much and I loved being able to reflect and celebrate it all with my family.

17

 Sunday night, we had the fam over to celebrate Gav's Birthday.  He got some cool stuff...

 We had hot dogs w/ potatoes and cheese for dinner and brownies for dessert...

 After the Wilson family left, Gammy & Papa had a graduation surprise for Gav-

 He was stoked!

 Once again, Happy Everything Bug!
Then, on Tuesday (the 24th), a bunch of his buddies came over to watch Star Wars movies and play video games all day and all night!

And eat more brownies...

 They stayed until the afternoon of his actual birthday on the 25th.  I spent most of the time in my room with a sore neck, but I made sure to come down and get a selfie with my birthday boy.

 He wanted In n Out for his birthday dinner and then we came home and he opened his sibling gifts.  He was so beat from all of the fun, he went to bed early.  We ate his pumpkin pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving!

Happy Fall

 Saturday, it was 80+ degrees and beautiful.  So we headed to our favorite place to enjoy it...

My handsome lunch date

He didn't have school on Friday, so I let him pick a place to go to lunch,  He picked Chili's and let me take a sweet pic of him.

HS Graduate

Its official!  This kid has passed the CHSPE and received his high school diploma.  Friday was his last day of high school.  Whoa!  Friday night, we got him all enrolled at Palomar for the Spring.  He starts on Jan 19th.  He will spend the rest of this year looking for a job and getting his drivers license. He turns 17 TODAY!  It has been a very challenging and transforming year for him.  He has his sights set on entering the Air Force ROTC program and serving a mission within the next 2 years.  I can't believe he is already this old and this ready to grow up.  I am so proud and happy to be his mom.  Happy Everything Bug!

The end...The Hunger Games

Thursday night, I got tickets to the early screening of Mockingjay Part 2.  Cali and I went to see it and it was awesome!  I really like how the ended the series.  It was very well done and I was satisfied!

Season of the Force AP Event

 Alright....I have been feeling really yucky lately.  A sinus infection that left me flat in bed for days.  BUT, we had signed up for the AP special event at Disneyland to celebrate the holidays and the new Season of the Force.  So, I bit the bullet and took the kids for a night of Star Wars fun last week.  We spent most of our time at the Season of Force attractions.

 We started the night with a screening of Path of the Jedi...

 Then we wandered around the Launch Bay...

 I was feeling awful, so I sat at the castle for a little bit while the kids went to ride some rides...

 and then I decided to be useful and I headed over to the long wait at "Hyperspace Mountain".

 It was an hour wait, so I waited for 30+ minutes while the kids continued to ride other rides in the park.  Then they hopped in line with me and 20 minutes later, these 3 got to ride the re-vamped version of their favorite ride....

 They loved flying around in an X-Wing battle!

Their last ride of the night was Star Tours.  It included new scenes from the upcoming movie and a Finn and BB-8 sighting...AND best of all...this kid got to be the Rebel Spy!

I was done by midnight.  And so were they.  It was a rough drive home, by I did it.  They had the best night.  I wish I would have felt better, but I'm so glad the kids got to have such a special night.