Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving! It is my favorite holiday by far. I love that it is a time to reflect on all we have been blessed with, and to take time out of the regular routine to do so. We made a Thanksgiving tree. I can't remember all of them, but here are a few:

Ivy wrote she was thankful for unicorns, rainbows, and mommy

Kezia wrote she was grateful for church, the Bible, nature, and mommy

I wrote I am grateful for water, kind strangers, and smiles. And when I went outside that day to find Nate, I found another thing to be grateful for: my husband who plays with our kids (and our friends' kids)

And what a better way to give thanks than over a feast with friends and family! This year we had our good friend Mara and her daughter Nicole over, as well as 3 girls I had taken paddling and found themselves with no where to go for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to have them join us.

That Saturday we headed up to Malaekahana to go camping with our friends Jason and Shana and their two boys. We had a blast!

Jessica and Michael met us up there for a bit as well. We caught 62 crabs on the beach, including one as big as a shaka. It rained as we stayed dry in the tent at night. The next morning we went to church and came back to find our friends had left. Apparently it rained enough while we were gone they decided to pack up and leave. Oh well. We had a fun time together playing Kick the Can and then got ready for another campfire. That's when we noticed our friends had taken our lighting fluid and we had nothing to start the fire with. So Kezia and I said a prayer, and as soon as we were done, Kezia said, "Look, Mom, that man is smoking!" A man had pulled up as we were praying and had lit a cigarette. I can't think of another time I had been happy to see someone smoking.

A whole lotta smoke and then slowly the fire started.

We invited our friends Natalia and Brandon and Kai to join us as well. We had a great time. I Love camping!!