Red-Neck Theme Parks, Hikes, and Whoopie Pies

I showed up at the farm a week ago with Cole and we set about mowing, cleaning, and repairing things in anticipation of the family’s arrival on Wednesday. By Wednesday at 1:30, Kat’s Mini Cooper was driving up the long caliche drive and Cole was at attention. We unpacked the car and began preparing lunch. I looked out the kitchen window and saw Austin, 2, sitting in the swing hanging from one of the huge branches of the big oak tree. Kat drew up a quick vegetarian Thanksgiving menu and drove to town to enjoy the day-before-Thanksgiving crowd at the H.E.B. In a couple of hours, Melinda and Jenna drove up. And  a few hours later, Alan and the dogs arrived, completing the full house.

I don’t even remember what happened that night, but Thanksgiving day was full. After breakfast burritos, I went outside with the kids. Willie, the Silverado, was converted in several stages, into what we labeled a red-neck theme park (he'd once served as a red-neck hot tub up here before). I drove him around back, next to the old trampoline. We connected a salvaged sliding board (that will one day descend from a tree house) to his bed. Madison decorated the black bedliner with sidewalk chalk and jumped from the side of the truck onto the trampoline.

Austin took up with a large spoon, and ample supply of soft dirt and water and mixed mud in a bucket. The John Deere X-300 was connected to a large wagon and provided rides about the yard. The dogs stretched out in the sun.

Meanwhile, Kat began to transform her vision for Whoopie Pies (she brought a Whoopie Pie cookbook with her) into reality. Thanksgiving Day Whoopie Pies would be pumpkin with cream filling. Other varieties were scheduled for each day to follow.

We received a text from Taylor that he and his family,  had travelled to Charlotte, NC from their home in Aberdeen, NC to see the 2011 Carolina Carrousel Thanksgiving Day Parade, the 4^th largest in the country. In a few minutes we received another text from him that his family had been selected to serve as Grand Marshalls and ride in the parade. Later that day, when the parade was broadcast on WBTV in Charlotte, they used their cell phone to make a video of their appearance.

After our Whoopie Pie lunch(?) the dinner preparations began. I can’t even describe all that we had, but it was beautiful and delicious. You can see the photos and get the recipes on Kat's blog. We ate outside under the mesquite trees, as we have for three years now.

Today the bunch of us loaded into the Santa Fe and travelled to the Government Canyon State Natural Area for a mid-day hike to an observation point, and then back again. It takes a while to make such a hike when one of the hikers is only two years old. It’s not that his steps are so short. It is that the journey is more important to him than the destination. It involves a lot of stops for sticks and rocks and boo-boos.

Lunch was at The Cove in San Antonio, and then back to the farm for S’Mores Whoopie Pies, more “tractor rides,” and a beautiful South Texas sunset with just enough clouds to enhance the texture. 

I thought about how many Thanksgivings I spent here as a kid, how much fun it was to be with grandparents, cousins, uncles, and aunts. Our activities were not quite the same, but the fun was pretty much identical to that I’ve enjoyed the past couple of days.