Still talking turkey...

This year was the first year we headed to the coast for Thanksgiving, and Jannie & Pops rented an awesome house right on the water!  We arrived late Tuesday night, and the girls were so excited that they hardly slept that night! 

Wednesday we headed into Corpus to hit the aquarium, and the girls loved it.  It was such a great aquarium, complete with a dolphin show outside! 

Anna repeated “Come on dolphin, jump HIGH!” 842 times – she apparently had high expectations! 

Not a great picture, but the girls had to see the dolphins under water too!  Notice Anna with her baby that comes almost everywhere with us – she’s recently named her “Isabella” – after her best little buddy from school:

The birds were actually a big hit – we spent lots of time looking at the the owl. He was holding a mouse, which Anna was convinced it was a kitty cat. Thankfully she was not disturbed that it was his dinner!

The bald eagle and the parrot were also a big hit along with the alligator and Dori (Nemo must have been sleeping).

Thanksgiving Day was spent enjoying lots of family that Anna, Avery and I haven’t really been around too much and that Ryan hasn’t seen in a long time!  My girls were especially enamored with Uncle Matt (Ryan’s brother):

 ...and the “other Uncle Matt” (Ryan’s brother, Jeff):

I got suckered into the “cousins” picture since Anna would not go without me:

Avery, Meme & Ali (who was a big hit with my girls, and with me!):

This one spent lots of time eating…

And making messes:

At night we would enjoy the sunset (and fight the stickers in the grass), roast s'mores and play games.  This particular night, we just focused on forgetting the outcome of the Aggie game.

Friday we headed out on Blaine's boat, and the girls were eager to go for a ride.  It was Anna’s first!!

We figured we might as well enjoy the photo-op, while Jeff & Blaine were working hard to get the boat in the water:

The boat was small, but super fast!  Sad that Blaine got cut out of the pic!

Off we went!  The girls enjoyed the ride and pointing out all of the birds. Avery just wanted to go fast!  Anytime Blaine would slow down, Avery would ask if we just ran out of gas.

We had a terrifying ride back.  Wind + small boat = Near death experience.

Avery was really excited to learn how to fish, and Jannie had a Dora fishing pole ready to go!  Here she is checking out the bait – I can’t believe she touched it!  That quality is definitely not in the gene pool...

And there she goes!

And this one was just sweet…

Pops helped Avery collect and clean some sea shells. Pops – she hasn’t forgotten about that necklace you promised her! ;)

Uncle Matt caught some bait, so Avery wanted to check it out…

And she touched it too. She couldn’t believe that it was “real”! 

Anna decided that she needed to fish too, but ultimately she enjoyed watching Jannie fish with her pole more. 

This one of Meme and Anna is one of my favorites!  And let me tell you something about Meme... she does not mess around when it’s time to play games! I wasn't brave enough to play against her this year! 

Thank you Jannie & Pops for such a memorable Thanksgiving.  We have lots to be thankful for!!