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Thanksgiving 2011: The Meal

Just how exactly does one go about having Thanksgiving dinner in the desert?  We potluck it!  The Honey-baked Ham Store provided more than just the ham this year; they also provided two of their baked, sugar-glazed turkey breasts.  Jorge actually cooked his turkey in his little trailer oven though along with his stuffing and it turned out great.  Everyone made their specialty side dishes.  We put all the food on tables in the box trailer, Doug offered a blessing, and we dug in.

Of course, the only wind we had the whole trip happened right about the time we were ready to eat.  So the Days, Douglas', and Hickeys went into the Day's trailer to enjoy their meal while the Clarks, Pucketts, and Rodriguezes ate in the Clark's.

Mmmmm!  Nice, Nate!

Well, there you have it.  Do you feel like you've been to the desert with us?  We'll be heading out there again for the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Come and join us!

Thanksgiving 2011: The Crafts

Ginger bought several crafts for the kids to do on Thanksgiving Day from Oriental Trading Co.  Maren and Ashley both made a "GIVE THANKS" banner, wove a placemat, made a scarecrow necklace and a wooden bead necklace.

Maren made me a matching necklace.  Sweet girl!

Thanksgiving 2011: The Turkey Trot: 5K

And now for the real race...

Craig pulled ahead of me and Emily early in the race...

I told you this turkey trot was legit... we even had a water (well, lemonade) station at the turnaround/halfway mark.

I managed to pass Emily coming up the hill,but there goes Craig!

No pictures, please!

Lauren coming into the home stretch.

Craig beat me by about 10 seconds.  But I beat my cross-country running daughter by a couple minutes :)

That's one good-looking and healthy family who has earned their Thanksgiving feast!

 

Thanksgiving 2011: The Turkey Trot: 1K

Next up... The 7-11 year olds running the 1K

They're off!

Emily in the rhino was the turn around point.

Here comes Nathan for second place with Ashley hot on his heels for third.

The top three - Nathan, Emmett, and Ashley.  Way to go!

Thanksgiving 2011: TheTurkey Trot: 100 Yard Dash

On your mark... Get set...

GO!

The kids had to race around Dakota and back to the finish line.

The 6 and under crowd - Cade, Luke, Dashell, Draden, McKenna, Dixon, and Maren

Third Place Winner Maren!  Doug, our race organizer and sponsor, went legit this year with real, engraved medals and T-shirts. 

Thanksgiving 2011: The Riding

Lauren is getting pretty good on her TTR 125.  She took it out on a couple of long rides and kept up with the best of them.  

Maren really took to the 90 this trip.  She was pretty fearless and kept a level head.  She may be our best rider yet (of the girls anyways). 

Emily is counting down the days to her license (less than 10 months!).  She logged plenty of hours on the rhino, driving it on two long rides and on plenty of trips around camp with the kiddos piled in.  

Nathan improved his skills this trip too, with a couple long technical rides and plenty of laps around the track beyond our camp.  This will probably be the last season on his KLX 110, as he is already getting to big for it.  He spent a morning riding Lauren's bike around camp and handled it really well. 

Craig - still having fun on his bike after all these years.  His main goal these day?  Avoid injury!

Our annual ride out to pumpkin patch.  Can we just photo shop Maren in to this picture for Christmas cards?  (She stayed back at camp with her friends).  

The Clark Family - we've been camping in the desert with them since 2003.  (And we've been friends for nearly a decade longer.)  Their son Drew is missing from this shot.  

This is what we look like after our long, dusty rides.  Ashley looks like she could audition for the next Twilight movie :)  

Thanksgiving 2011: The Camp

We camped once again at our favorite spot way down Pole Line Road in Ocotillo Wells in the San Diego County Desert.  

Our hassle-free rental trailer - it's a beautiful thing!  A bedroom up front, two sets of bunks in the back and a slide out on the back side to add width inside.  Much roomier than our 21 foot super lite.  

The Clark's set-up

The Day's set-up

The Hickey's set-up - they are renters too.

The Douglas' tent- trailer behind the boys.  This was the Douglas family's first trip to the desert with us. I think they had a good time. 

The kids pretty much start the fire themselves each night.   They love to roast starbursts (try it!) and make woofums (because you "woof 'em" down).  To make them, you need a one and a half or two inch width dowel.  Then you wrap a piece of refrigerator bisquit around the end of it and roast it over the fire. After it's golden brown, you pull it off and fill it with pudding and whipped cream.  The kids love them.  

... more Thanksgiving pics to come!





 

9 of 9: April

(click to view larger)

 

01:  Spring break in the desert from Wednesday to Saturday.  We survived the high winds and loved the cooler than usual temperatures.  My favorites from the trip?  The ride to Shell Reef and playing Nerts and Speed Scrabble in the Day's trailer.

02:  Maren's favorites from the trip?  "Going on the ride we just went on to Shell Reef and going bowling.  I liked everything!" (photo taken on that ride)

03:  Lauren and Justin ready to ride.  Lauren's favorites:  The airplane graveyard (a random scrap metal lot in the middle of the desert) and Mexican food was good (we discovered a local Mexican restaurant on our excursion to El Centro for bowling).

04:  Craig's favorites:  Mexican food restaurant, the ride to Shell Reef (photo taken there), spending time with family, and he liked watching how our kids are progressing in the sport (of motorcycle riding). Ashley's favorites:  "I liked bowling.  I liked the hikes that we did and all the rides".

05:  "Oh my gosh!  This is the best part of my trip!"  Emily got to drive the rhino on our long ride for the first time with Mom as passenger (not her first time driving the rhino though).  Other favorites included watching movies in our trailer and going bowling.

06:  Playing cards with Grammy.  We stopped in Fallbrook on the way home from the desert to celebrate Grammy's 68th birthday.  

07:  Grammy and Grandpa's house in Fallbrook.  This is the house Craig grew up in from the time he was about 10.

08:  Emily's crazy quilt.  Emily put together the squares; there is one more row of 3 that got cropped from the photo to fit above.  Then Grammy sewed them together with the sashing and binding and quilted it on her friend's long-arm machine.  It has a really cute jungle-print minkie on the back.  Emily is so excited about her eclectic creation.

09:  Nathan, crashed in our bed.  Nathan can only go to sleep at night in his bed if Craig or I lay by him until he falls asleep.  Usually we can do that for him, but tonight we were busy unloading the trailer, so he curled up in our bed.  Nathan's favorites from the trip:  "Best part?  Riding my motorcycle on all the rides, and bowling, and getting my two hot wheels cars" (from the Super Wal-Mart in El Centro on our outing).

 

the tradition continues

A Puckett family tradition for many years now is to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's out in the desert.  For this trip we rented a larger trailer (remember we finally sold our little Weekend Warrior) and my life was so much better out there!  The rental had a front sleeper for Craig and me, four bunks in the back for kids and Lauren slept on the fold out couch.  It made such a difference to not have to set up and take down beds and fold up and put away bedding every morning.  And there was a slide out where the table and couch were, so that made for more room to hang out. Then there was the convenience of having the rental company drop it off on site and level it for us... and pick it up at the end of the week and deal with dumping it and cleaning it while we drove away.  I think renting is the way we will go for a few years at least!

Photo highlights from the trip:

Nathan riding his KLX 110

Emily and Lauren on the TTR 125

and Craig on his CRF 450

Ashley and Maren just like to play in the dirt and climb the mud hills

Group rides

What?!  Costco lasagna and garlic bread in the desert?!  

ALWAYS!

Our trailer was THE place to hang out b/c we brought our wii and Mariokart.

Just how fast would your house go up in flames if your Christmas tree caught on fire?  Pretty darn quick!

So who's up for a trip to the desert?

 

turkey trottin'!

We spent our 7th Thanksgiving in the desert this year.  This is the fourth year that the Day family has been out there with us.  Doug Day, the dad, has gone through an amazing transformation over the last 3 years. He's literally lost over half himself.  He has become a fitness fanatic, participating in various races every month - marathons, triathlons, even Ironmans!  So this year he organized our First Annual Ocotillo Wells Turkey Trot. There was a kiddie race of about 300 yards for the under 6 kids, a big kid race for the 6-11 years olds of about a half mile, and then a 5K race for the teens and adults.  He brought plastic medals for everyone. He planned it last minute, so next year he wants to have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medals for each category and have his son design a T-shirt logo and have shirts made for everyone.  It was so fun and another great tradition to add to our desert Thanksgivings.

the kiddie race is about to start!

Maren sprinting to the finish line!  She was so proud of her medal!

The Big Kid Race

here comes Nathan!

...and Ashley and Brook, without their shoes!

And now for the REAL competition!  

I can't wait to do it again next year!