We had an extended Turkey Time this year. We started out in Sacramento for a couple days and then headed up to Oregon...nothing beats a tractor ride in 35 degree sunshine!
In honor of the multi-household travels, we did turkey dinner twice. Scott is VERY serious about his gravy. Don't mess with the giblets (at Wendy's parents' house)!
The post-dinner ice cream-ball rolling game is sure to become traditional. Seeing Jared and Brenda up in their new habitat was killer, even though Jared seemed a bit worn out from all his hard work in law school. Brenda just seemed svelte from living right next to a gym.
Somehow, Wendy's dad always gets stuck cleaning up all the dishes. He refused all offers of help so we just had to sit around in the living room and roll the ice cream ball (see above). The barbecued bird was excellent and more than compensated for the lack of drippings for the gravy (hence the essential giblets).
We also did a turkey in Sacramento, the traditional juicy way. It was delicious, too. Scott got serious over this gravy because the turkey came without giblets! We couldn't believe it, we were just too shocked. Don't tell Grandpa Lee but we put some sweet potatoes in the bird pan and used them for the gravy. So good!
Most importantly, Quinn got to eat pumpkin pie both times. Heaven! Grandma Jean came home to Sacramento after a crazy-busy week in Las Vegas and it was great to check in with her. They also introduced Quinn to Shrek. Hee.
Quinn was fascinated by the barn that housed the tractor at Grandma Jan & Grandpa Glen's Christmas tree farm. He especially enjoyed climbing the ladder to the hayloft and peering out the doors. Grandma Jan was, understandably, quite paranoid about him tumbling down and maintained a secure grip on him at all times.
What farmhouse is complete without a cat? Not this one, here is the Little Kitty, of whom Quinn was terribly fond.
And up on the podium....Lance (I haven't been caught) Livestrong and Roid Landis!!!!
October was a month of visits. First in the queue were Auntie Stephanie with lovely Cousin Matea. Matea is one month younger than Quinn and quite a bit bigger. The two of them played side by side pretty well, especially in the bathtub but conflicts arose over sharing. Huh, surprising behavior for two-year-olds. Most conflicts actually had to do with sharing space on the couch: Quinn wanted to drive cars across the couch and Matea wanted to put the pillows on the couch and sit on it. At one point Wendy actually divided the couch in half and forbade them from intruding on each others' sides.
That same weekend Grandma Pat came down so we had a couple days with everyone and then after Steph and Matea left Grandpa Norm showed up in the Studebaker having had quite an adventure with Uncle Brian (but that's another story). We had a great time, Quinn loves "driving", especially cool cars.
Later that month Auntie Stacy, Uncle Roy and Cousin Koah wandered by for dinner. Wendy unleashed the power of cheese on them by making five cheese white lasagna (Cook's Illustrated, try it, love it!) Koah is the sweetest guy, lots of smiles and giggles. Quinn was a little jealous of the attention but couldn't resist him either and tried (quite unsuccessfully) to pick him up.
The journey down to the surf camp was a marathon. We arose at o'dark-thirty for the flight to Houston followed by the flight into Panama City where we met up with five dudes on a bachelor party surf trip and were transported to a bus terminal. Hanging out in a bus terminal waiting to catch a midnight bus for a 4-5 hour trip could have been much worse. Instead, we all bonded, drank some Panama beer (that's the brand) and watched the clock. At last we boarded our bus and immediately were chilled to the bone. They are serious about their air conditioning. By the time we got picked up and transported to the boat launch area we were zombies. However, once we hit the island, had breakfast, and got our room, Wendy was ready to hit the surf. Scott was actually a little hesitant and considered just staying in the room and sleeping. Thank goodness he didn't because that first morning's surf was the best of the week. We headed over to a rivermouth on the other side of the island and after a LONG LONG paddle, we started tucking into some juicy peaks with just enough peal to make things interesting. Since there were only seven of us and plenty of peaks, everyone got tons of waves. At last we called it a morning and headed in. If only we'd known, we would have stayed out there until we couldn't move any longer. 
The rest of the week was spent waking early for breakfast then heading out in search of waves. After that first day size steadily decreased we even got hit with a crazy lightning storm that dropped at least 5in of rain in an evening (the rain gauge was completely full). Then the afternoons were spent doing yoga on the deck overlooking the local break, hiking to one of the disney-esque waterfalls, or just hanging out reading, playing scrabble or cribbage, or snoozing in the hammocks. We really lucked out in getting a week with some very cool Santa Cruz/San Francisco area people. One guy injured his arm the first day and spent the rest of the time fishing, providing some VERY tasty supplements to our meals. Even better was getting surfer muscle-oriented massages during the week to ease the strain of surfing so many hours at a time. By the end of the week we were ready for some hot showers and some more variety.
We checked out the museum at the locks and found Scott's great-grandfather's employment record. We had lunch at the ritzy restaurant on site (yum!) and drank a bottle of wine while watching the boats go through.
We hiked ALL the trails in the municipal park and ran into Rich and Claudia from the island (of course!) after seeing amazing butterflies, hidden frogs, and troops of coatimundis. We saw many lovely songbirds, frigatebirds and hummingbirds but never caught a glimpse of any toucans or quetzals (next time). 
During our time away we spoke to Quinn on the phone a couple times and he really didn't miss us much at all. We missed him but we had a great time being a couple once again. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again next year. Have to admit, though, that the smile Quinn gave us when we walked through the door at last was one of the best memories of the trip.
The Meadow!
