A Week Gone By...in a Flash

Last week truly flew by, but I suppose that's what always happens when you have a vacation.

Both E. J. and I are fortunate to have very generous parents, so when my MIL offered to pay for our hotel room in Ft. Worth so we could watch one of her cutting horses compete in the Futurity, we quickly accepted and took the beginning of the week off before our Thanksgiving break started.

I'll always be a New England girl, which is exactly why I didn't understand anything that was really happening. All I knew was that it cost a lot of money to train and enter a horse into theFuturity. Basically, the whole point is to make sure your horse prevents the cow from going back to the heard.

In case you're curious, you can click here to see exactly what a Cutting Horse Futurity is all about (this video is from the summer, but you get the idea).

Also, if you watch the video the answer is, YES, there were that many cowboy hats present. Along with chaps, spurs, boots, and tight Wrangler jeans.

After traveling and not being on a regular schedule, Kathryn tried to sneak in some naps here and there, even if they were in uncomfortable positions.

All the horses in the group warming up

My MIL's horse competing

Unfortunately, the horse didn't do too well, so my MIL fired the trainer (the guy riding the horse) and now the horse will be trained by someone else. This horse business is serious stuff!

Taking a break from watching the horses

Those are some low-riding jeans

Taking it all in - she's going to have so many cool opportunities growing up

Back at the hotel - it was the perfect time of year to go with all the Christmas decorations

Since we were going to Ft. Worth, my main priority was: food. In-n-Out Burger has recently opened up some chains in northern Texas, so I definitely wanted to have us stop by. Delicious!

Of all the choices she had, she wanted to suck on a lemon one night while we were out to dinner. And yes, that's her first fake tattoo on her hand.

Before we headed home, Kathryn partook in her new favorite activity: jumping on the bed

(With her first pony tail!)

We also checked out the Water Gardens again before leaving

While sitting on a bench, a nice man came up to us and offered to take a picture of the three of us.

Thanks? (Yup, this is the picture he took)

So I took this one of us instead

****

We got back home Wednesday afternoon and I did some baking for Thanksgiving. But, our Thanksgiving was a little unconventional. E. J. worked at the big college football game for 16.5 hours...yup, you read it correctly. All day! Needless to say, he wasn't around for Thanksgiving, so K and I took care of some of the morning chores...in our pj's.

With E. J. not around, I had Kathryn in the bathroom with me as I was taking a shower and she was kind enough to give me this present :)

K and I ventured over to my FIL's family's house for Thanksgiving dinner

When we got home I wanted to take some official Thanksgiving pictures, but somebody wasn't in the mood...

This is probably my favorite - what a face

But all she really wanted to do, was this...and how could I blame her?

The rest of our weekend was spent celebrating Thanksgiving II with E. J. and being lazy around the house. (I could easily get used to that)We topped off the end of our vacation with the decorating of the tree and our house! It was so much fun to see the look in Kathryn's eyes when we turned the lights on and she said "Teeeee!"

So, if you've made it to the end of this long post, congratulations -thanks for reading! I'm so excited for the Christmas season upon us and hope everyone enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving.