Growing up, I don't remember much about Thanksgiving other than occasionally going to a movie. When Sam and I started dating, he told me all about his family's Thanksgiving traditions and I fell in love with them. I loved that when he was a little boy, he, his parents, and his brothers would drive up to Nash and spend the entire weekend there with his grandparents and that even though his parents now live in Nash he and his brothers still return there for the entire weekend. I quickly dove into his Thanksgiving traditions and it was easily decided that we would spend Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine. It's so nice to go to this small town thirty minutes from the closest decent sized city and get lost in the simplicity of it all for a few days. In the years since I've been joining Sam and his family for Thanksgiving, we have added a couple of traditions of our own including bowling with the cousins one night (Sam's parents were nice enough to watch Joseph this year so we didn't have to take him) and shooting trap and pumpkins. We don't go black friday shopping (although I have been known to get up in the middle of the night to order an item or two online then return to bed), we don't follow a schedule, and we don't have any expectations and to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Since both of Sam's brothers drove up Thanksgiving morning, we ate a late lunch at the house then drove into town to meet up with the rest of the Parks family at the church. Here are Sam and Joseph talking with Sam's grandpa, Elam.
Even though it was nap time, Joseph enjoyed looking at all of the new people there.
I didn't get any pictures of the boys shooting trap since I was inside with Joseph, but I did capture this beautiful sunset as they were putting everything away.
It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without an impromptu game of football.
This might have been Pete's favorite couple of hours from the whole weekend.
Four generations of Parks boys.
On the way home, we hit some stop and go traffic on I-35. I didn't mind too much, the view was pretty awesome.
wow that is a beautiful sunset pic, your photography skills are getting really good!! :)
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