Wilde Family Reunion

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Britt's siblings and dad this year. Since everyone is spread across the country, the together times are few and far between, so it was great to be together. We flew to Britt's brother, Brad's, house in Tampa, Florida for a week and had a fantastic time! Not that we had snow to escape from (yet), but the weather, as expected, was very pleasant. On the cold side for the Floridians, but we enjoyed it. Here are some shots from the week's events. (And I'm sure after all my attempts to have this formatted so well, it'll be off...arggghhh.)

Here are some of the cousins Thanksgiving morning all crowded into bed to watch some cartoons together. From left: Owen, Kate (Brad's kids), Addy (ours), Lauren (Brent's), and Alex (Brad's).

The main chefs, Niki (Brad's wife) & Lindsey (Brent's wife). Niki is an UNBELIEVABLE woman! This was the menu (all homemade): roast turkey, deep fried turkey (we do have some southerners amongst us), stuffing, corn casserole, green bean casserole (SOOOOOO good!), mashed potatoes, rolls (to DIE for!), sweet potato something DELICIOUS, and 3 pies to choose from (apple, pumpkin, and pecan). Everything was SO good. I'm sure I forgot something. Such big kudos to Niki and Brad for housing all of us and feeding all of us. They were such great hosts - for me, a big part of having a great time was because we just felt welcomed and not inconvenienced at all (like not an inconvenience to them). Love you guys!!

Well, don't these chums look thrilled? Bad picture timing? Interruption of eating? Not sure, but we've got Brad, Barry, and Brent (aka "Booey"). The 2 on the ends are 2 of Britt's brothers.

Lauren (Brent's), Addy, and Kate (Brad's) having a grand time with their princess shoes and cute hair, compliments to their big-girl cousin, Kiersten.Candyland...Britt, Lauren, Addy, Brian (Britt's other brother), dad/Grandpa, Owen, and Brad

Couple shots from the real feast...Barry trying to feed Lauren

and Alex, Owen, and Addy at the kids table

The kids loved wrestling with Uncle Booey. That's what I call him...I guess everyone else has reverted to his given name - Brent. He'll always be Booey to me. He really got them going with "butt bazookas." Too bad we didn't have sound on our camera to get all the squeals of laughter. (Anyone want to show me how to enable sound when you shoot "video" with a digital camera?)

We spent a few hours on a great private beach to get family pictures. The weather was the BEST this day, so can I tell you how glad I was that I had long sleeves on...??? Argh. Here's just a casual shot of our fam.

Britt's sister, Brandi, and her girls, Sierra, Amber, and Kiersten Addy & Lauren
Baz & Lauren
Poor, fair-skinned Lauren had had it before the picture-taking ordeal was over. Good thing Grandpa has a way with getting her to sleep. She just loves those shoulders of his.

our fam walking on the pier

Adult night out (from bottom left: Niki, Brad, Barry, Britt, Brian, Dad, Renate, Brandi, Lindsey, Brent)...fun bantering

Pic of all the cousins (from left: Sierra, Owen, Addy, Kiersten, Lauren, Amber, Lauren (this would be typical of what Lauren was like a great deal of this trip...), Alex, and Kate)

We had a fun time at Busch Gardens. Tampa has the Africa "version," so we saw lots of elephants, zebras, gazelles, and the like. As well as all the cool rides they've got. We even got to see a cool Christmas show during lunch (still seems weird to have Christmas decorations up while palm trees and sunshine are aplenty, but 'tis the season, right?!).

Here's Addy and an alligator (we were in Florida)

Owen, Addy, and Lauren on a ride

And after a long day...

Another fun day spent at the beach in Sarasota. All I'll say is "Beware of the Seagulls." On more than one occasion, they swooped down and stole food right out of our hands - no joke. Couldn't believe it. It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. But we had fun building a sand castle...

and burying Uncle Barry/dad!

And on our last night (sniff, sniff), we enjoyed another FANTASTIC meal; this time prepared by Renate, Britt's dad's wife. Homemade tomato soup (just like the restaurants do it with the swirl of cream too!) was the starter, the main course was a tasty German (Renate is from Berlin) dish - hamburger and cucumbers (trust me, SO good) poured over new potatoes, and dessert was a delicious apple tart thing. Thanks again, Renate! Oh, we ate well on this trip! Next year anyone??