Ockey Family Adventures: Thanksgiving Weekend

It's not our normal Thanksgiving picture by Grandma's fireplace, but we were happy to be together.

Thanksgiving Weekend was quite a bit different this year than normal. Mom's sister had an exposure to Covid at work, so we decided to be safe and stay home. Mom and Dad hurried and shopped for everything a few days before Thanksgiving and decided to do a turkey and a ham. It was sad not to be with Grandma and Grandpa on Thanksgiving since we go there every year, but we had a lot of fun at home, too.

Seth learned about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and wanted to watch it, so we turned it on and watched for the first time ever. The boys played a little football in the backyard while Mom cooked. Everyone was great at helping Mom, and dinner turned out delicious. Mom couldn't decide what pies to make, so she made 4 kinds to please everyone.

This was our first time watching the Thanksgiving Day parade.

Seth had made his own Slash balloon for the parade.

Dad is a great defender in family football.

The boys learned how to peel potatoes.

4 pies: apple, chocolate, banana cream, and cinnamon.

Mark was so excited for all of the pies!

The day after Thanksgiving we skipped Black Friday shopping and headed to Antelope Island. We really wanted to see some porcupines since someone in Dad's class had said they'd seen them out there. Not only did we see porcupines, we saw a ton of porcupines. They were in the trees right next to the road, so we spotted 12 in all! It was very exciting. They were just starting to move around when we found them, so we watched them wake up and eat. We also saw bison, pronghorn, a coyote, a great horned owl, and beautiful views of the Great Salt Lake. We walked around Fielding-Garr Ranch and Dad taught us all about the farm equipment. It was an awesome adventure.

Mark wore his Bills sweatshirt to attract the buffalo.

Mom and Dad always love a trip to Antelope Island.

We spotted buffalo in quite a few places.

There was a big herd of Pronghorn.

We watched the coyote for quite awhile. He was pestered by Magpies, and he pounced on something.

The porcupines were amazing!

We were so lucky to see them moving around.

This tree had four porcupines in it!

The owl didn't seem to mind we were there.

We always enjoy visiting historic places.

There are old homes and storage places to see.

Watch out for the truck Dax.

We stayed until it was almost dark.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is the day we cut down Christmas trees. We couldn't wait! We rode up the canyon with Laurie and Glen in the truck while Dad and Mark drove one of the 4-wheelers. It wasn't too cold, and there was more snow than we expected, so the boys were able to go sledding. Dax hurt his wrist, and we were worried it might be fractured, but it was okay and he just ended up with a bruise. Finding trees was a little more difficult because our favorite spot had been burned down, but we cut down two trees. Once we got them home they ended up being our favorite trees ever. They are so beautiful!