Thanksgiving Day

This years Thanksgiving Day turned out to be a wonderful day. We had 6 friends over from our Sunday night FCA group. They came around 11 am, talked and watched some football in the garage, then we ate at 1pm.
Just like last year, I used a recipe and formula for cooking the turkey in a paper bag. No carving needed!! The meat just falls off the bones. Sam and Kaitlynn spent some time just picking up all the bones in the bag, then Kit Kat decided to be funny!

Right before dinner started I remembered I wanted a shot of all 4 kids before Kaebrie went down for her afternoon nap. I was in a rush, and was only looking at their FACES to see if they were all looking at me, that I DID NOT NOTICE that Christopher was peeing on the tree. !!!!!!

This one is better. :-)
After the blessing, we took a group shot of everyone! In this picture is Ben on the right. Then Katy, (her husband is in Iraq for 5 months). Around next to Collin is Jesse. Then Andrea. Then Tawni on the left. Her husband, Joe, is next to her in the next picture. They are newlyweds! Married only 9 months now, but together for only 3 because she was deployed for 6 months.
From both ends of the extra long table! :-)
After eating, Daddy uncorks the champagne that Joe and Tawny brought. (And yes, everyone was over the age of 21) :-)
The cork landed in the sweet potato casserole.
The toast!
Collin and Kaitlynn joined in with their cans of diet soda.
Then it was time to break the big wish bone~ a 25 pound turkey has a BIG wishbone!

After the massive clean up, it was time for games. One of the games we ended up playing was a trivia game. Sam and I ended up on one of the teams together. The other team had a question about the movie THE BREAKFAST CLUB. That movie was like THE hit movie when I was a teenager. NO ONE on the other team had seen it! We couldn't belive it!!! Sam said, "Come on! You HAVE to know this movie, it came out in 1985 and it was the cult movie!!"
Andrea looked at Sam and said, "I was BORN in 1985." Talk about all of the sudden feeling OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Mommy got in one of the pictures of the day!

The last guests ended up leaving around 7:00. Then Sam and Jesse and Ben went snow camping in the mountains again, taking turkey sandwiches with them!

We missed our families today, and missed some of the traditions we have always loved, but we had a great day spending it with new friends who were also to far away from their own families.

Kids Deployment Day

The base hosted what they called PDF DAY yesterday. With a 60% deployment rate from this base in January, the goal was to show all the children what their parents go through to process and get ready. It went from 3:00 - 7:00 and they said they had a GREAT time! ( A good friend took them and took all these pictures!!) Once again some of the pictures don't show up fully. If you want to see the full picture, just click on the picture!

Here is Collin in a bullet proof vest.

Kaitlynn in full gear!
Those big eyes even show through the gas mask!
Silly Kaitlynn! Can make a funny face picture even with a gas mask on! Here she is with James.

Collin standing behind the police shield and both of them in front of one of the satellite dishes.

Then they got to hold some of the real equipment, from night vision goggles to assult rifles.


It is just weird, ya know? Seeing my KIDS holding real assult rifles!!


They went through the check line to have their folders checked to make sure all the proper paperwork was there and filled out.
Then they got to board a C-130!!!

Collin even got to be the co-pilot, and Kaitlynn was the Navigator!


And Kaitlynn in the Hummer!
All in all they learned a lot and had a good time! They were numbers 206 and 207, obviously a LOT of kids and their parents turned out for this learning experiemce.

BINGO, Goliath and Happy Meals

This morning, we took a break from school and went to volunteer at the retirement center in Mountain Home. A few weeks ago, our squadron asked for help with BINGO day. So we volunteered!!!
Kids of ANY age are a hit in nursing homes, so the best part of the morning was the smiles from the residents. They asked them questions, a few even asked for hugs! Kaebrie just went from wheelchair, to walker, to chair, smiling and saying "HI" in her loud sweet voice!
Kaitlynn was asked to help a table of ladies who could not see their cards very well and she did a GREAT job! She has always loved the elderly, always been comfortable around them. I realized this morning how lacking we are in that age group anymore. This is not a retirement area, so everyone around here is still active duty. Most retire in their 40's, some in their 50's. We have NOBODY over 55 that lives on base or attends our chapel. We had such an incredible group of ladies at our Louisville church that we treasured so much and I missed them so much today!

Collin's job was to sit and play 4 cards at a time and keep them current, so if anybody came in late they could play on a current card. And many were late, so his job was valuable!
Kaebrie tried to play BINGO with the teabags from the tables. That got a lot of smiles.

There was one little uncomfotable incident with a lady who was just not happy. Kept yelling mean and obscene things at the other ladies. I had a quiet talk with Kaitlynn, and she took it in stride, though I could tell she was VERY surprised to hear someone talk like that.
Overall, I am glad we went on this rainy and cold morning. After we left, we went to Albertsons and found our Thanksgiving Day turkey. A 26 pounder. The kids named him Goliath. By then it was after 12:00, so it was Happy Meals for lunch and back to the base we drove!
BINGO, Goliath and Happy Meals. A typical chaos day at the Smith house!!! :-)

Ice Skating!

What a special night!
Even though the hockey season ended 2 weeks ago, the coach decided to have the end of season party at the ice rink in Boise.
After a pizza supper, the coach stood up to hand out the certificates and the trophies.
He went alphabetically, but he skipped SMITH. I thought they had accidently forgotten his, and he would have to wait till they re-ordered, knowing he would be disapointed, he was SO excited about getting his first hockey trophy!
BUT..... the coach then said he had one last trophy to present. And also something special. He and the asst. coach had decided to pick Collin as their MVP, Most Valuable Player, this season. He said that that though Collin was not their best skater, he showed many other exceptional qualities. His positive attitude, his encouragement of others, his constant effort and desire to learn new things, his teamwork and his constant enjoyment made them choose him for the MVP this season. It was all I could do not to cry right then and there.
Here is the MVP with his trophy and certificate!!!!!!!!!

Now, on the hour drive to Boise, I had told Collin and Kaitlynn to expect to hang on the the side for a while. It might take some time to get used to it, and not to be discouraged if they had to hang on the entire time.
I ate those words! Collin held on for about 30 seconds, then took off! Kaitlynn held on halfway around the rink, then she took off! These two southern kids looked like they had been born with blades on their feet! Winter sports sure do come easy for them!!!!!!!! Good thing this rink is open year round because we are going to HAVE to go back!

Skiing, white water rafting, sledding, ice skating................ NO PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Snow Camping

I know of another way men and women are different. Women have no desire to go and sleep in the snow.
Here is Sam, with 2 of our FCA guys, Jesse and Ben, as they were leaving for a camping trip and adventure in the snow. See how clean they are!
CRAZY. Just crazy.

They made it to trinity lakes, elevation 9354 feet, and are setting up the tent. BRRRRRR!

Time to put on the snow chains and take a drive through the mountains!

There they go!!!!!

The 3 dudes and their cars!

Sam had to pull Ben out when he got caught in a very high snow drift.

A very funny picture!

They had a good time. Nobody got frostbite. The vehicles came back undamaged as well.

Daddy had a successful day bird hunting! He came home, all smiles, with 2 beautiful pheasants~ (is that how you spell that?)

Kaebrie was fascinated! She kept wanting to pet them!

They sure are pretty! We have more tail feathers for you if you want them JuJu!

So, Sam spends some time on the internet, trying to read about how is the best way to "prepare" them. He finds out, that in England, they HANG the birds for a few days in the cold, BEFORE they de-feather and cut them up.

WARNING: for the "easily grossed out" please skip this explanation! :-)
Apparently, when anything dies, rigor mortis sets in, making all the muscles hard and stiff. If you wait long enough, the rigor mortis will go away, causing the muscles to be soft again. THAT is why they hang them whole and wait, waiting for rigor mortis to go away, then cut up the bird when it is all soft to eat!

So, since it wasn't quite cold enough outside to hang meat safely, he used the next best thing. My fridge! Thankfully it was the drink fridge in the garage!! But here they hang (or hung, they are gone now) for 3 days. They are now nice little pieces of meat wrapped in foil in the freezer. I do admit, everytime we had company all week, the kids asked them to go open the fridge! :-)

Would this make make a good advertisement for Coke products??? :-)