Thanksgiving in El Paso

For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to jump in our car and cross the state of Texas for the Thanksgiving holiday. Heading to El Paso for the holiday was GREAT. Driving across the 2nd largest state in America...less than great. We drove from one of the most eastern cities in Texas to THE most western city. The kids actually did awesome, but the road kept going and going and going. But as we pulled into the city limits and saw the lightscape of the sister cities (Juarez/El Paso), it was all worth it.

Both families (mine and Cliff's) gathered at my in-laws to celebrate the day. Our families are great friends and have lived near each other and gone to church together for years and years. So, it's always a blast to mesh the two, and saves us from eating multiple T-day dinners. It's always a party at the Jessups! Jordan, Rachel, and Gavin also came in for the holiday, so a fun time was had. We missed Tanner and Charee's family, as well as Deborah and Cecilio's. Stone was devastated when he realized his El Paso partner-in-crime, Danny, would be away.

Dinner was AMAZING, and as usual, there was just too much to choose from.

We also spent some time with our Bracken cousins, and the boys LOVED playing in the leaves. I love fall in Texas. Love, love, love it.

A trip to El Paso would not be complete without a stop to Chicos.

My chicka at Chicos with Marcy:

FOUR GENERATIONS:

Can you tell we're related?!

My grandma has relocated to El Paso, and as always, we love seeing her. We went shopping the day after Thanksgiving, and she had me LAUGHING.

During the break, I had a few photo shoots, one being my beee-utiful pregnant sister (in law). My dad had some hook ups to the golf course, and we hopped on 3 golf carts, and headed out to take pictures. Below is the famous weapon that Stone used to run over Emerson and me. We were all standing around, when Stone snuck back onto the golf cart, turned it on, and started driving the dang the thing. Cliff chased him and grabbed him out, while my Dad turned it off. He ran over us, and apparently I let out a scream, but all was well. Luckily Emerson was fine, and all I had to show for the accident was a sore knee later that day. This kid can operate machinery, let me tell ya. He knew exactly how to handle the thing. Had he not run us over, I'm not sure how we would have stopped him.

While we were out there taking Rachel's pictures, we managed to get a few family ones, as well. Thank you, Jordan, for snapping these.

We LOVE going home to El Paso, we LOVE the Mexican food, and we LOVE our families. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!