Thanksgiving with the Tanis fam

Wednesday, November 21st

All the planning, preparation, and effort that went into making this Thanksgiving a memorable one sure paid off as the whole Tanis fam came out to visit Tom and I in Colorado. Mom, Dad, Joe and his girlfriend Katie (after Joe and Katie had run the Philidelphia marathan hours before) began the adventure in NJ, where they picked up the RV and headed down to North Carolina to pick up Jim, Dawn and the kids. The next day all 9 of them took the 40 hour drive cross country to Colorado. From their arrival in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Thanksgiving extravaganza was in full swing.

Wednesday was full of a whole lot of catching up, laughs and great food. It had snowed the night before so needless to say some sort of snow ball fight was in store.

Here are some snowball fight highlights. By the end we all had snow down are shirts and in our ears, even the girls were in on the action.

Family dinner!

The rest of the day was spent doing a little shopping in preparation for our trip to the mountains on Friday and getting food ready for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thursday, November 22nd

What a great day! The girls helped me prepare quite the Thanksgiving smorgasboard. The morning was spent working up our appetite in a 4 mile Turkey Trot put together by Colorado Athletic Club. Tom actually worked the race and cheered on the runners. Great pictures Tom, by the way. The afternoon was spent cooking up a storm, from sweet potatoe pie to a new cranberry recipe, we had some good eats! Tom and Dad carved the turkey, awsome job guys! And of course delicious desserts were in store as well, Amy's personal favorite was the jello shot (one for me, one for them...)

These are some highlights of the turkey trot. Joe and Amy ran together (left) and there's always time for family photos (right).

The "sassy teapot" pose by Tom, Amy, and Joe

These are some fun family shots at our house and in the RV.

Later on Thursday, all 11 of us headed west to the Rockies. We rented an RV site in Breckenridge, a quaint and beautitul mountain town. We got there and it was 10 degrees and so cold! And temperature regulation wasn't the easiest in the RV, so we all bundled up.

Friday, November 23rd

In the morning Joe, Kate, Jim, Dawn, Tom and I got our ski and snowboard gear and headed to the mountain. Dawn and I skied and the others snowboarded. We hit the slopes all morning. It was perfect conditions and so clear and picturesque. Poor Dawn suffered from altitude sickness in the morning but she toughed it out and joined us after lunch. Later that night we all ate a delicious steak dinner prepared by Mom and Dad and then played Cranium and laughed hysterically all night long (Dad Tanis-name 3 things that remind you of Las Vegas....gambling, girls, and Elvis...you had to be there).

These are a few of the pics taken from our day skiing at Breckenridge. It was chilly but awe-inspiringly beautiful!

This picture just makes me laugh. I look like a 1985 ski model with tight-elastic pants and a super puffy coat doing my sexy pose on the slopes! Everyone else looks like their in the 21st century though so you know it's from this weekend. We definitely had a blast.

Saturday, November 24th

We got up early so that we could get a few family photos with the majestic mountains as the backdrop. Here's just a few...

And finally the infamous RV that made this whole trip the adventure that it was. From dripping water into the dining area when the ice was melting on the roof, to the table edge falling off, and despite all the ricketing and rattling, it was quite a fun home for a few days spent with a great family!!