Thanksgiving with the Family

Karen and I took the kids downstate for Thanksgiving last week. We spent three days at my Dad's in Effingham, IL. My sister and her family spent the day on Thursday, and my brother came down from Chicago and stayed until Saturday.

We had a great time with the family - despite the normal family oddities. One cool thing was watching Ethan run around for hours with his two cousins, Isaac and Tera. Unfortunately, they will be moving to Grand Junction, Colorado next year where my brother-in-law got a job with the National Weather Service. He will be working there for two years and then hopefully moving back to Illinois to work as a forecaster (not the guy on television but the guy who feeds info to that guy). Guess who's going to Colorado to visit and climb some fourteeners?!?

The biggest news of the trip was my brother's impending marriage. He recently went to Thailand for two weeks of vacation. He spent most of his time there with a woman named Nok (pronounced like "Coke") and her family. He had been connected with her through a co-worker's wife who is from Thailand. By the end of the vacation, he had asked her to marry him and move to the United States. They are beginning the eight month process now. The plan is for him to return to Thailand next year for a Buddhist wedding ceremony and a three-day wedding festival and then travel back to Chicago with his new bride.

The picture is of the cousins at my sister's house in Villa Grove, IL. We went there on Saturday on our way home to hang out some more since they had only been able to spend time with us on Thursday.

All in all, it was a great trip to spend time with the family. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!