Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving in Indianapolis with the extended Runyan family. My parents, Gary and Sandy Lueken, came to enjoy the festivities, as well some friends of Emily and Jaron. The girls were thrilled to spend time with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and BOTH sets of grandparents. Highlights of the weekend included paintball, eating, early morning shopping, eating, jumping on the trampoline, eating, watching movies, and eating. We had a wonderful time!

Alyssa and Vincent brought their super fancy camera and took family pictures of all of us. Here is a big group shot, Chief included.

PAINTBALL! This was the first time in 8 Thanksgivings that Chris did not participate in the Turkey Bowl in Cincinnati. To make up for it, we had a paintball party. This is a before shot. Pictured are those of us man enough to brave the cold and shoot at each other: Cameron, Gary, Dee, Chris, Jaron, Alyssa and Vincent. Mike is taking the picture. He was man enough too.

I included this action shot of me and my dad that Chris is particularly fond of. I would like to send out props to my dad who was awesome at paintball, even though this was his FIRST time ever. At one point, he even captured the flag and ran it back to the base for us. Yeah Dad!

With the leftover paintballs, the Dads supervised paintball for kids. They LOVED it. Here are Spencer and Morgan with their masks on.

Here are Rachael (mask) and Mikey.

Chris and Dee in the kitchen after they cleaned up from paintball, but before the feast.

Vincent and Alyssa making Cranberry Chutney. It was soooo yummy.

It finally happened. Morgan out-grew the Runyans kiddie picnic table. She is pictured here at the 'grown-ups' table.

The wee-ones at the kiddie picnic table. Pictured are Mikey, Joshua (?), Spencer and Rachael.

Just chillaxin'...

Dee and Rachael and Chief. He is such a lap dog.

Morgan is getting quite good at her violin. Her teacher gives her more and more to learn, and she can't seem to get enough. In fact, she tends to master what her teacher gives her in a day or two, and then sounds things out on her own...Perhaps she has a little of Nana's ear for music. She brought her violin this weekend so that she could play with Spencer. He has been learning how to play the piano, and is doing quite well.

VIO-lin, lin, lin, VIO-lin, lin, lin, VIO-lin, lin, lin, ahhhhhhhhh. (That comes from a They Might Be Giants song that Morgan and Chris find especially funny.)