McPherson Marathon: Thanksgiving, Christmas Lights, Bike Rides and Camping!

The month of November was crazy busy and flew by - one day I will get back to blogging within a few days of things happening but for now I will just throw up a few blogs so I can have the pictures to look back on later in life.

We went on a family bike ride at the Greenway in town. We learned some valuable info always go to the left if you go to the right from the parking lot it is full of crazy hills!

November is the month to remember to be thankful and we made our annual thankful tree where we add leaves to the tree each day with things we are thankful for. Also we got some information about Christmas light displays around town and visited some and will continue to drive around to find some more this month.

Jon and I decided it would be fun to spend a weekend camping at Mammoth Cave and so we loaded up our stuff and hit the road. The night before we read about the fire ban going on so we threw some extra layers and wool socks in our gear thinking this would be enough. Once we got to Mammoth Cave we realized our luggage with clothes was sitting in the house so we were praying the clothes on our back and our sleeping bags would keep us warm enough! We had scheduled to gon on the Drips and Domes tour and loved it. The girls enjoyed exploring the cave. After our cave tour we went back to our campsite and made dinner at our camp stove and by 5pm the girls were ready to go to the tent because the sun had set so it was dark and cold. We held them out until 6 with their headlamps but then they really wanted to get in the tent. After getting them bundled up Jon and I sat in our camp chairs pretending there was fire in the firepit and held out until 8 but then we were freezing and got into our sleeping bags to warm up. In the morning we all got up and it was decided one night was long enough with no fresh clothes, no wool socks, no shower kit (so no brushing teeth) and no fire we could play around all day and when the sun was setting we would be driving home. After trying to warm up with hot chocolate, coffee and eggs we packed up the tent and hit the trails. 8 miles later we were back at the car with kids that were hungry and tired. We will be going back because the area was beautiful and there is so much more to see but we had pushed our little people enough.

Thanksgiving this year was so fun we got to be with all our grandparents - which makes up for the past few years of not getting to be with any. Jon's parents hosted us and invited my parents up for the day so the girls got to be truly spoiled by everyone. We spent the time at the cabin exploring in the woods, playing in the hot tub and getting tractor rides from PaPa. It is so nice to be able to get away and just hang out with family! We also got to be with Aunt Jenn, Uncle Slaw and Everly who the girls could not leave alone - they loved getting to play with their cousin.