{Thanksgiving-09}

We started off our Thanksgiving week telling Ava that she'd get to go to Ninner's house in a few days....

By Wednesday - she asked every 5 minutes 'Is today the day?' or 'Can I go to Ninner's tonight?'

So, late Wednesday afternoon, we decided to go ahead & make the trek up to South Mountain!

We got there after dark & munched on just some leftovers.... homemade mac-n-cheese, soup, cornbread, etc. you know - stuff my Ninner ususally just throws to the dog - ha - seriously!

We spent the evening visiting & Ava even played a little ball with her Great Uncle Brady!

We all woke up Thursday morning & I helped Ninner get things in order while catching glimpses of my favorite Thanksgiving pastime - the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Everyone else watched a little of the Parade, visited, & waited for it to warm up a little outside....

Yes, we spent a good portion of the morning outside because - in the words of Little Tutu herself - 'we can't eat Thanksgiving right now, I haven't rode the horsie yet!'

Here she is all ready to ride on Star! I made the mistake of asking her if she wanted me to ride with her or if she wanted to ride by herself..... so I hopped up there with her & she got too smushed for comfort & hopped off, haha!!

So I took Star for a spin... ya know... just to warm her up a little ;)

After seeing me ride, Ava wanted to go ahead & do it by herself - with the assistance of her faithful crew!

She had Papa T.V. on one side & PopPop on the other, just in case.

However, about 10 steps after this picture, they of course fell behind & she stayed up there all by herself - not even asking where they went!

We rode all the way up to the house & made her Daddy come out to see the Little Cowgirl!

She told her Daddy 'We can just take Star home with us - she can stay in our garage!!' Haha!

If only our garage was a stable with a large field attached - I'd take Star home in a heartbeat! She is really the best, most gentle horse I've ever seen!!

D.Might & I looking on as Ava dismounted... yes, we are in true form in this pic....

We all tried to help her off, but she wouldn't budge until someone came over to get her down....

She only trusted a true Cowboy to help her get down - her Papa T.V.!!!

We spent the rest of the day eating some delicious food & catching up with family & fighting over the last deviled egg....

After we came down from the Mountain, we headed over to D.'s parents house & got in on some of their leftovers, too :) They were pretty delish as well!!

We were stuffed to the max, to say the least, but soooo enjoyed ourselves in all our festivities & are sooo thankful for all the blessings we have!