18 Good Things about a Thanksgiving Trip

1. Idaho: The morning light on the sagebrush landscape against a patchy blue sky makes me think of the color yellow ochre from my old watercolor paint tubes.
2. Oregon: Crossing the Blue Mountains--there is a fresh coating of snow. The colors are white, dark green and the grey of the sky ranges from a pearl to a dark blue-grey shade.
3. Washington: It is sunset. The sun touches the hills before slipping away. Between the shadows the colors are pale gold and pale blue.
4. Watching Dana's apple peeler/corer/slicer in action.
5. Seeing Kecia's amazing photos and hearing her stories from her recent trip to Sri Lanka and Liberia.
6. Grandpa B. teaching Katya to say "Good girl".
7. Getting out some of the Fisher Price toys Kecia, Dana and I played with growing up. Cleaning them and watching Katya play and play and play with them.
8. Sharing time as a family over meals.
9. Relishing Dana's culinary talents.
10. Lounging about reading Mom's Real Simple and Martha Stewart magazines while watching Katya interact with her aunts and grandparents.
11. Waking up Sunday morning to the first snowfall of the season--in Tri Cities, WA. I think it's neat that the structure of a snowflake is such that it catches on things. It doesn't slide off like a raindrop. The snowflakes fall randomly yet thickly. And, when the temperature is right, each branch and twig gets covered.
12. Finally moving after getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on top of snowy Cabbage Hill. The wait is long enough that when we finally get moving we pass 1..2..3 little snowmen that people built on the concrete barrier divider and another one farther on the open median.
13. Katya practicing "goo...girhh" over and over in the backseat.
14. Getting over the Blues safely. White knuckles relax slightly for the one in the passenger seat once we reach the Idaho border and the snow and rain temporarily abates.
15. After stopping for dinner in Boise, hitting the road again for the final leg home--and discover we have a flat tire. Thank goodness it didn't go flat up on the sloppy, dark mountain passes.
16. Katya saying "O nyo...o nyo" as Brent wrestles with changing the flat tire.
17. Finally making it home on the little spare tire. What had been a 6 1/2 hour trip going was an 11 hour ordeal coming back. Everything's still here and standing. Bed never felt so good.
18. Waking up Monday morning to the first snowfall of the season...in south central Idaho.