Thursday was American Thanksgiving, and Carl and Jonathan's mom turned the internet off J ood idea!!

This year it was at Jonathan's mom's house (good for us!) - we slept in (of course - seeing we barely went to bed) and had a late breakfast, perfect for the mid-afternoon feast. Jonathan's Nana and Papa came over, as well as his U. Bob and A. Shelley. Josh Clover arrived in the night for most of the day so there was quite a crowd. We had a big feed of turkey, ham, potatoes, bean casserole, pickles, gravy, cranberry jelly sauce, and all kinds. Started with nibblies and progressed to a full meal. Dessert was pie - 4 different types (bought, but still good) which also is traditional. Mostly everyone just relaxed and chatted, which was nice and relaxing. Everybody loved Silas, the boys too bus especially Silas. People loved hearing him talk and say things like 'water.' He made himself quite at home with everyone. Josh was quite amazed at the stories Silas was telling him (fabricated!) and I can only imagine what they were about: his wolf, pigs, kids, dolphin (new one at Grammy's), duck…could be any of them.

Friday we went to the Feline Breeding Compound, which is not too far from here. Wow! It was really good. You could get pretty close to a lot of the cats from the walkway, when they were near the edge of their cages. Lots of cats were pacing, and there were lots of types of big cats. Through the back we could see two very large tigers, one of them a white tiger! They said the zoo grew one cage at a time, so some of the cats don't have cages that can be viewed, and others were breeding so they didn't want them getting nervous around people. Jason and Julie came and were really helpful with our kids too. Julie is from the Philippines and said she once took care of 12 of her nieces and nephews so she was more than capable. It was really handy, because we let the kids walk, they had the nicest grass, but you aren't allowed on it. Guess where the kids wanted to go…! It's too hard to grow/keep green here, which is sad because water is no issue. There were a few lifesize metal statues around of cats, which Silas found almost as fascinating as the real ones, and had lots of questions about them like "Why isn't this one smiling?" He also heard a cat growling in the distance and said "I heard the metal tiger growling!" And the cutest thing was when there was a statue of a tiger baring its teeth, just in the grass area. Silas obviously found it intimidating, and kept protecting the little boys from going to close. "No Moses, come back, don't go too close." "Zeke, don't go any closer, come away!" grabbing their little arms and pulling them gently back, standing between them so they had to walk backwards. We'd never seen Silas be so protective and it was so nice to see. Julie kept telling Silas that the metal ones were probably the friendliest ones in the compound and he didn't need to worry J

Saturday we hit another park again after doing some odd jobs. This was a big park, with a really large lake or two, lots of ducks and two playgrounds (a bit of a walk between the two). This was just what the boys all needed - to get out and have a run around. It has mostly been sunny here which is lovely, but the days are short. Sunset at the moment is around 4:40pm, so at 3 o'clock at the playground the shadows were already very long. Not too cold here though (Silas was in his short sleeve shirt outside today!) which is great! It will be getting colder here in the next few days, and colder again as we head north too. Not too excited about more cold ;)

Tomorrow is Sunday, meeting, and that will be back to Los Angeles, about 1.5hr drive. Looking forward to it, although a little nervous!

Love to all xO