The picnic was my mom's idea in a round about way. I confided in her that I really just hate Thanksgiving ever since we have been far away from family. It's stressful and a lot of work for basically nothing. The kids don't care (in fact, Drew really dislikes everything about turkey dinner), and Ray isn't a food person, so it's just another meal to him. So for the past several years, I've spent all day in the kitchen - by myself - for the sake of "tradition". Mom told me that this was silly. She suggested that we do something different this year...make our own tradition that would be fun for everyone.

Anyone who knows me at all is well aware that I have a slight aversion to change. I don't handle any sort of change well, and since I already had a turkey in my freezer, I kind of just shrugged her idea off. It must have taken hold though, because I brought the idea up to Ray and he loved it. (Ray is one of those unnatural people who actually embrace change.) So it was decided that this year, our family would go someplace beautiful and have a picnic.

Last night, I cooked turkey dinner for our family. Nothing extravagant, and not so much food that I was stressed out. But just enough that AJ was satisfied (he'd really been looking forward to that meal), and that we'd have plenty of leftovers. Then this morning I packed a picnic lunch (utilizing those leftovers), and off we went to Lake Mead for our first annual Thanksgiving day picnic.

Did I mention that it's raining in Vegas today? Yeah. We get rain like 3 days a year, and today happens to be one of them. But we bundled up and went anyways. We found a shelter, and the rain actually held off while we were there. The kids got to climb and explore, Ray got to take an obscene amount of pictures (mostly of me), and I got to eat my lunch while enjoying a breathtaking view.

It couldn't have been more relaxing or more fun. Thanks, Mom.

Enjoy the pics!