Fugitive from the Republic of Texas

Ava Grace escaped from Texas, crossed several borders, and landed in beautiful Tucson, Arizona!  Aiding and abetting this little criminal were a handful of Varner family members, all of whom were happy to assist in her first sojourn to the desert.  Upon her capture and return to Texas, she confessed that it was all worth it to spend her first Thanksgiving with her family :)

Although a veteran of airplanes (5th flight!), this was her longest journey yet.  She did great!  And it was daddy's first flight with her, which made travel so much easier.

Since we arrived at night, she didn't get to see many people until the morning.  But her cousin, Emma, was there bright and early to meet her for the first time!

Getting to know each other

Fast friends!

Then we got dressed up for Thanksgiving day at her great-grandparents' house

That afternoon, we took ("tried" is more like it) family portraits outside.  Hopefully a relative got a better picture :)

Since we couldn't get good pictures of our faces, we thought the cute bloomers would at least turn out well.

This is a sample of the family crew that was gathered.  We had 25 people for Thanksgiving, and every single child, grandchild and great-grandchild of our hosts (Andy's grandparents) were present.  What a treat!!!

Emma put on quite the dance show for us while we took individual family pictures

Four generations

Ava Grace and a turkey

 

And while we're talking about Thanksgiving... what wonderful blessings we have to give thanks for, including you, our friends and family reading this.  We cherish you and are grateful for your love and support.

What you've just read is a brief recap of the first part of our trip.  Our next post will share pictures from our trip out to the family ranch!  Stay tuned!