Thanksgiving at the Dunes!!

We did a thing.

We bought a trailer.
It is named Casey's Dune Palace!

We needed to break it in, stat!

With that said, our first outing was the dunes on Thanksgiving!

Which meant lots and lots of prep work beforehand.

Not only for the Thanksgiving feast, but with it being a new (to us) trailer,
I spent hours beyond hours getting that thing ready to use!

Big fat deep cleaning, and a little re decorating, of course:)
 Buying new sheets, blankets, stocking the kitchen, games,

batteries, first aid kits, cleaning supplies, basically

everything we needed to keep in the trailer so it's an easy turn over of

clothes and not much else work when we want to use it.

It was like buying a mini house! 

After I tackled the trailer, I tackled the food.

The day before we left I picked up most of the big items like a smoked
 turkey and some sides from Big Nates BBQ. 
Best decision ever.

It costs about the same amount it would have to make it on our own.

It was dang good food!

I'll be doing this from here on out!

And I ordered pies.

The only thing I made before hand was the rolls.

Lots and lots of rolls. 
And 2 chocolate chip pecan pies.
 They are easy and my absolute favorite pie

that nobody seems to make. 

And thank the heavens for Costco delivery.
The mashed potatoes and jello pretzel salad was easy
 to make once we got there. I like food to be as fresh as possible.

About this time the day before we left I was felling all gutted
and frazzled just like this turkey looked!

The morning of our departure I got to take Lane bright and early to the orthopedic doctor.
Luckily it was another run of the mill fracture and it just needed a cast for 6 weeks.

Nothing like a brand new cast to go straight to the SAND dunes!

The doctor warned him to cover it good because sand and casts are not friends.

Did I mention it was also Rusty's birthday?!
He opened his gifts in between loading the trailer and getting ready to head on out. 

Perfect timing to get an RC car he could drive in the dunes!

And here is our circus ready to go on its maiden voyage!
A tad obnoxious with the double pulling, but we have no other options!

This is Casey's dream. Pulling long, heavy loads.

He has a secret dream of being a semi truck driver.

It all sounds terrifying to me.

Glad to ride passenger!

We made it in good timing!
Now the tricky part. Getting to a camp spot without getting stuck.

We were doing good, until we weren't.
Officially stuck.
They worked and worked to get us out, but to no avail.

It didn't help that it was super windy.
Like the windiest I've ever seen it there.
After a couple of hours we called it quits and would wait until my dad could help us
once he got there the next morning. 

We were the only ones there this night.
Which turned out to be a blast!

Everyone was in a good mood.

We made philly cheesesteaks on our new black stone grill.

And I brought surprise birthday cookies from Crumbl to complete Rusty's birthday.

We stayed up and watched a movie.

I didn't realize how much we needed some time together, just our little family without any
distractions. We never seem to have moments like this. Life is so busy and the boys are

cruising to young adulthood right before my eyes. I'm clawing for any time I can get

with them. So it was a wonderful, almost sacred first night in our new, stuck trailer!

We all slept in!
Happy Thanksgiving to us!

Throughout the trip we had an array of people coming and going. 
My dad showed up in an RV.
Got us unstuck, hooray!!

Then Craig and Camille and Jefferson, Katie and Bentley!

It was still really windy, but that didn't stop people from riding. 
I stayed back to prep for our big feast!

This trip the girls really got acquainted with their quads!
They rode around the campsite non stop. 

Time to eat!
We ended up bringing the tables inside so our food wouldn't blow away.

It ended up fitting perfectly in the back!
I was amazed at how well our dune palace was
accommodating everyone like a glove!

I put all of the food on the island to grab buffet style. 

The Thanksgiving gang!

We had everything we would have had at home. 

The wind FINALLY stopped, so we took our dessert out by the camp fire. 

The next morning we had a new group show up!

Jefferson and Katie left the night before.

This day we had my mom, the Figerouas, my 2 cousins Jonathan and Greg, and our neighbor

Marc and his daughter Chloe!

No wind, either:)

I took a picture at lunch time.

Love being able to host everyone!

and of course grandpa treated us to the ice cream truck!

This was a big night.
Craig was going to propose to Camille!

The plan was at sunset they were going to go
 off on their own and take pictures together.

She is a photographer so this was normal for them to do and she didn't suspect anything.
Plus it helped for her to get dressed up and not look like a dune rat for her engagement!

While they were gone, we hurried and decorated camp for when they got back. I had bought decorations, flowers and sparkling cider and had been hiding them in our trailer!

Her parents and brothers also arrived to surprise her!
It worked out perfectly.

When they pulled up in the RZR after he popped the question, you could her her say, 
is that my mom?!

It was perfect!

My mom made this big sign we were all holding when they came rolling up. 

I stole some pictures off of her instagram. 
So happy to have a new sister join the family!

A took a picture of the drags that were hopping while it was going on.

Casey made smash burgers for everyone and we chatted and
got to know Camille's family better around the campfire.
 They stayed the night in Yuma and came back for breakfast and a quick ride in
RZR's before they needed head home.

She has such a nice family!

We had to go shopping at the vendors!
This Motley Crue to get there had me cracking up.
Every kid and grandma! on a quad or dirt bike. I was
taking pictures from behind in the RZR of our parade. 

Marcie was giving RZR rides back at camp.

Enjoying all the yummy things. 

Broken arm boy on a dirt bike, lovely:)

And just like that it was time to pack it all up and head home!