Thanksgiving 2016!

It had been several years since we did the whole Carlsbad Caverns/Christmas on the Pecos trip so we decided to do it again.  This time my older brother who lives in Monterey, CA met us there in Carlsbad, NM.  

Carlsbad is an interesting little town.  Not much goes on there.  We drove in on Thanksgiving day and were planning on eating at Golden Corral for dinner but...the Golden Corral had closed:(  So we found a Denny's open so we went there and actually had the WORST service ever!  Not exactly sure what happened but it took about 2 hours to get all of our food.  But it all turned out just fine as the manager was extremely apologetic AND gave us a steep discount--all 14 of us ate dinner for $50.  So we left happy about that:)

Right behind our hotel was this interesting "Aqua Duct" contraption.  Apparently the town is quite proud of it as they keep it lit up even at night.  So of course we had to go have a look--the kids sure had a great time reading all the graffiti on Trump and Hillary mostly:)

So honestly the best part of this town is the Caverns.  Seriously AMAZING and way better than the 2 cavern parks in AZ.  We hiked down 80 stories into these caverns--about a 3 hour walking tour.  We thought my mom was going to die but she made it and took the elevator back up:)  

We're scared to go in:)

This formation is called "Whales Mouth"

Hard to get really great pics inside:)

"The Big One"

This is "Fairyland"

We spent the morning in the caverns and then hit the zoo in the afternoon.  Best day ever to go because admission was FREE all that day!  Seriously, $50 dinner for 14 and then FREE zoo admission!  We scored!  My kids are always up for animals:)

Wolf in the background

The zoo has an animal celebrity--Maggie the Bear!  She actually paints pictures!  And her paintings are actually for sale in the zoo gift shop!  My girls each got a bookmark with a Maggie painting:)  We got to see her during her feeding time.  SUPER cute!  I would totally take her home:)

Tatum with Maggie the Bear

We packed in all of the fun stuff into a day--Caverns, Zoo, then Christmas on the Pecos river cruise!  The Pecos River runs right through Carlsbad and there are some beautiful homes built along it.  These homes have amazing Christmas decorations every year and this river cruise takes you along to see them.

Grandpa/Grandma Knoop with Knoop/Meekers
Our whole gang:)

So the best part of the trip was of course just hanging out with cousins.  Our kids don't get to see their cousins very often and it's always so amazing to me to see how they just pick up where they left off.  There is no awkward or shy moments.  It's like they know that they belong together somehow.  And it's ALWAYS a party when Papa Frank is around.  He has limitless energy when it comes to the grandkids.  They climbed all over him all weekend long and he never tired of it--and they stole all his gum:)  But he never complains.  It was just a fun-filled/jam-packed weekend!  Happy Thanksgiving and now let's bring on Christmas!!!