It’s pretty quiet around here now. We just spent the last ten days with grandkids here or nearby. We share the two grandkids with the other set of grandparents who live in Dixon. Katie and the kids got here about ten days ago and Kurtis came about five days later. They split their time here and in town. For the first couple of days my son, Chris was here as well, but he had to get back to Boise, where he and Meryl moved just a few weeks ago.

Right after they got here the kids wanted to get out the toys they remembered from previous visits. There are a selected group of toys left over from when my kids were younger. Kasen had the box of Lincoln logs and the wooden train set. Kirby went right to the Playmobile cowboy set that she remembered from her visit in the summer.

Kirby always likes to spend time in the barn when I do chores. Katie came out the first morning and offered to help with cleaning. You’d think from this photo that they are worn out, but I think they were faking it.

Jade and Hazel are really going to miss Kirby. She spent a lot of time in the barn and in the pasture and those two sheep always hang around her to get pets (and sometimes treats).

One of the mornings we drove to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area between Davis and Sacramento.

The majority of birds were to the east past the line on our map that showed the division between hunting and no-hunting. So we watched and listened to those from afar. I think it’s fascinating to see the city buildings just beyond these massive flocks of birds.

This isn’t a great photo but I think these are sandhill cranes. The majority of the birds in the large flocks to the east seemed to be snow geese.

On Wednesday we spent the afternoon and evening with my brother’s family in Fairfield. Before our Thanksgiving meal the kids played football in the street…

…and then went on a Beaver Walk. Dave usually finds beavers at dusk in this creek, but we missed them on this evening.

After our turkey dinner and traditional pies we also had a mini recognition of Kasen’s birthday which is during “the holidays” and when he’ll be back in Texas.

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday. My sister-in-law organized the party and about 50 family members of several generations came from all over the country.

Kirby in one of her several holiday outfits.

Kirby joined in with the Wild Woolly Wreath class that I did on Saturday morning. This was also presented virtually while I had 5 in-person class participants. The whole Thanksgiving weekend was a bit of a challenge for me with virtual presentations each day through Camp Yarnsie. These were fun, but I had to focus on my organization for the weekend. Camp Yarnsie? That’s a virtual fiber festival. If you missed all it you can catch replays of a lot of the programs here. I had something on each day of the Camp. Check out the video on Thanksgiving Thursday and the Jacob sheep discussion on Sunday.

On Monday my Wednesday Weavers (virtual on Wednesdays) came for a dye day and Kirby joined in. She dyed some of the warps that I have planned for v-shawls and then I made a warp for a smaller version so that she could dye one that I would weave for her.

Kirby usually leans towards the pinks and purples, but then I wanted to use up some of the dyes left over and she dyed this one yellow and green.

She liked the yellow and green one so much that I wound another warp for her and set this up in the house so she could dye this last one before leaving for the airport this morning.

After the dye project we went to the barn for one last session with the sheep before the kids had to leave.