Thanksgiving at The Wrights...with a little metal thrown in

We spent Thanksgiving at Nate's parents as we have the last few years. And as always, it was a nice time. The tables were decorated in true Wanda fashion....**translation**very festive, fancy & beautiful. So lets see; Rachel & Matt (sister in law & brother in law) and 2 of their kids were there, as well as Nate's grandma & her husband, Nate & I and our brood & Mark & Wanda. The food was fantastic and I ate all weekend.

We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday & most of Sunday there. The kids were very spoiled and absolutely dreaded coming home. Typical for anytime they go up to the Fort to see Grandma & Grandpa.

You like Nate's face in this picture? He always has to act like he is gorging himself on his food. Me? I don't act. I just gorge....hence the weight problem. And he gets poor Ryan in on the action. Way to be a role model, uncle Nate :)

I'm thinking this was Hannah's mask, but each child loved wearing it.
Grandma & Jasper

Hannah

Ryan

Matt & Rachel

The cute cupcake cones that Rachel made

Kids enjoying cones

Now comes the spoiling! "Grandma, can we take a bath in the sink?" Grandma says, "Sure!"

This photo is great! It looks like they are having a deep conversation.

Jasper & the mask

On Saturday, my in laws watched our kids & Rachel's kids to allow us to drive to Detroit for one of Nate's shows. Thanks Mark & Wanda. The drummer & his wife drove up to Nate's parents &

we all left from there...six of us adults in my stylin' mini van headed to a metal fest in the good ol' city of Detroit. I will say, I was a bit nervous. It was Detroit! I'm a small town girl. I begged Matt (Rachel's husband who is a deputy sheriff) to bring his gun along. He informed me that he couldn't take his weapon over state lines. Now before you say anything, YES, I am a peace advocate, but I wanted our children to have one parent come home alive. Nate had previously let us know that the venue was in a "not so safe" part of town.

Alas, no one was shot, stabbed, burned, peed on or anything like that. We had a good time. It was a loooong night, but it was good to be out. We drove about 1/2 hour out of Detroit & ate at a good Mexican place at 11 pm. We ended up getting to our hotel around midnight or so & everyone went to their rooms & met up in the morning to head back.

The venue, "Harpos"

Nate (with the bright green guitar) & the drummer, Steven.

The bassist (Tony) & Nate

Steve (the vocalist); he has one set of screaming pipes on him. I have no idea how he can scream like he does & still have a voice. He doesn't even act like it is hard. But then when I look at the pics of the veins bulging out in his head & neck, I realize it does take some talent to do that.

And God bless Steve, he usually gets the crowd all riled up & wants them to start a "circle pit." I think that is what it is called. I'm probably totally wrong. There I am, at the front of the stage taking pictures and all these smelly metal boys start slamming in to each other. Sometimes I am in fear that I will be knocked to the ground. Just don't break my camera, that is my life!

See how close they are!