Thanksgiving!

This year we went to Mesquite, NV for Thanksgiving. Morgan's parents just moved there so it was our first time seeing their new home. The weather was fabulous and the company was wonderful. All of Morgan's siblings (except for 3) were there and we had lots of fun playing games and eating lots of food.

We decided to drive instead of fly so we could go through Death Valley National Park and see other parts of CA. Although the drive home was really long (15 hrs. because of traffic) it was fun to see some cool sights.

This is sure different than the East coast! The contrast is incredible and although it's pretty ugly, I am just as fascinated by this type of landscape as I am the beautiful tree covered land.

 In case you need to go that bad...Nevada is nice enough to put a john on the side of the road for you :)

 I was surprised when we would pass these tiny towns in the middle of no where. This one in particular had a giant cow to welcome the 2 visitors that came each year :)

 Here we are in Death Valley- which is within the Mojave Desert and features the lowest, hottest and driest locations in North America. The elevation is 282 feet BELOW sea level.

 These awesome hill things are hardened sand; don't they look super cool!?

 I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get the sign that said below sea level, so here is the sign when we are at sea level.

While passing through Death Valley National Park, we bought ourselves an annual National Park pass. 

CA has 8 national parks and Oregon has a few as well; stay tuned for many NP adventures in the next year.