The Holidays Begin

For Thanksgiving this year we packed up the car and headed up to Georgia to spend the break with my my mom and brother, Jason, and his family.

The kids did well in the car. Robert probably felt like a chauffeur toting us three in the back all the way up. We didn't leave until late Tuesday night, so we stopped halfway in Tifton, GA for the night. It was a blast. Hotels can be a lot of fun especially to kids as it's like a brand new playground to play on after being in the car all evening.

Luckily, they didn't stay up too late. We snacked, got out our wiggles, and then said goodnight.

In the morning we woke up, grabbed some breakfast, cleaned up, and then set back out on the road for a two-hour drive to my brother's house. When we arrived we immediately started with a rousing game of basketball, after saying hello of course.

This caption best summarizes what is going on here:

"You can take the girl out of the beach, but you can't take the beach out of the girl."

I just laughed so hard watching her try to shovel grass into Kaden's bucket that she had found. Just like last Christmas, Annabelle spent a lot of her time, and received lots of enjoyment from, chasing Blizzard the cat around the house. She was on cloud nine when she got close enough to pet him!

We went for walks down to the park where we played catch and tennis.

Grandma took good care of little Dawson during the trip. We also finally got to meet the infamous Keith, Kayla's first boyfriend. Oo-la-la.

He was a fun guy and we got to spend lots of time with him playing Apples to Apples.

Annabelle loved playing with her cousin Keaton during the trip. He is tracing her hand here. The boys were so good to her and they let her boss them around. It was hilarious watching as she would pull them upstairs to play with her in the playroom. They are so sweet and always obliged.

Turkey Day arrived! This is how we look on Turkey day morning. At least one of us is cute!

While we pulled ourselves together, the cooks were busy prepping away in the kitchen.

Lori put together a fabulous meal for all of us to gobble up. 

Thank you Jason and Lori for being such great hosts as always!

While they were busy cooking and prepping, Mama T and the boys put together the gumball Turkey. Kayla helped me with an activity for dinner.

Dawson was getting sleepy, so we fed him his Thanksgiving dinner early.

Yummy green beans. 

First Thanksgiving for D!

Our family picture.

It was time to dig in! At dinner, I arranged to have each person decorate their own pumpkin (see above picture) and then place it in a bowl. At dinner, we passed the bowl around, each person had to draw a pumpkin out and tell everyone why they were thankful for that person. Afterward, we placed it on the paper that Kayla decorated for our pumpkins. It was a great memory to have and I enjoyed listening to my family share loving thoughts about each other. I have a great family!

Dinner was excellent! I loved every bite.

Dawson woke up from his nap and decided to come join the party. 

After dinner the kids decorated Turkey cookies for dessert.

We had a lot of fun making them, and they were yummy to eat.

Annabelle surprised me that she followed each step.

After dinner, we lounged around a bit, ate some more, 

the boys had a good chat, and then we went to my friend Kitty's house to see her and her kids. Annabelle and Miles had a great time playing with each other. Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the two babies or of Kitty and I. :( Kitty and I are old friends from high school and we have kids about the same age just opposite genders for each age group. I so wish we lived closer, so we could raise our kids together.

This picture sums up how a lot of the vacation went for Annabelle as we tried to do some adult things during the trip. She would find the phone and stream her Disney or PBS shows. It always seemed like she attracted two followers when she did this. :)

Don't worry, they were not always TV junkies. They had a lot of fun chasing each other, playing guns with Robert, playing outside, and playing with playdough.

 

Following Thanksgiving day, we took Kaden out for his birthday to a laser tag play zone. Most everyone got in on the action, except for these two little ones who had to watch from the glass while we all shot at each other.

Here's Keaton picking off someone.

In between laser tag games we would play the arcade games. Annabelle loved the skeeball and almost took out a few things or people by launching the balls overhead.

She was a natural at Whack-a-Shark.

We actually got to celebrate Lori's birthday with her! It was on Saturday, which happened to be the Georgia Tech vs. Georgia game as well so they hosted a football party and decorated the cake for the winner. Kaden got to celebrate his birthday as well since it follows Lori's by a couple of days.

I think the wishing and the cake sent good vibes for Tech because they pulled off an exciting win against Georgia. It was an intense ending!

Present time.

These two fell asleep after watching too much football.

We were sad our trip had to come to an end. We had a wonderful time hanging out and relaxing, it was just what we needed. We were not there too long, but it felt like a long time of vacationing and we were glad for it. It was sad to have to get back in the car and head home, but we did it like rockstars.

Things were going so well and we were making awesome time

until we hit this near home.

Regardless, we are so thankful for all the blessings we have had this year, for our great family, and especially for these two little turkeys we call ours.

Love.