Thanksgiving Recap

I feel very fortunate to have spent a lot of time with my nuclear family and extended family the past two weeks! In the last ten days, I have worked a grand total of one day! So I feel like it was a long, nice, vacation.

I'm proud of our little family. We hung in there like real troopers during our long trip. There were a few moments where I wondered about our sanity but as I told my office friend low expectations is the way to go. That and being damn organized! I was a packing machine! Toys? Within reach. Formula? Check. Trash can, wipes, paper towels? Check, check, check. I had lists all over our house. Food to pack in the cooler. Food to back for the trip. Clothes for our overnights in the hotels which were separate from the rest of our suitcases. Really? It was quite the feat. But we did it!

And it was so lovely! The kids slept really, really well! In five nights, Wyeth just woke up once which was awesome considering he was in different places and beds.

We left on Wednesday morning. We were to leave at 8:30. At 8:25, Wyeth smacked his head on our screen door causing him to bleed and me to cry. :( He cried too. Poor little guy! Blood right above his eye. I decided that we weren't really watching the kids as we packed so Sam took over packing and the kids and I went on a walk around the street to try to get the wiggles out.



That first day we drove from 9 am until 5 stopping in Richfield OH for the night. We packed lunches and stopped once for a bathroom break and once for lunch. Once we arrived, we got settled and took a nice swim in the heated pool. They had a hot tub too! Score for Mom and Dad! After a quick dinner and a tubby, we all went to bed by 9 pm. I think we fell asleep before Seren. She was in a huge queen bed with her inflatable bumper to protect her from falling out and she LOVED being up there in the same room. She talked herself to sleep. (no surprise). The second day we drove from 7:30 am and arrived at Grandma and Grandad's at 11 am. WHEW! She got herself all dressed up in her Native American costume that she wore at school and appeared in Flint, MI wearing her feather.

(welcome to Michigan sign!)



Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent time cooking and cleaning and eating. And we did some shopping on Friday with the crazies. Which wasn't really worth it. It was too crowded. I was too grumpy. And the kids were with us which makes shopping for them really challenging! But it was fun to shop with Grandma and Aunt Kate who were huge helpers! The rest of the trip was filled with visits from Flint friends and good food.

We had a photoshoot with Grandad. Grandad is an awesome photographer. He had all of the equipment including lights, etc. But our models? Not so cooperative! So we'll have to see how the photos turned out in the end. I was acting like a total monkey trying to get BOTH to smile and look at the camera at the same time. I was covered in sweat by the time our photoshoot was over!

Our return trip,we divided the driving more evenly. We did 5 hours one day and 5.5 the next. (Stopping this time in Cranberry near Pittsburgh) The last day of driving was painful. Our car doesn't have DVD players or anything like that so keeping them busy with the same toys they played with the day before was TOUGH. And they had a combined sleep time of 38 minutes when they BOTH slept at the same time. 10 and a half hours and 38 minutes were sleep minutes! We also hit some snow. So it was a LONG trip back. But the hotel again was a huge hit. We haven't been in a hotel as a family of four. And we forgot that once we put them to bed we have to just sit there in the dark watching TV on mute with closed captioning or just very quietly. :) Seren was hysterical upon arriving at the hotel. "Mom! This place is GORGEOUS! There is a toilet over here! And a sink! And a little fridge. It is perfect!" It was as if she was picking out a home.



So, 1389 miles later, we are back. We are safe. We are happy. We made it with only one small fight, two konks on the head, one poop explosion and two teary sessions. Not bad, not bad.

I'm grateful for my family, my friends and our good health! Happy Thanksgiving!