Thanksgiving(s)

I feel the need to mention, however briefly, that my new favorite holiday is Friendsgiving.  It's like Thanksgiving only we celebrate the Saturday before Thanksgiving and it's with friends not family.  Not that I don't like family, because you know I do, but my friends here have become another family for me.  I refer to them as frousins (friends+cousins) in my head because that's what it feels like when I'm with them.  I didn't take any actual pictures of the event because it's kind of a hush-hush thing since we don't want people who weren't invited to feel bad, but at some point you just have to stop inviting people because Becky's house is only so big.  Anyway, the food was amazing, the company was spectacular and Friendsgiving has overtaken Halloween as my favorite holiday, by far.

For actual Thanksgiving, we went to Kentucky to visit Greg's grandma.  Greg's brother, wife and daughter were staying at Nana's so we got a hotel, and I'm really glad we did.  The first few days we were there, I'll be honest, I wondered why we had bothered going.  We're like a traveling circus and we're a lot for an 80-something year-old grandmother to handle.  Nana went to bed at 7 on Thanksgiving we had so worn her out.  I went back to the hotel ready to pack and leave.  We were just too much.  Someone should put us in the zoo.

Friday we decided to give Nana a break from us and went to to state park near by.  We went to a nature center and a bison/elk drive through thing.  We had also planned to hike but it was just too cold.  We also hit up a Christmas village and Cracker Barrel.  We stopped by Nana's that night to say hi but left before wearing her out.

Saturday was the most fun.  We spent the day at Greg's aunt's house and she had her five grandchildren over too (ages 6, 5, 2, 2, and 2 weeks--perfect for our circus).  The kids took right to each other and spent the day running around outside, jumping on the trampoline, riding around on the Gator, playing in the toy room, and just doing what cousins do.  It was pretty magical.  Nana was there too so we got to visit with her without wearing her out and destroying her house.

Sunday we ate a big breakfast at Nana's before heading home.  The drive there we made with only 2 stops but Zora was having none of that on the way home. We had to stop 4 or 5 times.  We didn't get home until 8 or 9.  I ended up letting Rex sleep in on Monday and taking him to school late.  (I'm at that point in the school year where I don't really care--I don't have how I'm going to get through high school 4 more times, it was hard enough the first time.)

In the end, I'm glad we went.  First, staying five days in a hotel was really nice.  We got two rooms so I just had Rex and Zora with me in one room and I had to go to bed with them around 9 every night since the internet at the hotel sucked and I had to turn the lights off for them to sleep. Getting that much sleep is just magical.  I also didn't have to make beds, do dishes, or laundry for five days and I didn't have that voice in the back of my head reminding me that the kids are still at home making a mess, because they weren't, they were with me destroying Nana's house.  It was lovely.  Second, I really like Greg's family and it was nice to finally get to spend some time with his cousins and get to know them a bit.  Three, the kids had fun with their cousins.  I have so many fond memories of playing with all my cousins growing up, I'd be so sad if my kids didn't have the same.

Princeton didn't have a 5K Turkey Trot so I just ran on my own.  I won.

Playing cards Thanksgiving night.

Oh look, Henry getting into something he shouldn't.

Henry made fast friend's with his cousin Case, who is also a rough and tumble boy.

Chilling in the hotel

Feeding turkey's at the nature center

Zora checking out the bison.

More bison

at the Christmas village

Bed jumping.

On Saturday the kids wanted to just run around, so we took them to an awesome park in downtown Princeton

All the 2-year-old cousins going for a Gator ride

Greg's aunt and uncle live on 160 acre farm--like a real farm.  Pretty crazy. And beautiful.  Every time we visit Princeton, I just want to move there.  And then I remember they don't have a Target and get over that one real quick.

Rex and Kenday played all day.