Thanksgiving Week Advendures

This last Thanksgiving holiday was one of the best I can remember yet! It was actually a whole week of fun adventures and outings.

The fun began the Saturday before Thanksgiving, November 17th, with Scott's parents flying into town from Utah. They didn't get in until late in the evening, so when Kyle woke up on Sunday morning and I told him to go into the guest bedroom to see Grandma and Grandpa, he was SO EXCITED! And so the spoiling began!

After attending stake conference on Sunday we came home, ate dinner and headed off to Williamsburg, VA. (Scott and I have been there a few times, but we've never taken Monte and Sherry.) Our awesome friends and neighbors, the Arnolds, let us borrow their mini-van so that we could ride in comfort. We got Kyle all settled in his pack-n-play for bed time in our motel room and then went to the room next door to play much awaited games. (I promise we weren't irresponsible parents just leaving Kyle in the room by himself. We made sure to have rooms that are literally next to each other and had a door connecting them on the inside. Along with that we had a baby monitor.) Pinochle and Settlers of Catan were the games of choice that evening. (And every other evening they were here!)

On Monday morning we got up and headed into Historic Williamsburg for site-seeing and shopping. It was an overcast day, but not too cold, and there weren't too many other tourists there, so it was totally enjoyable.

After enjoying Williamsburg all we could, we headed over to Jamestown to watch the glass blowing demonstrations. (Which is one of my favorite things to do down there. It is SO interesting to see the people make glassware right there in front of your eyes, they are so talented.) Kyle's favorite thing was to toss rocks into the river!

The day ended with an uneventful yet enjoyable drive back to Bealeton.

The next two days were spent playing games, Kyle getting undivided attention from Grandma and Grandpa, grocery shopping for the big day, preparing any food that could be prepared in advance, and baking pies. (The pie part was Sherry's job, she did a GREAT job!) Our Aunt Wendy's family drove up from North Carolina on Wednesday to join us for Thanksgiving too! (Wendy is Scott's Mom Sherry's baby sister.)

Thanksgiving dinner was pulled off without a hitch! I was in charge of the main dishes (the Turkey, stuffing, gravy, and sweet potatoes) and I had Scott's mom and aunt in charge of rolls, mashed potatoes, and a fruit salad. Other than the Turkey taking about half an hour longer to bake than I expected, our dinner was AWESOME!

(Aunt Wendy & family sitting at our pretty table!)

Friday began VERY early for me! (In more ways than one) Kyle had a rough night and woke up a few times. (I'm thinking that he was just WAY TOO overstimulated. He is deinitely not use to six extra bodies in our house, two of whom are playing with all his toys!) I was out the door by 5:30 AM to hit JoAnn's 'Black Friday' doorbuster sales. I just couldn't pass up the $.99 cent/yd flannel. It was my first time doing the whole early morning doorbuster thing, but it was pretty fun and my trip to JoAnn's was successful! I got a ton of material for an unbeatable price. Luckily I was one of the first people in the doors and I knew exactly what I wanted, so 28 bolts of flannel later I was cut and out the door by 6:45 am! (Yes, you read that right, 28 different bolts of material. It's officially an obsession.) I was home by 7:10 am and as happy as could be! Scott's mom and aunt Wendy got up soon after and then we headed out again around 8:30 or so to hit a few other doorbuster sales up in Manassas. Overall, it was a fun day, but I was EXHAUSTED when it was all over! Luckily we had plenty of leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner and we had that for dinner again.

Aunt Wendy and her family took off on Saturday morning. We were watching our friend's son for the weekend (Jack is one of Kyle's best buddies), and wanted to get out to do something fun. We ended up going to Great Falls Ntl. Park (the VA side), and had a great time. (Any of you who live in the area and haven't been there yet need to go check it out. It it totally inexpensive to go, and a fun outing for the kids and family.) Kyle and Jack loved climbing on the rocks and were totally mesmerized by all the falls. We even lucked out an got to see a couple of kyakers (I have no idea how to spell that and it is so far off that the spell check isn't even giving me ideas, sorry.) go over the falls. AMAZING!


Needless to say, after all our adventures during the week, Sunday, a day of REST, was very welcomed.

Scott's parents left on Wednesday, Nov 28th. We had such a great visit with them. One of the best I can ever remember. It was so much fun to have them for a week and a half. The length of time was just perfect...not too long, not too short. It only took Kyle a few days to warm up to them. He so enjoyed their visit that when they got out of the car at the airport he totally melted and started balling calling for Grandma and Grandpa. It was heartbreaking. I'm not sure we'll be able to top this Thanksgiving Holiday for years to come!