Thanksgiving Recap

I know that I'm a little behind on the recap, but better late than never, right?  Right!  And I wanted to blog about it so that I can look back and remember.

We decided to go to Georgia this year.  I was very nervous leading up to the trip.  This is the first long drive that Annelise has had since she was a baby, and the very first for Harrison.  We decided to drive overnight to make it easier on the kids.  It's rough for the parents, but I would rather suffer a little than have the kids be miserable.  They were amazing travelers!

I started off driving so that Drew could get a little nap in.  We left about 8 PM.  Annelise was awake for a little bit, and then eventually passed out.  I drove until about 11 PM, and pulled over so that Drew could take over.  The details are a little foggy at this point, but I think Harrison woke up around 3 or so.  We stopped at a gas station to get gas, use the bathroom, and I fed Harrison.  Annelise woke up and was awake for a little bit, but Harrison fell back to sleep pretty quickly.  Drew and I switched driving again right before Chattanooga.  I had the lovely pleasure of driving through the mountains.  In the dark.  Harrison woke up again around 7 I think.  So, I pulled over to feed him.  We got Annelise some breakfast and she was pretty darn crabby about being in her car seat still.  We assured her that we could be at Jess and Eric's soon.  We got to their house around 9 AM, I believe.

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing a little, and visiting with everyone.  Drew, Jen, and their kids were already there.  I showered and got ready to go over to Whitney's house.

I packed up the kids around noon and headed over, while Drew stayed back to take a nap.

Another friend, Carrie, and her daughter, Lilah, also came to visit since they don't live too far from Whitney.  We all met in an online group and have been friends for 7 years or so.  That's just crazy to think about!  We spent the afternoon visiting with them, and then went back to Jess and Eric's.

I was nervous about how naps and nighttimes were going to go since we would all be sharing one room.  Surprisingly, it was not too bad at all!  Annelise slept in her PeaPod very well, and Harrison slept about the same as he usually does.

Thanksgiving was mainly spent eating and hanging out with everyone.  Us girls looked through all the ads, like we do every Thanksgiving, and formulated a plan for shopping that evening.  The kids all played together while we waited for the fantastic dinner that Eric cooked.

I busied myself with taking pictures of the kids.  I just love how they are looking at each other.

Leading up to Thanksgiving, I kept looking for an outfit for Harrison to wear, since it's his first Thanksgiving.  Nothing I found really stood out to me.  Then, I remembered that Annelise wore a onesie that I ordered for her and that it was gender neutral.  She wore pink pants with it.  I figured that I could have Harrison wear it too.  Turns out it's a 9 month onesie and fits him perfectly!  I think it's really special that they both wore the same onesie on their first Thanksgivings.

Just missing Easton.  I think he might have been napping.  I didn't plan on getting all the kids at this time, they just sort of piled in.  Then, once I looked back at them, I'm really sad that Easton isn't there.

Oh these three!  They have my heart!

Jess, Jen, and I went out shopping once the stores opened up.  Here's my feelings about stores opening on Thanksgiving.  I feel like it's called Black Friday for a reason, and the stores should open on Friday, not Thursday.  I don't get into a big fuss because retailers shouldn't work on the holiday and blah, blah, blah because there are plenty of people who have to work on a holiday, such as medical staff, public safety, airlines, etc.  So, I'm not necessarily going to boycott shopping, but I do think it's a little unnecessary for the stores to open on Thursday.

On Friday, the boys went shooting in the afternoon and us girls stayed home with the kids.  When they got up from their naps, we went over to the park for a little bit.  By that time, the guys were back home.  Jess and Jen went to see a movie, but I stayed back because I hadn't seen the second movie in the series that they were going to see.  I have a year to catch myself up so that I can join them next year! :)

Saturday, Drew and Jen and their family went to Christmas for her side of the family.  We said our goodbyes to them since we planned on leaving before they would be getting back.  We took the kids to a place called Catch Air to let them play and run off some energy.  Wes and Annelise had a blast!

Once we got back to Jess and Eric's we packed up and loaded the car.  We left their house around 5:30 PM and drove overnight to get home.  I started out driving and made it about halfway before I had Drew take over.  He finished driving the rest of the way and we arrived home at exactly 5:00 AM.  The kids were fantastic and we only had to stop once for a feeding.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and we all had a great time.  I just love being able to spend the holiday with family!

Thanksgiving in Georgia

I had every intention of blogging during our trip to Georgia, but things just got busy and I didn't.  So, I'll just recap the trip and throw in a few pictures.

Saturday Evening/Sunday
I had been so nervous for this road trip for weeks. I really had no idea how Annelise would do traveling that far in the car. We decided to leave when Drew got home from work and drive overnight. I hoped that she would sleep all night, making every one's travels much easier.

When Drew got home from work, we packed up the car and headed out. We got on the road right before 8 PM. About five minutes down the road, Annelise was sound asleep. Drew started off driving and I napped off and on. We made it to Metropolis before we needed gas. And boy, did we need gas. I'm pretty sure our car was running on fumes at that point.

Annelise woke up while we were getting gas, so I feed her a bottle, she played in her car seat for about half an hour, then fell back to sleep again.

Drew made it to just past Nashville, about 4 AM before he got tired and needed to switch. That means that I drove through the mountains. That's a little scary doing that for the first time at night and while tired.

We made it to Jess and Eric's house shortly after 8 AM, which means we got down there in just over 11 hours. Not too shabby!! And, Annelise slept practically the whole time!

We spent the majority of the day hanging out around the house and visiting. We went to dinner at Uncle Maddio's. It's a pizza restaurant that has a bunch of specialty pizzas. Drew had a steak and blue cheese pizza, and I had a turkey panini. After dinner, we went grocery shopping for the week.

Monday
Eric had to work, and Jess had a dentist appointment and some other things to take care of, so Drew and I made plans to go visit with some friends of ours.  Ryan and Rachel used to live near us, but moved down to Georgia a couple of years ago to be near her family.  We went over to their house for lunch and to visit.  Jackson, their son, is seriously adorable!  He loved Annelise and kept wanting to bring her toys.  He really wanted to hold her too.  So sweet!

Rachel sells Scentsy, which I really didn't know much about, so she started showing us some stuff and giving us her little sales pitch.  During this time, Annelise started to get fussy and I thought she was just tired and ready for a nap.  So, I tried to snuggle and rock her in the hopes of putting her to sleep.  I was sitting on their couch and Annelise threw up all over me.  I mean, she really threw up.  My child has never puked like that.  It was all over her, me, their couch, their floor.  I felt awful!  And I looked and smelled pretty awful too.  I always have an extra outfit packed for Annelise, but Rachel had to give me some clothes to change into.  I was so embarrassed.  She acted fine afterwards and didn't seem off at all after that.  Weird!

After we visited with them for a while, we went back to Jess and Eric's and ordered chinese food for dinner.

Tuesday
Eric had to work at home and Jess and I went and did some shopping.  They have a consignment shop near them, Once Upon A Child, that has a TON of clothes, especially girl clothes.  I've been waiting to get Annelise's 12 month sized wardrobe until we went down there because I knew that I could get a ton of clothes for very little.  Jess and I had a ball picking out clothes for her.  I managed to get 29 items and paid a little over $150.  I seriously love everything we got for her, and some of the stuff still had the original tags on it.

Drew, Jen, and Emma arrived that night from North Carolina and we visited for a little bit before all heading to bed.  Emma has gotten so big!  It's crazy how much these kids grow in between times seeing them.

Wednesday
Jess asked me to take some family photos for them for their Christmas cards, so we all went to Stone Mountain.  We went to a couple of different spots to take pictures, then went inside to take advantage of some of the stuff that is offered there.  By the time we went into the attraction part of it, it was starting to get dark.  They did a lighted parade, which was neat to see.  We took the train around the mountain, but since it was dark you couldn't see it anything, which made it pretty lame.  We stopped at a place called Spiced Right that my friend Whitney recommended.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there, they were out of ribs, brisket, and some sides.  It's hard to judge a BBQ place that is out of some of the main staples of BBQ.  What we had was pretty good though.

Thursday
Ahhhhh, Thanksgiving.  We decided to eat more towards lunch because then all the kids could participate.  That was all fine and dandy except that my child would not take a morning nap and then was cranky all morning.  I finally got her to sleep, and then the food was ready.  I was so bummed that Annelise missed out eating her first Thanksgiving meal.  I seriously had to fight back tears.  I know that she won't remember it, but I want the memories and pictures for me and to show her when she gets older.

After she woke up, I put her in her special Thanksgiving outfit and took a bunch of pictures.

The onesie basically says it all.  I am so thankful for my precious little girl.  God has blessed us so much with the gift of her.

Jess wanted to get one of Wes's Christmas presents that was a Black Friday special at Walmart.  So, Jess, Jen, and I went to Walmart around 7 to get ready for the sale that started at 8.  I've never been Black Friday shopping.  Before Drew and I got married, I worked in retail and always had to work that morning, and last year I was pregnant and tired.  I was amazed at how psychotic people get about it!  Jess got the present she was looking for and we were home in record time.  Drew and Drew went to Dick's at midnight to get some ammo to go shooting the next day.  And my Drew got a new pair of tennis shoes.

Friday
The guys woke up bright and early and went shooting.  Earlier in the week, Jess made a cute fleece blanket for Wes for a Christmas present and I really wanted to make one for Annelise too.  So, Jess and I left all the kids with Jen and went to JoAnn's to get the fleece.  We found some super cute patterns, stood in the fabric cut line forever, and then came home.  I made one blanket that night and it came out really cute.

Saturday
Drew, Jen, and Emma went to visit some of her family for the day.  I made the other blanket while they were gone.  We all didn't really do much and just hung and visited.

Sunday
Drew, Jen, and Emma left late morning to go visit some more family and head home.  Drew and I took our time getting packed up and ready to leave.  Eric and Jess bought a new dishwasher, and after a huge fiasco of getting it delivered, it finally arrived and Drew helped Eric install it.  We got on the road around 3 PM to go visit a friend of mine in Knoxville.  I'll save that visit for another post.

The drive back home was pretty uneventful, and we were so happy to back home.  Traveling with a baby is hard work and I think that we were all glad to be able to get back into our routine.

Lazy Day in Georgia

Wanna know what we did today?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. We have spent the entire day just hanging out and enjoying each other's company. Pure bliss in my book.

Our friends, Rachel and Ryan, recently moved to Georgia. They came over for a little bit in the early afternoon. Jen went to the Auburn/LSU game today, so she's been gone all day. Eric and my Drew went to pick up some steaks and some other stuff for dinner.

Tomorrow is our last day of vacation. Our flight home is at 6:50 PM so we'll have most of the day to say our goodbyes.

A-Maize-ing Day

Today has been a day filled with baby snuggles. I just can't get over how cute little Wes is. He already has so much personality.

We went to Cagle's Farm this evening to go through the corn maze.

Corn cop. To make sure that there was no hanky panky going on in the corn, of course.

Please excuse my face. This is my "my feet are so damn cold" look. Too bad nobody warned me that I should actually wear shoes because it gets kinda chilly in Georgia at night. I blame the locals!

And don't mind Drew next to me wearing shorts and a tshirt. He must be crazy!

After the corn maze, we picked up dinner at a place called Shane's Rib Shack. Seriously, such good barbeque. I spent the entire time I was eating my dinner going, "Mmmm, this is so good".

We've all just been lazying around enjoying each other's company tonight. I love spending time with family!

Goodbye Florida, Hello Georgia

Our flight was at 4:15 this afternoon, so we had plenty of time to clean the cottage up before we had to leave. We gathered up all of the towels and bedding and went to the laundromat. While I was waiting for the stuff to wash, Drew went outside to talk on the phone. There was a game where you drop a quarter down a chute and it lands on a moving platform. That quarter pushes up against the other quarters on the platform to push off the ones near the edge. Those ones then push against the ones on the bottom level. You know what I'm talking about! Anyways, I put maybe $2 in the machine before the stuff was done in the washer. When Drew came back inside, I showed him the game. He the fed the machine the rest of the dollars that he had in his pocket, which was about five. When he ran out, he began to beg, literally beg, me for the dollars that I had in my wallet. I have never seen a grown man beg as much as he did. He was like a crack addict begging for another hit. Unreal! I ended up giving him another $2 just so he'd leave me alone.

After our wash was done, and Drew was finished feeding his money to the machine, we went back to the cottage. We finished cleaning up, closed the place up, and made our way back to the airport.

Eric picked us up in Atlanta. That airport is a madhouse! We picked up some pizza for dinner and then went to the house. I was so excited to meet little Wesley! Jess and Eric told us that he has a fussy period between 7 and 9 PM. Guess what time we got to the house? He likes to be bounced and walked around, so I did that a little bit and he eventually settled down and fell asleep. And this is what he did:
Little stinker is already getting feisty with me!

Drew, Jen, and Emma arrived about 10:30. We visited with them for a while and everybody will be heading to bed soon.