Thanksgiving, 2014

So we made the annual trek to Kansas City to Aunt Erica’s for Thanksgiving and boy was it worth it.

EVERYONE came this year – Ayla, Alyssa, Jered and Aunt Jan from New Mexico; Nonie, Deb and Uncle Jim from New Hampshire; Grandma and Grandpa from Nebraska and all five of us from Chicago.  Tons of fun, lots took place:

I got pampered bigtime and we did the hair train with our cousin Alyssa.

We played with Ayla for an entire day in Kameron’s closet with all her old dolls and toys.

We hung with Mom a lot; it was her birthday after all.

I took up the saxophone… and then later we played dress up rock band.

Mae did her thing in the kitchen (she is TOTALLY the Sous Chef of the family). She made a turkey apple with Aunt Jan...

And here you can see her with Aunt Debbie preparing the fruit turkey.

What’s a fruit turkey?  Well, you start with a piece of fruit…

 And then about 30 minutes later you have a fruit turkey.

And we interrupt this program to give a nod to the trio of head chefs - Nonie (Claus), Grandma and Aunt Debbie!

Pax spent a lot of quality time with Grandma, played peek-a-boo at breakfast...

 And hung out in an empty box a lot (I know, right? Like, what?)...

And owned it at shuffleboard

And our most favoritest thing we did was spend time with Aunt Erica’s dogs. We took them for walks, gave them treats, let them out and back in and did a whole bunch of snuggling with them.

Mae always gets lots of kisses from those doggies.

And then, on the way home, Mae found her shadow, which she lost about 3 months ago. Thank goodness we found it, somewhere near St. Louis.

Road Trip to KC

Well, it was off to Kansas City for the Thanksgiving holiday and it started out with a bang... well, it was either a bang or a really long car ride. Yah, that's probably more like it - it started out with a really long car ride... as in a nearly 12-hour car ride.

About 20 minutes out I got car sick in the back seat from reading while we were driving and two hours later, after two trips to the bathroom, a Costco run, a gas fill-up, Paxton's morning nap and a couple really deep breaths by mom and dad, we were on our way. But not for long, we probably stopped 40 minutes later for another bathroom break.

Needless to say, we arrived Tuesday night, settled in with some of Noni's signature spaghetti and felt right at home.

Lots to cover, so I'll keep the narrative short and this one will be all over the place:

First off, the poparrazzi were in full effect following Pax around.

My Aunt Jan was in from Taos. We don't get to see her very often but she made up for that with a game of shuffleboard and a 35-minute massage (she even brought her massage table).

One of the weekend themes was the dogs. Aunt Erica has four dogs and Mae and I cannot get enough of them so we went on plenty of walks and had some good snuggle time with them.

And then I found something new that rocked my world. Aunt Erica has a basketball court in her house (yes, you read that right - IN her house) and every year the grownups play volleyball. Well this year I wanted in on the action, but I needed a lesson first, so Aunt Erica took me into the gym and gave me a lesson...

And next thing you knew... it was go time!!

Meanwhile, Mae was busy playing some tunes and making noodles with Grandpa.

And after she heard about my volleyball adventures she thought she'd take a turn at it.

Not too shabby, Mae. The weather outside was not too frightful so we took a trip to the park and Pax took his first swing ride.

All in all, a great Thanksgiving trip to Kansas City.

And Grandpa capped it off with a piece of pie and 38 pounds of whip cream.

Kansas City, There We Went

So I'm going back a bit but we missed telling you about Thanksgiving. Showed up at Midway Airport at 5:15am, stood in line for 2+ hours only to find our flight cancelled. ROAD TRIP!! So we jumped in the car and drove there.

Now, we forgot to bring the camera so we don't have all the pics I'd like to share with you, but I did want to show you some pics of our really good friends there.

Yes, Grandma and Grandpa and Nonie and Aunt Erica and the whole gang was there, but there was a special place in our hearts for these two little fellas.

DISCLAIMER: Buddy, Nana's dog, if you are reading this, I urge you to turn away in an attempt to save your heart from being broken.

This is Trevor, who Mae was slightly obsessed with.

Kisses...

Hugs...

And a whole lotta love...

Mae had to go potty so I actually get five seconds with Trevor, too.

And this is Jesse, Aunt Erica's newest addition to her family... he is a giant, probably the size of 17 Mabels put together. It was kind of like having a black bear in the house.

And here is a great picture of Nonie and me. She is not a dog, though sometimes Dad calls her one; as in, "Hey Nonie, you old dog, what are you having for breakfast?" So there's that.