Thanksgiving, 2015

So it was that time of year again. Time to jump in the car and have ourselves a ROAD TRIP! to Kansas City to Aunt Erica's for Thanksgiving.

So let's get things started. This is what you call a road trip snooze.

Things got off to a rocky start when Mae thought she wasn't feeling good.

That didn't last long and we were off to ice skating. We had never gone ice skating before (well, once when I was really really little bit it didn't really count) and Mae has her ice skating lessons coming up in January, so we hit the frozen pond in the little town square by Aunt Erica's and did our thing.

Grandma got Pax out on his skates

And then Aunt Erica went and got us Christmas presents which were roller blades and skates, which we were able to roller around her gym in.

We hit the game room for a little shuffle and foos, too.

And then things got serious. We got down and dirty with a Christmas Village craft project. There were hot glue guns, houses to build, blow dryers going, the whole bit.

And after about five hours... (drumroll, please)

This craft did not come without serious injury, though. Mae got burned by the glue gun, and so did I. BUT, Aunt Erica doctored us up, but instead of gauze, she fixed us with tape and marshmallows, which naturally made everything SO much better.

Later, Mae took everyone to task with a game of Candy Land.

And along the way I made sure that Jesse's nails got painted (he just loves light blue, that Jesse).

We also settled in for a couple Christmas specials.

And had a Thanksgiving feast, complements of the chefs.

And what would Thanksgiving weekend be without Mom and Dad's birthday...

Mom's being a little more normal than Dad's...

And finally, on the way home, Pax showed us all how to just let nature call, when nature calls.

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.