Thanksgiving 2011

This year for Thanksgiving we visited Will's brother and family in Indiana.

The drive there was uneventful except for when Lester gave us a little scare. After we stopped for lunch at Panera, he refused to start. Like, the engine didn't even try to turn over. Will looked at me and said, "Well, I have one trick up my sleeve." He got out and we finally managed to get the hood open (for some reason it was stuck) and he "rebooted" the car by unhooking and then rehooking the battery. Worked like a charm. He was definitely my hero. Otherwise we would have been stuck just outside Columbus, Ohio with no one we knew withing a 3 or 4 hour drive in either direction.

After that things went smoothly. We even got there a little ahead of schedule (even after taking a break and having ice cream at Culvers!)

Ellie slept the last 20 minutes or so of the whole 7-ish hour drive.

Oh, and it's a good thing I brought her blanket in the car, because the heat didn't work for most of the way there. I had a sweatshirt for me because the passenger side only blows cold anyway. We also used the blanket as a sun shade for Ellie.

Once we got there, chaos ensued. Well, it might have been there before we got there, but we definitely helped. What do you expect when you've got a 4-year-old, 2 babies under a year old, and a 16 month-old who has been in the car for 7 hours all cooped up in a little house?

Allow me to introduce you:

Gracie

AKA: the Princess

Age: 4

Favorite Color: Pink

Favorite Toy: Pink Baby (shown)

Loves to: dance, color, and love on her baby siblings

Gabe

AKA: the Tank

Age: 1 (just barely)

In the words of his mother: "Everything about Gabe is big. Big smiles, big noise, big appetite, and big temper."

Method of Transportation: Crawling at incredible speeds

Loves to: make messes, roll over his little sister, and eat.

Nora

AKA: the White Ninja

Age: 10 months
Method of Transportation: Army crawl
Special Abilities: sneaking around and grabbing peoples' feet (hence the ninja)
Loves to: pull hair, be tickled, and follow her siblings around

We had so much fun. Here are some more pictures.

So that was most of our fun. And on the 26th Gabe turned 1 and we had a little party.

He got the most awesome hat!

And his mom made him an adorable cake!

When they opened that present Lisa says, "Oooh, a Caterpillar!"
And Gracie looks at it and says, "I don't see a caterpillar."
It was funny.

The trip home was wonderfully pleasant. I got a nap and Ellie slept about half the time. We stopped at the same Panera and the car started right up, thank goodness.

So it was a lot of fun. There was plenty of good food and good company and the babies were very good all things considered. So I declare it a success!