yeah yeah... i'm behind... Thanksgiving! 2011

Yes, the new year is a couple of days away and I'm just NOW getting to the Thanksgiving post.  Get over it.  heh.
Let's see... starting a little back... Elijah's class did a family Thanksgiving dinner at his school.  We all went, we ate, and it was fun!  I totally forgot to take pictures.  Alas.
He also had a Turkey Trot at his school to raise money and collect food for a local food bank.  It was a lot of fun and once warmed up, Elijah and Grace really had a blast.  Elijah ended up running over 3 miles and Grace ran 1 and walked another.  I was really proud of them!!

Grace's little Thanksgiving performance was super cute.  The three year old classes were the Indians this year.  And while the songs were slightly racist, the kids were cute, the food was good, and Gracie made a dang cute Indian.

For Thanksgiving we went to the mountains. Jerry took off Wednesday- Sunday for our trip, and we ended up leaving on Tuesday afternoon.  I really do prefer to drive like this.  The kids are excited, we eat dinner, they calm down a little, and then fall asleep.  It ROCKS!  We decided to go through Charlotte and the traffic sucked, but it was a fun little adventure and the kids were passed out.  We don't ever do Thanksgiving ON Thanksgiving, so we had quite a few days of hanging out with the family... and some adult alone time for me and Jerry!  I seriously only took pictures of the actual Thanksgiving feast day.  Heh.  Jerry and I went to see the new Twilight movie and also took the kids to see the Muppet Movie on Thanksgiving Day.  (By the way, BEST time to go to the movies!!)  I made cookies and Monkey Bread and just sorta relaxed.  I ran one day and that was it!  This year Elijah and Grace really got interested in playing with their cousins and it was fun to watch them.  Elijah was introduced to BeyBlades and Nerf Guns... it was definitely a good time.  The adults actually got to eat AT the adult table!  yay!

On our way home we decided to surprise the kids (And SERIOUSLY took them until we turned ON the driveway for them to get it) by stopping at the zoo.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving BEST time to go to the Zoo.  The weather was PERFECT!  The animals were the most active I have ever seen them and the kids had a BLAST.  We actually only did half of the zoo because we HAD to get on the road.  But it was well worth it!

After we got home the rest of November flew by and it was on for getting ready for Christmas.  I made some presents and we bought some.  But that's another post.  So now I can check off Thanksgiving on my "to blog about" list!  And November is done for that matter!

mini vacay

My parents gave us a weekend with their time share and we decided to go down to Myrtle Beach.  It's the perfect distance for a weekend away.  We decided to splurge and go to the Ripley's Aquarium.  At check in, if we listened to a 1 hour presentation we could get two free adult tickets.  SCORE!  So we listened and said no thanks and that was that.  And I must say, the Aquarium was neat, but I would have been pissed if we had paid for our tickets.  It was worth the 9.00 for the kids, but that was about it.  It's super small.  There is a HUGE tank that you ride a conveyor belt under and things swim all around you.  That is super cool, but that's it.  Really.  The kids had a blast and after the aquarium we walked over to Build a Bear.  They had so much fun picking their animals, then stuffing and dressing them.  There was an indoor pool and we had a lot of fun swimming in the pool.  Elijah is really becoming more and more confident in his swimming.  He swam all over the pool and rarely put his feet down even when he could!  We also played on the beach a bit and went to the outlets on the way home.  The weekend was a much needed get away and was jammed packed.  Totally worth it!  After we got home we decided to go out and play at the new park we discovered.  Elijah rode around the lake twice (Grace once!!) which is almost 3 miles!  I walked around with him.  Great end to a fabulous weekend!