Soup for the Soul at Thanksgiving

Spending time with family is truly "soup for the soul." Even the moments of craziness (kids crying, not sharing toys, underfoot in the kitchen while you're cooking, into every messy thing possible, etc, etc) were good for the soul. I looked around yesterday after everyone had left and had a couple thoughts: Wow, for the first time in 4 days, my house actually looked clean. And, for the first time in 4 days, it seemed cold and empty (until my kids woke up from their nap - then not as much). But it impressed upon me how much it really means to spend the holidays with family. The house was so full of life and energy - I loved it!
Jackie, Connor, Noah, Ian, Nanny & Pa arrived Tuesday, and departed Saturday in the late morning. And so, the adventure began . . . a few pictures from their visit:

Lots of walks and wagon rides . . .


All the boys . . . Boys, Boys, and more Boys . . .

Cam and Ian (being held by Pa) . . .

the attempted group shot - no one seemed to want to cooperate, except Ian (surprisingly!)

Noah, tell us how you really feel about having your picture taken!

the Bates family, just before Jackie & Connor's dinner out at Fearrington (Matt & I's Christmas present to them!) . . . .

Family times the living room . . . Nanny holding Cam with Ian "helping"

Cam, ready for his walk around the neighborhood . . .

Noah, watching TV

Grey, Ian and Connor

Cam, showing off his fat little legs . . .

To the playground! Ian in the swing (and Grey was in the swing next to him) . . .

Jackie and Grey - same color eyes!! Wow!

Grey standing on the rock in the park . . .

Wagon ride down the street to watch Pa and Noah fly the airplane . . .

Ian, ready to jump ship . . .

Noah loved to play with Grey and Cam (he especially liked to pull Grey's bink out and then give it back) . .

Ian liked Noah's Christmas present from Pa the best!

My boys!

Trying to remember everything that we crammed into those four days is hard!

• Lots of walks to the playground and around the neighborhood, and to see the model homes
• Grey and Ian did a couple wagon rides
• Jackie and Connor did several trail runs
• Noah and Pa flying the airplane
• Lots of play time at the house - scooters, puzzles, legos, train paint set, race car track
• Evening movie time - my fave was the Sherlock Holmes movie! (Eat Love Pray was a real bummer!)
• the Dry Ice experiment - at least an hour of entertainment
• Tons of cooking and Eating - Carly's pork tenderloin that turned out to be something else (mystery meat!), Lasagna, Thanksgiving turkey dinner! pumpkin pie!
• Sally, Shelton & Becca's visit
• Jackie and Carly - Fearrington Spa getaway! with seaweed wraps!
• the Jordan Lake Christmas tree farm on Friday afternoon - where everyone first stopped at the wood shed to get hot coco and hot cider - then onto to shop the trees
• Jackie & Connor -dinner at Fearrington on Friday night (we won't mention their bill!)
• Saturday morning - Noah helped decorate the Christmas tree
• Morning time was always my favorite - coffee and bagels with everyone gathered in the kitchen & living room -cozy!
• and of course, all the cousin time together (very special)

The only thing that made me feel better after everyone left was to start planning our next family adventure . . . trip to Baltimore possibly in January (and perhaps to Little River as well), family beach trip in May or Sept?

Oh, and Cam's 4 month doctor visit went very well (2 shots poor baby!). November 8th - Cam weighed 13.56 lb (17 th percentile) and was 25.25 inches long (55th percentile).