Thanksgiving 2011

We were brave (some may say crazy) and drove to Michigan for Thanksgiving.  All in all, it was not a bad drive!  We left around 1:00 on Tuesday and drove to just outside Cleveland and stayed in a hotel for the night.  We arrived around 8:30, and the kids were great.  Drew slept pretty much the whole time (except he  woke up about 15 minutes before we got to the hotel very hungry, but he was able to hold out until we got there!).  And the girls watched a lot of TV and both of them took a nap (I think Alison fell asleep twice.)  We got two adjoining rooms thinking the girls would sleep in one room with Brad, and Drew and I would sleep in the other room.....not so much!  The girls were crazy (a preview of what's to come in a few weeks when they start sharing a room!), so Alison slept with me and Lauren slept with Brad.

We left around 9 AM on Wednesday and got to Nana and Papa's around 2.  We were all excited to get out the of the car!  The Carlsons arrived around 5, and I didn't see much of Lauren after that!  She was off with Annabelle pretty much the entire weekend!  I am so glad they get along so well, and it was so fun to see what they got into!

Here are some of the things I will remember from our Thanksgiving 2011: Lauren and Annabelle playing CeCe and Rocky from Shake It Up, the kids wanting to watch the Macy's Justin Bieber commercial over and over when we were watching the parade, Brad teaching Ben how to juggle, Gabe talking football all weekend (from NFL to college and back again!), Alison wearing her dress one-armed, Lauren and Annabelle dancing to Kidz Bop 20, none of the kids liked any of Thanksgiving dinner, Drew being held by his cousins, aunt, uncle and Nana and Papa, Alison's trip to the ER with nursemaid's elbow again when everyone was at the Michigan-Ohio State game except Ian, me and the girls, going out to dinner to celebrate Sarah's 40th birthday, lots of laughs, not much fighting, the kids eating about 4 boxes of cereal in 2 days, the kids wanting to hold Drew.

Thanksgiving dinner was great, although Gabe was the only one of the 5 kids who tried anything!  They really missed out!

Friday, all the kids except Alison and Drew went to the movies to see "The Muppets," and when they got back, we had a little birthday celebration for Lauren and Annabelle, complete with yummy ice cream cake!

Saturday, everyone except the girls, Drew, Ian and I headed to Ann Arbor for the big Michigan-Ohio State game.  Papa was able to get three tickets for Gabe, Ben and Sarah, and the boys were SO excited!  Gabe had been talking about the game all weekend, and he even wrote a book with the play by play of the game.  We were having a great time playing and then Alison wanted me to roll up the sleeve of her shirt, so I did and I heard a pop and she started complaining that her arm hurt.  It was the same arm that she hurt back in the spring, so I decided we needed to go the ER, so I loaded up Drew and Alison in the car and off we went.  They both screamed the entire way to the hospital!  I felt so bad for Alison because she just kept saying "My arm hurts!"  We finally got seen by the doctor and she said it was nursemaid's elbow, and she was able to pop it back in, thank goodness!  Alison was such a trooper the whole time, she just sat in the bed and watched TV.  Thank goodness for the bag of goldfish I brought into the hospital and for the TV that was in the room.  We spent about 3 hours in the ER and then once we got home, i had to pack up the last few things to get ready to head out, but I did get the watch most of the 4th quarter and Michigan won!!!  Woo Hoo, I was not looking forward to the drive if Michigan lost!  We met Brad in Ann Arbor, had some dinner and then made it to the same hotel around 9 PM.

Sunday was Lauren's birthday and we got home around 5:30 or so.  It was a longer drive because we ran into some traffic on the turnpike.  Alison was so tired, she was pretty grumpy towards the end, but all in all, we are lucky to have three kids who are such great travellers!