This year we spent Thanksgiving at my Grandma Geri's (my mom's mom) house in Greenbrier, AR.
The trip was relatively short considering the drive (nine hours in the car on Wednesday and then again on Saturday), but it was wonderful to see my Grandma and for the kids to get to spend a little time with their Great Grandma. We were also able to visit with my Aunt Janice, my cousin's wife Tammy, and my cousin's daughter Jordan for a few hours on Thanksgiving afternoon; I can't remember the last time I saw Janice and Tammy, and I'm not sure I'd ever met Jordan before, so catching up was great fun.
We arrived on Wednesday night, and joined my parents, Grandma, and her husband, Ace, for dinner at their house. The kids were in rare form (and I don't mean that in a good way) seeing as they'd been cooped up in the car for nine hours. Thank goodness Grandma has a treadmill, where both kids were able to walk off some of their excess energy. (They seriously loved that thing - I bet that Will walked two miles on it over the course of our visit, and considering he traveled at only one or two mph, that's a lot of time spent walking.)
Because my parents were already staying in the guest room at my Grandma's house, our foursome stayed at a hotel about a mile away. Getting the kids to bed that first night (and the second night and the third night) was rough. We eventually had to move Hallie into her own room, and keep Will in the same room as Tom and me, because she was causing so many problems - screaming, crying, laughing, tickling, reading, singing, dancing, jumping, slamming dresser drawers, flipping lights on and off, you get the picture. Poor Will kept coming into our room and complaining that Hallie wouldn't let him sleep. Sleeping was in short supply on this trip.
On Thanksgiving we cooked and ate, played and watched football, sword fought, rode bikes, played bean bag toss and checkers, flew balsa wood airplanes, arm wrestled, and walked on the treadmill a bit more.
On Friday, Grandpa Paul, Tom, and Will headed to a park near Little Rock for a round of disc golf while Grandma Geri, Grandma Brenda, Hallie and I went shopping - we did Black Friday, only we did it flea market-style. It was actually really fun, and we came home with some steals and deals.
Hallie was exhausted after a full day of shopping and no nap.
But check out those princess high heels!
While trying to pick out a stuffed animal, Hallie fell into the bin.
While she cried for help I searched for my camera.
Later in the day we visited my Great Aunt Edna and Great Uncle Bernard, which confused Will a bit - there were a lot of "greats" being thrown around as new family members were introduced, and I think from this point forward he would like to be referred to as the great, great Will.
The icing on the cake, and the final activity of the day on Friday, was driving Grandma tractor. Will's wearing his bike helmet because he's just finished riding his bike, not because Grandma's not a good driver. :)
Thanks for a wonderful visit, Grandma and Ace. We hope to see you again soon!
