Happy Turkey Day!

For Thanksgiving this year we headed down to Ohio to visit with my brother, Scott, and his family. My parents and my brother, Jeff, and his family traveled down there too, so we had a full house! 8 adults, 6 kids, and 1 dog makes for a pretty fun weekend together. :)

We really had a wonderful time and it was neat to be able to spend so many days in a row together. The kids had so much fun playing together, and the adult "kids" (thanks to good weather and Grandpa and Grandma taking the kiddies outside often) were able to get some game-playing time in as well.

One of Eli's favorite things from the holiday was Dante the dog . . . he followed Dante around and tried to snuggle and sit by him whenever he could. And he liked Dante's cage too.

Giving Dante a kiss . . . aww

Following Dante around . . .


If we can't have a dog, Mom, how about a dog cage?

One of my favorite things from the weekend (besides shopping on the morning after Thanksgiving with Mom and Jill) was going to the Cincinnati Zoo. They were having Zoo Lights, with Christmas lights all through the zoo and special holiday light shows and displays. It was really pretty, and the Cincinnati Zoo is laid out really nicely too which makes walking it very nice. Eli wasn't too enamored with the animals at first, but then seemed more interested the longer we stayed. We could have used even more time at the zoo, but it was getting late and we were getting hungry so we headed home. And my camera ran out of battery pretty soon after we got there, so almost all the pictures are on Mom's camera. Guess we'll just have to come back again! :)


Another favorite was going to the park with everyone (except Aunt Jill who was grocery shopping) on Saturday. The park had a play structure for the kids, and also a skate park. The boys had their scooters so we all headed to the skate park after a bit and had some fun playing on the ramps. Eli liked sliding down them, and the boys (and their daddies) got pretty good at taking the scooters up the ramps.



While at the park Eli outran Grandpa to a mudpuddle and jumped on in. After that he had to wear Dad's shirt until his own dried again. Unforeseen benefit . . . Eli now had a "leash"!

While we were at the skate park I had the bright idea to use the timer on my camera to take a portrait of the family. I'm not showing the outtake where I couldn't get up the ramp and slid right back down as the camera went though! That one will remain in the private archives. :)

Now it's back to the real world though and I've got the post-holiday blues. I actually have to cook myself, my house is a mess, and it seems so lonely without my family and all the kids around. Eli's crankier too and I can tell he is missing his play companions. Mom just isn't quite as fun as all those cousins! We're looking forward to Christmas celebrations already and more family fun!